Skins and Touchscreens II

[crackulator]

I've offered to help with skins, and I'd like to have a conversation with whoever is interested...

As I see it presently, we have a selection of skins that are all good, and they each have their purpose, but it's confusing for someone just getting started. I think the skin choice kind of mixes up two concepts, "how I want Knewc to look", and "which skin matches my Kodi skin", which is just a byproduct of the skin architecture. Then we also have the Web Client UI, which seems mostly the same idea, sort of different, but seems to me like it could be part of the same choice.

So here are a couple of proposals to ponder:

1) Make the skin choice one of 3: "Classic", "Match Kodi Skin", and "Web Client UI". If MKS is selected, automatically choose the correct skin (assuming we can detect the Kodi skin, of which I'm not sure, but I think we can). If MKS is selected, but we have no compatible skin, bail out to Classic (preferably with a message). Default could either be Classic, or MKS, falling back to Classic if no matching skin is available.

2) Add an "Auto" choice to the existing selections, which would choose the matching skin, or Classic if we have none compatible. Otherwise, leave it the same, maybe move the "Autostart Web Client" choice into the dialog. If user doesn't choose Auto, their choice overrides, and they get what they get (perhaps with a warning message that the skin may not be compatible).

We'll probably make an Estouchy skin in the relatively near future, so it should be considered how the skin choice is reflected for Touch. I think it becomes more important because if you're on Touch and get in a non-Touch skin, it just seems broken. Kodi has too many broken add-ons, it's very easy for people to conclude that this is just one of them.

Thoughts or other ideas?

[mvallevand]

Up to now I thought I was the only one using the python UI mainly for helping me develop and test other things so I haven't given it much thought after the PVR addon was released and have lived with some issues.

Right now knewc does automatically select Confluence or Estuary when they are configured as the Kodi skin but because of modded skins I didn't want to force a default to Classic if the name doesn't match but knewc might be able to do smarter matches for skins like Estuary* etc if we do a little research. Also on thing to investigate for Estuary is whether we can point the includes to the base skin.

UI Client is not a skin, it is really an addon in it's own right that shares many common functions with the python. Behind the scenes it is supposed to use Classic but that might be broken. The key setting is autostart UI client which I will want to keep front and centre on the settings page as it is now. The only other UI factor I have considered it have a setting to force Kodi to start knewc, for those that don't like the Kodi UI.

I must say that in testing your changes for Classic the touch support in live TV it is a bit easier to use than the PVR client (I have never tested Estouchy though) and plays more of my live streams without transcoding then the Android client so I am tempted to have knewc default to the epg screen on my tablet to save a few steps.

Martin

[crackulator]

I usually use the python UI (one or another, depending on the context) because it feels faster and acts more like Kodi. I only go to the Web UI to debug (and when I do, I always push "back" a few times before remembering that it doesn't work there). I often use Aura or Bello 7 Kodi skins for different reasons, so that puts me in Classic (or making new skins).

Why do you think the Autostart Web UI setting needs to be front and center? To me it seems - while obviously not a skin, really - basically the same choice. Certainly it is non-orthogonal with the skin choice, in the sense that if you choose Web, the Skin choice doesn't matter. It seems like, to a user, it is choosing how the app will appear and behave, like the skin choice. We wouldn't have to remove it from the homepage menu, so it could still be handy.

It's possible we could be even smarter about detecting Kodi skins, actually detect the specific resources that it needs, thus it would always pick something that would work, or fall back to Classic. Could be complicated though, maybe impossible. I'm against doing the impossible.

Estouchy NextPVR defaults to EPG. Seems not an unusual choice, though it does prioritize Live over Recordings, which might not be the right choice for everyone.

[mvallevand]

Back doesn't exit in UI client because for NextPVR Back has several uses that is why it is the Context menu (disable the remote popup if you'd like).

I suspect 95% of the knewc users are UI client users so I want to make configuration as simple as possible for them.

To gather all the Estuary files you would need to search the includes and the includes from the includes and bring all those resources. If you copy the entire Estuary folder you might be able to get something working but I leave that to you

The default for the EPG was just an example I could configure any screen for startup in the python UI.

Martin

[crackulator]

How do you know that most people are using Client UI, and why do you suppose that is?

[mvallevand]

It is subjective for sure but based on the support requests I am not sure if anyone is using it. There really is no compelling reason to use it now that Kodi supports comskip. In v4 it can do things that the Kodi plugin can't genre cast searching, conflict management, archiving so about all that is left is tagging operations for recordings

UI client appeals to those user who have used the NextPVR UI It is not just the skin it is the remote works like it worked in many versions of NextPVR and not how Kodi works. It also does some things that the Kodi addon can't.

Martin

[crackulator]

That's interesting. I use it for two other reasons: one, for transcoding, and two, to get NextPVR on distros where the plugin binary isn't available.

[mvallevand]

Yes transcoding was broken for years without a support post (my old server wasn't capable so I couldn't test it) proves my point. There is a use case for people with old versions on Kodi that might want some new features or offbeat distros but that is the 5%

Martin

[mvallevand]

Attached is a release candidate for knewc 2.80 with significant EPG and touch changes from crackulator.   Thanks for the contribution.

Martin