Help With Xant - no details showing

[tollanarama]

Hi - I'm having troubles using Xant & Ant Catalogue.

I've followed the English Tutorial athttp://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3759&highlight=xant
but I'm not getting any details showing - I just have blank spaces onscreen with the DVD (ripped to harddrive) titleshowing: no DVD cover or synopsis.

Can anyone please explain how I set up my ripped (online??) database & how to use Xant???

[dgemily]

did you have your database movie.xml build ? ( in the databases repertory of your xlobby install ?

did you configurer your movietemplate ?

one other thing, in the firsts version of xant we needed to delete the movie template ( from \databases\template\movie.xml) I don't know if you still need to do it. but anyway this xlobby template is not needed if you use xant....

[tollanarama]

Thanks for the reply!

I'm going to seem very stupid now, but i have no idea what you mean!

How do I configure my movietemplate?

[dgemily]

first configure xant.ini with your paths
then delete movies.xml from (\databases\template\movies.xml) and ( \databases\movies.xml)
then start xlobby, just to see if your movies databases will be built...

later

[tollanarama]

Thanks - i will try tonight & see what happens!!

[tollanarama]

Still can't get it to work!!

Oh well, back to the free version of DVD Profiler - it takes a little while to set up - but at least I can get it to work!

Thanks for your help!

[scottw]

Alright I am going to try to help you but am going by memory so I may miss something, so please anybody let me know if I do.


Do you have the Ant Movie Catalog program already setup with your movies listed and the coverart showing? This is in the actual program not Xlobby.

Next is the plugin in the plugins folder. Mine looks like this:
C:\xlobby\plugins\xant\
in that folder I have:
Cdda2Ant
XAnt.dll
XAnt.ini
moviestemplate.xml

My XAnt.ini looks like this:

Code: Select all

[Movies]
input=C:\Program Files\Ant Movie Catalog\movies.amc
output=C:\xlobby\databases\movies.xml
images=C:\Program Files\Ant Movie Catalog\images\
sort=$$ITEM_ORIGINALTITLE
template=C:\xlobby\plugins\xant\moviestemplate.xml
filters=

[Cdaudio]
input=
output=
images=
sort=
template=
filters=
cdrom=

[Games]
input=
output=
images=
sort=
template=
filters=

[BD]
input=
output=
images=
sort=
template=
filters=


and my moviestemplate.xml lokks like this:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<database>
   <sortorder>number</sortorder>
   <sortable>
      <sort>actors</sort>
      <sort>title</sort>
      <sort>sorttitle</sort>
      <sort>genre</sort>
      <sort>director</sort>
      <sort>year</sort>
      <sort>rating</sort>
      <sort>name</sort>
      <sort>number</sort>
   </sortable>
   <template/>
   <paths>
      <path/>
   </paths>
   <item>
      <parameter>$$ITEM_URL</parameter>
      <coverart>$$ITEM_PICTUREFILENAME</coverart>
      <display>$$ITEM_ORIGINALTITLE</display>
      <information>
         <name>$$ITEM_ORIGINALTITLE</name>
         <title>$$ITEM_ORIGINALTITLE</title>
         <sorttitle>$$ITEM_ORIGINALTITLE</sorttitle>
         <director>$$ITEM_DIRECTOR</director>
         <runtime>$$ITEM_LENGTH</runtime>
         <plot>$$ITEM_DESCRIPTION</plot>
         <actors>$$ITEM_ACTORS</actors>
         <year>$$ITEM_YEAR</year>
         <genre>$$ITEM_CATEGORY</genre>
         <rating>$$ITEM_RATING/10</rating>
         <number>$$ITEM_NUMBER</number>
      </information>
   </item>
</database>


My movie database file for the Ant Movie Catalog program is located in C:\Program Files\Ant Movie Catalog\ and is called movies.amc.
I believe I had to make a folder called images in that folder as well with nothing in it. I think when Xlobby starts up it looks at my .amc file in C:\Program Files\Ant Movie Catalog\ (or where ever you store your .amc file) and makes individual images for each movie (you have to have the images/covers already showing in the Ant Movie Catalog) and places them in the "images" folder you created. It then makes a movies.xml (which is the database of movies for Xlobby) in the "databases" folder, mine is at C:\Xlobby\databases

This is a reference of how mine is setup so if your files are in different locations you will need to adjust the ini file. I also only use this for Xvid or Divx movies although it should be around the same atleast for displaying them in Xlobby.

One other thing is in Ant Movie Catalog I have my "title" under "Original Title". Something is telling me that by default it uses "Translated Title" in Ant Movie Catalog. If that is so in yours then you will need to either adjust the moviestemplate.xml or put your title in "Original Title" in Ant Movie Catalog.


Whew that was a brain dump for me. Sorry if it is not clear but should be able to get you started and sorry if I jumped around a bit. I am not the best at explaining things

After you get this setup let me know if you need help actually displaying this in Xlobby and also let me know if you have any questions.

[tollanarama]

Scott - Thanks for the hard work!!!

I'm at work at the moment; I will try your suggestions when I get home this evening.

Just another question - in Ant Catalogue which site do you download the movie synopsis and images from (i.e. Amazon, IMDB..)?

Thanks

[scottw]

They are hit or miss. Right now I dl the movie info from IMDB and the covers from amazon. Lately I have been having some trouble with some of the movie info. I am going to check the message boards at the Ant website to see if anyone has updated the scripts, I have had to update at least 3 times since I have been using it.