Help for a newbie

[taylormadearmy]

Hi All,

I was hoping someone could help with some simple examples. I've read the docs here and I'm still a bit stuck - I guess I'm just a bit too stupid to do this customisation on my own...

I've tried to get it working but I either end up with the wrong menus or an error saying their are no items in the view.

I love the look of Pheonix but need to change the landing zone please menus to keep the WAF when switching over to it.

For example under the TV menu items I want to add a menus for the following:

1) All sage tv recordings by Date
2) All sagte tv recordings by title
3) Only scheduled sage recordings by date

Under the Videos I want to add a menu item that shows my imported videos file structure.

If anyone could give me some examples of how I would add the appropriate lines to the landing page menu and views files it would be very much appreciated!

Many Thanks!
Taylor

[wrems]

Here's an example for your #1. I think anyway... Are you sure you want such a flat list without any grouping?

Here's the vfs that could do what I think you're asking:

<!DOCTYPE vfs SYSTEM "vfs.dtd">
<vfs>
      <views>
            <view name="tma_basic_tv" label="TMA TV - All Shows by Date">
                  <description>All shows by date</description>
                  <view-source name="phoenix.view.source.sagerecordings"/>
                  <presentation level="1">
                        <sort by="mediafileid" >
                              <option name="sort-order" value="desc"/>
                        </sort>
                  </presentation>
            </view>
      </views>
</vfs>

All you have to do is place this in a text file and call it anything as long as you put the extension of .XML on it. Place the file in your UserData>phoenix>vfs folder.

Now you need a Menu fragment in order to insert the above code into Phoenix. Once it's there you can use the GUI tools to move it hide it etc.

Here's an example of the fragment that you'll save like above but in the menus folder of userdata>phoenix>menus. If you want a different UMB you change that in the menu:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE menus SYSTEM "menus.dtd">
<menus>
      <fragment parentMenu="phoenix.menu.lz.tv" insertBefore="phoenix.menu.lz.tv.epg">
            <menuItem name="tma_basic_tv" label="Shows by Date" visible="true">
                  <description>TMA Shows by Date</description>
                  <eval>AddGlobalContext("DefaultView","tma_basic_tv")</eval>
                  <screen name="Phoenix Universal Media Browser" />
            </menuItem>
      </fragment>
</menus>

This should help get you started. Make sure you refresh configurations/reload menus etc in order to see it show up. It should appear on the very bottom of the TV list. Move it/rename it etc from the landing zone gui options.

[taylormadearmy]

Thanks! That was really helpful! Have finally managed to get going

You are right though - I don't really want it that flat. I have successfully managed to get things grouped by title before sorting, however I don't like the way it puts single items into a folder too.

Is there anyway to have single items show up in the list as is, rather than in a folder as the stock STV shows?

[HokiePerogi]

Originally Posted by taylormadearmy

Thanks! That was really helpful! Have finally managed to get going

You are right though - I don't really want it that flat. I have successfully managed to get things grouped by title before sorting, however I don't like the way it puts single items into a folder too.

Is there anyway to have single items show up in the list as is, rather than in a folder as the stock STV shows?

Add this option to your "group by" element:

<option name="prune-single-item-groups" value="true"/>

Example:

<presentation level="2">
  <group by="season">
    <option name="prune-single-item-groups" value="true"/>
  </group>
  <sort by="title"/>
</presentation>

[wrems]

Originally Posted by HokiePerogi

Add this option to your "group by" element:

<option name="prune-singe-item-groups" value="true"/>

Make sure you don't put the typo in there. It should be SINGLE not singe.

[stuckless]

in an <option> for the group, use,

   <option name="prune-single-item-groups" value="true"/>

This should promote all groups with a single item to the top level folder.

[taylormadearmy]

Thanks All! I had tried that but thought it wasn't working - it turns out I also needed to add:

<option name="folders-first" value="false"/>

This prevents the "non-folders" being pushed to the end of the list.

Thanks again - and I'm sure I'll have more questions later

T

[pmpj218]

Hi there,
I'm trying to make some of my own vfs's using some of the ones I've seen on here as an example, and I'm having a bit of trouble. I'm trying to grab videos from specific import folders, but I can't seem to do it. I have an import folder "\\unraid\Movies". Inside that folder are three folders: Bluray (contains 99 videos), DVD (contains 153 videos) , & Encoded (contains 1 video).

I'm trying to make an "All Movies" vfs that contains all the videos in the Bluray and DVD folders only. This is what I tried:

<!DOCTYPE vfs SYSTEM "vfs.dtd">
<vfs>
	<views>
		<view name="tam.view.bluray" label="TAM - Bluray Rips" flat="true">
			<option name="root" value="/Bluray/"/>
			<option name="children-only" value="true"/>
			<description>Blu-ray Movie Rips</description>
			<tag value="video"/>
			<tag value="movie"/>
			<view-source name="phoenix.view.primary.importedmovies"/>
			
			<presentation>
				<sort by="title">
					<option name="ignore-all" value="true"/>
				</sort>
			</presentation>			
		</view>
		
		<view name="tam.view.dvd" label="TAM - DVD Rips" flat="true">
			<option name="root" value="/DVD/"/>
			<option name="children-only" value="true"/>
			<description>DVD Movie Rips</description>
			<tag value="video"/>
			<tag value="movie"/>
			<view-source name="phoenix.view.primary.importedmovies"/>
			
			<presentation>
				<sort by="title">
					<option name="ignore-all" value="true"/>
				</sort>
			</presentation>			
		</view>
		
		<view name="tam.view.allMovies" label="TAM - All Movie Rips" flat="true">
			<description>All Movie Rips</description>
			<tag value="video"/>
			<tag value="movie"/>
			<view-source name="tam.view.bluray"/>
			<view-source name="tam.view.dvd"/>
			
			<presentation>
				<sort by="title">
					<option name="ignore-all" value="true"/>
				</sort>
			</presentation>			
		</view>
	</views>
</vfs>

But in BMT, when I click on that view I see 741 video files. Can someone help guide me in the right direction? Let me know if I'm being unclear about what I'm after. Thanks in advance!

Joe

[wrems]

Yeah, you have to get tricky with these. When you're going after folders by an import path and a root option you need to do 2 steps before the final merge. Each source you want to collect into the final vfs needs to be done this way if you're using root. Also, there is no need to use the presentation in the intermediary vfs'. The final merged view is all that matters.

Basically, what you need to do for each source is 2 steps. One is the one you have outlined above using root to point to the folder, but you need to leave the Flat=FALSE. Then you need to absorb that vfs into another one that FLATTENS it Flat=TRUE. Root maintains the folder structure in a way that you're not interested in for the final result. The only way I've found to deal with these is 2 steps.

I can't remember for sure but you may need to use the view source: sagevideoimportsv7 instead of phoenix.view.primary.importedmovies. Try it both ways... I've used both can't remember which is better...

[stuckless]

I think the biggest issue that you are using the phoenix.view.primary.importedmovies and you should be using the sagevideoimportsv7.

[pmpj218]

Firstly, what is view source "sagevideoimportsv7"? I didn't see it in the original x-vfs.xml file that I was looking for sources.

I took your suggestions, though. But I still don't think it's coming up right for the bluray, dvd, or allmovies views that I'm trying to make. I changed the view source to "sagevideoimportsv7". And I also changed the bluray and dvd views to flat=false. Now the view in BMT looks like it's showing ALL the subfolders from all my video imports from the following six sources:

\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos
\\unraid\Videos\Clips
\\TAM-PC01\Users\Public\Videos\Intros
\\TAM-PC01\Users\Public\Videos\Trailers
\\unraid\TV
\\unraid\Movies

I also had two similar views I was trying to make for videos in my "Music Video" source, which has subfolders "Music Video" and "Performances". The views in BMT actually show only the videos in these subfolders only (which is what I want). Am I doing something differently for the movies views because the following view seems to work after making view-source change to "sagevideoimportsv7":

<view name="tam.view.musicvideos" label="TAM - Music Videos" flat="false">
	<option name="root" value="/Music Videos/"/>
	<option name="children-only" value="true"/>
	<description>Music Videos</description>
	<tag value="video"/>
	<view-source name="sagevideoimportsv7"/>
			
	<presentation>
		<sort by="title">
			<option name="folders-first" value="false"/>
		</sort>
	</presentation>			
</view>
		
<view name="tam.view.livemusicperformances" label="TAM - Live Music Performances" flat="false">
	<option name="root" value="/Performances/"/>
	<option name="children-only" value="true"/>
	<description>Live Music Performances</description>
	<tag value="video"/>
	<view-source name="sagevideoimportsv7"/>
			
	<presentation>
		<sort by="title">
			<option name="folders-first" value="false"/>
		</sort>
	</presentation>			
</view>

Also, does it matter if I keep the presentations for the bluray and dvd view? I haven't decided yet, but I might want to add those views in the menu as well.

[stuckless]

Sorry I gave the wrong view-source... you should be using the "phoenix.view.default.videofolders" view source which is a source the provides a folder like access to your video imports.

What I could do is look at the View (either in BMT or Phoenix) called, "Sage Video Imports by Folder" and then see how your content shows up in there. Since it's in there you will determine what your "root" value would be.

[wrems]

The first thing I would do is take a step back and make it much more simple. Get one view of one of your import paths working before kludging together an entire merged subset.

I don't think your import paths are properly setup to allow the root to work. The way you structure your folders and which folders you tell Sage to use as an import path are important to this type of segregation.

You may want to spend some time building a new import path structure and move/copy a few movies over to it and get your basic view to point at that folder/path. Then do a wholesale make-over of the way you are representing your media files to Sage/Phoenix/VFS...

[pmpj218]

I think the "Sage Video Imports By Folder" is not showing what I think it would. I attached a screenshot of it from BMT. The subfolder "Music Video" of the source "\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos" there, so I guess that's why that view worked.

I think my folders and sources are setup right. My folder structure is like this:

\\unraid\Movies\Bluray\Movie Title\bluraymovie.mkv
\\unraid\Movies\DVD\Movie Title\dvdmovie.mkv
\\unraid\Movies\Encoded\encodedmovie.mkv
\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos\Music Videos\musicvideo.mpg
\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos\Performances\performance.mpg

But I don't know why it is showing all the individual folders inside the "Bluray" and "DVD" subfolders when the source is "\\unraid\Movies". It's just weird that it seems to be behaving as I expect for the Music Videos imports, but not the Movies imports.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by pmpj218

I think the "Sage Video Imports By Folder" is not showing what I think it would. I attached a screenshot of it from BMT. The subfolder "Music Video" of the source "\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos" there, so I guess that's why that view worked.

I think my folders and sources are setup right. My folder structure is like this:

\\unraid\Movies\Bluray\Movie Title\bluraymovie.mkv
\\unraid\Movies\DVD\Movie Title\dvdmovie.mkv
\\unraid\Movies\Encoded\encodedmovie.mkv
\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos\Music Videos\musicvideo.mpg
\\unraid\Videos\Music Videos\Performances\performance.mpg

But I don't know why it is showing all the individual folders inside the "Bluray" and "DVD" subfolders when the source is "\\unraid\Movies". It's just weird that it seems to be behaving as I expect for the Music Videos imports, but not the Movies imports.

Are you sure you have a single "import" of \\unraid\Movies or do you have multiple imports, for each BluRay, DVD, etc?

We are simply calling a sage api to show these files, so I'm not sure why sagetv would group them them.

[pmpj218]

I definitely have just one import directory. But I just removed the source \\unraid\Movies, scanned media library, and then added it back. And now it looks like it's working. I'm happy with it. When I get home, I'll change the view-source to "phoenix.view.default.videofolders" like you said and make sure it works. I think it should, though, because I see the "Bluray" and "DVD" folders in the "Sage Video Imports By Folder" view in BMT.

Thanks for all your help! I'm sure I'll have more questions when I actually try to add it to the menu...

[wrems]

I think you’re individually setting those paths as import paths. You don’t need to do that and it doesn't work properly with using root to specify a path.

It’s easier to maintain too. Set them up something like:

\\unraid\sagetv_video
\\unraid\sagetv_music
\\unraid\sagetv_pics

These would be the only paths that SageTV sees. Then put folders for all your content as sub folders to those big 3 accordingly to where they belong. When setting up the directories make sure that you limit each category to only grab content for that category. Like video only video, not pics and music do the same for the other two.

So for you sagetv_videos you would have folders for DVD, BD, Encoded, Music Videos, Live Performances etc. These folders become the ROOT to where you can limit a lookup for.

The big benefit to the above is that you can add, remove and rename those folders and Sage will adjust on-the-fly. Then when you’re in BMT in the combined import folders view you’ll have a nice drill down accessibility to all your paths and likewise build vfs’ that point to them.

[pmpj218]

Thanks. I think that explanation about ROOT really helps me understand how things are being seen by Phoenix. For unrelated reasons, I'm not really able to place my "Bluray" and "DVD" folders into the same video folder where "Music Video", "Performances", and other folders are.

But now that I've refreshed my video imports, the vfs's above now work like I want them to. I can have a "Bluray" view with only the videos in the Bluray folder, a "DVD" view with only the videos in the DVD folder, and a view that combines them both together for an "All Movies" view.