- July 3, 2011
- 617
- 141
First!! thx @antihero05 for the idea and the WatchedSyncronizer plugin which is deprecated with the release of CentralizedDatabase. I have ask him for permissions to deprecated WatchedSyncronizer, and he agreed because lack of freetime to work on the plugin. Read the whole story here .
Description of the plugin:
CentralizedDatabase is a window plugin that synchronizes several informations across your MediaPortal databases/folders. As the plugin name suggest the plugin focuses on synchronizing the watched status of your media and folders (thumbs) accross several clients.This includes extended information like the time you stopped the playback. This is responsible for the watched percentage displayed in MediaPortal.
This plugin is intended for setups that have a centrally stored master database and multiple clients with their own databases. It is recommended to configure the master database as an database to be synchronized from each client. If you watch some media on one of the clients the watched status gets synchronized to the master database and is available for all other clients as well. Also there is a feature "Copy at startup" which copies the database/folders on MP client start from the centralized storage to your client. So anytime you start you client all databases are immediately in sync.
As a result it does not matter on which client you watch some media since the status is always synchronized across other databases. You keep consistent track of what you already watched and have centralized place (server) where you can add movies & series.
Currently supported Objects for synchronizing:
How it works:
CentralizedDatabase works a little bit different as other solutions.
It copies every configured databases & folders (thumbs...) at startup of MP from the server (central storage) to the local client. When the user watching a movie/series it listens to the following events:
Now you can watch a movie in the living room, stop it, go to the bed room and continue watching at the same time you stopped it in the living room.
Another benefit is, you have a central place (server) where you can administrate your series/movies (configuration tools from the plugins). The new data will be copied over to the clients on every startup (if configured).
Here is a littel graphic which shows, what i am trying to explane
:
Unsupported Features of Moving pictures:
Configuration:
The configuration is done in an simple manner where you just select the sync object type (database or folder) and specify a file/folder (UNC is of course possible). If you select "SyncFolder" as type, you also must specify an local destination directory. There is currently no verification if the specified file matches the selected database type --> Unhandled crashes are likely on faulty configurations. This will maybe addressed in the future.
Dample Config of my clients:
Background for plugin:
The primary reason why I created the plugin was that I had problems with my environment setup. I have the need for two separate MediaPortal installations. One on my notebook and one on my server which has a beamer connected to a HDMI port and is hosting the TV Server.
My first attempt was working with a single remote database which both installations work on. This did not work out as it happened quite often that the database went corrupt to some simultanus modifications. The next step was working with separate database which were fetched from a central master on each start of the MediaPortal client. This did work but the watched status got lost since there was no synchronization with the master.
Since at that time no plugin provided the functionality I required I decided to create one myself. My intention was to hook on the update command executed after a playback was stopped and to send it to multiple databases. Due to my experience I also paid attention to open the databases as short as possible to prevent corruption.
Download and Source:
Download
Source
Description of the plugin:
CentralizedDatabase is a window plugin that synchronizes several informations across your MediaPortal databases/folders. As the plugin name suggest the plugin focuses on synchronizing the watched status of your media and folders (thumbs) accross several clients.This includes extended information like the time you stopped the playback. This is responsible for the watched percentage displayed in MediaPortal.
This plugin is intended for setups that have a centrally stored master database and multiple clients with their own databases. It is recommended to configure the master database as an database to be synchronized from each client. If you watch some media on one of the clients the watched status gets synchronized to the master database and is available for all other clients as well. Also there is a feature "Copy at startup" which copies the database/folders on MP client start from the centralized storage to your client. So anytime you start you client all databases are immediately in sync.
As a result it does not matter on which client you watch some media since the status is always synchronized across other databases. You keep consistent track of what you already watched and have centralized place (server) where you can add movies & series.
Currently supported Objects for synchronizing:
- MPVideo database
- MPTVSeries database
- MovingPictures database
- Folders
- Folders with deletions
How it works:
CentralizedDatabase works a little bit different as other solutions.
It copies every configured databases & folders (thumbs...) at startup of MP from the server (central storage) to the local client. When the user watching a movie/series it listens to the following events:
- User stopped the movie/series
- The current movie/series has ended
- User marking a movie/series as watched/unwatched in the GUI
Now you can watch a movie in the living room, stop it, go to the bed room and continue watching at the same time you stopped it in the living room.
Another benefit is, you have a central place (server) where you can administrate your series/movies (configuration tools from the plugins). The new data will be copied over to the clients on every startup (if configured).
Here is a littel graphic which shows, what i am trying to explane
:Unsupported Features of Moving pictures:
- ResumeTime (Chapters...) in MovingPictures when a DVD/BD structure is used (IFO, VOB files). Watched flags are supported!
Here is more info about the issue: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/resume-time-dvd-issue.129573/
Configuration:
The configuration is done in an simple manner where you just select the sync object type (database or folder) and specify a file/folder (UNC is of course possible). If you select "SyncFolder" as type, you also must specify an local destination directory. There is currently no verification if the specified file matches the selected database type --> Unhandled crashes are likely on faulty configurations. This will maybe addressed in the future.
Dample Config of my clients:
Background for plugin:
The primary reason why I created the plugin was that I had problems with my environment setup. I have the need for two separate MediaPortal installations. One on my notebook and one on my server which has a beamer connected to a HDMI port and is hosting the TV Server.
My first attempt was working with a single remote database which both installations work on. This did not work out as it happened quite often that the database went corrupt to some simultanus modifications. The next step was working with separate database which were fetched from a central master on each start of the MediaPortal client. This did work but the watched status got lost since there was no synchronization with the master.
Since at that time no plugin provided the functionality I required I decided to create one myself. My intention was to hook on the update command executed after a playback was stopped and to send it to multiple databases. Due to my experience I also paid attention to open the databases as short as possible to prevent corruption.
Download and Source:
Download
Source
Last edited:
Russian Federation
