Change some keyboard commands?

[mikeh49]

Any chance you could consider changing a couple of NPVR keyboard commands?

In the recordings menu, ctrl-S toggles the sort order, but ctrl-S is also Stop in the various players. My Harmony remote sends a Stop when powering off or switching activities which messes up the sort order in recording which, unfortunately, is where I normally leave off. I can't see where I can change this in the Harmony software. S certainly makes sense for Sort, maybe you could use O for order.

Could we perhaps go back to crtl-B and ctrl-Y for the Blue and Yellow keys? The weather plug in wants ctrl-B and ctrl-Y and the developer hasn't responded to requests to change it. What was the reason for changing from ctrl to alt for the color buttons?

Thanks.

[imilne]

Look at the keymappings xml file in the data directory.

Iain

[mikeh49]

I should have looked at that. I was able to address the sort command by changing it in the file. I think I tried the yellow and blue there, but it didn't work. I'll hve to try again with the remote. Thanks, and sorry for the distraction.

[sub]

In the recordings menu, ctrl-S toggles the sort order, but ctrl-S is also Stop in the various players.

This was intentional. When people were requesting this feature they explicitly asked to use the 'stop' key, since it was on their remote.

Unfortunately the color keys blue/yellow/red/green aren't available on a lot of remotes these days, so I'm avoiding building any functionality that relies on these gets.

The weather plug in wants ctrl-B and ctrl-Y and the developer hasn't responded to requests to change it. What was the reason for changing from ctrl to alt for the color buttons?

From the beginning of NextPVR, I wanted to have sensible key equivalent for keys like FastForward and Rewind, so I went with Ctrl-F and Ctrl-R. This latter one was a difference from GBPVR, which had something strange like Ctrl-D or something. This wasnt a problem in NextPVR, where I'd decided I wouldnt use the color keys a all, so it wasnt going to clash with the old combination of Ctrl-R for red. Later I was hassled into adding support for the color keys for the plugins that wanted them, and the consensus in the thread was to go with Alt-B, Alt-G, Alt-Y and Alt-R to avoide the clash while still using sensible keys.

[mvallevand]

Later I was hassled into adding support for the color keys for the plugins that wanted them, and the consensus in the thread was to go with Alt-B, Alt-G, Alt-Y and Alt-R to avoide the clash
while still using sensible keys.

I don't consider a logical request hassling.

Martin

[sub]

lol

I'm still not that keen on these keys myself, or people building functionality that relies on them. I've got a couple of MCE remotes sitting on my desk that dont have these keys.

[imilne]

I was just looking at updating the System plugin, that uses Ctrl+B for its single keyboard operation, and changing it to Alt+B because I thought that was now preferred, but from what you're saying I should just leave it alone?

I'd like it to be the same as the "Info" key on my remote, that's currently mapped to Ctrl+B (for GBPVR), but I'm never sure whether to make it Ctrl or Alt for NPVR.

(I'll do it via keymappings anyway, but it would be nice to get its default setting sub-approved)

Iain

[sub]

I was just looking at updating the System plugin, that uses Ctrl+B for its single keyboard operation, and changing it to Alt+B because I thought that was now preferred, but from what you're saying I should just leave it alone?

You can use it if you want, but keep in mind there is a lot of remotes that dont have these keys, so you might want to provide an alternative way to provide the same functionality.

I'd like it to be the same as the "Info" key on my remote, that's currently mapped to Ctrl+B (for GBPVR), but I'm never sure whether to make it Ctrl or Alt for NPVR.

It's definitely Alt-B/G/Y/R for these keys, but because I knew Ctrl-B would trip a few users up, the app works with either Alt-B and Ctrl-B for the getting the info during playback and live tv. Legacy stuff is a pain in the butt...

[mikeh49]

Yikes, lot's of interest in this. As usual, there's a good explanation for almost everything. If I get one more thing straight, I think I can make things work. So, tell me if my understanding is correct:

NPVR interprets the Blue button on the remote as alt-B. Keymappings.xml specifies that the keyboard alt-B sends a Blue to NPVR. If I change keymappings.xml to say ctrl-B = Blue, then keyboard ctrl-B sends Blue to NPVR which interprets it as alt-B.

Therefore, a plug-in expecting to get ctrl-B would still get alt-B even with the above change to keymappings.xml.

Alternatively, I can edit keymappings.xml to specify ctrl-L = toggle sort order in recordings, and that works, i.e., ctrl-L now toggles the recordings sort order.

In general terms then, keymappings.xml determines what key sends a named command to NPVR. NPVR then acts upon the named command. Named command "Blue" is hard coded in NPVR as alt-B, so anything looking in NPVR would see alt-B when a Blue keypress is received.

Do I have this right?

[sub]

In general terms then, keymappings.xml determines what key sends a named command to NPVR. NPVR then acts upon the named command. Named command "Blue" is hard coded in NPVR as alt-B, so anything looking in NPVR would see alt-B when a Blue keypress is received.

Close but you lost it part way through. In your terms, but more accurately:

In general terms then, keymappings.xml determines what key sends a named command to NPVR. NPVR then acts upon the named command. If the user press Alt-B, the keymappings.xml says the application is sent "Blue". The action performed to handle "Blue" is hard coded in NPVR.

Just to pull the rug out from under you though, this is what the core application does, but most plugins ignore the KeyMappings.xml and do their own thing based on the keys that are pressed, rather than looking up the named commands.