Trying to understand how to work with profiles
#1
Hi,

I have my libraries properly setup on the master account and it's working fine, however, I would like to have more control over each library for each user that uses my HTPC and more importantly, allow each one of them to have their own "mark as watched" on their videos.

I have tried changing many options but I'm still not able to configure exactly what I want.

Basically, there's 3 users on my HTPC:

1) Me, the one who configures the whole thing, updates to latest versions, downloads movies, etc... Saying this, I believe I should make the master account as my own (maybe rename it with my name). I need full control, of course and nothing should be locked for me (only access to my profile maybe should be locked). The video library is common to the other 2 users, the music library is not and the pictures library (which doesn't have a library per se) has 3 folders and only one of them should be common to the other 2 users. The video library is common to all users and media info should be common too (thumbnails, movie info, posters, etc...) but the "mark as watched" setting should be independent, I must have my own mark.

2) The other user is my father. He only uses the HTPC to watch movies and TV Shows, that's it. He doesn't download anything nor configures anything, I do it for me. He doesn't listen to music and occasionally may show some pictures to some family members. This means that I want to hide the music and settings menu options for this user (they have no need for them) but all other settings should be the same as my own, if possible keep them in sync. I mean, I change a setting in my profile and it changes on my father's account too. Is this possible, while maintaining a custom home screen for each profile? As said for my own profile, my father's profile should have it's own "mark as watched" setting for each movie/tv show but all other media info should be common.

3) The last user is not exactly a user but everyone else, for instance my sister that sometimes uses the HTPC (but rarely) or even myself or my father but to show some pictures or watch some video with some family members where we don't want to use our own profile (maybe we are just setting up a movie to play and not watching ourselves). This profile is basically like my father's profile. The only difference here is that I don't want the "mark as watched" to conflict with my father's or my own "marks".

That's basically it, is this achievable? And how? I'm finding the profiles settings confusing to achieve this or something close to this, can anyone help me out?
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#2
Have you tried?....
It's very easy to back out if things do not work according to your expectations (just delete the profiles folder and profiles.xml).

The only (deal-breaking) disappointment I had when I tried to set up a similar scenario you want, was that you will need to enter a master code every time you want to enter the master profile.
So I live with the fact that every profile has access to everything.
Only thing I am not sure about is the watched status, as my profiles have separate libraries.
See more:
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#3
Hi,

I recently started playing with profiles myself. Actually using different video libraries but you can easily remove access to music, etc. from the skin settings (I actually use different skin for each profile so it is easier to know in which profile we are).

IMO, I do not think you can share video libraries but do not share "watched points". You have to decide if you share libraries between profiles (to full extend) or not.

Do you update your library a lot manually? I am asking because if you do not (basically the scraper does all) then you can use different libraries for different profiles but they update on their own with the same movies. In that case you could have different "watched positions" easily.

Regards,
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#4
I've been trying this a couple more times and testing more thoroughly...

sho Wrote:The only (deal-breaking) disappointment I had when I tried to set up a similar scenario you want, was that you will need to enter a master code every time you want to enter the master profile.
Yeah, I understand your point. That's not a problem for me though as I'm using the master profile as my own profile and I don't want people to look at my photo libraries Tongue

However, I just noticed that in every other profile, I go to "Pictures" or "Videos", and when I come out to the home screen, I'm asked for the master code just because I have "Settings" and "File Browser" locked for that profile? This is not the master profile and I'm not doing anything that should require the master lock to be inserted. Why does locking "Settings" and "File Browser" keep asking me for the master lock code just because I want to watch something? Makes no sense, anyway to disable this behavior without unlocking "Settings" and "File Browser"?

pilluli Wrote:I recently started playing with profiles myself. Actually using different video libraries but you can easily remove access to music, etc. from the skin settings (I actually use different skin for each profile so it is easier to know in which profile we are).
I know, but I which I could have more flexibility one this... For instance, I noticed that for every profile, we have a different guisettings.xml file (where all settings are saved) and the contents of this file are either copied from the master profile or started fresh. But this file could only have the changed settings and not all of them, all others should be read from the master profile. If the setting is changed on profile/guisettings.xml, than use it, if it's not, than use the one from the master profile. This could allow a greater flexibility in sharing/not sharing exactly the settings we want.

pilluli Wrote:IMO, I do not think you can share video libraries but do not share "watched points". You have to decide if you share libraries between profiles (to full extend) or not.
Just noticed that too and that sucks a lot... I mean, I understand the idea and I understand that some people may like it that way, so those options should not be removed. However, another option should be added, share everything but the watched flag.

pilluli Wrote:Do you update your library a lot manually? I am asking because if you do not (basically the scraper does all) then you can use different libraries for different profiles but they update on their own with the same movies. In that case you could have different "watched positions" easily.
The problem with that is that for every new file added to the library, the library will have to be updated for each profile. But the worst is that we will have duplicate media info for each profile (like fanart, posters, plot info, etc...), pointless duplications IMO.

That's why I suggested another option to "share everything but the watched flag". I believe most people that use profiles (but I could be wrong) have one of the persons maintaining the library and making sure all the data, posters, fanart, etc, is in place. All the other users will simple use the library, without the need to change anything. In this situation, there's no need to duplicate all media info just because we need every profile to have their own watch flag.

Just a suggestion... I know there's a new library in the works, maybe this was already thought off. Either way, this could be a nice addition until that new library is ready, but I don't know how much work would it take to implement such things.
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