(original thread) MP-TVSeries

Inker · 2006-11-10, 15:13

As some of you may know ZeFlash has been hard at work over the past weeks to create a replacement for the excellent but no-longer maintained TV-Series Plugin by WeeTodDid.

This thread will from now on act as a discussion, feedback and bugreport platform for this new plugin.

So what can this plugin do?
Basically it can scan your harddrive (or any other location) for video files, parse information about them from the filename and directory structure and then go online and retrieve information for it.

The information it retrieves are coming from http://tvdb.zsori.com/ which allows any user to add and update information. It will also periodically do batch imports from other well know TV sites. Please go there and support zsori by inputing data, uploading banners and clicking his ads. Remember, without this database (and the mirrors ppl are kindly providing) none of this would be possible. All fields available there are/will be supported.

The plugin will automatically update any information so should for instance a series description change, this will automatically update for you.

The plugin is open source and the latest code will always be available on sourceforge.

What’s the status (will be updated over time)?
Currently the import process is working very well already. All the information is retrieved and stored into a local database. You can change most fields manually after the import if you prefer. Banners for both series and seasons are being downloaded and displayed.

The plugin has the ability to automatically scan your folders every x minutes and thus automatically import files you added. It is still unclear however how to proceed if this automatic import requires a decision by the user, such as when the parsed series cannot automatically be matched.

Parsing works, just like the old plugin, by specifying either simple expressions or regex expression that can be user defined, so anybody should be able to get the plugin working with their naming structure as long as some logic is behind it.

Support for specials and documentaries etc. is coming too, but not yet implemented. Skin files have been created for B2, B2 Wide and PMIII. Maybe someone could create a hover-image for B2 and/or PMIII for us to include.

Feel free to post bugs and feature request. If you think a log file is relevant, please make sure you attach it to your post. Please keep in mind that this is a first release and you will likely encouter errors. Also for those of you who have been playing around with it, make sure you delete the old database completely or you will run into several very odd behaviours.

Download here.

Couple of shots

Once again make sure you support zsori by updating the database, hosting mirrors and visiting his site. Please keep your update rates reasonably-low, we don't want to hammer the online mirrors more than necessary. Make sure you thank ZeFlash for his great work and dedication as he has been working on this A LOT!

History:
13.11.2006 v0.1 - initial release
14.11.2006 v0.1b - Quick fixes of some issues
- lowered the parser thread, hopefully it won't disrupt other threads / processes anymore
- it's now possible to manually override the series name if no match is found
- one can delete node entries (series, seasons or episodes) from the library view in configuration
15.11.2006 v0.2
- fixed/tweaked parsing test & local parsing
- fixed/tweaked some issues in the simple expressions, should work better now
- finalized the "automatch series" setting, changed the way it works when it's not checked (there should be any more false positives)
- hitting the back key in MCE (which does the same thing as the ESC key) now goes up one level instead of going back to home
- banner local filenames are now filtered and cannot include invalid chars anymore (will work for series with invalid chars in their names)
- modified the default expression for them to take in account the extension
- modified the default regular expression for files not in series folders so that it doesn't fail on episodes with numbers in their episode name.
17.11.2006 v0.3
- watched flag no longer cleared when an episode online update is available (bummer!)
- pretty much finished the data display customization. I hope everyone likes it

. The skin files have been modified though, so don't forget to replace with the new ones.
- skin id isn't 0 anymore; I used the plugin id (whatever)
- defaulted the focused control to the list (although it already does that for me)
- added a "working" cursor while an import is going on in MP
- plugin now has its hover picture back
18.11.2006 v0.3b - Fixes everywhere!
- Hide some internal DB fields from ConfigurationForm
- fixed the local scan logic (it was trying to retrieve online data when not necessary - longer, more load on the server, bad)
- fixed the handling of the waiting cursor, now shows properly
- fixed some exceptions here and there I never encountered before
19.11.2006 v0.3c
- Fixed this problem of local shows not showing
- showing an "empty list" line when the list is empty, to enable the contextual menu to work
- added the possibility to force a local / update scan from the contextual menu
19.11.2006 v0.3d
- fix for the wait cursor showing wherever it wants instead of just in the tvseries plugin when a scan is occuring.
21.11.2006 v0.4 - Graphical Browsing
- put options for series / seasons to show as graphical lists / text lists
- updated all 3 skin files
- added season field formatting like for series or episodes
- episode name & summary are showing when playing now; the info is NOT retained (otherwise it would show in the movies, which we don't want)
- decreased the number of episodes updated at one time; it's 100 by 100 now until the server fixes its bug
22.11.2006 v0.4b
- fixed the bug that cleared the movie info when playing a MOVIE (doh!)
25.11.2006 v0.5
- deep change on how the data is structured; I'm now using the online series ID as the main link between all objects. Purpose: to be able to merge different local series name into one general node.
For that matter, all previous data is erased and a full scan is necessary again.
- the plugin name can be set in the configuration
- fixed text fields not showing in MP (MP's fault as I supposed)
- added an option to not clear entries if local files aren't scanned anymore (or are missing, or on a CD, or whatever)
- log output state remembered (can be collapsed)
27.11.2006 v0.5b
- fix for the series not showing when the display setting is set to only show local files is on
- fixes for various cosmetic errors in the configuration window
27.11.2006 v0.5c:
various fixes:
- fixed the crash when editing the import paths
- fixed a crash when editing a value after the tree has been refreshed
- season or episodes numbered 0 are now taken in account
- seasons there because a banner has been added but without episodes is not shown anymore when showing all episodes (example: my name is earl season 3, rome season 2)
- First time scan should properly handle local file status now; basically import should work as expected all the time. I made multiple changes there so it *should* work properly in any case now.
09.12.2006 v0.6:
- lots of fixes everywhere (UI configuration, scan handling, no more crash when the skin misses one item, etc)
- added the option to hide specific items (series, seasons or episodes) from the MP UI.
- more work on subtitles (nowhere near something useable yet though)
10.12.2006 v0.6b:
- fixed plugin not working when starting up with no DB (duh)
- fixed edition of metadata in the configuration: clearing a string now works
- fixed display of empty fields in MP
- fixed ignore / never ask again: it now works (and the ignored series is automatically hidden)
- added timestamp in the window log
14.12.2006 v0.7: lotsa new things
- fixed parsing for remote drivers (thanks John_Galt!)
- fixed import on huge DBs, putting back batch episode updates (thanks Bobb25!)
- new feature: subtitles retrieval from www.forom.com (mostly for french users like me I guess, even though there are english or other subtitles there)
- new feature: torrent search & download. You need uTorrent to use that feature.
19.12.2006 v0.8
- fix focus / default action in the choose from selection dialog
- upgraded the complex regular expressions to include the double episode handling - when a double is detected the local file is used for both online episodes. Watched flag is also acting on the 2 episodes.
- put some try/catches here and there to prevent weird stuff
- changed the way parsing are handled in MP - uses a queue
- removed the "auto localscan" and replaced it work a FileSystemWatcher mechanism
- by Inker: Play Random episode, accessible from the context menu. You can either play a random episode (in that case it's from the already watched episodes) or play a random unwatched episodes (and it will always be the first unwatched of a series).
- by Inker: updates to the project mayhem III tvseries skin file. Looks awesome!
0.9
- added try/catch around the banner loading in the configuration window to prevent crashes when the file isn't found.
- inker: fixed issue with playing files in locations without write acess
- inker: Added option to display a random Banner
- inker: added an option to test in a file is HD or not
- Log added in forom subs retriever
- the MP choose dialog now displays the item being matched instead of the (static) title. It helps

nylonhof · 2006-11-10, 15:37

I would like to thank everybody involved with this. The summary description sounds like this one will be even better than the old one (and that was already fantastic - the most used plugin for the misus and me

)
Also, I am looking forward to the alpha version for testing, so we can get any (if at all) defects fixed quickly.

Regards
nylonhof

Psycho Reptile · 2006-11-10, 21:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by nylonhof

I would like to thank everybody involved with this. The summary description sounds like this one will be even better than the old one (and that was already fantastic - the most used plugin for the misus and me

)
Also, I am looking forward to the alpha version for testing, so we can get any (if at all) defects fixed quickly.

Same goes for me, although I tried out the original plugin today with no luck...

Klontje · 2006-11-11, 01:58

Well, this will probably be me doing something wrong, but whenever I try to build MP-TVSeries in MS Visual Studio 2005 I get lots of errors. Can anybody explain how i can get a working .dll/plugin files working? Or is it just not possible yet?

patrick · 2006-11-11, 02:23

Just want to say thanks!!
Really looking forward to this plugin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klontje

Well, this will probably be me doing something wrong, but whenever I try to build MP-TVSeries in MS Visual Studio 2005 I get lots of errors. Can anybody explain how i can get a working .dll/plugin files working? Or is it just not possible yet?

I think you need to update the references for both projects.
Builds fine. Only error is a post build xcopy to a path I don't have.

patrick

Game_dude · 2006-11-11, 04:12

Is there a download link for the plugin?

LordMessi · 2006-11-11, 08:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Game_dude

Is there a download link for the plugin?

You'll need to build it yourself from the sources.

LordMessi · 2006-11-11, 08:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrick

I think you need to update the references for both projects.
Builds fine. Only error is a post build xcopy to a path I don't have.

patrick

About the xcopy - you'll need to change the path to your MP dir\plugins\windows

Remember if there's spaces in the directory names the whole dir should be in ""

i.e. "C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\plugins\windows"

Also remember to copy the skin file from the skin files dir to your skin folder.

Btw - you should also set the Start action in the Debug tab

I've added 3 screenshots for making it easier.

ccMatrix · 2006-11-11, 18:52

Is there any chance of releasing some alpha build to test it? I've just renamed my series to have nice names but the old version cannot get the data from the internet.

Dr.Milli · 2006-11-11, 18:54

Greetings!

As a hobby C++/Java programmer I do not have any problems with compiling directly from the source code but as you mentioned the main purpose of this thread is to bug report/send feedback etc. for this updated plugin. The best way to do that would be if at least a compiled alpha/beta build would be available to the “average Joes” for testing purposes in order to make it work for “everyone”. I assume that if a compiled alpha build would be available for everyone on this site to download then it would for sure overload the servers when suddenly a lot of people would connect to the servers and update their tv-series databases at the same time.
An alternative solution would be to manually download the “printable episode guide version” from www.tv.com for the series that you have and then later on import it from the local harddrive.

This plugin was one of the most used plugins when WeeTodDid first released it. I would like to thank ZeFlash for the further development and maintenance of this plugin. Hopefully it will be part of the official MP supported plugins during the MP-installation someday. Keep up the good work. Cheers.

2006-11-10, 15:13	#1 (permalink)
Inker Retired Team Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,667 Thanks: 46 Thanked 149 Times in 65 Posts My System	(original thread) MP-TVSeries As some of you may know ZeFlash has been hard at work over the past weeks to create a replacement for the excellent but no-longer maintained TV-Series Plugin by WeeTodDid. This thread will from now on act as a discussion, feedback and bugreport platform for this new plugin. So what can this plugin do? Basically it can scan your harddrive (or any other location) for video files, parse information about them from the filename and directory structure and then go online and retrieve information for it. The information it retrieves are coming from http://tvdb.zsori.com/ which allows any user to add and update information. It will also periodically do batch imports from other well know TV sites. Please go there and support zsori by inputing data, uploading banners and clicking his ads. Remember, without this database (and the mirrors ppl are kindly providing) none of this would be possible. All fields available there are/will be supported. The plugin will automatically update any information so should for instance a series description change, this will automatically update for you. The plugin is open source and the latest code will always be available on sourceforge. What’s the status (will be updated over time)? Currently the import process is working very well already. All the information is retrieved and stored into a local database. You can change most fields manually after the import if you prefer. Banners for both series and seasons are being downloaded and displayed. The plugin has the ability to automatically scan your folders every x minutes and thus automatically import files you added. It is still unclear however how to proceed if this automatic import requires a decision by the user, such as when the parsed series cannot automatically be matched. Parsing works, just like the old plugin, by specifying either simple expressions or regex expression that can be user defined, so anybody should be able to get the plugin working with their naming structure as long as some logic is behind it. Support for specials and documentaries etc. is coming too, but not yet implemented. Skin files have been created for B2, B2 Wide and PMIII. Maybe someone could create a hover-image for B2 and/or PMIII for us to include. Feel free to post bugs and feature request. If you think a log file is relevant, please make sure you attach it to your post. Please keep in mind that this is a first release and you will likely encouter errors. Also for those of you who have been playing around with it, make sure you delete the old database completely or you will run into several very odd behaviours. Download here. Couple of shots Once again make sure you support zsori by updating the database, hosting mirrors and visiting his site. Please keep your update rates reasonably-low, we don't want to hammer the online mirrors more than necessary. Make sure you thank ZeFlash for his great work and dedication as he has been working on this A LOT! History: 13.11.2006 v0.1 - initial release 14.11.2006 v0.1b - Quick fixes of some issues - lowered the parser thread, hopefully it won't disrupt other threads / processes anymore - it's now possible to manually override the series name if no match is found - one can delete node entries (series, seasons or episodes) from the library view in configuration 15.11.2006 v0.2 - fixed/tweaked parsing test & local parsing - fixed/tweaked some issues in the simple expressions, should work better now - finalized the "automatch series" setting, changed the way it works when it's not checked (there should be any more false positives) - hitting the back key in MCE (which does the same thing as the ESC key) now goes up one level instead of going back to home - banner local filenames are now filtered and cannot include invalid chars anymore (will work for series with invalid chars in their names) - modified the default expression for them to take in account the extension - modified the default regular expression for files not in series folders so that it doesn't fail on episodes with numbers in their episode name. 17.11.2006 v0.3 - watched flag no longer cleared when an episode online update is available (bummer!) - pretty much finished the data display customization. I hope everyone likes it . The skin files have been modified though, so don't forget to replace with the new ones. - skin id isn't 0 anymore; I used the plugin id (whatever) - defaulted the focused control to the list (although it already does that for me) - added a "working" cursor while an import is going on in MP - plugin now has its hover picture back 18.11.2006 v0.3b - Fixes everywhere! - Hide some internal DB fields from ConfigurationForm - fixed the local scan logic (it was trying to retrieve online data when not necessary - longer, more load on the server, bad) - fixed the handling of the waiting cursor, now shows properly - fixed some exceptions here and there I never encountered before 19.11.2006 v0.3c - Fixed this problem of local shows not showing - showing an "empty list" line when the list is empty, to enable the contextual menu to work - added the possibility to force a local / update scan from the contextual menu 19.11.2006 v0.3d - fix for the wait cursor showing wherever it wants instead of just in the tvseries plugin when a scan is occuring. 21.11.2006 v0.4 - Graphical Browsing - put options for series / seasons to show as graphical lists / text lists - updated all 3 skin files - added season field formatting like for series or episodes - episode name & summary are showing when playing now; the info is NOT retained (otherwise it would show in the movies, which we don't want) - decreased the number of episodes updated at one time; it's 100 by 100 now until the server fixes its bug 22.11.2006 v0.4b - fixed the bug that cleared the movie info when playing a MOVIE (doh!) 25.11.2006 v0.5 - deep change on how the data is structured; I'm now using the online series ID as the main link between all objects. Purpose: to be able to merge different local series name into one general node. For that matter, all previous data is erased and a full scan is necessary again. - the plugin name can be set in the configuration - fixed text fields not showing in MP (MP's fault as I supposed) - added an option to not clear entries if local files aren't scanned anymore (or are missing, or on a CD, or whatever) - log output state remembered (can be collapsed) 27.11.2006 v0.5b - fix for the series not showing when the display setting is set to only show local files is on - fixes for various cosmetic errors in the configuration window 27.11.2006 v0.5c: various fixes: - fixed the crash when editing the import paths - fixed a crash when editing a value after the tree has been refreshed - season or episodes numbered 0 are now taken in account - seasons there because a banner has been added but without episodes is not shown anymore when showing all episodes (example: my name is earl season 3, rome season 2) - First time scan should properly handle local file status now; basically import should work as expected all the time. I made multiple changes there so it should work properly in any case now. 09.12.2006 v0.6: - lots of fixes everywhere (UI configuration, scan handling, no more crash when the skin misses one item, etc) - added the option to hide specific items (series, seasons or episodes) from the MP UI. - more work on subtitles (nowhere near something useable yet though) 10.12.2006 v0.6b: - fixed plugin not working when starting up with no DB (duh) - fixed edition of metadata in the configuration: clearing a string now works - fixed display of empty fields in MP - fixed ignore / never ask again: it now works (and the ignored series is automatically hidden) - added timestamp in the window log 14.12.2006 v0.7: lotsa new things - fixed parsing for remote drivers (thanks John_Galt!) - fixed import on huge DBs, putting back batch episode updates (thanks Bobb25!) - new feature: subtitles retrieval from www.forom.com (mostly for french users like me I guess, even though there are english or other subtitles there) - new feature: torrent search & download. You need uTorrent to use that feature. 19.12.2006 v0.8 - fix focus / default action in the choose from selection dialog - upgraded the complex regular expressions to include the double episode handling - when a double is detected the local file is used for both online episodes. Watched flag is also acting on the 2 episodes. - put some try/catches here and there to prevent weird stuff - changed the way parsing are handled in MP - uses a queue - removed the "auto localscan" and replaced it work a FileSystemWatcher mechanism - by Inker: Play Random episode, accessible from the context menu. You can either play a random episode (in that case it's from the already watched episodes) or play a random unwatched episodes (and it will always be the first unwatched of a series). - by Inker: updates to the project mayhem III tvseries skin file. Looks awesome! 0.9 - added try/catch around the banner loading in the configuration window to prevent crashes when the file isn't found. - inker: fixed issue with playing files in locations without write acess - inker: Added option to display a random Banner - inker: added an option to test in a file is HD or not - Log added in forom subs retriever - the MP choose dialog now displays the item being matched instead of the (static) title. It helps __________________ There are only two industries that refer to their customers as "users". - Edward Tufte Last edited by Inker; 2007-01-04 at 23:39..

2006-11-11, 18:54	#10 (permalink)
Dr.Milli Portal Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London Posts: 8 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	Greetings! As a hobby C++/Java programmer I do not have any problems with compiling directly from the source code but as you mentioned the main purpose of this thread is to bug report/send feedback etc. for this updated plugin. The best way to do that would be if at least a compiled alpha/beta build would be available to the “average Joes” for testing purposes in order to make it work for “everyone”. I assume that if a compiled alpha build would be available for everyone on this site to download then it would for sure overload the servers when suddenly a lot of people would connect to the servers and update their tv-series databases at the same time. An alternative solution would be to manually download the “printable episode guide version” from www.tv.com for the series that you have and then later on import it from the local harddrive. This plugin was one of the most used plugins when WeeTodDid first released it. I would like to thank ZeFlash for the further development and maintenance of this plugin. Hopefully it will be part of the official MP supported plugins during the MP-installation someday. Keep up the good work. Cheers. __________________ "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." /Albert Einstein

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2006-11-10, 15:37	#2 (permalink)
nylonhof Portal Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 97 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	I would like to thank everybody involved with this. The summary description sounds like this one will be even better than the old one (and that was already fantastic - the most used plugin for the misus and me ) Also, I am looking forward to the alpha version for testing, so we can get any (if at all) defects fixed quickly. Regards nylonhof

2006-11-11, 01:58	#4 (permalink)
Klontje Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Age: 24 Posts: 14 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	Well, this will probably be me doing something wrong, but whenever I try to build MP-TVSeries in MS Visual Studio 2005 I get lots of errors. Can anybody explain how i can get a working .dll/plugin files working? Or is it just not possible yet?

2006-11-11, 04:12	#6 (permalink)
Game_dude Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: USA Age: 23 Posts: 125 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts My System	Is there a download link for the plugin?

2006-11-11, 18:52	#9 (permalink)
ccMatrix Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Age: 27 Posts: 97 Thanks: 1 Thanked 10 Times in 1 Post	Is there any chance of releasing some alpha build to test it? I've just renamed my series to have nice names but the old version cannot get the data from the internet.