Plugin: Sage Web Lite (SWL)

[Slugger]

Posting this now in order to solicit some testers. The current snapshot builds are certainly in an alpha/preview/PoC state, but with that said it is functional. Some of GUI elements are a little rough around the edges, etc., but the functionality that's in there is working properly.

What is SWL? The plan is to make SWL a subset of the web server plugin. It will consist of the most used (by me) features from nielm's web server plugin with a focus on enhancing the GUI and refreshing the functionality to support the latest features of the SageTV system.

The motivation for this plugin started with a desire to have support for multi-channel favourites on the web. The current web server plugin doesn't support this feature and it was the big one that I was really missing. Therefore, the current snapshot builds of SWL have just one module - the favourites manager. Key features of the favourites manager:

• Easily rearrange your favourite's priorities by dragging and dropping the favourites within the list to rearrange them
• Easily modify key settings of your favourites with inline editing of grid (double click a row to activate inline editing)
• When filling in/editing the details of a favourite the module will suggest valid options as you type (i.e. "Google suggest" like type ahead)

NOTES:

• To install, follow the instructions for SRE or SJQ from their wiki docs (i.e. you need the Jetty plugin setup and working, then unzip a snapshot build from your SageTV install dir - maintain folder structure when unzipping)
• When installed, SWL is available at URL /swl/SWLClient.html on your Jetty server
• Single click a description to bring up the full editor window for that favourite (will eventually display that column as hyperlinks to make its "clickability" more obvious)
• Double click a row to bring up the inline editor for that favourite in the grid
• The custom features on the editor window are not implemented yet ('ignore channel list' and 'do not record shows with generic data')

Planned Modules:

• Favourites manager
• Home page module (similar to the home page of the web server plugin)
• EPG search
• Setup/view recording schedules (incl. manual recording setup)
• EPG viewer

Thoughts, suggestions, etc. welcomed. I'm especially interested in feedback from those who install the current snapshots and play around with them.

[CollinR]

I can tell you now I use the current webserver interface more as a remote control for my clients then anything else.

I basically reformatted the web remotes for each MAC address and built a custom page to display it with all the other web interfaces related to that specific area.

[LehighBri]

Great work... it's always nice to see folks continue to improve upon nielm's already solid web server.

I got it up and running in no-time... couple suggestions I have for you:

• In the favorites detail, sorting could use some help... see below
• When I click the number column to sort, it sorts as if it's text. Sort numerically instead (and maybe have it sort numerically by default as well).
• Sort category and subcategory fields
• What are the isc_OID_24 and 27 fields?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

Great work... it's always nice to see folks continue to improve upon nielm's already solid web server.

I got it up and running in no-time... couple suggestions I have for you:

• In the favorites detail, sorting could use some help... see below
• When I click the number column to sort, it sorts as if it's text. Sort numerically instead (and maybe have it sort numerically by default as well).
• Sort category and subcategory fields
• What are the isc_OID_24 and 27 fields?

Yeah, definitely need to sort the channel list. I was going to parse them as numbers and sort, but they are string parameters and I think people with OTA tuners would have channels that won't parse as numbers (aren't the channels for OTA like 4-1, 6-2, etc.?). Right now, the channel numbers are treated (and therefore sorted) as text data. Will also sort the other lists as well.

Those two fields (isc_OID_*) are the storage/display areas for the multi channel lists. If you select a channel from the dropdown it gets added to the text box beside it. Selecting multiple channels will populate the text box with the CSV string to be used when creating/updating the favourite. I just forget to give those fields a label and so it chose a default display label, which appears to be just the object identification string.

[wayner]

Slugger - I don't know if you are looking for other functionality but one thing that I think would be fabulous would be to have the web page facilitate streaming of content to the client over the web. This would likely require some sort of a server streamer (i.e. VLC, Windows Media Encoder) to be running on the client but I think that this would be fabulous to allow streaming to non-Placeshifter clients like iPhones, Blackberries, and other handheld devices.

I believe that you can do this with VLC today but I think it is rather tricky.

[ccourtney]

I'll try this out later today when I get home. I needed jetty for SJQ and had no desire to run another web server to get neilm's running. I'd love to see this and the mobile interface combined and could spend some coding time to help that effort.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

Slugger - I don't know if you are looking for other functionality but one thing that I think would be fabulous would be to have the web page facilitate streaming of content to the client over the web. This would likely require some sort of a server streamer (i.e. VLC, Windows Media Encoder) to be running on the client but I think that this would be fabulous to allow streaming to non-Placeshifter clients like iPhones, Blackberries, and other handheld devices.

I believe that you can do this with VLC today but I think it is rather tricky.

No plans for streaming support. The goal here is to create a web interface for viewing/configuring recordings. I leave streaming content to Placeshifter. Nielm's web server also supports streaming. Basically I'll just be taking the core functions (as identified in the original post) and building from there. Basically things where the current web server isn't up to date (multi-channel favourites, etc.) is what I'm focusing on with this effort.

Also, I'd expect dev on this to be somewhat slow. Support for my other plugins (SJQ and SRE) will take precedence and based on the number of issue tickets opened today, it might be awhile before I get back to working on this. But with that said, I will get back to it eventually.

This preview release was more to solicit some feedback/ideas, etc. I can't give a time line on this project, but I wouldn't expect the completion of all those modules I listed for some time. But do keep the ideas/questions coming.

[Slugger]

Snapshot 255 was just built. This snapshot contains the implementation of the added features to the favourites manager, specifically:

Add ability to ignore channels for a favourite: When creating a favourite in SWL you can give a list of channels to exclude from the favourite.

Motivation: Some sports events I record are blacked out on some channels even though the SageTV EPG data still lists the game in the EPG. By using the ignore channel option I can ensure that SageTV will only pickup airings known not to be blacked out for me.

Add ability to ignore airings with generic data: When creating a favourite in SWL you can tell the favourite not to record airings that only have generic program information (shows with external IDs starting with 'SH').

Motivation: A lot of the syndicated sitcoms I record (Seinfeld, etc.) are shown on dozens of channels and some of those channels don't provide episode info in the EPG. I don't want to record them because they're likely to be recorded on another channel. This is a way to avoid duplicate recordings.

WARNING: These features are implemented by spawning threads that periodically scan airings that match your favourite rules and mark those airings that shouldn't be recorded as "don't like". This accomplishes the task as desired, but may have side effects for those users who enable intelligent recording. Please be advised that your IR results may (will?) be affected by constantly marking various airings as "don't like."

I'm looking at adding an "HD only" and "non HD only" options to the favourites manager (i.e. only record HD airings or only record non-HD airings). I'm also looking for other favourite rule "enhancements" that I haven't thought of so please feel free to chime in with any ideas you may have.

[nyplayer]

Slugger,

where are you getting the password from it defaults to the sage default pwd any place to change it?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Slugger,

where are you getting the password from it defaults to the sage default pwd any place to change it?

It's using the password you set for Jetty. Only way to change it is to change your Jetty password.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Slugger

It's using the password you set for Jetty. Only way to change it is to change your Jetty password.

This is set in the realm.properties file which you should find here: C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\jetty\etc

[Slugger]

A new snapshot is available (stick to 262 or higher). These latest snapshots lay the groundwork for the "home page portal". You can see where I'm heading with this module - when done you'll have a bunch of windows each containing various information about your SageTV system.

[Peter_h]

Did development for this stop?

The snapshot builds aren't available anymore.

[Slugger]

It's definitely on the back burner, no immediate plans for any changes/enhancements to what's there. The latest snapshot is still available at Google Code though.

[jbuszkie]

For some reason I can't get this to work. I've got the
Mobile Web Interface by jreichen working just fine.. so I know I've got Jetty working ok. when I try to go to http://my_server:myport/swl/SWLClient.html
It spins for a while and then I get a "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" I never get a prompt to ask for the username/password.
I've got the 332 snapshot.

And I see from the log stuff It seems to be loading and such..

I know this is on the back burner.. but if it's something easy..

Thanks,

Jim

[Slugger]

What happens when you try to load /swl/ (you should get a directory listing)?

[jbuszkie]

Same thing.. It waits for a while and then it gives the same error.

If I go striaght to the root I get a

HTTP ERROR: 403
FORBIDDEN
RequestURI=/

Powered by Jetty://

Which is what I would expect.

And if I undeploy and try it again I get the

HTTP ERROR: 404
NOT_FOUND
RequestURI=/swl/SWLClient.html

Powered by jetty://

So it's doing something with the deploy... Anything else easy I could try?

Thanks,

Jim

[jbuszkie]

Where is the war extracted at? It seems like it's some temporary location.

[Slugger]

Jetty unzips the war in a temp dir and runs the app from there. If you enable debug logging in Sage and Jetty then the logs should tell you why the deployment is failing. Also ensure that the context file (swl.context.xml) and the war file are in the proper locations (\SageTV\jetty\contexts and \SageTV\jetty\webapps, respectively). Unzipping the pkg from the \SageTV dir and maintaining zip dir structure should ensure that.

[jbuszkie]

Here is the last bit of of the log file. I'll attach the full history as an attachment..

Thu 4/23 14:27:55.428 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class org.sqlite.RS from ContextLoader@SageTV Web Lite([file:/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Local%20Settings/Temp/Jetty_0_0_0_0_8081_swl.war__swl__-1m31yw_1098163677601874355/webapp/WEB-INF/classes/, file:/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Local%20Settings/Temp/Jetty_0_0_0_0_8081_swl.war__swl__-1m31yw_1098163677601874355/webapp/WEB-INF/lib/gkusnick.sagetv.jar, file:/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Local%20Settings/Temp/Jetty_0_0_0_0_8081_swl.war__swl__-1m31yw_1098163677601874355/webapp/WEB-INF/lib/json.jar, file:/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Local%20Settings/Temp/Jetty_0_0_0_0_8081_swl.war__swl__-1m31yw_1098163677601874355/webapp/WEB-INF/lib/sqlitejdbc.jar, file:/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Local%20Settings/Temp/Jetty_0_0_0_0_8081_swl.war__swl__-1m31yw_1098163677601874355/webapp/WEB-INF/lib/swl-worker.jar]) / sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader@11b86e7
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.429 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.lang.IllegalStateException
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.429 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.lang.IllegalStateException from null
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.430 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.lang.Long
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.430 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.lang.Long from null
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.util.HashMap
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.util.HashMap from null
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.util.ArrayList
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.util.ArrayList from null
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded interface java.util.Iterator
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded interface java.util.Iterator from null
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.lang.Integer
Thu 4/23 14:27:55.431 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> loaded class java.lang.Integer from null
Thu 4/23 14:43:20.029 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> REQUEST /swl/SWLClient.html on org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection@1da9420
Thu 4/23 14:43:20.029 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> sessionManager=org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.HashSessionManager@14ef725
Thu 4/23 14:43:20.029 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> session=null
Thu 4/23 14:43:20.029 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> RESPONSE /swl/SWLClient.html  302
Thu 4/23 14:44:16.347 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> REQUEST /swl on org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection@f87198
Thu 4/23 14:44:16.348 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> RESPONSE /swl  302
Thu 4/23 14:44:16.386 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> REQUEST /swl/ on org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection@f87198
Thu 4/23 14:44:16.386 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> sessionManager=org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.HashSessionManager@14ef725
Thu 4/23 14:44:16.386 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> session=null
Thu 4/23 14:44:16.386 (org.mortbay.log) <DEBUG> RESPONSE /swl/  302

Thanks again!

Jim