Online vs. Offline

[JP]

This is for Steve

Steve, I have inquired about this on another forum and they said I should probably ask you if this functionality will be added in the next release of Xlobby. Here is what I would love to see if this is possible:

1. An easy way of differentiating between offline vs. online dvds. I have about 300 offline dvds and of those 300 I have about 50 that are online. If there was a way I could have a green or red confirmation light above each piece of cover art that would tell me whether or not it is on the hdd or not that would be great. The key of course is that Xlobby could search for these files automatically. It could do something like if it finds a VOB file in the folder then the light could be green, otherwise it could be red. Green would mean online and red would be offline. Of course just a text box would work just as well saying ONLINE or OFFLINE.

2. An easy to do a sort on just online cover art and offline cover art. This could be the quick and easy way to see what exactly is all online or offline rather than having to go through the entire library to find just what is online.

[stevenhanna6]

ok i've added a new layering option called "offline" and "online" to a category, this can be accessed in the skineditor and selecting the category you want.

Basicly it will allow you to overlay an image depending on if the dvd is offline or online. The offline/online status is determined by the offline/online check box in the db editor.

http://www.xlobby.com/xlobby2.zip

I didnt test it, but it should work fine.

[JP]

Thanks Steve, but just so I understand correctly. There isn't a way for Xlobby to populate this checkbox automatically...correct? For instance, regardless of how things change on my hard drive I will still have to manually go in to Xlobby and check or uncheck the checkbox for each movie to determine what is offline and what is online...correct?

I was hoping for an automatic way of checking whether the movie was online or offline and then have Xlobby return the appropriate overlay image (offline vs. online). I am assuming this isn't possible right now...correct?

Thanks.

[chadwolcott]

I believe that if you do a db refresh it will update those. You could put a button in your skin to call a movie db refresh. You could even add a db refresh to your goto movies screen command that would refresh that.

[JP]

Excuse my ignorance. I'm new at this. Refresh what exactly? Are you talking about simply refreshing the data internal to Xlobby so that the overlay image on each screen displays whether each dvd is online or offline (ultimately based on the checkbox in xlobby) OR are you saying that I could do a refresh and somehow Xlobby checks to see if the dvd is on the hdd and if so returns the appropriate overlay image (offline or online)?

Thanks.

[chadwolcott]

there is a refresh database function in xlobby. All the data presented in xl is stored in xml databases. Your movies are in one of those databases. You remember that you did an import initially? Doing that created an xml database. When you add new movies to you collection you need to update/refresh your database.

Actually, nevermind...I could have sworn there was a db refresh command, but it looks like there isn't.

Looks like this is definately a feature request

[JP]

I still think we are getting away from the actual feature request here. I would never mind manually updating the information xlobby receives from the xml file. I don't think that is a big deal. What I do find cumbersome is constantly having to update the database itself to tell Xlobby what is offline and what is online. It just seems to me that it wouldn't be too hard to add a feature that would check the folder on the hdd where it expects to see the appropriate ifo/vob files and if the file(s) are indeed there return an overlay image that states ONLINE otherwise have it state OFFLINE.

[JP]

I finally got around to playing some more with Xlobby2 and the new online/offline feature. I do have one question that I can't seem to figure out, sorting.

Is there a way to sort on just what is offline and just what is online? In other words I would like only the online dvds listed if I so desire and only the offline dvds listed if I so desire.

Is this possible and if so how?

[dalanik]

I still think we are getting away from the actual feature request here. I would never mind manually updating the information xlobby receives from the xml file. I don't think that is a big deal. What I do find cumbersome is constantly having to update the database itself to tell Xlobby what is offline and what is online. It just seems to me that it wouldn't be too hard to add a feature that would check the folder on the hdd where it expects to see the appropriate ifo/vob files and if the file(s) are indeed there return an overlay image that states ONLINE otherwise have it state OFFLINE.

Yes, this is a good idea. No need to specity online/offline in database when XLobby can check the path and see if the file is available or not...

D.

[dgemily]

Yes, this is a good idea. No need to specity online/offline in database when XLobby can check the path and see if the file is available or not...

yes it's should be very nice

[JP]

Can anyone confirm that this is indeed being considered as a feature request?

Also, I am still unclear about sorting. I assume if you want to be able to see only the DVDs that are offline or only the dvds that are online or ALL your DVDs you will have to create three different levels of a database:

1. ALL
2. ONLINE
3. OFFLINE

Of course this will be a big pain because I will have to create duplicates for every DVD I have since there isn't a real way to sort. Is this accurate?

[stevenhanna6]

I'm a little confused by the offline/online problem. When you import your dvds they are either online or offline. Offline dvds can be imported with dvd profiler. Maybe you could explain your setup a little more.

But maybe your talking about checking an actual real dvd file location and figuring out if its online or offline? Yah I could add something to check for those and toggle the offline/online accordingly.

I never thought of doing online/offline sorting shouldnt be to hard, I'll see what I can do. They will just be filters...like filter online, filter offline, filter all.

[JP]

Steve, thanks for taking the time here. My ultimate goal is to use only xlobby as my front end and currently the functionality is just missing a few things.

I'm about to go into detail about exactly what I am looking for because I think my previous posts have gotten lost in translation. I'll try not to be too boring

I currently use dvdstarter and xlobby. Dvdstarter gives me the ability to see what is on my server and then just easily double-click on the movie to play it via theatertek. Xlobby gives me some of this functionality as well but with a few problems. First, I can only see the list in its entirety. So I have no idea what is online and what is offline. The recent changes you made to offline vs. online does allow me to add like an overlay over the cover art depending on whether it is offline or online but to be honest I would rather have just a complete image over each of the cover art. I don't know if this functionality is currently possible or not. I was thinking that if I could have just a green light or whatever kind of object right above each cover art this would correspond to the dvd being online. If it is a red light then the dvd is offline. Again, I can live with the current functionality here because I can just add a little red triangle at the very lower bottom right of the cover art (not below it unfortunately) corresponding to a dvd that is offline and just leave the online cover art free of anything.

Again, the current functionality is doable for me but if I had my choice I would rather have some type of image above the cover art corresponding to what is online and what is offline.

Now on to the sorting. I have about 50 dvds online right now withabout 300 offline. With xlobby I currently have no way of seeing only what is online, what is offline, or both. I would love to have the option of being able to to sort between these three so I can see what I need to easily (and more importantly others as they view in my home theater over the library of dvds I have).

Finally, was the request for online/offline auto-checking. Since I may elect to remove some of the dvds online but they would be available offline I thought it would be sort of neat for xlobby to check automatically each time it starts to see for itself what dvds are online. If it doesn't see it in the designated folders then it would be offline, otherwise it would be online. This would add the functionality of what DVDSTARTER gives me by just automatically showing me what movies are online each time I start it up.

Ultimately, I want to get rid of Dvdstarter altogether and enjoy the incredible GUI of xlobby. Thanks for listening and any help is greatly appreciated.

[JP]

Any more information about this feature request?

[stevenhanna6]

1. You want an online/offline image for each dvd OFF of the cover, unlike now where you can only set it on the cover.

This isnt to hard, I could just adjust the online/offline drawing area so that it draws over the entire item instead of just the cover...would that be enough?

2. Sort between online/offline/both

Just havent had time to add that yet.

3. online/offline auto-checking

I guess I could make a new command that could switch their status when called. That way you could call the command on startup or when xlobby is running.

Sorry about the late reply to this, I lost track of this request. Everything is do able and if I get some time today I will do it and post the new exe so you can try it out.