SnapStream Plug-in Developer With Questions

[cncb]

Hi,

I am looking at possible alternatives to SnapStream products. However, I have written several plug-ins for Beyond Media that I would have to "port" to a new platform if I decide to switch.

I downloaded the trial of SageTV a few months ago but since I did not have access to Studio I could not get a good feel for how plug-ins work in Sage.

For example, one of my plug-ins for Beyond Media is a photo viewer linked to Adobe Photoshop Elements. For this to work in SageTV, I would have to provide some kind of list that is browsable (similar in functionality to a file/folder browser) and that has some way of selecting multiple items (checkboxes). I would also need to be able to fill some kind of table or grid with images and then run a custom slideshow with the images.

From what I can gather by reading the documentation, the UI is defined in Studio and I would have to provide some Java functions to retrieve the items for the list and the images. Do I understand this correctly and would all this be possible to do in SageTV? Thanks.

[GKusnick]

Just to clarify the terminology a bit, there are three ways to customize SageTV:

1. You can write a complete new front-end or "skin" that replaces the default UI. This is done in Studio (with or without additional Java libraries) and is generally called a custom STV.

2. You can write an extension or add-on for the default UI, again using Studio. This is called an import or an STVI.

3. You can write non-UI Java code that satisfies various public interfaces in the SageTV core to extend core funtionality, such parsing and playing non-standard file types or interfacing with oddball hardware. These are generally called plugins.

What you want to do sounds like it's most likely in the STVI category, i.e. a UI add-on that provides extra features not available in the standard UI.

As for what's possible in Studio, the standard UI is all written in Studio, so any kind of UI widget you see there (menus, buttons, images, tables, animations, etc.) is available to you for your UI programming. I don't see anything in your description that couldn't be done in Studio.

[davefred99]

Originally Posted by cncb

Hi,

I am looking at possible alternatives to SnapStream products. However, I have written several plug-ins for Beyond Media that I would have to "port" to a new platform if I decide to switch.

I downloaded the trial of SageTV a few months ago but since I did not have access to Studio I could not get a good feel for how plug-ins work in Sage.

For example, one of my plug-ins for Beyond Media is a photo viewer linked to Adobe Photoshop Elements. For this to work in SageTV, I would have to provide some kind of list that is browsable (similar in functionality to a file/folder browser) and that has some way of selecting multiple items (checkboxes). I would also need to be able to fill some kind of table or grid with images and then run a custom slideshow with the images.

From what I can gather by reading the documentation, the UI is defined in Studio and I would have to provide some Java functions to retrieve the items for the list and the images. Do I understand this correctly and would all this be possible to do in SageTV? Thanks.

I was a longtime Snapstream user who finally saw the writting on the wall a few months ago. I am very pleased to see you are interested in coverting to SageTV. I am not a programmer but based on your fine work on SS products, I am sure you will be able to do all everyting that you wish in Sage. I would recommend that you first check out some of the fine existing STV's and STVi's that others have already written and then maybe help tweak them some. I especialy like the Sage MC 16x9 STV that was originaly written by MLBDUDE and continued to be improved by Flashbar. It has a lot of features already in its core and you can enable or enhance them as you wish.
I hope to see you here in the future and look forward to your positive input.
Dave

[cncb]

Greg, thanks for the information.

Dave, thanks for the kind words. I haven't quite given up on Beyond Media yet but I'm looking at the options. It does sound like I can do what I need with SageTV but how easy it will be is still a question...