Anime Library - Support Thread

[Ted the Penguin]

Hey, that's not Sassari! /grin

I try not to confuse people using my funky skin (which is being totally revamped right now! hence me still being up at 4AM O_o)

Interestingly, I already changed the script I use to copy the plugin files from the development machine to the playback machine to switch the aspect ratio back to false. I live for automation.

nice... I should probably automate some of sassari's skinning... but I guess I am just trying to get it to work right now.

So far, I've only looked at the pictures; I'll actually install the skins tomorrow. (It's getting on time that I stopped writing plugins to play anime and, well, actually watch it.)

how much anime do you have btw? (guessing at this from earlier post, just for fun: 3 days of parsing = about 8000 files?)

Keeping the 'close' button enabled while voting is "by design", since I didn't really want to effectively turn the voting box in a modal box - if the user wants to close the window without pressing cancel first, who am I to say they shouldn't?

I thought it was mighty confusing when I first realized it... more about this later.

The voting buttons disappearing: I'm not sure I have any control over the x-axis of the elements. This is one into which I'll have to do some more research.

my guess is it has to do with the order the items are in the render list, since I can change the order of items in a skin and make things appear on top of each other properly.

I think I see where you are going with the ListView background -- that would be the white panel (in Sassari, looking at Video Library now) behind the list. I'm pretty sure I can achieve that. I'll put it down as a task for tomorrow as well.

ok... I was guessing that it is a library limitation, but I could be wrong.

A concern, looking at the pictures: presumably there is still enough space for the vote box (I'd guess you've tested that) on the Anime popup.

yeah... this was why I wanted to make the voting box opaque, I wanted it to be its own little popup, which you would have to cancel out of (hence not wanting the close button accessible)

Is the "Message Box" placement in the File popup still able to display four lines of text? The loss of vertical space in the column with moving the date to the top worries me a little.

doh!, no I didn't test that, just took a look, and thats no good. (in sassari I removed all of the outlines )
so, why do you need four lines of text there? all I see appear there is when the file is marked watched or unwatched, am I missing something?

If you really want to keep the layout the way you had it, its fine with me (kinda, I still think the date should be closer to the title, maybe above the picture?). I just thought it made a little more sense with the air date over on the right side with the rest of the text.

At any rate, that does me in for the evening. Thanks for the comments!

me too, I am off to BED! I need some serious sleep now!

[Ommina]

I'm (still) afk (well, I'm at -a- keyboard, just not the normal one) so I'm going by memory here as I type this from somebody else's computer.

I did check the buttons for the vote box, and they are indeed rendered first. I can move the whole of the vote box to the bottom of the render list so that it appears on top of the rest, as a sort of popup's popup.

As for the ListView, I was happy to discover that JavaWiz already coded most of the listview goodies into the library, I just wasn't using them. To that end, I've put the new bits into play, although I still have to spend some more time fussing with it - I want to ensure that I'm using as much from the baseskin as I'm able. Either way, I'm pretty sure that I can give you the listview background. (Pretty sure...)

And you're right, the file popup only displays one line in the message box... right now. But it has four lines in its immediate future.

I did take the "Air Date" label out though, and added a cheap way to change the format of the date in case the user is desperate to use something other than their system-defined "long date".

And some other things too. That I've forgotten. /cough

As an aside, do you have a full-time GBPVR computer? Is it normally asleep?

[Ted the Penguin]

most of what you said sounds good to me, some specific comments follow

As for the ListView, I was happy to discover that JavaWiz already coded most of the listview goodies into the library, I just wasn't using them. To that end, I've put the new bits into play, although I still have to spend some more time fussing with it - I want to ensure that I'm using as much from the baseskin as I'm able. Either way, I'm pretty sure that I can give you the listview background. (Pretty sure...)

great, I am guessing there is a good way to do it in the library.

I did check the buttons for the vote box, and they are indeed rendered first. I can move the whole of the vote box to the bottom of the render list so that it appears on top of the rest, as a sort of popup's popup.

that sounds great... except that does not really help if you plan on using all 4 lines in the message box soon.

As an aside, do you have a full-time GBPVR computer? Is it normally asleep?

yes, I have a full time GB-PVR machine, and it is usually asleep, but I have it set up to wake on lan (any network activity) so I know that i could have it serve up to the PCH if I wanted. however I dont have all of my anime on that system, so I actually run this plugin off of my workstation (which is also normally asleep).

eventually I am probably going to build a dedicated server for file/PVR/print etc. on server 2003 so I can have software raid (I dont like the prospects of loosing everything if I lose my raid controller) and that will be on 24/7 (probably, depending on how efficient I can make it).

[Gedanken]

Very useful plugin. Thanks for all your work on it. Playing with it the last couple days, I did have a few issues/suggestions.

Currently, The Anime Library plugin installs 1.0.15.3 of the WizUIHelper.dll. The MovieWiz plugin installs 1.0.16.0. Neither works with the other version making these two plugins mutually exclusive right now. When you update the ALP, please try to update to the new library as well.

I also noticed a problem that if you have the scanner up for a while, the AniDB site appears to log you off automatically but the application does not attempt to log back in resulting in all requests failing.

I also would like to request a way to get a list of files which failed to hash to a known episode. I had a few corrupted files that I would like to update (as well as a couple that do not appear to be in the database). How does the app handle files that are replaced with the same filename? Will it detect that and rescan it? How about if I move files to a new directory (archiving, for instance).

And is there a way to run the scanner app from a batch file (and have it scan, process, and terminate)? I'd like to add it to the EPGUpdate script so everything is automated.

Is there a way to display the series synopsis from AniDB in the plugin?

Episode Navigation: Currently, if you are displaying the episodes in a long series, the only way I can find to get back to the list of series is to scroll back up to the top of the list to select the "Up one level" item. How about adding <Left Arrow> and <Esc> to jump back one level of the tree?

INI export: Would it be possible to add an option to export the AniDB info to a .DAT file so that the basic information can show up in a normal video listing as well?

Not intended to be complaints. I just want to provide feedback to make this useful plugin even better if you have the time to work on it.

I'm curious about your 3 day scanning session too. At one query every 30 seconds, that yields almost 9000 files. I thought I had a lot of anime. Where do you store it all?

[Ted the Penguin]

about your problem, in the wiki it is mentions that some routers can cause problems with large backlogs of anidb lookups. might that be your problem?

on at least 4 different drives (look at the screenshots), what a RAID candidate he is:p

It would also be nice to go browse the database, can I do that with a sqllite viewer?

I just noticed how many views this thread has (for the relatively small number of posts) so either were each checking the thread 20x per post, or alot of people are reading the thread, using the plugin, and its just working out for them.

[JavaWiz]

Currently, The Anime Library plugin installs 1.0.15.3 of the WizUIHelper.dll. The MovieWiz plugin installs 1.0.16.0. Neither works with the other version making these two plugins mutually exclusive right now. When you update the ALP, please try to update to the new library as well.

I would have thought WizUiHelper.DLL v1.0.16.0 would work with a plugin designed for 1.0.15.3, as I try to make them backward compatible. What fails in this plugin if you use 1.0.16.0?

[Ommina]

Currently, The Anime Library plugin installs 1.0.15.3 of the WizUIHelper.dll. The MovieWiz plugin installs 1.0.16.0. Neither works with the other version making these two plugins mutually exclusive right now. When you update the ALP, please try to update to the new library as well.

Absolutely. I always package it up with whatever version is current at the time. Nor should the installer be overwriting newer version with older ones.

But! At the same time, the anime plugin should work just fine with 1.0.16.0, or, really, any version greater than 1.0.15.3 -- JavaWiz is always very careful to not introduce any breaking changes into the UI code (see current discussion concerning the StandardButtonOrigin).

I dearly hope that I didn't do something stupid like compile the library requiring a particular version. I'd feel so silly.

I also noticed a problem that if you have the scanner up for a while, the AniDB site appears to log you off automatically but the application does not attempt to log back in resulting in all requests failing.

You're right on this behaviour, and changing this is a significant part of the 1.7 release. If AniDB returns a "not logged in!" message (it will silently log a user off after 20 minutes), the scanner will now, well, log back in again.

The communications routines with AniDB have changed dramatically since the original release, and is one of the reasons I'm not feeling anxious to rush out the next version -- I want to give it every opportunity to sit and stew here so I can see how it behaves and reacts to varying conditions (network or AniDB going down, computer going into sleep mode /cough, attack by aliens. The usual).

In the meantime, the workaround is to, well, restart the scanner.

I also would like to request a way to get a list of files which failed to hash to a known episode. I had a few corrupted files that I would like to update (as well as a couple that do not appear to be in the database). How does the app handle files that are replaced with the same filename? Will it detect that and rescan it? How about if I move files to a new directory (archiving, for instance).

I can certainly create something that will create a list of files that failed the lookup, although I think I would prefer to keep it outside the plugin proper. At least, I think I would prefer to. I could add (yet another) button to list the files on the screen, but it seems to me that it would be more useful in a format that can be readily manipulated. I'm thinking it would be more appropriate to have the scanner output failed files to a file.

Keeping in mind, of course, that very new files may just not be there yet, so may be found the next time they are submitted. If you're collecting any series that are still being aired, this will not be horribly rare.

Same filename should be OK, (should rescan), I use a combination of filename and creation date to identify files, so the modified creation date should be sufficient to trigger the scan. I've made a not to check on that though.

Moving a file to a different directory will also rescan, but it will reattach the file to the old information (last viewed, etc) when the hash is complete. Copying a file will create a new record.

The idea being that if you remove a file from the collection on the hard drive and copy it back again later, none of the internal data describing the file is lost.

And is there a way to run the scanner app from a batch file (and have it scan, process, and terminate)? I'd like to add it to the EPGUpdate script so everything is automated.

You mean like this one?

Is there a way to display the series synopsis from AniDB in the plugin?

Not yet. AniDB does not provide a synopsis to clients, but it is on their list of future features. When they make it available, I will too. I already have a field in the database ready and waiting for it.

Episode Navigation: Currently, if you are displaying the episodes in a long series, the only way I can find to get back to the list of series is to scroll back up to the top of the list to select the "Up one level" item. How about adding <Left Arrow> and <Esc> to jump back one level of the tree?

I agree something needs to be done here as well. I find myself going back to the button list and reselecting my desired list in preference to scrolling back up. An up-a-level button would be handy. LEFT is already reserved to move the focus to the buttons, and ESC will exit the plugin, so I can't use those. What other keys do we have? Hm.

One kinda-workaround: pretting "1" will move the selection to the top of the list, (the up-a-level line) for easy selection. But I agree it would still be nice for a separate key to move right up the level.

INI export: Would it be possible to add an option to export the AniDB info to a .DAT file so that the basic information can show up in a normal video listing as well?

Here I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve... the AniDB info can certainly be exported with comparative ease, but I'm lost on the second part. Blame it on lack of coffee on my part.

Not intended to be complaints. I just want to provide feedback to make this useful plugin even better if you have the time to work on it.

Not at all! I love this kind of feedback. Other users always think of things that I don't, or look at a particular item a different way than I.

Nor do I think that anybody who is willing to take time out of their day to write up a message with suggestions is doing it as an expression of how much I sucketh. I figure those people will just hit the delete button and move on. So I do appreciate you taking the time to write the post.

I'm curious about your 3 day scanning session too. At one query every 30 seconds, that yields almost 9000 files. I thought I had a lot of anime. Where do you store it all?

I fear I'm going to disappoint you both. It wasn't three days of straight scanning, since I wanted to be at the computer for the whole time. It was, after all, very early in development, and I wanted to be here in case something blew up. (Happily, it didn't.)

I'm at 3,462 files.

My horribly boring signature, which I someday hope to change:

[Ommina]

on at least 4 different drives (look at the screenshots), what a RAID candidate he is:p

/sigh - six drives now, over four computers. You're SO right on the RAID thing.

It would also be nice to go browse the database, can I do that with a sqllite viewer?

You can. I use SQLite Expert (personal edition is free), and am very pleased with it. Great for surfing sub's db too!

Returning to yesterday's comments for a moment.

The "four lines of text" on the file popup may never be used by you, so you may still prefer to move the date up and use the smaller message box for your local copy, without fear of awful things happening. So if you really like it, don't change it just yet.

And, finally (I keep forgetting to respond to this bit), the OSD replacement makes a couple of minor changes to blue's OSD display so that long episode names ("The Assistant Editor Refuses to Discuss the Possibility that he is the Main Character") are displayed instead of truncated. It would be horribly rude of me to make changes to the OSD skin on the install, so I just included it in there in case somebody wanted to copy it over manually.

[Ted the Penguin]

I agree something needs to be done here as well. I find myself going back to the button list and reselecting my desired list in preference to scrolling back up. An up-a-level button would be handy. LEFT is already reserved to move the focus to the buttons, and ESC will exit the plugin, so I can't use those. What other keys do we have? Hm.

One kinda-workaround: pretting "1" will move the selection to the top of the list, (the up-a-level line) for easy selection. But I agree it would still be nice for a separate key to move right up the level.

how about right? or you can scroll through the pages pretty quickly using the page up/down buttons.

/sigh - six drives now, over four computers. You're SO right on the RAID thing.

let me refer you to something that contains software from the company I work for (EMC), I saw it at one of our quarterly meetings, it was pretty sweet!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...rchbtn.y=0

The "four lines of text" on the file popup may never be used by you, so you may still prefer to move the date up and use the smaller message box for your local copy, without fear of awful things happening. So if you really like it, don't change it just yet.

ok... I see no reason to continually modify skin files for my own personal enjoyment:p so how about we move the date to above the picture, instead of below it? then everyone will be happy

[Gedanken]

I would have thought WizUiHelper.DLL v1.0.16.0 would work with a plugin designed for 1.0.15.3, as I try to make them backward compatible. What fails in this plugin if you use 1.0.16.0?

When I try to run ALP with the 1.0.16.0 DLL installed, the plugin background loads but nothing else (no buttons, etc) requiring me to crash out to recover. No error messages that I can see.