[News] Future of MP Extensions - Design Concept (1 Viewer)

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infinite.loop

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    MediaPortal and Extensions are closely tied together. I honestly can't imagine MediaPortal without them.
    They come in a huge variety, starting with small tools that help you with specific HTPC related tasks, or offer you additional graphics, up to highly sophisticated ways of managing your media, which make even commercial applications shiver.

    Extensions are as old as MediaPortal itself. In the early days they were little more than a dll or zip file, often only a few kilobytes, and were shared informally in the forums.
    Over the years they grew! Today we have very large extensions that are well above 50 megabytes.
    Installation was always quite a challenge, which sadly meant that many users were not able to benefit from extensions.

    So, one day dukus set out to change that. Over several years he created the "MPE" file format and the "MP Extensions Installer" as well as the "MP Extensions Maker" we have today. This was a huge step toward providing easy access to extensions for everyone, not just the geeks.
    Dukus laid the groundwork well, but sadly MPE never reached full acceptance among extension creators, for various reasons. It also never received the attention it requires. or deserves, within the Team.

    In the end, it was users who suffered most. Thus, during the last six months, I have been wondering how we can change that, how to make MediaPortal Extensions better for users, authors and Team MediaPortal.

    I came to the conclusion that there isn't just "one" part we have to fix. We need to touch every area related to Extensions in order to create a modern, flexible, fast and easy to use solution.
    This means that we need to make changes to the online repository on our homepage where extensions are stored; the stand alone tools (MPE Installer & MPE Maker) which help create and manage extensions; as well as MediaPortal itself to be able to find, install and update Extensions without exiting MP.

    The biggest part of the work will be the creation of MPEM, the stand alone "MediaPortal Extensions Manager" application, which replaces (MPE Installer & MPE Maker). My vision is a modern looking, flexible, fast and easy to use software.

    MPEM_Search_v1A.jpg


    The big question everyone will have in their head now will surely be "When will it be done?".​
    The current answer is "Never".​
    The vision I have for MediaPortal Extensions is a large and complex one. It touches many different areas and thus will require many dedicated developers with different skills and expertise–developers (php, java, c#, maybe even WPF, etc.) we simply do not have (yet) in our Team!

    My hope is this design concept will spark a fire inside the community,​
    and attract developers who share my belief that extensions are that important​
    and deserve that level of attention and dedication.​
    If you are curious about my vision, please head over to our wiki where I published the entire design document, including many more mock-ups of MPEM and how it would work.

    To close this article I want to thank everyone involved in the creation of the design concept, especially @joostzilla who was so kind to turn my original mock-ups of MPEM into something stunningly beautiful!
    There are still many details we need to work out. I am looking forward to discuss these with the developers involved in the process.

    If you are interested to make this design concept become reality, then please contact me in the forums, or write in the discussion thread.
     
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    MrEMan

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    I've offered before and i'll offer again. I know php and only enough c# and java to see whats going on. It's been a loooong time since I touched Jooma.

    Regards
     

    ChristianW

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    I'm not quite sure why you would want to have this functionality in a single stand-alone application.

    A novice user would think sort of like this:
    If I want to install an extension to be able to watch feeds from say, TWiT, I don't want to have to exit MP, open MPEM, find the extension, install, close MPEM, start MP... I want to enter my "Add Features" menu, choose "Add Video Source" and scroll down to "TWiT". Then I wait a little minute while the extension is installed. And then I watch my show.

    And if you want to reach the most technically illiterate users, you could deemphaisize the use if the word Extension + Type and try to make more general "names" for the different kinds. "Video Channel", "Music Channel", "Radio Station/Network", "Experience enhancer" (weather etc), "Skin", "Information enhancer".

    The creation and consumption of extensions should also be separated because they are not really connected...
     

    Nonciazzecco

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    My wife always says: "Without you I will never be able to face the complexity of MP" I am not a programmer, I am a power user and I think that MP is for skilled person not for humans :) We have a great opportunity with MP2 and I hope that your concepts will be included in it.

    I would be even more extremist and I will not any extension that does not have multilingual and multi-countries functionality. I see many extensions doing almost the same think for different countries (epg, logos, radio, trailers,...) Just imagine all the people that have spent time in developing working together for an unique global extension with a larger footprint...

    Well is a dream, but is my dream ;)
     

    infinite.loop

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    I'm not quite sure why you would want to have this functionality in a single stand-alone application.
    You can install MediaPortal in various different setups. Such as dedicated Tv-Server. In this case you currently have no way to find/manager Extensions at all. So we do need a stand alone tool already for that usecase-

    Also you have to take into account that doing all the tasks MPEM is meant to do in the MP GUI can be quite cumbersome. Creating a MP1E would be quite pointless to even try.
    Nothing matches the speed and comfort of using your mouse to do these tasks.

    Yet there also is the MP Extensions Plugin. ;)
    A novice user would think sort of like this:
    If I want to install an extension to be able to watch feeds from say, TWiT, I don't want to have to exit MP, open MPEM, find the extension, install, close MPEM, start MP... I want to enter my "Add Features" menu, choose "Add Video Source" and scroll down to "TWiT". Then I wait a little minute while the extension is installed. And then I watch my show.
    I guess you have not yet read the entire Design Concept. Because the MediaPortal Extensions Plugin is meant to offer pretty much the same amount of find/manage functionality inside MP as the MPEM does. Maybe a bit limited due to the remote input.

    I do not want to limit this in any way (just MP Extension Plugin or just MPEM).
    The creation and consumption of extensions should also be separated because they are not really connected...
    They are seperated currently. And I can quite frankly not see any benefit in that. Furthermore, having the "create" button/functionality does not do any harm in the MPEM concept either, and creates a integrated feel. Might even help to catch the interest of users in creating their own MP Extension. ;)
     
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    ChristianW

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    That said. If I can find some time and get a good workspace at home up and running, I could probably put in some time to try to help :) I'm a .NET/C# developer.
     

    m0t0k0

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    I think there is a huge need for this. MediaPortal is pretty barren without extensions and I have seen many people turn to XBMC as it looks good out of the box.

    I never understood why I cant find the extension I'm looking for on the MPEI unless it holds all of the extensions it seems pretty pointless
    But when it does work with LAV for example, it does a very good job of updating the plugin for me
     

    infinite.loop

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    I never understood why I cant find the extension I'm looking for on the MPEI unless it holds all of the extensions it seems pretty pointless
    But when it does work with LAV for example, it does a very good job of updating the plugin for me
    Exactly.
    Quite a lot of Plugin Developers, Skin Designers, etc. dislike MPE for numerous reasons.

    During that rework I want to eliminate the problems and limitations that caused them to turn to NSIS and simmilar installer based distribution mechanisms.
    I know that we will never make veryone happy - but i want to get to the point where the pro's of MPE outweigh the con's. :)
     
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    Dadeo

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    One of the huge advantages of the proposed concept from my pov is that it will be much easier to create and publish installers, and even updates. That means that skins and plugins can update more often and we don't have to wait as long for our favoirte skin to support a new version of a plugin. Moreover the ability to see at a glance which skins support the plugin you are considering installing (or vice versa) will save a lot of headaches with incompatibility which I am sure most users have experienced at one time or other!
     
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