Main Menu Customization Question

[wayner]

Sorry if this is a rally stupid question as I am rather new to SageMC - Is it possible to add an additional Main Menu items that would be "KidsVideos" that would essentially be the same as MyVideos but that would start with a different video folder? This would make it much easier to find videos for the kids without having to go through all of the other crap in my video folders.

[benjamintm]

Yes. In the Sage directory, edit the file sagemc_menu.xml and addsomething like the following:

        <internalScreenMenuItem icon="walle1080e.jpg" screen="Video Library Folder View" title="Movies">
            <evalExpression>AddStaticContext("PathFilterExprs", new_java_util_ArrayList())</evalExpression>
            <evalExpression>java_util_List_add(PathFilterExprs, "F:\\Movies")</evalExpression>
            <evalExpression>AddStaticContext("PathFilterExcludes", false)</evalExpression>
        </internalScreenMenuItem>

In this case the menu entry points to F:\\Movies and is called Movies. If I had icons enabled, it would have a wall-e icon.

Ben

[wayner]

OK - I am using the default UI - I made the change (in C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\sagemc_menu.xml), using the default video icon for now (icon="hover_my videos.png") and changed to the SageMC UI but it didn't take.

Do I have to close down Sage and restart to see the change or should switching STVs be sufficient? Note that I have several SageMC STVs - SageMC_169.xml, SageMC_169_1.xml, etc. I believe these were built when I was adding in the Fanart / MovieInfo stuff.

When I switch STVs I am supposed to switch to SageMC_189.xml, correct? That will then use the sagemc_menu.xml file?

[gplasky]

WHen you switch you may have to load that menu. ANd make sure you had saved your changes when you chose that icon.

Gerry

[wayner]

How do you load the menu? I have just been changing the STV.

[gplasky]

Right-click or Alt-O on the main screen. Choose the top bottom.

Gerry

[wayner]

Thanks - when I started up one of my extenders I noticed that it did show my new menu. Once I restarted Sage on the PC it was fixed there as well.

[wayner]

One more question guys how would I change this line:

<evalExpression>java_util_List_add(PathFilterExprs, "F:\\Movies")</evalExpression>

if the path is to be \\server1\videos rather than F:\Movies. I don't totally understand the extra backslash syntax and how you deal with UNC paths.

[acousticiris]

if the path is to be \\server1\videos rather than F:\Movies. I don't totally understand the extra backslash syntax and how you deal with UNC paths.

Just double all of the slashes. It's a java thing.

So your path \\server1\videos would be:
\\\\server1\\videos

[MalibuDave42]

Since I'm a newbie, I need slightly more clarity. Why is it being suggested to edit the file directly when you can add and save menus via the interface?

Thanks

[SWKerr]

I use SageMC and just have a custom Genre in the videos section for Kids Movies. The 7 year old has no problems find her stuff.
There are two categories that can be assigned to each movie so it can be in more than one category. I use imdb to look up the movies and just hijack the second category for the kids genre. If you are using imdb in SageMC you may need to download the latest fix to get it to work. The kids like having the icon for the movie especially since the 7 year old is just learning to read. This solution is easy to maintain and setup.