STV Import: Other Programs

[evilpenguin]

This Plug-in Is dead (and terrible). You can use the dynamic menus for even better functionality.

We've been enjoying this functionality in SageMC for quite sometime and since my DVD burning plug-in needs it, I ported it into a STVi for the default STV. The majority (read: all) of the code is by mlbdude and it also includes some updates by flachbar, BruenerXII, and myself.



Usage Instructions

To use this, you will need to be running with Neilm's dynamic menus

Install Instructions:
1) Download otherPrograms STVi
2) Unzip into your SageTV directory
3) Add the following lines to your SageTV.preferences...
mlbdude/other_programs=D\:\\temp\\op Path with NO SPACES to Other Programs shortcuts and images.
mlbdude/other_programs_cols=3 How many columns to show in the Other Programs menu.
mlbdude/other_programs_rows=2 How many rows to show in the Other Programs menu.
3) Import otherPrograms.stvi into your default STV
4) Add Internal Window "Other Programs 1.2.2" into a menu of your choice
5) Start launching other programs

Upgrade Instructions
1) Remove old "Other Programs" menu
2) Add Internal Window "Other Programs 1.2" into a menu of your choice

Changelog:
1.0 - First Revision
1.1 - Added '_m' option to minimize when launching
1.1b - Fixed some lazy coding
1.2 - Added BruenerXII mod which makes the STVi fit into the default STV much better. Also added '_i' option to show the picture but ignore it when it is pressed (not useful for anything yet )
1.2.1 - Fixed a bug where by default launching would minimize to the task bar
1.2.2 - BruenerXII modified the STVi to show upto 3 lines of text in each button and so that the pictures are streched to fit. I also added support for png's.

Usage Notes:
* To launch an external program, create a shortcut to that program/batch file and place the shortcut in the Other Program folder you specified in your SageTV preferences. You can also place in a jpg with the exact same name as the shortcut in the folder to have an image displayed as in the picture above.

* If you end your shortcut/jpg names with '_x' Sage will completely quit after it launches your shortcut. This is helpful for launching games that misbehave when Sage is in the background

* If you end your shortcut/jpg names with '_m' Sage will minimize to the taskbar after you launch your shortcut, even if you have the Screen Saver enabled.


Let me know if I messed anything up

[insomniac]

woohoo! so your one step closer to having a working stvi for people that dont want to use sagemc?!?! I cant wait.

[BruenerXII]

Just installed, works great!
I've been looking for something like this to launch some emu's and monitoring programs as i couldn't get neilms dynamic menu's "add external program" option to work. (if thats even what it is for..)

One thing though.. I run sage full screen. With "screen saver on sleep" enabled. This gives me the black sceensaver with the sage logo when i sleep/standby..
It seems as though when i launch a program with your stvi it also puts sage into sleep mode. So instead of the app i launched being in focus, it gets put in the background behind the sage screensaver.
If i disable "screen saver on sleep" so that sage just minimizes to the taskbar its all good though.
Maybe you could get it to just minimize sage when lauching programs instead of putting sage into sleep mode?

Anyhow this kicks ass! good job to all involved

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

It seems as though when i launch a program with your stvi it also puts sage into sleep mode. So instead of the app i launched being in focus, it gets put in the background behind the sage screensaver.

If you're running a Sage Client then a neat little trick you can do rename your shortcut (and jpg) so that it ends in '_x' and then when you launch an external program Sage will completely quit. Then, if your external program is a batch file, just have the batch file launch your program, wait for it to finish, then relaunch Sage.

If your not running a Sage Client though, then there currently isn't a graceful option. I'll dig though the Studio API and see if there's a crafty way to get it to minimize for this and still sleep to screen saver when you do it manually or the timeout occurs.

[evilpenguin]

6/6/06 v1.1
- Added ability to end shortcuts/jpg names with '_m' to have Sage minimize when the shortcut is launched, even if you have "Screen Saver on Sleep" enabled. I recommend using batch files and having the last line relaunch SageTV.exe which will wake it up.

[garcia21]

Maybe Im missing something. Lets say I want to run a batch file.
Path is D:\Temp
File name is Test.bat
Would the property line be:
mlbdude/other_programs=D\:\\Temp
?
When I add the internal menu of Other Programs, what exactly am I supposed to see?
I've tried both:
mlbdude/other_programs=D\:\\Temp
and
mlbdude/other_programs=D\:\\Temp\Test.bat
Clicking either gives me my background and no way of getting Sage back except for killing Sage and starting it back up.
If I could get this working it would be awesome. Thanks ahead of time.

[evilpenguin]

As far as getting back, the home button should do the trick. As for the configuration, you put a shortcut to the batch file into the Other_Programs folder, not the batch file itself.

That should get you going.

[BruenerXII]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

6/6/06 v1.1
- Added ability to end shortcuts/jpg names with '_m' to have Sage minimize when the shortcut is launched, even if you have "Screen Saver on Sleep" enabled. I recommend using batch files and having the last line relaunch SageTV.exe which will wake it up.

Sweet! thanks! that was quick
Umm.. I've never had to update any STVIs in my few months of SageTV use..
how do i go about updating my v1.0 to 1.1b? Is there a way i have to uninstall the old one first? or just delete the old stvi file? Will try it out tomorrow ZZZzzzzZZZzzzz....

[evilpenguin]

When you import an STVi SageTV will import it into a new copy of the current STV. So you probably have some STV's named SageTV3.xml, SageTV3-1.xml, SageTV3-2.xml, etc. So to import the update, I believe you need to back up to the previous STV, which will mostly likely be the highest numbered SageTV3-X.xml and then reimport otherPrograms v1.1.

Someone feel free to jump in if that's wrong.

[garcia21]

Thanks for the help. Got it working. You gave me the perfect solution for MAME.

[BruenerXII]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

When you import an STVi SageTV will import it into a new copy of the current STV. So you probably have some STV's named SageTV3.xml, SageTV3-1.xml, SageTV3-2.xml, etc. So to import the update, I believe you need to back up to the previous STV, which will mostly likely be the highest numbered SageTV3-X.xml and then reimport otherPrograms v1.1.
Someone feel free to jump in if that's wrong.

Thanks for the help! I got it all updated and working now. With the _m on the shorcuts everything is perfect.
I also found that it adds a couple lines to the sage.properties by itself:
mlbdude/ui/leftmenuwidth=0.26
mlbdude/ui/rightpanewidth=0.71
mlbdude/use_left_as_back=false

So since there is no menu in it (yet..?) i changed up the menu/pane widths so that it runs fullscreen, instead of everything offset to the right..
mlbdude/ui/leftmenuwidth=0.00
mlbdude/ui/rightpanewidth=1.00

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

Thanks for the help! I got it all updated and working now. With the _m on the shorcuts everything is perfect.
I also found that it adds a couple lines to the sage.properties by itself:
mlbdude/ui/leftmenuwidth=0.26
mlbdude/ui/rightpanewidth=0.71
mlbdude/use_left_as_back=false

Wow, nice find. I didn't even notice I left those pref's in.

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

So since there is no menu in it (yet..?)...

I currently have no plans to go any further with this because...

a) It does what I need it to do
b) The home and back buttons work just fine for exiting the menu
c) I'm not very good at Studio

[BruenerXII]

I have been playing around with this in studio (for way too long really) and have made a few changes for myself. Added the MainHeader and MenuTitle. Also changed the AlbumTheme to the one the default Picture Library uses (gets rid of the green in focus buttons and now matches with the Default SageTV Theme) Only thing i cant figure out is how to change the position of the jpgs so that they aren't at the very top of the focused button like in the pic below as compared to evilpenguins pic where they have that bit of green showing at the top.
Oh and i changed the "_m" command to "" since i want to use it for all my shortcuts.
Man this SageTV Custimization is awesome! The amount of stuff you can do in Studio with nothing but copy&paste.


Thanks again to evilpenguin for this plugin!

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by BruenerXII

I have been playing around with this in studio (for way too long really) and have made a few changes for myself. Added the MainHeader and MenuTitle. Also changed the AlbumTheme to the one the default Picture Library uses (gets rid of the green in focus buttons and now matches with the Default SageTV Theme)

Wow, that looks great! If you want, you can send me your STV for reference and I'll merge it into the STVi

[BruenerXII]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Wow, that looks great! If you want, you can send me your STV for reference and I'll merge it into the STVi

ok cool! I'll send you a private message.

[evilpenguin]

Changelog:
* Added BruenerXII mod which makes the STVi fit into the default STV much better.
* Added '_i' option to show the picture but ignore it when it is pressed (not useful for anything yet )

[dblaine2]

I saw you had 1.2 out so I reverted to stock stv, updated my plugins.cfg and ran the importer (I have a few stvi's I install). Now I don't get an advanced option (in fact, the screen looks a lot different). I reverted back to 1.1b -the same thing - no advanced options. So I went back to stock stv and this same screen appeared. Maybe I'm loosing my mind but I thought it had the icons like your docs show.

Any ideas?

[evilpenguin]

This plugin shouldn't affect your recording details popup menu. There's a second plugin, SageTV_DVD_burnImport.stvi, that comes with the rest of the DVD burning files that does that.

Even so, your picture does look a little strange. Make sure you are using the latest version of the default STV that comes with SageTV 5.0.4.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Make sure you are using the latest version of the default STV that comes with SageTV 5.0.4.

Well, there's also a chance that the import doesnt work correctly ... Are you using the latest version of the importer plugin (v0.3) ?

Dirk

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Well, there's also a chance that the import doesnt work correctly ... Are you using the latest version of the importer plugin (v0.3) ?

Dirk

Yes

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

This plugin shouldn't affect your recording details popup menu. There's a second plugin, SageTV_DVD_burnImport.stvi, that comes with the rest of the DVD burning files that does that.

Even so, your picture does look a little strange. Make sure you are using the latest version of the default STV that comes with SageTV 5.0.4.

I did import the SageTV_DVD_burnImport.stvi too. The only reason I posted it here is that the only I changed was upgrading to Other Programs 1.2. The menu looked normal when I was running 1.1b. I'll double check the default STV just to be sure and let you know.