Just a few basic question to get me on track

[perry59]

New user. Just bought Sage and started playing with studio right off.
VERY cool
I have just a few questions on basic principles so I have a valid starting point from which to embark.

Firstly, the difference between an .stv and an .stvi...From here it looks like (and I read) that the .stv is a COMPLETE ui for the sage core, and to reiterate, for a true stv it should implement ALL core functionality. An stvi on the other hand is more like a "plugin" which provides a specific functionality which can be consumed by an stv. If this is all correct then, can I assume that when an stvi is loaded by an stv, its "code" is merged into the stv's code within the sage core, i.e. no external files are modified by loading an stv. And if a user decides he doesnt like the stvi he can simply delete its folder and sage will be as it once was.

Secondly, while on the subject of stv's. I downloaded the sagemce stv (which is quite nice, and looks familiar ) Yet, to install it, it is placed within the "SageTV3" folder which is the default stv. If SageMC is a complete stv why would it be placed inside another stv's folder? Unless its using some of SageTV3's resources, which would mean its not a complete stv.
I would think that a complete stv would be placed in the directory "\SageTv\STVs" right beside the "SageTV3" folder, not inside it!
Also, whats the "originalv2" thing there for? Looks like an older, complete stv.
I loaded it up and it seemed ok (couldnt get out of it though! had to bring up studio to get back to SageTV3!) If this is just an old, obsolete stv why is it even there? I can safely delete it right?

And thirdly, obviously Sage maintains a database somewhere; where file info, tag info, etc. is stored. I've seen references to a "wizbang" (wiz.bin) file. Is this THE database for all of sages info? (I'd prefer seperate databases for audio & video, oh well) If this .bin file is the one and only database, is it a proprietary format (boo, hiss) or can I peek into with a database browser (sqlite, firebird, access...)?

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions, but this will get me started on the right foot!
Thanks

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by perry59

Firstly, the difference between an .stv and an .stvi...From here it looks like (and I read) that the .stv is a COMPLETE ui for the sage core, and to reiterate, for a true stv it should implement ALL core functionality.

Yes, an STV is a UI replacement, but no, it doesn't necessarily have to be complete. You can build an STV that lacks (for instance) the Config Wizard and other one-time setup functions, and just use the stock STV for those functions on the rare occasions when you need to. If you're clever, you can use the LoadSTVFile API to seamlessly jump back and forth to the stock STV as needed for less common functions. My own custom STV does this, and I believe SageMC does as well.

Originally Posted by perry59

An stvi on the other hand is more like a "plugin" which provides a specific functionality which can be consumed by an stv. If this is all correct then, can I assume that when an stvi is loaded by an stv, its "code" is merged into the stv's code within the sage core, i.e. no external files are modified by loading an stv. And if a user decides he doesnt like the stvi he can simply delete its folder and sage will be as it once was.

Not quite accurate. An STVI consists of two parts: one or more menu definitions containing STV code, and an STVImported hook containing an editing script that uses WidgetAPI calls to patch that code into the STV into which it's imported. The merging of STVI into STV is not automatic; you must provide code to perform the merge (but there are tools to make this easier*). The result is a modified STV that gets automatically saved to a new .xml file. The original STV does not get overwritten, so to revert to stock, just reload the stock STV.

STVIs packages often include Java code contained in .jar files. So to be thorough about removing an STVI you'd want to remove those files as well. But normally it's harmless to leave them in place, since their code won't get executed unless explicitly called from the modified STV.

Originally Posted by perry59

Secondly, while on the subject of stv's. I downloaded the sagemce stv (which is quite nice, and looks familiar ) Yet, to install it, it is placed within the "SageTV3" folder which is the default stv. If SageMC is a complete stv why would it be placed inside another stv's folder? Unless its using some of SageTV3's resources, which would mean its not a complete stv.
I would think that a complete stv would be placed in the directory "\SageTv\STVs" right beside the "SageTV3" folder, not inside it!

I'll let Dirk answer that one. In general, though, if an STV wants to share images with the stock STV, putting it in the same folder is one way to do that.

Originally Posted by perry59

Also, whats the "originalv2" thing there for? Looks like an older, complete stv.
I loaded it up and it seemed ok (couldnt get out of it though! had to bring up studio to get back to SageTV3!) If this is just an old, obsolete stv why is it even there? I can safely delete it right?

Yes, it's old and obsolete and can safely be deleted, and I don't know why it's still included in the installer since it just causes confusion when people load it up accidentally and can't figure out how to get back to the current stock STV.

Originally Posted by perry59

And thirdly, obviously Sage maintains a database somewhere; where file info, tag info, etc. is stored. I've seen references to a "wizbang" (wiz.bin) file. Is this THE database for all of sages info? (I'd prefer seperate databases for audio & video, oh well) If this .bin file is the one and only database, is it a proprietary format (boo, hiss) or can I peek into with a database browser (sqlite, firebird, access...)?

Yes, wiz.bin is the one-and-only SageTV database containing all media metadata. And yes, it's in a closed format, so standard DB tools won't work on it. But the contents are readily accessible using SageTV API calls, so the closed format isn't much of a handcap.

* See the New tools for Studio users sticky thread for some useful Studio add-ons including enhanced editing functions, SageTV API wrappers for Java, STVI generation tools, and more (including the ability to write your own Studio add-ons).

[perry59]

Thanks a bunch Greg, that helps

One note on the "closed" database structure...
I wish it were more "open" because although I saw plentiful
api calls regarding the database operations. I do believe there are
some bugs which obviously cant be overcome with the closed format.
i.e. if sage parses an ID3 it doesnt like it just tosses the whole file
rather than just ignoring the offending tag (see my post on the wma "bug" fix)
it can also sometimes confuse video files with audio files (see my todays post on this).
So, if in the stv we could call sql on the database, rather than relying on api calls to the core, we could fix this.
Perry