heads up: Video library reorganisation via XML

I think zag2 was planning on writing something up. I suspect things may change a little over the next few weeks as folk test things out and we identify the major disadvantages. Maybe drop him a note and see what he has in mind?

(2012-05-04 00:23)jmarshall Wrote:  Please keep separate discussion, well, separate.

I assume that was aimed at me, but my question was regarding whether or not this new reorganization will take offline movies into account or not.

I have no idea how you define your offline movies. Assuming they can be picked up with a smartplaylist, then yes. Assuming they can't then no and nothing at all to do with this.

(2012-05-04 00:31)Ned Scott Wrote:  Do we want any of this on the wiki yet, or is it in flux or anything like that?

I guess there is no harm in adding, flux is what wikis are all about after all

(2012-05-04 00:31)Ned Scott Wrote:  Do we want any of this on the wiki yet, or is it in flux or anything like that?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Custom_Video_Nodes

I haven't listed all the options yet so feel free for anyone to improve on it. Should get most people started though.

In my experience it works very well and is a huge improvement to xbmc.

Been having great fun with this, brilliant idea. Can't wait too be able to add shortcuts to the home screen.

Can I just mention again, for the slightly daft like myself

To use custom nodes

Install a new nightly

Copy the folders "video" and "video_flat" from your XBMC install directory eg: Win7 "C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\system\library\" to your userdata database directory eg: Win7 "C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\Database"

Have fun - I started off easy and just changed labels to see what happened

I was thinking about this some more, mostly about how it could be integrated into the GUI as I assume it would vastly improve usefulness.

Currently we show all available nodes on Home, while hiding Movies and TVShows if that content is not available in library. I thought that better way could be if all nodes could behave in the similar way. I will assume adding of media sources in already moved to settings, for discussion sake. Same goes for Music library vs files, as this integration (like Videos) is already planned for.

Home items:
In set content dialog, while defining media source, it would be nice to have ability to set a name and background image path for it. This will be our new node on home page. This way, for example, music would not be shown on Home if no music media source is defined. OTOH, if I separate movies to 3 different subfolders and add them as 3 nodes, as previously described, they will be shown as 3 items on home with names and backgrounds I defined in set content dialog. If I want to have 1 item on home - I just add those 3 subfolders when defining Movies node, just like we do it now.

I suggest videos to be added the same way. For that to work we need "files scraper" - you set content type to "Videos" but DB is populated with local information (if available) instead. Again, I can add all folders containing videos at once and have 1 home video node, or separately and have, say, "Home Vids" and "Vacation Vids" shown as a 2 separate nodes on Home.

Addons:
I propose to consider moving all add ons to MyAddonsNav.xml. This would "clean them out" of other nodes making navigation more usable. Currently you need to have, say, music section on home if you want to use music add ons. This way add ons node on Home page would open up a add ons filter : video, music, program addons, etc. This may allow for possibility to disable all add ons in kid's profiles while having music allowed or vice versa.

Filters:
I propose all nodes generated as described above to come with standard set of filters that are being used now, with following changes/additions. When you click on Movies node on home it would open up a build in filters. Bringing up context menu and choosing customize filters would bring up a dialog with option to
- disable filter for that node altogether
- make a custom filter (opens up smart playlist editor)
- move filter item up/down
- disable filter item

All this should, IMHO, make customizations possible from UI in easy way. Make UI more friendly - I would rather like to have 1 movie node with custom filters but I would use rather separate nodes without filters in kid's profile as that would allow them to recognize "Tom&Jerry" (only T and J movies) vs "Movies" (all other movies) node on home. With moving of add ons to MyAddonNav.xml we could probably use recently added or most used add on items on home. Secondly, with regard to ListItem.Art(foo) changes it may allow add-on makers to better specify type of thumb they are using and unify $INFO labels being used.

I'm sure there is probably some aspect of XBMC I did not take into account given it's wast possibilities but I believe that the above could be further adapted to work in those cases, too. And, of course, XML files should stay in place as they would allow manual editing and easy backup of settings.

I would like to be able to separate program,video & music apps into other groups.. say games.. particularly when it comes to using xbmc on say an android device where all the apps installed from the android market can be put into their own special customized locations.

I'm having issues installing the script. XBMC never tells me it's installed when i try to install from zip file.

I would like to see each node have backdrops & thumbs to go with each of them.
also placing the thumbs & backdrops in a folder within the skin for personal customization,
not just dropped in the media folder. and maybe even a folder in the skin that can be checked for customized nodes to give the skin more of a personal touch.. say different colored folders identifying each of the nodes in different themes.