My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0) (1 Viewer)

[Guzzi]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

according to your configs, you've chosen "URL" field as source - so you should change that to "Source" field, if you want that field populated.

Thats what i have done on my last test. Now it works, thx. Maybe because i have written "source" instead of "Source"?

Nice it works now. It's usually best and "safest" to use the dropdown menus, so typos don't happen.

 

[disaster123]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Guzzi
ncoH variants worked.

Could you please have a look at why it does not use imdb id on manual updates?

 

[Guzzi]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

@guzzi
ncoH variants worked.

Could you please have a look at why it does not use imdb id on manual updates?

Yes, will have a look. To make it easier, can you tell me what grabber you used (IMDB-OFDB?) and post a sample record from your DB?

 

[doveman]

Thanks Guzzi and Dadeo for reading my lengthy post and responding to it in kind I can't code for toffee but I seem to have a knack for identifying what might not be obvious or clear to the average user, so hopefully I can help to make MyFilms as easy to use as possible.

Sorry I haven't replied properly to your posts yet, just been tied up with other things but will get round to it ASAP.

 

[doveman]

Re: AW: Re: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Hi Guzzi, thanks for the detailed response to my points. Right, let's see if I can make it through this

That's not always correct, as it could also contain a playlist, a list of files (multipart), etc. I have renamed it now to "Item for movie source info"...

That's probably better, although I'm not sure that most people will understand what "movie source info" means. Maybe "Field containing Filename/Playlist location" or something like that would be clearer. I only suggest field rather than item as it might make more sense to users as we're dealing with the AMC database, and the Wiki also refers to field (see below).

That comes from early days, iirc that time AMC used URL field for media source info - but wiki recommends use of "Storage" - which is imho the best choice today

I was looking at Getting Started - MediaPortal Wiki where in item 6 it says "Item for Storage File Info: select the field in your XML database where you store the Movie's file name so you can play it in MediaPortal. Often in AMC this is URL field (address Web), but you can define any other unused field of your database. Many users choose the Source field.", which gives the impression that URL is normal but many users select Source instead. Perhaps just a tweak to this part of the Wiki would avoid any confusion.

At the time I added that feature, I defaulted to "false" to make sure no bad side effects are there. Further, people that use NAS or other solutions, that do spin down the hard drives will probably not like it, that myfilms starts all drives to check availability.
So I leave that to a community discussion, what is preferred as a starting point for the wizard - of course it can be changed after anyway to what the user prefers...

That makes sense. Not having a NAS myself I don't know whether I'd prefer it not to spin up or if I'd prefer MyFilms to be updated as to availability (perhaps NAS users don't delete a lot, so there's less need for availability checking for them). As you say though, it's easy enough for the user to change.

Those options in Movie Path configuration are for special use cases:
MyFilms supports to main scenarios:
a) Fully qualified info about media file(s) in the source field
b) No or missing movie source info in source field and using "search mode" based on options.

a) is straight ahead - the media files, playlists, etc. are fully qualified and will/can be played like that.
b) If info in source field is wrong or missing, MyFilms will search for corresponding / matching media files based on the options settings, that is: Search Expression (Search by movie title), onyl exact matches ("star trek" will only find "star trek" but not "star trek 2"), Pathes define where to search and "subfolders" enables subfolder search.
If there IS a setting for "Item for Movie Source Info", MyFilms will update that info, if the movie was found with those settings - making next "play" faster.

Both can be combined - you can use "a" without "b" - so if source info is wrong or missing, you can't start movie - "a" with "b" - so MyFilms will try to search your movie, if source info is wrong or missing, otr only "b" - so MyFilms will always have to search for your movies (slower, especially, if movies are on network drive).
I peronally always used the a without b - but I know, there are ppl using the other scenarios too ..

Only, if the user wants to use the "b" option - and it can be slow on networkdrives..

Thanks. I understand this section now. I think the reason the pop-ups didn't help me here is I couldn't imagine a situation where the Source field wouldn't point to the proper filename, as I've always thought this field gets properly populated with this when building the database (either with AMC or AMCupdater). There's a slight grammatical error in the pop-up "search the file" which should be "search for the file", which might make it clearer and the Wiki doesn't appear to cover this section, so if something could be added to make clear this section is only needed if, for whatever reason, the Source doesn't point to the correct filename, that will probably help avoid confusion as well.

This is for users with offline library, like DVDs - you can define what info should be displayed if the media is not online available, like lcoker or movie number (depending on how you organize your catalog).
Have a look at the tooltip(s) - there is a lot of info and explanations there too ;-)

Ah, I understand now. However, the tooltips I see say that the first box is used to select the database item to locate the film if it can't be found and the second box is for me to enter a text message. This is rather confusing as it gives the impression this is a third way for MyFilms to find the file if the Source field is incorrect and the Movie Path Configuration fails to find the film by searching using the Movie Name. Perhaps if "Ant Identification Item" was renamed to "Offline files location" and the tooltip said something like "For offline movies, a popup window will advise you that the movie cannot be launched. In the first field, select the database item to be displayed containing the Media/Disc ID where the movie is stored (usually MediaLabel)" this would be clearer.

Of course - and you can do so by setting it to "(none)".

Cool, that will do nicely for me Might be an idea to set it to this by default to avoid causing any problems for users who do use the Borrower field already.

The "checked" field in AMC is not shown as a field, as it is boolean - it is shown in the filmlist as a checkbox.

Ah, thanks.

It would perform the update defined below, that you can freely define - e.g. setting a field to a certain value.
It is somehow obsolete, as for most users, the watched handling is enough - but for users that want something special, those can use this - maybe, because they need that info for a website or whatever. Don't know, when this was introduced and if anybody is using it... ;-)

Ah, I didn't connect those two sections! I don't see any harm in it being there if some users still have a use for it. It's defaulted off anyway, I was just curious

IMDB+ is a script for MoPi, it is not compatible to MyFilms, sorry. There will be some addons for edition support, groups (movie collections) etc. in next AMCupdater version - for ppl using AMC as base DB maintenance, it's up to scripts and features available there. Soulsnake afaik is planning import features too, so it will depend on what's coming there, we'll see ...

No worries. Would be nice if everything was compatible with everything else, but I know things don't tend to work like that. I look forward to seeing the addons in the next version

It is for updates of movies from MyFilms GUI. You'd most probably like to do those, because you're not satisfied with the result of an import or automatic update - so imho especially then you might want to select other thanb default scraper to try to get better info/artwork.

Ah, that makes sense. I was thinking this setting applied to AMCupdater as well, but if it's only for updating the odd film from within MyFilms it does seem best to ask every time.

If we're talking about batch imports via AMCupdater (there is also such settings available) - then your question becomes of important relevance. If you use background imports, myfilms will always try to find best match automatically. If you use AMCupdater in interactive mode, this decides, if you will be asked to confirm each movie or not. Imho, AMCupdater is careful and normally you can use it - AMCupdater will not import the movie, if it cannot be matched automatically, unless you tell it to do so.
Again, all this only applies for users that use AMCupdater for imports and/or updates.

When you say "background imports" does these only happen when AMCupdater scheduler is enabled in MyFilms or is there a background setting within AMCupdater? I think I'd probably do my batch updates in interactive mode, as I do with AMC, to make sure it's got the right film but then again AMCupdater might do a better job than AMC so I'll try it both ways and see.

Seems, you should use Filename&internetlookup - as otherwise you will use the "genre" as search phrase for internet data lookup.

Yes thanks, seems obvious now you've said it. I suppose I couldn't imagine a situation where the folder name would be correct but the movie file inside the folder would have the wrong name!

It will, but there are exceptions - it will only check within the scan pathes - so if you have movies in your database in e.g. "d:\movies" and do NOT have that in the scan path(es), the entries will not be removed. (e.g. for offline storage)

Thanks, I'll avoid enabling that then.

Yes, you can. It's only a preset from the wizard.

Good, thanks.

Well, as you can see, there is thousands of possibilities ;-) - but it doesn't matter from MyFilms perspective, as the name is stored in the catalog file - so set it as you prefer it.

As said above, names should not be relevant, as they are stored and AMC, AMCupdater and MyFilms all read the info from DB.
So it's more about having settings that make sure, created cover picture names "look the same" from AMC and AMCupdater.

Yes, that was my concern, that AMC and AMCupdater use the same format so that they share files and don't create duplicates.

iirc, you can use that to store images somewhere else, using relative pathes (e.g. in a subfolder of your catalog). If you use that, make sure, to use same settings in MyFilms, otherwise AMCupdater would place new pictures in catalog folder, AMC in a subfolder.

Yes it seems that this setting is only needed if I'm storing the images in a different folder to the XML.

Not sure, if I understand - that is independant of MyFilms, right?

Yes, the Junction point is something that's supported in Windows 7, so I've used it to redirect certain folders to a different location, rather than try and work out if there's a setting for each part of MP I can change to relocate them.

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Hi Dadeo, thanks for the comments on my feedback.

Item for Storage File Info: if you drag and drop files into AMC (which is a common way to add them), then AMC (up to v3.51 at least) uses the URL field unfortunately. Hence the comment about that in the Wiki.

Ah, I understand why the Wiki says this then. I don't think I've ever tried to drag and drop into AMC, so I've never noticed this.

Ant Identification Item: Wiki - Customizing My Flms (under Play Movie Info), plus there are two faqs about it - Custom Disc IDs and Index CDs DVDs BRDs You find all three wikii pages if you search on "Ant Identification item". Remember the Wiki supports searching much like a web search engine.

Only Exact Matches' is also explained on the Customizing My Films Wiki page under Play Movie Info, although it is a brief explanation. Someone who really needs/uses that option needs to provide more detailed info on that page.
[/LIST]
The Wiki has become so extensive already that you really need to use the Wiki's search features to find everything easily. We tried to use the exact names of features in GUI or settings in Setup so you could search for them easily.

Thanks. Clearly these options are quite well covered in the Wiki and I admit I need to get in the habit of searching it more often (note to self).

Your feedback is exactly what I think is needed. Many of the options you mention are not needed in the majority of cases. So, one of the ideas Guzzi and I have discussed is to try and separate those. However, the tool tips are quite extensive, and do explain some of the things you asked about. So I wonder if they did not display for you, or were not clear enough?

No problem with the tooltips displaying. There are some areas where I think perhaps they can be made clearer though (as the Wiki already is), which I've explained in my reply to Guzzi. I do think the idea of separating the less used options (maybe hidden behind an Advanced button) is a good one and would make MyFilms less daunting to new users

Thanks again for all the thought/work you put into your feedback!

You're very welcome and I'm glad you found it useful

 

[disaster123]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

thanks guzzi - manual update takes now the imdb id and the covers are working fine too. Another bug i discovered. Global Updates => Missing movie data => all counts are wrong. For example missing description => 165 but when i select the filter it just shows me 8.

 

[Guzzi]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

[...]Another bug i discovered. Global Updates => Missing movie data => all counts are wrong. For example missing description => 165 but when i select the filter it just shows me 8.

Fixed in rev#1768; Two reasons:
while the search for missing data was correct, the film list display did not show empty fields, but only "null" (= missing in DB) fields. Further, not all view settings had been properly reset resulting in incomplete display, if you where launching not from film list view.

 

[disaster123]

MyFilms 5.2 developer version - Bug reports & issues

thx! next one ;-) global updates (MP GUI) dialog can only be opened when trakt is installed. otherwise you get a missing assembly error.

 

[Guzzi]

AW: Re: AW: Re: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Hi Guzzi, thanks for the detailed response to my points. Right, let's see if I can make it through this

That's not always correct, as it could also contain a playlist, a list of files (multipart), etc. I have renamed it now to "Item for movie source info"...

That's probably better, although I'm not sure that most people will understand what "movie source info" means. Maybe "Field containing Filename/Playlist location" or something like that would be clearer. I only suggest field rather than item as it might make more sense to users as we're dealing with the AMC database, and the Wiki also refers to field (see below).

I had a look in the rest of the setup - and it is always named "DB item" - so I renamed it to that now for consistency. If we change ti to field (ok for me too), we'd have to change it everywhere else too. ALso checked tooltip and it makes purpose imho understandable But I can always add/change that, if there is better suggestions of course.

That comes from early days, iirc that time AMC used URL field for media source info - but wiki recommends use of "Storage" - which is imho the best choice today

I was looking at Getting Started - MediaPortal Wiki where in item 6 it says "Item for Storage File Info: select the field in your XML database where you store the Movie's file name so you can play it in MediaPortal. Often in AMC this is URL field (address Web), but you can define any other unused field of your database. Many users choose the Source field.", which gives the impression that URL is normal but many users select Source instead. Perhaps just a tweak to this part of the Wiki would avoid any confusion.

Done - wiki now recommends "Source" field.

[...]

Thanks. I understand this section now. I think the reason the pop-ups didn't help me here is I couldn't imagine a situation where the Source field wouldn't point to the proper filename, as I've always thought this field gets properly populated with this when building the database (either with AMC or AMCupdater).

Yes, it's hard to keep track with all the different uses cases different users do use - and even harder to make that understandable and put it into a nice setup with an interface that is not too much confusing ;-)

There's a slight grammatical error in the pop-up "search the file" which should be "search for the file", which might make it clearer and the Wiki doesn't appear to cover this section, so if something could be added to make clear this section is only needed if, for whatever reason, the Source doesn't point to the correct filename, that will probably help avoid confusion as well.

Fixed typo and added note to tooltip that the parameter is optional and only required, if no full pathes are available in source info.
Already tried to make that obvious by not giving that field the yellow color for mandatory fields ;-) - however, for a user, that would not use the source field at all, this fields again would be mandatory to be set.

Ah, I understand now. However, the tooltips I see say that the first box is used to select the database item to locate the film if it can't be found and the second box is for me to enter a text message. This is rather confusing as it gives the impression this is a third way for MyFilms to find the file if the Source field is incorrect and the Movie Path Configuration fails to find the film by searching using the Movie Name. Perhaps if "Ant Identification Item" was renamed to "Offline files location" and the tooltip said something like "For offline movies, a popup window will advise you that the movie cannot be launched. In the first field, select the database item to be displayed containing the Media/Disc ID where the movie is stored (usually MediaLabel)" this would be clearer.

You're right, the tooltip was confusing - updated.
Item renamed to "Offline Media Identification Item" - as it's mostly not files (it can though), but media like DVDs BRs, etc. I think "offline" is the keywork, that makes it much clearer...

Cool, that will do nicely for me Might be an idea to set it to this by default to avoid causing any problems for users who do use the Borrower field already.

I have no personal preference for that - so please more feedback from users, if it should default to "none".

No worries. Would be nice if everything was compatible with everything else, but I know things don't tend to work like that. I look forward to seeing the addons in the next version

It might take some more time - if you feel you want to play with a developer version (and verify the changes done to your suggestions ;-)) - drop me a PM and I send you a link to current developer version.

When you say "background imports" does these only happen when AMCupdater scheduler is enabled in MyFilms or is there a background setting within AMCupdater?

You can also launch an import from inside MyFilms GUI via global updates - this will perform an AMCupdater import run in the background.

I think I'd probably do my batch updates in interactive mode, as I do with AMC, to make sure it's got the right film but then again AMCupdater might do a better job than AMC so I'll try it both ways and see.

All that is of course a question of personal taste and many ppl have different approaches.
When using AMCupdater, it imho depends, if you're importing lots of movies or only a few.
For only a few, interactive mode is just fine, as you can nicely verify and be sure, the correct one is selected.
For importing lots of movies, I would recommend once running a noninteractive import, but let AMCupdater not ask for unsure matches, but also NOT import those movies. After this you can just do another import, that will only have movies that couldn't be matched before, in interactive mode (ask, if no match) - and do selection as you like.
In latest AMCupdater version I added cover thumbs to the result list and AKA titles in the title field flyover.

[...]
Yes it seems that this setting is only needed if I'm storing the images in a different folder to the XML.

correct.

Thanks again for all the thought/work you put into your feedback!

You're very welcome and I'm glad you found it useful

Alway good to get feedback - as many things are not obvious for yourself, if you're "too deep inside" ;-)

 

[Guzzi]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

thx! next one ;-) global updates (MP GUI) dialog can only be opened when trakt is installed. otherwise you get a missing assembly error.

fixed in rev#1770 - but please report bugs of the current developerversion in a separate thread, as they're not related to the public version and would only confuse other users ... I will open a post for that.
Edit: done