[raydragon]

First Post here although have used XBMC on and off for a long time. It's awesome and insanely powerful and flexible, maybe too much so for a lot of people.

Recently been using OpenElec on an intel NUC and it's awesome as a whole, but i miss a few things from some of the Hardware based media players i have been using.
Some of these may have been asked for before by others and I did have a quick search but didn't see a suitable thread that was already active so, hence this one.

What i am hoping can be added is the following:
When i use the search function it finds no results. All my media is stored on a NAS over SMB shares and i don't want to change that. I don't have a lot of use for custom backgrounds or cover art or that sort of stuff, i like to keep it simple and choose or find a file from a list of files by entering in a few characters of the name of the file into a search field.

I can use the filter option which works fairly well but i have to re-enter the terms after every viewing, ie it doesn't keep a persistent list of the filter results that i actively would have to choose to clear or exit out of. If i am having a bit of a marathon of shows for example and search for one, i then want that list to remain there after the first one has finished so i can then get up, have a drink of water etc then go back and then just go onto the next one without having to search for it all over again.

Search/ Filter History - when i go to the search/ filter section could it display the last few entries searched for that i can choose from to save having to peck them in again? This wouldn't be as needed if the results as described above were persistent but would still be useful.

so in summary:
Can the Search function be made to work to display results from shared folders
Can Filtering / Search results be made selectably persistent.
Can we have a "most recently used" list of terms to choose from in search / filter box

Obviously not all these things will be everyone cup of tea but if they were selectable it would be great ,ie search could default to current behaviour but be optionally able to search shared folders and return results from there instead. Likewise with the persistent results or most recently used list they could default to off but be enabled if necessary.

[Montellese]

I'm not sure I fully understand your setup. Are you only using files view and are trying to search there? If that's the case the main problem is that we don't index files/directories if they are not part of a library so searching is pretty difficult. All we can do really is look through the currently listed items.

[Ned Scott]

Maybe Add-on:Global Search (wiki)?

EDIT: Never mind. I just tried it and it doesn't search files either.

[Karnagious]

I think I might have a solution.

Give me a couple of days.

[raydragon]

I'm not sure I fully understand your setup. Are you only using files view and are trying to search there? If that's the case the main problem is that we don't index files/directories if they are not part of a library so searching is pretty difficult. All we can do really is look through the currently listed items.

Yeah that's exactly what i am doing. Using the filter allows me to do most of what i want, except it's not persistent and it also doesn't search subdirectories.

I go to Videos, then Files, then i have 2 SMB shares inside that labelled as TV and Movies.
When i go to TV i then have a mix of shows just loosely dumped in there, some in folders, some not.
Due to the slower navigation of some of my previous media players i started using the search function when looking for a particular show, especially as i have the default sort order set to order files by date as thats what i use most often, so finding stuff alphabetically when i wanted to was annoying and slow as i have to keep switching back and forth between them. It was easier to just leave the sort order on date and use the search.

One of the hardware players i was using allowed me to basically do the same action ( ie enter a few letters of the name of the show) and it would go off and pattern match that against everything within the current folder, including sub folders. Once i finished playing the one i wanted, the search results were still on screen allowing me to go to the next file and start that one.
The scanning / searching of the remote location might take up to say 10 seconds but that was ok and, as i only had to do it once, it wasn't an issue as the results stay on screen until i choose to clear them.

[Karnagious]

My addon called LooseFiles (check the sig) currently searches all video sources and returns the files not found in the library. It presents those files on the screen (or emails you a list or saves the list to disk), and from there you can play the files or rename and move them.

It shouldnt be too much work to modify the addon to allow searching for specific words, and to save search results. I am also thinking it would be worthwhile to only re-scan the folders once a day, or at the request of the user. You would need to change the search from Video Sources to All Sources in the Addon settings. But after that you would be set.

Like I said, give me a few days and I will see what I can do.

[raydragon]

My addon called LooseFiles (check the sig) currently searches all video sources and returns the files not found in the library. It presents those files on the screen (or emails you a list or saves the list to disk), and from there you can play the files or rename and move them.

It shouldnt be too much work to modify the addon to allow searching for specific words, and to save search results. I am also thinking it would be worthwhile to only re-scan the folders once a day, or at the request of the user. You would need to change the search from Video Sources to All Sources in the Addon settings. But after that you would be set.

Like I said, give me a few days and I will see what I can do.

Sounds promising, appreciate the effort.

[Karnagious]

OK, give the addon a go now.

I have added in the search function as well as saving the search history.

[raydragon]

OK, give the addon a go now.

I have added in the search function as well as saving the search history.

Ok, so i add the addon by installing from a zip file, it tells me it's enabled.... now what...??

Nothing seems to have changed, filtering and searching doesn't do anything different.. am i supposed to be turning something on somewhere as i can't see anything new to enable or configure...



Also on a slight different (but somewhat related) note, I think there might be something wrong with the filter or something i don't understand about it ( not as a result of your addon btw, I noticed this previously).

It doesn't seem able to find part of a word or title??

As an example if i have files called "the blacklist" and "Black sails" in a folder, searching for "black" finds both ( as expected).
searching for "Blackl" returns the black list ok but not black sails ( as expected)
searching for "list" however finds no results - shouldn't that find "the blacklist" or am i misunderstanding how the filter works?

[Karnagious]

You need to run the addon to do the searching, not the existing global search addon.

[raydragon]

You need to run the addon to do the searching, not the existing global search addon.

uhm...ok how do i run it...don't think i have global search installed, do i need that as well for yours to work?

I found the configuration page for the addon, haven't changed anything. You also mention changing the settings from video sources to all... can't see anywhere to do that...??

kinda confused...

[Karnagious]

Its in the programs menu. You can put the addon in the home menu with many skins, and you could access it there easily, but not the default skin called Confluence.

There is no need to change the settings. That was just an idea that I didnt implement.

[raydragon]

Its in the programs menu. You can put the addon in the home menu with many skins, and you could access it there easily, but not the default skin called Confluence.

There is no need to change the settings. That was just an idea that I didnt implement.

Yeah I just figured it out, i was able to add it as a shortcut to the home menu so i was able to get it to run... sorta

When i choose the top option - scan all loose files it starts to scan but almost immediately fails with a script error...??
The Other 2 options it lets me choose new search but doesn't return any results....

[Karnagious]

Do you have any source loaded as Videos? It is the only way XBMC has of knowing where your files are. Even if the shared folders are mounted thats just the OS, not XBMC.

In any case, I need the xbmc.log file to have any chance of knowing what the problem is.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Log_file

PS. The first option is only for people looking to see which files havent been added to their XBMC library.

[raydragon]

Do you have any source loaded as Videos? It is the only way XBMC has of knowing where your files are. Even if the shared folders are mounted thats just the OS, not XBMC.

In any case, I need the xbmc.log file to have any chance of knowing what the problem is.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Log_file

PS. The first option is only for people looking to see which files havent been added to their XBMC library.

So I still need to choose a content for the folder and have XBMC go through and scan them and check them against the online TV or movie Databases etc etc for this to work? Thats exactly what i was trying to avoid being required to do.

I was hoping that i could leave the shared folder types as none and just be able to search in a box to pattern match the files , ie kinda like if i had just typed a few characters of the name into the windows 7 search box in windows explorer and end up with a bunch of files with those characters in the file name.

I didn't want it going through scanning all the files and trying to match them into seasons or add covers or descriptions or any of that malarkey, I like my messy file structure just the way it is and i don't want a folder called the take away shows or "to be sorted" or a bunch of episodes ending up with a weird name like the spinto band ( stuffs me where it came up with that, but thats what happens with a whole heap of random episodes ).

I'm still scratching my head why it isn't possible, many hardware based players can do it so i'm confused as to why a super powerful program like XBMC can't??