Who would be interested in helping with a plugin install utility?

[mkenyon2]

I've been thinking lately... one of the hardest parts (besides getting your hardware to work) of setting up GBPVR for new people is the awesome plugins. Keeping up to date with the latest changes and all that is a bit daunting for somebody who just wants to plug and play. Not all users want to watch the forums for updates.

I think we could work up a simple Web Service, that tracks available plug-ins, including version of the plug-in, version of PVRx2 it's been tested with, whether it's in alpha or beta release...

We'd need permission of the server admin to set it up.

Then, we could have a Windows Service that monitors the web service... with a UI that lists the plug-ins available, and allows the user to select which ones they want... if they want to try alpha/beta releases (for advanced users) and how soon/often it should run updates.

The windows service would then just sit and watch... if there are updates, and there are no recordings taking place, or about to take place, it would stop the recording service, do the updates, and restart the recording service.

Something like:

For each update in updates:
If Pending <> True && Recording <> True
Install...

Anyway... I think it would allow newer and basic users to get more out of this fine system. We would have to specify a standard for the plugins to work with this... such as they would need good version control and things like that.

Anybody interested? Anybody want to add to this thread with possible criteria? Anybody already try this?

[McBainUK]

For me a HTPC environment is too important to leave it open to the possible problems caused by automatic updates. Remember the WAF!

[reven]

automatic im not sure about. but the ability to download plugins from within gbpvr and install them/update them would be fantastic.

it would also be cool if we could dynamically initialize the plugin and add it to the main menu without restarting the gbpvr interface.

we would have to have some type of installer container, a zip file with a xml index or something - and must have the ability to define prerequisites (.net 3.5 etc). and need the ability to upgrade the modified files.

but yeah im keen on this. very keen

[whurlston]

It wouldn't be possible to do for some plugins. Some plugins need the recording service to be shut down before updating. My Netflix plugin for example.

That said, epgtools.com could be used for it if it doesn't require ASP.

[mvallevand]

I have already written an NSIS install script for the installing GBPVR with the Popcorn Hour client that can be used as a model

- it is Vista UAC aware
- it stops the recording service
- it reads the registry for install info
- it downloads and installs the VC runtime
- it downloads and installs .dotnet 2.0
- it downloads and install the GBPVR msi
- it downloads and install the Music Plugin and Mayhem Skin
- it downloads and install the survivor guide patches and any other patch I felt necessary for the PCH
- it reads and writes entries in config.xml
- it kills the gbpvrtray.exe to install updates
- it sets the interact with desktop flag
- it restarts the recording service.

It's here if you want to try http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=38896 (just don't select the features you don't need). It probably is a good way to go from 1.3.7 to 1.3.11 anyway.

It is rough scripting but I didn't care about style and I was learning NSIS at the same time. I can't put it in reven's repo because of the Berkeley constraint but I can make it available under LGPL if there is interest.

Martin

[mkenyon2]

Well, how about this... an app that lists installed plugins vs. available plugins and shows which ones we have installed, and if they are the latest version or not.

The automatic thing can be a future, optional feature.

[reven]

i personally just want a way to download, configure, and update plugins directly inside PVRX2 without the need to exit it.

[sub]

i personally just want a way to download, configure, and update plugins directly inside PVRX2 without the need to exit it.

Its pretty much only me that could add this functionality. I have also wanted to add something like this (from webservice running on gbpvr.com), and have discussed it here a couple of years back, but it never seemed to make it high enough up the priority list to get implemented. Maybe one day though.

[mkenyon2]

Being inside PVRX2 would be tricky... since the recording service would need to restart... but perhaps Sub could put a trigger in the restart procedure to allow for a restart of PVRx2 too... so the flow would be:
Tell recording service to do a restart...
Shut PVRx2 down...
Recording service would have the flag set and restart PVRx2...

THough, windows services have limited desktop interaction abilities.

I was developed an update utility for an app. The app would read the web service, see there were updates, ask the user if they wanted to do them, and if so, would start the update app, and shut itself down.
The update would do the updates, start the main app, and close itself down.

That would be easier to do... since the update app could do the Recording service restart and the PVRx2 restart.

For UI in PVRx2, you could have a remote navigable screen that lists the plugins... you scroll down the list and have something like this:

Don't Use Use Update Cinema listings
Don't Use Use Update Movie Wiz

The user would highlight the option for each plugin, then at the bottom select run Updates.

The info would pass to the update app which would download the appropriate MSI files, and install them with the defaults.

Of course, much would also depend on the plugin developers to create versioned MSI files that defaulted well.

Something like Movie Wiz that has an external config app would be tricky... however, we could allow for the Update app to list plugins that would need extra set up... like this:

'You have installed/updated Movie Wiz plugin. This tool may need external configuration for proper use.'

If you have it already set up, you may be good to go. Since the remotes do left,right,up,down it would be hard to design the Update Apps UI to work with it.

[Fatman_do]

The weather plugin uses a method to look for updates and will notify users if there is a newer version. The source may be up to date on the wiki for some ideas on how to accomplish some of this.