STV Import: Dynamic Customisable Main Menu (v6.4 20/Dec/2007 for SageTV 5.0/6.0)

[nielm]

Originally Posted by iceman

I recently imported this Dynamic Customisable Main Menu STVI. I also down loaded and unpacked the icons pack talked about in this thread into the Sagetv directory. I started up the user interface and I see no icons in the main menu.

Is there something I'm missing. Is there a path I need to setup in the sage client properties file to point to the icons directory?

It is hardcoded to:
SageTV program dir/Icon path in XML file, eg, for Sage Recordings:

c:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\STVs\dynamic_menu_icons\mm_recordings.png

[mayamaniac]

Just to confirm that its working, I just upgraded to SageTV4.31 and imported both Dynamic Menu and Comskip STVi files into the SageTV3.xml theme of SageTV 4.31 and everything is working. SageTV 4.31 automatically renamed the theme to SageTV3-1.xml. So everytime you import a STVi, it saves as a new xml file (SageTV3-2.xml, SageTV3-3.xml, SageTV3-4.xml, etc.)

Also WebServer 2.1 seems to work fine in SageTV4.13, I didn't have to do anything. Although I still can't get the shows to "stream" or "watch".

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by nielm

I don't have an MVP so I don't know what can be done... BUT, it appears each MVP has a properties file (clients subdir?), and the location of menu.xml can be defined in the properties file... What happens if you create a custom menu_mvp.xml and then specify it in the MVP's propety file?

nielm/main_menu_xml_file=C\:\\Program Files\\SageTV\\SageTV\\menu.xml

Thanks. Will try that tonight and yes each MVP has a individual property file that appears to be the MAC address of the MVP. Or at least that's what I saw in another thread.

BobP.

[techtips]

Nielm
First of all thatnks for such a robust plugin for Sagetv. I have chosen to use your customizable menu rather than Sage16x9 because Sage16x9 is a bit sluggish on MVP's. I did want to remove the setup feature ( to keep my 10 year old out) and did so on the server as a test. I tryed to bring it back by adding nielm/disable_internal_submenu=false to sage.properties, but have no luck. I added the internal screen back but it does not work.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sage4.1 running on AMD Sempron 2800+ 1 GIG ram, numerous HD's two MVP over hardwired 100MB switched network.

[techtips]

I figured out my problem, I needed to make the change in the sageclient properties file, which I did and now am working as normal


-danny

[lambda379]

Has anyone else seen an issue with using Dynamic Customisable Main Menu and Default Record Padding together in 4.1x? Whenever I have Dynamic Customisable Main Menu loaded, the recording starts and stops exactly per the guide times. The time defined by Default Record Padding isn't added to the beginning or end of the recording. For any STV without Dymamic Customisable Main Menu loaded, the Default Record Padding works perfectly.

[nielm]

I use both togetther and have no problems...
Note that the padding is only added when the manual recording is set up (ie the moment you hit record), not at the point that the recording occurs. You can verify that the padding is set by checking the record options.

Note that currently (in v4/4.1) default record pad does not work when making new favorites.

[lambda379]

It seems I have the problem all the time. As you stated, no padding is added to New Favorites, but also no padding is added to any recording setup through the EPG. I've tried using the SageTV EPG and your Web Server EPG and still no padding is set when reviewing the Record Options for each show.

[nielm]

default padding plugin only works in the SageTV user-interface (not in the webserver). It also only works when it is imported, and when the default padding size is set (in detailed setup/customize/Default Padding...). Maybe for some reason the padding size setting has been reset to 0?

[lambda379]

I don't know what was happening, but I unistalled and re-installed SageTV from scratch and loaded Customisable Menu and Default Padding. Now everything works fine. Do you think future versions of the Web Server will include the Default Padding feature? By the way, great work, all your added goodies really enhance SageTV!

[jlabrue]

Feature Request: I had a request if it is possible. I have created a admin area with external program that restart some apps, restart the server, etc... Is it possible to have a menu item display a confirmation box to click OK/Cancel before execution? Since one of my items restarts the box it would be cool to have a final confirmation before it executed.

Also, this is probably not high on the lists of features but who knows. How difficult would it be to add a password/pin number protect feature to the menus? This would tie into my admin section as well. Having an area that is protect by a pin number (could be hard set in the .xml file or in GUI) it would let me make this admin area a little more secure from an inadvertant reboot from a less skilled Sage user (Wife, Daughter, Son, Neighbor, etc..) I could just type in a 4 digit pin and boom, the admin screens are unlocked.

Just some random thoughts for a great utility. I was a little intimidated to install it but finally said what the heck and found that it is very easy to configure. Really cool!

[jlabrue]

One more thing (can you tell I just discovered this and am going a little wild with it )

Is it possible to create a menu item that can sense the state like the Full Screen button. In the original STV that button item can sense what state it is in and will say "Exit FullScreen..." or "Enter Full Screen..." depending upon state.

Possible or not?? Just trying to absolutely replicate my original STV with some tweaks

[nielm]

Confirmation boxes are on the todo list (I am getting fed up with clicking the wrong button too)
PIN protection could easily be added, but it would be an XML-edit only

State-sensing (eg for fullscreen mode) is not possible (I renamed that menu item to 'Toggle full screen mode' for that reason!)

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by nielm

Confirmation boxes are on the todo list (I am getting fed up with clicking the wrong button too)

Sweet, look forward to that! It sucks if you have happy fingers and hit select just a little to quick!

Originally Posted by nielm

PIN protection could easily be added, but it would be an XML-edit only

That would be awesome! Even if it was an xml edit it would be great. It is probably something that wouldn't happen often but could cause lots of problems if it ever did happen, depending upon what you would have in there. I put a couple of batch files to cycle power on my digital cable boxes and would not want someone else clicking that. Everytime we have a power blip the cable boxes get turned off and I had to pull the TV out to turn them back on until I got a utility from USB-UIRT support to send commands through the command line. The Dynamic menu gives me just what I was wanting, I method from within Sage to launch the batch files. But it is also added risk to the other users in the home

How do you see it being implemented? Would you create a default PIN and then use sometype of variable wherever you need pin protection or would you set a pin number for each item independently? If you used a single pin for all functions could that be added as a menu item in the option menu and then stored in the xml file? Then if you needed to pin protect an item you could just click a menu item for "PIN Protection" and it would use the stored PIN. I'm not a developer by any means so the methods for implementation is beyond my skills. I'm just an idea man

Originally Posted by nielm

State-sensing (eg for fullscreen mode) is not possible (I renamed that menu item to 'Toggle full screen mode' for that reason!)

That's cool. I thought might be difficult to implement since I'm not sure how it is done in Sage anyway. Just thought I'd throw that in while I am shooting out ideas .

[sabre]

The title says it all, after import i notice that the on-screen response to remote control input when using MVP extender becomes quite sluggish compared to a clean SageTV3.xml STV. I certainly can live with it given the great features of this import, but wondering if others have seen this and if there is a way to offset it?

[lotusvball]

Originally Posted by sabre

The title says it all, after import i notice that the on-screen response to remote control input when using MVP extender becomes quite sluggish compared to a clean SageTV3.xml STV. I certainly can live with it given the great features of this import, but wondering if others have seen this and if there is a way to offset it?

I too am noticing a slow down in response on the MVP. I have some stvi's installed too.

[Tomahawk51]

Love this plugin, upped the WAF alot!

Working fine on my MVP, can't complain about speed at all.

Here's the question: How can I rename menu items on my MVP? I can't enter text, only numbers. I tried the "paste from clipboard" option, but nothing comes through.

Am I missing something? Perhaps this newb question will be a better one. Can I set up the MVP STV (that is used on the MVP) on the server computer instead? IN other words, set it up on my PC... but see it on my MVP. I notice that the 2 do seem to be different (which is something I do kind of like).

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

Love this plugin, upped the WAF alot!

Working fine on my MVP, can't complain about speed at all.

Here's the question: How can I rename menu items on my MVP? I can't enter text, only numbers. I tried the "paste from clipboard" option, but nothing comes through.

Am I missing something? Perhaps this newb question will be a better one. Can I set up the MVP STV (that is used on the MVP) on the server computer instead? IN other words, set it up on my PC... but see it on my MVP. I notice that the 2 do seem to be different (which is something I do kind of like).

What I do is make a menu entry with just numbers like 22222. Then save the menu file. Then go to the SageTV server and edit the menu.xml (or whatever you named yours if you changed the name) and edit it in notepad and change the 22222 to a meaningful name. Then just reload the menu on the MVP.

BobP.

[nielm]

If you want to use the same menu on the server as on the MVP's, edit the menu on the server, and then just options/reload on the MVP...

If you want to have a different customised menu on the MVP to the server, you will need to edit the MVP's properties file so that a different menu definition XML file name is used... I can't help any more than that because I don't have an MVP..

[Tomahawk51]

The xml suggestion seems like it will work perfectly. I wouldn't ask you to do more work anyway. To me, I'll only be making these changes very infrequently. The workaround is very useful.

EDIT - I was missing the point you were making about simply reloading the saved menu definition. That worked perfectly - thanks.

Thanks for all the hard work as well. I really do enjoy the flexibility that your imports allow.