Will MediaPortal work for me? - Different Application (1 Viewer)

[ab500]

Hello All,

Right now I'm looking into building a custom alarm clock as a gift to my girlfriend (and because projects are just fun). It will run on a 7" touch screen using an embedded version of Windows XP and I was planning on developing an application in VB.Net as the frontend. This would be a lot of work so I was wondering how customizable MediaPortal is and if it will suite my needs. I need to create the equivalent of a "Today" screen for it and bring together all the information. I'm just learning VB.Net but I am fluent in web-based application development, specializing in PHP so the concepts in programming are not new to me. I'm including a mock-up of what I would like my finished product to look like.

So basically my question to you guys is:
Are there plug ins already available to support most of my required functionality?
- Multiple Alarm Clocks (preferably with XML interfaces)
- MP3 player
- Weather Plugin
- System Information Plugin
- Date/Time Information
- Photo gallery
- Some sort of messaging receiver

XML interfacing is always nice. I'd like to be able to tie together information from all these plug-ins into the Home screen but I'm not sure now accessible their data is.

How easy will it be to tie them together?

Will the resulting interface be intuitive and easy to use?

 

[eXDee]

Cool idea, but it seems like mediaportal might be a bit over the top maybe? Hope it works out whatever you choose.

 

[mzemina]

Since it is open source and there have been VB.Net developers in the past (you will have to search) I hope you are able to accomplish what you are seeking to provide to your girlfriend. I also hope you submit the project (with all the source code) so other developers may build upon your project. After all with open source it is about sharing and building.
Good luck!
-Mike

 

[ab500]

Well looking in the forums the only development into a "Home Screen" like I'm envisioning is here:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-yet-another-blue-design-work-progress-41534/

I might end up just sticking with the code I've wrote so far. MediaPortal would just make some things so much easier and give my application a lot more functionality but I'm not very familiar with the wacky world of .Net programming so I think at this point I'm not sure I could adapt an application as complex as MediaPortal for my needs.

 

[Gixxer]

sound like a nice project. good luck if you finally go for it.

 

[bertybassett55]

Now where do I buy one of these lovelly items from. I want one.

I believe meedio would be more suited to creating such a screen layout. It is more module/screen/skin based than media portal is.