SageTV 3rd Party Devs & Google Acquisition

[Brent]

If you're one of the many awesome 3rd party devs for SageTV I'm wondering if you've contacted google as mentioned on the announcement at sagetv.com:

"we encourage interested developers to email:
sagetv-dev@google.com"

If so, let me know what you hear back via DM or email. Thanks!

[peternm22]

Brent, what happened with the the Google rep you were going to talk to a couple days ago?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by peternm22

Brent, what happened with the the Google rep you were going to talk to a couple days ago?

Just sent a long list of questions which I should get an answer on soon? I'm dealing with PR which means the answers might take a while and WILL be carefully vetted. I'll miss the days of dealing with a very small company...

[peternm22]

Thanks for doing this. Most of us wouldn't know where to start to try to track down information.

Over the years you and your site have been valuable sources of info on SageTV.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Brent

If you're one of the many awesome 3rd party devs for SageTV I'm wondering if you've contacted google as mentioned on the announcement at sagetv.com:

If so, let me know what you hear back via DM or email. Thanks!

I'll do this when I get home tonight.

[bialio]

I emailed them, haven't had any response yet of course, but we'll see.....

btl.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by bialio

I emailed them, haven't had any response yet of course, but we'll see.....

btl.

Hey Brian,

What did you say in the email?

[bialio]

Hello,

I'm an active developer in the SageTV User community - so I am interested in what direction Google will take SageTV and the future of Sage. I'm hopeful that SageTV + GoogleTV can really become something bigger and better than either are today.

One of the great strengths of Sage is the level of customization allowed by SageTV Studio - I hope that any future developments from Google will include something similar. Sage's decision to allow a complete replacement of the UI (made possible by the very complete API exposed by the SageTV core) really allows a level of customization for 'power' users / developers that can't be beat anywhere.

Looking forward to good things from Google.
btl.

btl.

[sleonard]

btl ?

Between the Lines?
Beyond the Limits?
Big Time Loser?
Born Too Late?
Bubba the Love Sponge?

S

[voidpt]

Not a plug-in developer myself, just wanted to add my 5øre (my local 5¢ ). Have done a local-backup-recover of all I need of SageTV components as of now ('fake' local plug-in install repository, I hope work if reinstall).

But one of the greatest strength of SageTV, from my egoistical viewpoint, is the quality of the user-2-user (+developers) interaction of the community here. Never been at a better place. Have mentioned it before, a little quote from an earlier revision of myself:

Originally Posted by voidpt

I got to say I'm actually dreading the day if/when SageTV gets really mainstream. The influx of people that have no patience, no contribution, no manners will kill much of the forums. As it is now, I could not ask for better people to share this forum with.

Not hoping this comes true. My plea to anyone having influence on future SageTV/Google: Please please keep a forum like this, preferably moderated. Do not lose the competence assembled here.
If it all goes to <beep>, for the good times

[bastafidli]

+1. I love this community!

[BobbyDing]

('fake' local plug-in install repository)

Hi voidpt,
Might I get you to post how to locally save the plugins and get sage to use that repository? I've collected the software and firmware I would need, but have no idea how to save and install the plugins locally. I understand if it's too complicated to post.

Thanks,

Bobby

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

Hi voidpt,
Might I get you to post how to locally save the plugins and get sage to use that repository? I've collected the software and firmware I would need, but have no idea how to save and install the plugins locally. I understand if it's too complicated to post.

Thanks,

Bobby

I haven't actually done this (yet) so there might be some details I'm overlooking, but, in a nutshell, this is what you'd need to do:

• Make a copy of C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\SageTVPlugins.xml
• Download every zip file referenced in that XML file and place it on a local web server
• Replace the zip file links with the address of the local/alternate web server
• Replace SageTVPlugins.xml with your edited copy
• (Optional) Block Sage server app from accessing XML file from web (so it's not overwritten) via firewall settings, etc. This will allow Sage to continue to use your local repository. Of course, you then miss updates to the repository. The step is moot if/when the Sage repository is shutdown.

I've been looking at writing a script to replicate the SageTV plugin repository locally for various reasons - my plugin dev work being the major one. Never really bothered with it, but now I've been revisiting those scripts. I don't have anything anywhere near ready to use in order to automatically achieve the steps above, but it's something I'll probably chip away at now during the summer, along with my plans for some type of EPG plugin alternative, just in case all of the Sage infrastructure suddenly goes MIA.

[sleonard]

I think it would be good idea to setup an internet based alternate repository for all of us if we can find somewhere to host it. Just like the current one, available to all, just run by users instead of Sage.

S

[BobbyDing]

That all seems pretty straight foward, and hopefully I/We won't need it. I think ultimately somebody will set up an off site repository. But I like to cover my A$$ just in case As to your line:

Download every zip file referenced in that XML file and place it on a local web server

I'm having trouble finding these zips in the user created software areas. I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong place though. Are they kept in one area? Or are they scattered about listed by developer?

Thanks,

Bobby

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

I'm having trouble finding these zips in the user created software areas. I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong place though. Are they kept in one area? Or are they scattered about listed by developer?

You only really need the ones hosted on SageTV's server, you can keep the other links to dropbox and such as is...

[BobbyDing]

You only really need the ones hosted on SageTV's server, you can keep the other links to dropbox and such as is...

Are they kept in one location?

[voidpt]

@BobbyDing

Slugger has covered exactly my thoughts. As soon as I saw the Google info I did a manual read/parse through my latest SageTVPlugins.xml file. For all the plugins I have indicated as installed I did a manual download of ZIP file(s) referenced in <Package>/<Location> entry(s). My initial goal was just to have latest version of all files and experiment later.

Still early days. Feel a little like "the sky is falling" doing this Better to be safe than sorry though, like to keep my options open. But for now I will sit back and hope for some more info from SageTV/Google. Depending on that I might use some of the weekend to verify and test "scratch" installation in a virtual environment. Just to make sure it can work. Will do a post at that point of my experience.

PS: There is a default entry in Sage.properties set to disable_plugin_repository_updates=false. Might be a trigger to disable update of the XML file if set to true, or something else

@Brent
Sorry for derailing the thread. Suggest we continue discussions in a separate SageTV-Survival-Kit thread (if not started somewhere already).

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by voidpt

PS: There is a default entry in Sage.properties set to disable_plugin_repository_updates=false. Might be a trigger to disable update of the XML file if set to true, or something else

Setting that to true simply stops sage from checking for a newer version of the manifest .xml file (which gets updated any time somebody adds, removes, or updates a plugin). So if you manually edit the manifest file, and don't want Sage to overwrite it, set the value to true.

[jptheripper]

Any devs get a response back from google and allowed to talk about it?