way to update xmbc library

New User Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-07-22

I was thinking it would be nice to be able to update the xbmc library from within media companion.

for example... my setup now is that I have two user profiles on my htpc. one called media that is always on, with xbmc up and is attached to the tv. then an admin profile that I can remote into (after patching to enable concurrent remote sessions) to do any maintenance without disturbing xbmc.

So what I do now is just run

http://myLogin:myPassword@myWebserverAddress:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn&parameter=XBMC.updatelibrary(video)

in the browser to update xbmc remotely through its webserver after I am done tagging new media with media companion.

This works fine, but would be nice to have this command (or something similar) attached to a button or menu item in media companion so that media could be tagged and updated in xbmc all in one simple place

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:29 am

Yes this would be a handy feature of MC....

As an interum, I guess I could create an internet shortcut or bookmark so that I could remotely update the XBMC library but having it incorporated in MC would be ideal.

Thanks for letting us know about this. I'm assuming it will also work just as well on an actual xbox....I will give it a go & find out I guess...

The full list of commands can be found here on the XBMC Wiki...

http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=WebServerHTTP-API

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:37 am

I think this would be a great feature as well. At one point there was talk of having MC export the video DB for XBMC to save even more time. (Rather than doing updates..just copy the exported db over)

New User Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-07-22

affecting tags at the DB level would be amazing, whether its directly or through an export.

Even with nfo support, xbmc still isnt perfect with its scraping. Its frustrating to spend all this time getting my nfo files set up perfectly, only to have xbmc still puke on a few of them anyway. so yea, some level of DB support would be really cool.

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:44 am

Yes I think the Ultimate goal would be the direct editing of the XBMC database & I think it was mentioned as such.

..but this would be an intermediate step & I assume easy to implement.....

Just slightly of this topic, but anyone know why XBMC takes so long to scrape movies even though the .nfo's are provided for it?

I would have thought it should be rather quick.......

Also .....is there a way to stop my XBOX from being able to access the internet, but still scrape using nfos?

Thanks

New User Posts : 9 Join date : 2009-06-25

StormyKnight wrote:: Yes I think the Ultimate goal would be the direct editing of the XBMC database & I think it was mentioned as such.

..but this would be an intermediate step & I assume easy to implement.....

Just slightly of this topic, but anyone know why XBMC takes so long to scrape movies even though the .nfo's are provided for it?

I would have thought it should be rather quick.......

Also .....is there a way to stop my XBOX from being able to access the internet, but still scrape using nfos?

Thanks

http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Import_-_Export_Library#Video_nfo_Files

Video nfo Files
Nfo files can be used to provide data for a video file in XBMC or influence the search behavior of scrapers. In particular they are helpful if the information fetched from a web site does not match the video file, or data for that particular file does not exist.

By default at the time of scanning, if the media folder contains a correctly named *.nfo file, then XBMC will load the *.nfo file and attempt to either, in the case of it containing XML data get the metadata directly from the nfo file or will parse it for a direct URL to the scraper info page. This allows XBMC to skip it's normal lookup and/or search procedures, useful if a file's information is not available on any of the scraper sites, or if the filematching criteria fails for the particular file.

XBMC will take the data from the nfo file if its there. XBMC will scrape the internet again is there is any missing data.
you can disable the content on the folder, that way XBMC wont scrape the internet an try top get everyting only from the nfo file. but then you could be missing some info.

How many movie do you have. i have around 250 and it takes +- 5 minutes

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:36 pm

I only have 100 movies + 1000 episodes....I always had a suspicion that XBMC was still accessing the internet when MC should be doing all the work it needs....

If I could stop XBMC from seeing the internet, then I could work out what MC is not providing...if anything.

I also need a way to confirm that the actor thumbnails are also working as MC intends...

When I get a chance I will also remove the scrapper from my movies & TV folders, but I thought then that then wouldn't be added to the Library?

New User Posts : 9 Join date : 2009-06-25

you will be right about the content, it won't be added to the libary.

if you have 1000 episoded it will take some time.

here you can check all the nfo date there is.
i'm not sure if MC nfo files is gettint all these. I still need to check them

http://code.google.com/p/moviejukebox/wiki/NFO_Files

New User Posts : 4 Join date : 2009-07-22

I agree... I've got a pretty big collection of video content and I dont see any reason why it should take xbmc 12+ hrs to parse a bunch of nfo files. Something is fishy.

Admin Posts : 1326 Join date : 2008-09-20

Firstly, to assign the updatte command to a button woud be fairly easy and i'll look into it.

As to the time for xbmc scraping, I use an XBox for the purpose and it does take its time. I've always put it down to XBMC downloading actor thumbnails from IMDB, and it also resizes any posters. I also have XBMC installed on a windows PC and it took far less time.

The nfo file is perfectly legit, the only real gripe I have is that multiple poster urls stored in the nfo have to be within a single <thumb> tag, check one if you dont believe me.

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Fri Dec 04, 2009 12:42 pm

Billy, any chance of revisting a method for us to remotely update XBMC library......

BTW, I have two xbox's it would be nice to be able to handle more than 1 device running xbmc, either by being able to enable/disable devices before pushing the update button....

Cheers

Admin Posts : 1326 Join date : 2008-09-20

As soon as I figure out a way to do this then I will.

The simplest way would be to create a videodb.xml file that can be imported by XBMC.

I've created a mockup of such an xml file below, in this case it contains 1 movie, and 1 TV show with a single episode. Creating such a file would be simplicity.

Code:: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<videodb>
<movie>
<title></title>
<rating></rating>
<year></year>
<top250></top250>
<season></season>
<episode></episode>
<displayseason></displayseason>
<displayepisode></displayepisode>
<votes></votes>
<outline></outline>
<plot></plot>
<tagline></tagline>
<runtime></runtime>
<thumb></thumb>
<mpaa></mpaa>
<watched></watched>
<file></file>
<path>smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/Movies/</path>
<id>tt0416449</id>
<filenameandpath>smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/Movies/300.avi</filenameandpath>
<genre>Action / Drama / History / War</genre>
<credits>Zack Snyder / Kurt Johnstad</credits>
<director>Zack Snyder</director>
<premiered></premiered>
<status></status>
<code></code>
<aired></aired>
<studio>Warner Bros. Pictures</studio>
<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>
</movie>
<tvshow>
<title></title>
<rating></rating>
<year></year>
<votes></votes>
<outline></outline>
<plot></plot>
<tagline></tagline>
<runtime></runtime>
<thumb></thumb>
<mpaa></mpaa>
<file></file>
<path>smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/TV/24/</path>
<id></id>
<filenameandpath></filenameandpath>
<genre>Drama</genre>
<credits></credits>
<director></director>
<premiered>1997-05-01</premiered>
<status></status>
<code></code>
<aired></aired>
<studio></studio>
<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>
<episodedetails>
<title></title>
<rating></rating>
<year></year>
<top250></top250>
<season></season>
<episode></episode>
<displayseason></displayseason>
<displayepisode></displayepisode>
<votes></votes>
<outline></outline>
<plot></plot>
<tagline></tagline>
<runtime></runtime>
<thumb></thumb>
<mpaa></mpaa>
<file></file>
<path>smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/TV/24/</path>
<id></id>
<filenameandpath>smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/TV/24/24 - S01E01.avi</filenameandpath>
<genre></genre>
<credits></credits>
<director></director>
<premiered></premiered>
<status></status>
<code></code>
<aired></aired>
<studio></studio>
<album></album>
</episodedetails>
</tvshow>
</videodb>

The only issue I have is related to the <path> and <filenameandpath> tags.

While the filenames will remain unchanged, the actual path can be relative, eg.
The path to the file from xbmc over a network could look something like;
"smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/TV/24/24 - S01E01.avi"
but the path from MC would be;
"G:\TV\24\24 - S01E01.avi"
With no way for MC to know the XBMC path.

I did implement a system that I thought may work as a way for people to cache actor thumbs by using path substitution eg.
Replace
"G:\TV\24\"
with
"smb://workgroup;user:password@computername/TV/24/"
and in years gone by when MC needed to have a user enter these paths manually into the config file it would have been an obvious method, but nowadays MC deals adds these paths automatically and it can be complicated, especially for novices. People dont want to have to mess around with such settings manually.

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Sun Dec 06, 2009 11:40 am

Sorry Billy, I was only suggesting we had a button or buttons to send the web request to XBMC to update library....

I assume what you have detailed here, will get XBMC to recreate the whole library from this one xml...

Well I'm fine with path substitution if you think it will be much quicker than the current XBMC update process... Smile

Admin Posts : 1326 Join date : 2008-09-20

StormyKnight wrote:: Sorry Billy, I was only suggesting we had a button or buttons to send the web request to XBMC to update library....

I assume what you have detailed here, will get XBMC to recreate the whole library from this one xml...

Well I'm fine with path substitution if you think it will be much quicker than the current XBMC update process...

It would be much quicker, seems that it will not be possible though.

I run XBMC on an XBox, and it runs out of RAM before the export is complete. It gets as far as the movies beginning with Ts, guess my collection has grown beyond an XBox.

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:23 pm

billyad2000 wrote:: I run XBMC on an XBox, and it runs out of RAM before the export is complete. It gets as far as the movies beginning with Ts, guess my collection has grown beyond an XBox.

No worries Billy, the way XBMC is going it has grown beyond the xbox.... Shocked

Any chance of getting a button to send this thru to the xbox's...

http://myLogin:myPassword@myWebserverAddress:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn&parameter=XBMC.updatelibrary

Cheers

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Mon May 03, 2010 11:55 am

I know its been a while since we discussed this Billy, do you think it would be difficult to have a button or buttons or menu option to permit a remote autoupdate of xbmc?

Command example below for 1 of my machines....

http://192.168.0.90/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn(UpdateLibrary(video))

Cheers

Admin Posts : 1326 Join date : 2008-09-20

I'll add this in the advanced preferences with a menuitem added to a new 'tools' drop down menu.

The menu will only be visible if the preference has beed added.
It will work by the user adding the url into a path in the advanced general preferences.
If this is not null then a menu item will be added.
I'll use 'Process.Start(_userprefs.commandurl1)'
It will just launch the url in your chosen browser.

I was just thinking that it may be an idea to allow for several such commands, maybe have a list each of which has a user given name for the menu.

BTW, has anyone got a XBMC url for guide to this feature, it sounds like something I could use, and would like to get full details of the system.

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Mon May 03, 2010 2:26 pm

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=List_of_Built_In_Functions

Also not only can you "Update Library" you can also "Clean Library" (although that doesn't seem to work for me)

It would be good to be able to handle not only multiple commands but multiple instances of XBMC. The easiest way would be to just have a list of commands that the user can add & a name that the user could associate with each & those names appear in the menu structure somehow....

e.g.

Name	url
Update Loungeroom XBOX	http://192.168.0.90/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn(UpdateLibrary(video))
Clean Loungeroom XBOX	http://192.168.0.90/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn(CleanLibrary(video))
Update Bedroom XBOX	http://192.168.0.91/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn(UpdateLibrary(video))
Clean Bedroom XBOX	http://192.168.0.91/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn(CleanLibrary(video))

Cheers

PS I notice that the web browser response with OK if the command is accepted, is there anyway to incorporate that into MC too? If the XBMC machine if off, it won't come back with 'OK'

Admin Posts : 1326 Join date : 2008-09-20

Thanks for the link

It will work as you said, with any number of commands.

There is no simple way to get the feedback though, this method will simply launch the program.

Subject: Re: way to update xmbc library Mon May 03, 2010 3:07 pm

OK thanks Billy Smile

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