2012-12-01, 07:00 AM
NextPVR Web Console Alpha 1 Release
This is the first ALPHA release, there will be bugs, future alphas may need a clean install of the web console so you may lose all your settings. It may also break your NextPVR setup (it shouldn't but I should warn you). So backup your NextPVR before using and use at your own risk.
System Requirements
Windows: Any version, I've tested on Windows 7 64 Bit and Windows XP SP3
.net 4.0 Framework. The installer will download and install this for you if its not already installed.
.net 3.5 Framework. The installer will download and install this for you if its not already installed (this is only needed because the Webserver, UltiDev, requires it)
UltiDev Webserver. This will be automatically installed when you install NextPVR Web Console.
So really, if you can run NextPVR, you should be able to run the Web Console. And its just a basic next/next/next/finish installer, no complex configuration needed.
*Note: When you uninstall, it will leave the database file and the logging files in place, so you may wish to manually delete these, and UltiDev will not be uninstalled (in case another applcation is using it).
Supported Browsers
I will be adding mobile support in the Beta
What currently works
Users
This is by far the biggest feature, and my favourite part of the system
Each user can have their own
Channels
You can renumber them, enable/disable them for each user.
Channel Groups
You can subscribe to system maintained channel groups, or create your own. E.g. you may wish to create your own personal "Favourites" group.
You cannot create an "All Channels" group, this is reserved by the system and is automatically generated, as its just all your channels, there is no need to maintain this group.
Recording Directories
This is where the fun begins, you can (once configured) create your own recording directories, and record your personal shows to these directories (a "Default" directory will be created for each user). Any recordings in these directories will only be available to you personally, and no other user will have access to them.
Setting up Recording Directories
In order to use recording directories you need to do the following on the "General" tab of the "Configuration" page
The "Shared" recording directories
If you want to record something and share it with all users in your household, you can record to the "Shared" recording directories, this will make them available to every user. Making them available to every user also means any user can delete or change the schedule, so just be aware of this and don't delete a shared recording before everyone has had a chance to watch it.
Moving recordings
When you move recordings, it will do the following
SMTP Settings
If you need to reset your password, you can do a "Forgot Password" request. This will email you a password reset link, which will then email you a new password once clicked. To get this to work you need to specify a SMTP server to send emails through. You can use a gmail account to do this.
All emails through the system will be written to the log file, so if you do not specify a SMTP server, you can get the URLS and new password from the log file.
Once you get the new password, I strongly suggest you change it (and its randomly generated, so will be very hard to remember
)
Download Instruction (READ CAREFULLY)
MUST BE RUNNING NEXTPVR 2.5.9
XBMC Addon
The only way to really use users (other than via the NextPVR Web Console) is via XBMC. Where each user will have access to their own personal settings/recordings etc.
This required slight changes to subs original xbmc addon, but will be merged into subs code in the coming weeks (very small changes).
I have compiled and made available a addon for the major platforms.
Once download in XBMC you will need to configure it using these settings
Port: 8877 (not 8866)
Pin: [USERNAME]
To identify which user is connecting, you need to supply your username in the pin code field. For example my pin code would be "john" (without the quotes). This will then only return my recordings, channels, and channel groups.
Windows NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
Linux 32 Bit NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
Linux 64 Bit NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
RaspberryPI NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
The full source code can be viewed here
Enjoy
This is the first ALPHA release, there will be bugs, future alphas may need a clean install of the web console so you may lose all your settings. It may also break your NextPVR setup (it shouldn't but I should warn you). So backup your NextPVR before using and use at your own risk.
System Requirements
Windows: Any version, I've tested on Windows 7 64 Bit and Windows XP SP3
.net 4.0 Framework. The installer will download and install this for you if its not already installed.
.net 3.5 Framework. The installer will download and install this for you if its not already installed (this is only needed because the Webserver, UltiDev, requires it)
UltiDev Webserver. This will be automatically installed when you install NextPVR Web Console.
So really, if you can run NextPVR, you should be able to run the Web Console. And its just a basic next/next/next/finish installer, no complex configuration needed.
*Note: When you uninstall, it will leave the database file and the logging files in place, so you may wish to manually delete these, and UltiDev will not be uninstalled (in case another applcation is using it).
Supported Browsers
- Chrome (latest)
- Firefox (latest)
- IE 9 and 10
I will be adding mobile support in the Beta
What currently works
- Users, you can specify multiple users and have their own recordings, channels, channel groups
- Guide with recording options same as in the NextPVR Windows Applications
- Configuration, you can configure most parts of NextPVR from this web app with out needing to open NextPVR and go to settings. This does not fully implemented everything yet, and you will need to have NextPVR setup first to use this web console. My desire is to fully implement all configuration in later releases
- System settings, this allows you to set view your log files, create users, and your SMTP settings
- Ability to move recordings.
Users
This is by far the biggest feature, and my favourite part of the system
Each user can have their own
Channels
You can renumber them, enable/disable them for each user.
Channel Groups
You can subscribe to system maintained channel groups, or create your own. E.g. you may wish to create your own personal "Favourites" group.
You cannot create an "All Channels" group, this is reserved by the system and is automatically generated, as its just all your channels, there is no need to maintain this group.
Recording Directories
This is where the fun begins, you can (once configured) create your own recording directories, and record your personal shows to these directories (a "Default" directory will be created for each user). Any recordings in these directories will only be available to you personally, and no other user will have access to them.
Setting up Recording Directories
In order to use recording directories you need to do the following on the "General" tab of the "Configuration" page
- Make sure "Enable User Support" is on
- Specify the "User Recording Directory". This directory is where all user recording directories will be created under. Eg D:\Recordings\Users, which may then contain D:\Recordings\Users\John\Tv Shows
The "Shared" recording directories
If you want to record something and share it with all users in your household, you can record to the "Shared" recording directories, this will make them available to every user. Making them available to every user also means any user can delete or change the schedule, so just be aware of this and don't delete a shared recording before everyone has had a chance to watch it.
Moving recordings
When you move recordings, it will do the following
- Go through all recordings in current group, eg "Stargate" and move them to the destination recording directory. This is helpful when setting up a multi user environment and you want to import previous recordings into your own user directory
- It will look for any recurrence recordings and if found (there maybe multiple if you setup multiple recording rules) it will update their schedules to now recording to the destination recording directory.
- If this is on a different drive to the source recordings, this process may take a while, since it obviously has to copy the files to the new drive
SMTP Settings
If you need to reset your password, you can do a "Forgot Password" request. This will email you a password reset link, which will then email you a new password once clicked. To get this to work you need to specify a SMTP server to send emails through. You can use a gmail account to do this.
All emails through the system will be written to the log file, so if you do not specify a SMTP server, you can get the URLS and new password from the log file.
Once you get the new password, I strongly suggest you change it (and its randomly generated, so will be very hard to remember
)Download Instruction (READ CAREFULLY)
MUST BE RUNNING NEXTPVR 2.5.9
- You will also need to replace your current "NShared.dll" with the one attached to this post. This adds support to stream channels via the channeloid instead of channel number, as users may have different numbers for different channels.
- First you need to Download the Installer, this will install UltiDev web server (if not installed) and set the web app to run on port 8877 (should be easy to remember, seeing as the default for NEWA is 8866).
- Once installed open the webpage "http://[machinename]:8877/" (where machinename is the name of your computer, or if on local machine you can use "localhost", I suggest the full machinename as this will set the "Website Address" used in password reset emails) and run the initial configuration. This just creates a default admin user and imports channels and channel groups into the NextPVR Web Console
XBMC Addon
The only way to really use users (other than via the NextPVR Web Console) is via XBMC. Where each user will have access to their own personal settings/recordings etc.
This required slight changes to subs original xbmc addon, but will be merged into subs code in the coming weeks (very small changes).
I have compiled and made available a addon for the major platforms.
Once download in XBMC you will need to configure it using these settings
Port: 8877 (not 8866)
Pin: [USERNAME]
To identify which user is connecting, you need to supply your username in the pin code field. For example my pin code would be "john" (without the quotes). This will then only return my recordings, channels, and channel groups.
Windows NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
Linux 32 Bit NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
Linux 64 Bit NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
RaspberryPI NextPVR XBMC Addon v1.0.1.1
The full source code can be viewed here
Enjoy