Moving XL databases to a central non-XL machine

[scottw]

Can Xlobby point to another non Xlobby machine to get it's databases from??
I am adding an Unraid server to my setup and would like to have the Xl DB's located there in a central place.
Right now I have 2 Xl machines, one in the living room and one fat client in the bedroom pointing to the one in the livingroom. I would like to change the one in the bedroom to a standard XL install and just point both machines to get their DB's from the Unraid box, this way I would not have to fire up the livingroom machine just to watch a movie in the bedroom.

I guess if I could not do this I could just install XL on the Unraid box for the purpose of just having the DB's there and run the xnet server from it but I would rather not.


Thanks,

[Marbles_00]

If you look at the xlobby.xml file, you will see a parameter called <databases></databases>. I wonder what would happen if you put the UNC path of the databases on the UnRAID box in that parameter? Kinda like the <audioplayers> parameter below that where you define the location of each zones winamp.

Give it a whirl and see if that works.

Code: Select all

<databases>
          <database>"UNC PATH"\movies</database>
          <database>"UNC PATH"\music</database>
          <database>"UNC PATH"\pictures</database>
          <database>"UNC PATH"\games</database>
</databases>

Oh, and remember to remove the transferred databases from xlobby\skins\"your skin"\database, and xlobby\databases, as those would most likely take precedence over the ones on the UnRAID server.

Hope that helps (and works), as it would be pretty cool.

[P3rv3rt B3ar]

Im planning a solution based on pervtalk where X(m)l-databases would be generated on fly from data from real RDBMS. First implementation will most likely be for Mysql running on linux. This could be a solution for your problem, allthough i believe simpler aproach might provide satisfactory results far quicker.

[scottw]

Ok it looks like that may work with some tweaks. I tested it at first with just my music and movies DB's. I tried at first just deleting all but those 2 DB's (after backing up ) and moving the whole folder to the Unraid server leaving no databases folder in the Xlobby folder and just having it on the Unraid box. I added the lines to the xlobby.xml file and made sure there were no databases in the skins area.
Xl came up but when I went to go into the DB's thru F2 I could see the data but then XL crashed. I then restored the databases folder to its normal location with all of the DB's except movies and music which are on the unraid server. Sometimes it would work for a little bit then crash sometimes at startup when it was initializing the DB's. I then remembered I did not set Xant to output to the unraid box, fixed that but still crashing. I copied just the music DB back to it's original location and had no crashes. I added some music and movies and they updated the DB's on the Unraid box not the normal databases folder

So what it looks like is I can move the movies DB completely to the unraid box after I update Xant's ini.
I can move the music DB but have to leave a copy of it in the normal place, for me c:\xlobby\databases\music.xml, although it does not seem to read or write to this DB but does read and write to the one on the unraid box.

I think all I will need this for is movies so I think this will work although I don't like to be tied down as far as somethings working and some not, so I may hack at it a little more

[scottw]

Ok, I was able to move a couple more DB's like some of my game DB's (MAME, SNES, Playstation). It looks like the reason I have trouble with the music one is it is one that you specify inside of XL thru the "Basic" tab after hitting F2, my movies DB is not handled thru that but thru Xant and the games are done manually.

This is definitely cool!!!