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zfield · (This post was last modified: 2014-05-16, 05:50 by zfield.)

MySQL should be used to store posters and fanart, favorites, tags (if not already), sources, and anything else I may be missing.

All information pertaining to media should be in the MySQL db - and when a new XBMC instance is installed, the new XBMC instance should locally cache the data pulled from the MySQL DB. I would go so far as to keep user profile information in the DB (if that doesn't exist).

This would allow for quicker deployment of XBMC instances.

Obviously nfs/smb paths would need to be setup instead of local paths, but that needs to be done anyway to share the media.

echasslau · 2014-05-16, 06:54

Why not use the new Upnp sharing? It's working out of the box and all content is shared. Search in the wiki for Upnp...

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-05-16, 07:22

MySQL is being phased out. Eventually we'll have a UPnP + additional "augmentation" setup that will do everything MySQL did and more, but a lot easier to use and set up.

zfield · 2014-05-17, 19:17

Thanks for the UPnP idea, I'll give it a shot. I watched the wiki video and it will be nice once the 'watched' and 'resume' option's have been implemented.

I just wish the XBMC UPnP server could be run as a separate service. The laptop hooked up to my TV isn't always running XBMC. I'm assuming if XBMC wasn't the UPnP server, I wouldn't be able to see the 'viewed state' on other devices (once the feature has been implemented).

DJ_Izumi · 2014-05-17, 22:12

(2014-05-16, 07:22)Ned Scott Wrote: MySQL is being phased out. Eventually we'll have a UPnP

But I like my MySQL and it does things that UPnP don't!!! Nerd rage!

(2014-05-16, 07:22)Ned Scott Wrote: + additional "augmentation" setup that will do everything MySQL did and more, but a lot easier to use and set up.

Wait, nerd rage averted and I'm curious now. Smile

~~Ned Scott~~ · (This post was last modified: 2014-05-18, 02:45 by Ned Scott.)

Basically UPnP is just used to transmit the metadata and network path (if available) for movies. They would be marked in XBMC's DB as being "external" or something, but would be added to the database just like everything else. Additional functionality can be added using stuff like JSON-RPC in order for XBMC boxes to talk to each other and track the files. There will be ways to handle duplicates and dynamically adding/removing UPnP feeders to the "mesh" library (kind of a mesh, if I understood correctly). Since settings are also now editable via JSON-RPC, this could possibly even mean syncing more than just the library files.

Most importantly, there are a bunch of XBMC devs who like and use MySQL themselves, in addition to all the users, so it won't be removed until the replacement is able to satisfy the MySQL fans :)

nickr · 2014-05-18, 06:01

(2014-05-18, 02:43)Ned Scott Wrote: Basically UPnP is just used to transmit the metadata and network path (if available) for movies. They would be marked in XBMC's DB as being "external" or something, but would be added to the database just like everything else. Additional functionality can be added using stuff like JSON-RPC in order for XBMC boxes to talk to each other and track the files. There will be ways to handle duplicates and dynamically adding/removing UPnP feeders to the "mesh" library (kind of a mesh, if I understood correctly). Since settings are also now editable via JSON-RPC, this could possibly even mean syncing more than just the library files.

Most importantly, there are a bunch of XBMC devs who like and use MySQL themselves, in addition to all the users, so it won't be removed until the replacement is able to satisfy the MySQL fans

The last paragraph is the best news I have seen on this issue, although I'd be more pleased if the sentence stopped after "... won't be removed".

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-05-18, 06:07

Well, generally speaking, features are only removed from XBMC only when they become a burden. If it's not a burden and someone is able to work on it, who knows if it will ever be removed, but I'd be surprised if there were many people left who would still want to use MySQL at that point. It's kind of like why XP support was removed, because it was in the way of some bug fixes and features. On the other side, we have PowerPC support, but we have no official PPC builds from Team XBMC, and as far as I know, no one on the Team is working on PPC stuff. As long as it's not in the way of something then I doubt someone is just waiting to rip it out :)

nickr · 2014-05-18, 06:14

Yeah I am dyed in the wool kinda Guy I guess. I need MySQL for mythtv so there is no burden for me on using it for xbmc too.

Tell does this 'mesh' approach imply xbmc needs to be on my server under the upnp model?

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-05-18, 06:19

I'm not really sure. I get the impression that individual XBMC instances could sync each other up when they are simply online and see each other, allowing one box to "catch up" with another box. If your media is on a network share then your UPnP source probably wouldn't need to be online, since it has the direct network path. However, I could be wrong about that, or at least really ahead of myself. Plus, much of this is still in development.

While no one is specifically working on an official headless XBMC server at the moment, I would be surprised if that did not eventually come about. We've seen the proof of concept, and more and more parts of XBMC can be configured and operated without necessarily having an internal GUI.

Livin · 2014-05-18, 15:32

I suspect what you are talking about for the UPnP Mesh is a DB replication methodology called Multi-Master. This is where all databases in the group communicate and can update each other. The common method is to use a UID (universal ID) which contains a time stamp & version #... this way all the databases "know" which DB has the the most updated data and can sync with that DB... you can get as granular as the developer wants... all the way to an individual attribute of a record - though I suspect XBMC may only do it at the record level.

This is a much better method that having a single source since you have an automatic "backup" at each node, and you distribute the workload across more DBs. The one downside is you will have more communications as your # of DBs increases. Though, it can be reduced by scheduling and/or doing updates based n # of record changes, etc.

My next house will have more than one XBMC instance so I'm looking forward to this feature... anyone know what stage the development is in?

jmh2002 · (This post was last modified: 2014-05-18, 17:20 by jmh2002.)

(2014-05-18, 02:43)Ned Scott Wrote: Most importantly, there are a bunch of XBMC devs who like and use MySQL themselves, in addition to all the users, so it won't be removed until the replacement is able to satisfy the MySQL fans

(2014-05-18, 06:01)nickr Wrote: The last paragraph is the best news I have seen on this issue...

I agree. I also note that in many MySQL threads the first response is often "MySQL is being phased out, switch to UPnP", and often it seems that it is not a particularly useful answer because UPnP functionality still seems quite basic at the moment.

As an end user (and not a programmer or developer) I'm willing to look at moving to UPnP in the future (in either case there still needs to be an always on machine acting as the 'server'), but only when the feature set can approximate what MySQL has already been doing for some years.

"Upgrading" to UPnP and thereafter losing existing features doesn't seem to make much sense to me...