Bugs and improvements (incl. themes) (2 Viewers)

[ge2301]

That means, there are virtual keys defined for all kind of actions?
For example I found for TV-EPG view the mapping of green and yellow button, as seen also on the example mock-up.

        <KeyBinding Key="Yellow" Command="{Command Path=NextGroup}"/>
        <KeyBinding Key="Green" Command="{Command Path=PrevGroup}"/>

It seems that those keys are hard coded only for a screen, so mapping with the input manager for those actions is not possible, right?

Trying to understand, but the navigation is still a black-box for me and I fully agree with you. It needs to be improved.

 

[FreakyJ]

It seems that those keys are hard coded only for a screen, so mapping with the ipnut manager is not possible, right?

As I said I am not 100% sure, but I think you are right.
The screen binds to these virtual keys. So you can't change this from within the gui. With my plugin you can map for example "strg+y" to the virtual key "Yellow"
So if you than press "strg+y" it will execute "NextGroup".

there are virtual keys defined for all kind of actions?

Yes, there is Key.EPG, Key.Home etc.

 

[mrj]

Hi
Keys are described in the wiki here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/2_MEDIAPORTAL_2/9_Reference/Keyboard_shortcuts

/mrj

 

[ge2301]

Referring to this post https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/plugin-emulators.132573/#post-1158544 I'd like to propose following:

• New "Game" GroupMenuItem as access point to the great MyEmulator plugin from Bownard. Also other small games could be added here later.
  
• Option in BV settings with all GroupMenuItems listed (Home, Image, Audio, VideoHub, Games, News, Settings, Others) and possibility to deactivate GroupMenuItems (besides Settings)

 

[morpheus_xx]

Referring to this post https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/plugin-emulators.132573/#post-1158544 I'd like to propose following:

• New "Game" GroupMenuItem as access point to the great MyEmulator plugin from Bownard. Also other small games could be added here later.
  
• Option in BV settings with all GroupMenuItems listed (Home, Image, Audio, VideoHub, Games, News, Settings, Others) and possibility to deactivate GroupMenuItems (besides Settings and Others)

Sounds more a task for a menu designer tool Adding a setting for each group item is not the best way.

The menu structure is already very flexible, but I don't have any good idea how to implement this inside MP2 GUI. The group items will be possible, they only have a Guid and Text. But the placement of "tiles" on screen is tricky from point of user input:

We already have a Grid defined for layouting, which allows us to place items in specific position and to define cell/rowspans to control size.

The best thing would be to have the grid cells "interactive". Some ideas:

1. Click on one cell:
   • empty cell: opens a selection of new tile (workflow action by plugin)
     
   • used cell: option to remove / continue to 2nd step
2. Then we need to define cell/row spans. A "drag and drop" (or resize) will not work for remote control input, so we need to create an action for this. Either a dialog to define both numbers manually or we allow selection of predefined sizes

 

[morpheus_xx]

That means, there are virtual keys defined for all kind of actions?
For example I found for TV-EPG view the mapping of green and yellow button, as seen also on the example mock-up.

• <KeyBinding Key="Yellow" Command="{Command Path=NextGroup}"/>

• <KeyBinding Key="Green" Command="{Command Path=PrevGroup}"/>

It seems that those keys are hard coded only for a screen, so mapping with the input manager for those actions is not possible, right?

Trying to understand, but the navigation is still a black-box for me and I fully agree with you. It needs to be improved.

KeyBindings can be added in different contexts:

• Global:
  • Plugins: This is done for example by StatisticsRenderer which maps "F10" key
  • Workflow-Shortcuts: defined by plugins in ...-workflow.xml
• Per Screen:
  • A screen can define key bindings, like you quoted above.

The execution order is always from most specific to common one: first screen defined, then globals. If one is executed, the event will be canceled (no further actions).

 

[ge2301]

Sounds more a task for a menu designer tool Adding a setting for each group item is not the best way.

What are the arguments against the same as done for "home"? A small PopUpDialog:

All data itself would be available, just the user can decide what he likes to see. If I for example do not have a TV card, then I'd like to hide the "TV" symbol in GroupMenu.

The best thing would be to have the grid cells "interactive". Some ideas:

1. Click on one cell:
   • empty cell: opens a selection of new tile (workflow action by plugin)
     
   • used cell: option to remove / continue to 2nd step
2. Then we need to define cell/row spans. A "drag and drop" (or resize) will not work for remote control input, so we need to create an action for this. Either a dialog to define both numbers manually or we allow selection of predefined sizes

I like your ideas, being able to configure the menu itmes in GUI is always something like a "dream".
I think it can be also done by remote. You could focus a cell in a grid (not selectable cells can be greyed out). Selecting it with ok changes to scale mode, with curser user can select the opposite corner and a range for the MenuItem is created between both "points". Pressing ok again let you then assign the Action-Guid.

When you plan something in this direction, we should inform @Lehmden, so he can save his time to create an external editor. The external editor would be easier to realize, but of course I'd prefer the ideal in GUI solution

 

[morpheus_xx]

The data itself would be there, just the user can decide what he likes to see. If I for example do not have a TV card, then I'd like to hide the "TV" symbol in GroupMenu.

In principle ok to hide some groups. But the actual menu items then will not disappear, they will be just moved to "Others" category.

 

[ge2301]

The data itself would be there, just the user can decide what he likes to see. If I for example do not have a TV card, then I'd like to hide the "TV" symbol in GroupMenu.

In principle ok to hide some groups. But the actual menu items then will not disappear, they will be just moved to "Others" category.

Ah ok, thats indeed a good argument. Forgot that the "Home" is an exception. Well, but even the items are moved to others, it can be still an attractive option to keep the GroupMenu "lean and clean".
As I mentioned, the TV icon would annoy me, if I won't have a TV-tuner. Having the hidden "menu items" automatically in "Others" can be also helpful for the case you forgot about the settings and by time miss certain entries. You will always know where to find the "lost" entries -> Others

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
With an external Editor (means by editing the "MediaPortal.UiComponents.BlueVision.Settings.MenuSettings.xml") you can remove a group completely from being shown. Only exception is the group "Others". This group always is visible and here are all items shown that are not part of any other group... So if you don't use TV inside MP2 the TV group easily can be removed by deleting those lines in "MediaPortal.UiComponents.BlueVision.Settings.MenuSettings.xml":

      <GroupItemSetting>
        <Name>[Menu.TV]</Name>
        <Id>e32bbacf-56c6-406e-9576-ea68271f053c</Id>
      </GroupItemSetting>

but not the individual links like MultiEPG, Schedules,... that are defined by those lines:

              <PairOfGuidGridPosition>
                <Key>7d68c459-ee9b-4eaa-ae2c-c2c365139aee</Key>
                <Value>
                  <Row>3</Row>
                  <RowSpan>3</RowSpan>
                  <Column>11</Column>
                  <ColumnSpan>5</ColumnSpan>
                </Value>
              </PairOfGuidGridPosition>

If you remove this Tag the corresponding entry will be shown in "Others" then...

I've successfully tried this for my personal setup already. E.G. I've removes the "Videos" Tile from the Mediahub Group as I prefer "Browse Media" a lot over "Videos".

What I don't tried yet is if it works to add a completely new group here. (Would be great if this works). And I also would like to have is an option to add views and/or filters directly to the group. E.G. I have created a group called "Series". In this group I like to have tiles "All", "Recently added", "Unwatched",... Each of those tiles leads directly to the corresponding view... It's nearly the same as the "Hyperlink Parameter" option available in MP1 Skin Engine. That is a great thing for an individual and flexible menu structure, something I really liked about MP1.

so he can save his time to create an external editor.

I don't see this as a waste of time. I'm absolutely sure I'm not the only one who likes complex configuration options in an external tool rather than in GUI. Imho one of the worst things on Kodi is the absence of an external configuration tool to bundle all the options easy usable at one place. Kodi is a configuration nightmare, and MP2 is heading into the same direction, if anything needs to be inside the GUI... Some options that are (more or less) used daily (like e.g. trigger a manual refresh of a share, change the skin or theme,...) are great to be done from inside the GUI. But others like entering the credentials to access the NAS or editing the database are better be done in an external tool. Generally spoken, if the work is done with a few clicks, it better can be done inside the GUI. But if it is a more complex work (like editing a menu structure or a database) this better can be done in an external tool with mouse/keyboard...

So in the long term I nevertheless want to write an external tool to configure MP2 from outside with mouse and keyboard... But before this we first need to have the HTTP server replaced by Owin so it's possible to edit the ML and settings without the need to fiddle with the Database files directly (as it is now), the main reason why MP2-Edit is not developed any further as it is now.