Zip and Attach Logs

[Jaggy]

The very first thought I had when I first visited this forum was "that's what we need for the Read Before post on the Support Forum on NextPVR"

I'm talking about the sticky messages only.... not the totally 'orrible layout of the rest of the forum that you need 200:200 vision to read (which is dumb on a site that is for people that suffer from an issue that affects the brain function & eye site at times).... from what sub has said/done in the past it is possible for some users to have some options that others don't & I wondered if it was possible for sub & other selected moderators to have the option to create stickies with Bold print & more Highlighting than the normal stickies (as we don't want all the stickies to be like that)??

[JavaWiz]

After following this post and agreeing with most of it, I decided to see if I could automate creating the log zip file to make it easier for users to capture the needed data. Once built and tested, I created a custom task on the plugins menu so it can be triggered right from the UI.

ZipNpvrLogs.cmd - batch file to zip all log files in the NPVR log directory into a file: NextPvrLOGS_YYYYMMDD.zip

Unzip the attached file to a location on your hard drive (ex. c:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts)

• Verify the BASEDIR variable is accurate in the script
  
• Run NextPVR
  
• Right-click and select "Settings"
  
• Select "Plugins" in the list
  
• Click "Add Custom Task"
  • Name: ZipLogs
    
  • Executable: c:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\ZipNpvrLogs.cmd (browse to location where you unzipped the file)
    
  • Arguments: leave blank
    
  • Click OK
    
• Exit and Restart NextPVR
  

A new menu option "ZipLogs" should show, select it and your log directory will be zipped and ready to attach to your forum message...

[RTKAT]

Is it at all possible to modify the forum software to when a "new Post" is done in the support area that when a person presses "submit" or whatever it says, the software can "see" the poster did not add a log file. Then a message "You can not post until you add your log file. ????

[johnsonx42]

Is it at all possible to modify the forum software to when a "new Post" is done in the support area that when a person presses "submit" or whatever it says, the software can "see" the poster did not add a log file. Then a message "You can not post until you add your log file. ????

I thought of that, perhaps at least Junior Members shouldn't be able to start a support thread without posting a log. Yes, it's true that there are some support questions that actually don't need any sort of log, but Junior Members wouldn't be the best judges of that and need to be forced to provide the logs so that at least they know how and understand the importance of it. It's not like it will hurt anything if a few new users get forced to post logs that aren't really needed, and besides, when the inevitable unrelated "one more question" comes up 2 pages down-thread, the answer will probably be found by looking at the logs required to start the thread in the first place.

Assuming that VBulletin could be programmed to require a .zip attachment before allowing certain member levels to post a new thread (is that something they've thought of before?), I'd support doing that if/when NextPVR gains the ability to produce the log files from within the Settings screen. Then the forum could direct users to Settings->General->Zip Logs or perhaps a new tab like Settings->Support->Zip Logs. It'd also be nice if the attachment button could be added to the Quick Reply window.

JavaWiz's work is appreciated, but I think to be effective the log-generating ability would need to be built in to the stock app, and be available in Settings rather than in the user-facing menu.

(as an aside, I don't know if this concept exists in vbulletin: it'd be nice to partially close threads that have been inactive for 30 days so that no new user could post in them... the OP and anyone else who posted previously could still post and "re-awaken" a thread, but the thread would appear closed to anyone else. I get tired of "I've got a problem with a tuner failing to start, and this other user had a tuner fail to start 3 years ago, so it must be the same issue!")

[JavaWiz]

JavaWiz's work is appreciated, but I think to be effective the log-generating ability would need to be built in to the stock app, and be available in Settings rather than in the user-facing menu.

Agreed, that would be ideal, especially, once zip file created, the location is copied to the clipboard so it's a simple paste to the upload dialog (rather than having to browse and locate).

That said, unless sub has the inclination to add that to the settings dialog, this method provides users a quick way to do a similar thing on their own.

I've updated the script. If clip.exe exist, it copies the generated zip filename to the clipboard, making it easier to upload the zip (i.e. just paste the name rather than browsing for it). Initial post here.

[RTKAT]

.....it'd be nice to partially close threads that have been inactive for 30 days so that no new user could post in them... the OP and anyone else who posted previously could still post and "re-awaken" a thread, but the thread would appear closed to anyone else. I get tired of "I've got a problem with a tuner failing to start, and this other user had a tuner fail to start 3 years ago, so it must be the same issue!")

That would be good. I almost fell into that recently when searching for info on a "plug in." Was thinking about asking something about it and discovered the post was almost 5 years old.:eek: