New SystemMessage functionality in 6.5.17

[stuckless]

Jeff, 2 more "feature" enhancements for System Messages API

1. IsSystemMessage(object): This would be handy for my object serializers. Currrently is uses the IsMediaFile(), IsChannel(), etc, but I can't actually serialize the SystemMessages because I can test for them. Actually any time you add a new object type, it would be handy to add the Is"ObjectType" api, so that I can update the serializers (xml & json) to include that object type.

2. GetSystemMessageVariableNames(object): I can get variables by "name", but there is no way to tell what variables are stored against the SystemMessage. This would be handy for me, because when I display the system messages, i'd like to also display the variables are stored with the message. In my case, for bmt, I can use the variables as a means to better organize the message, showing things such as the query details.

[davephan]

Is there a way to that the capture card system message failure could trigger a batch file or something that could automatically power cycle a capture card device, such as a HD-PVR or HDHomerun failure?

Dave

[timg11]

Originally Posted by davephan

Is there a way to that the capture card system message failure could trigger a batch file or something that could automatically power cycle a capture card device, such as a HD-PVR or HDHomerun failure?

Dave

I modified my Sage System Message program a while ago to implement that exact function. I forgot to upload it, but it is there now. The download page is here.

This program is rather crude, but it does let you run a program to reset the HD-PVR.

[jreichen]

Originally Posted by stuckless

1. IsSystemMessage(object): This would be handy for my object serializers. Currrently is uses the IsMediaFile(), IsChannel(), etc, but I can't actually serialize the SystemMessages because I can test for them. Actually any time you add a new object type, it would be handy to add the Is"ObjectType" api, so that I can update the serializers (xml & json) to include that object type.

I second this request. It would also be nice to have API's like GetSystemMessageForX(), GetEditorialForX() and GetSeriesInfoForX() - similar to GetAiringForID(). Since I often do things across HTTP requests, I find myself inventing my own ways of finding objects where I would expect the Sage APIs to do the dirty work for me.

Currently for system messages I had to come up with my own system for determining a unique ID for a message based on message code and timestamps, then on subsequent HTTP requests I have to loop over the array returned by GetSystemMessages() to find the message I'm looking for. Not exactly ideal. SeriesInfo looks like it could be a problem as well because I have two series with the same name. Hopefully I'll find another property I can append to determine uniqueness.

Thanks,
Jason

[Slugger]

I'm with jreichen. I also had to do the same kind of thing in SJQ. I ended up creating keys for all system messages based on the md5 hash of the concatenation of the message text and the timestamp of the message. The possible downfall of my approach is that it assumes that more than one instance of the same system message can never be generated at the exact same time. To date, this assumption has held true and I've had no problems (knock on wood).

In case anyone wants to know exactly what I'm doing, here's the util class I created to generate unique keys for system messages and to find a system message based on the unique key:

http://code.google.com/p/sagetv-addo...sageUtils.java

I agree with jreichen that the Sage API itself should be providing these kinds of services.