[metaron]

I was wondering if anyone else has the same issue I do with the new 'Change Timer Type' feature.

Generally I think it's yet another step in the right direction (keep up the good work @ksooo), but there is one part of it I don't understand.

When a 'manual' timer doesn't have a parent, I can see that being able to edit its type makes sense. You might want to make a 'oneshot' instant record timer a rule so it also records the rest of the series for example....

My issue is with timers which are children of existing timer rules (an 'upcoming' in mythtv terminology).
To my mind, these are events and don't really have a type you can (or should) edit.
It's correct to be able to activate/deactivate, and change start/end padding etc... (where the backend supports it) but not I think to change the type.

Would it be sensible/possible to make the type 'read only' where a timer has a parent timer rule, and to display the correct timer type rather than 'Manual' in this case?

What you really want here is a button which allows you to edit the associated timer rule, but I can see this might not be that easy to accomplish within the current framework.

Unfortunately I don't have much time to code at present otherwise I'd try to mock up something myself.
I'm also a little worried that I just missed the last alpha in the release cycle.....

[ksooo]

Would it be sensible/possible to make the type 'read only' where a timer has a parent timer rule, and to display the correct timer type rather than 'Manual' in this case?

For pvr.hts I'm doing exactly this. Timers scheduled by a rule have a special read-only timer type. There is a timer type attribute for this.

[ksooo]

What you really want here is a button which allows you to edit the associated timer rule, but I can see this might not be that easy to accomplish within the current framework.

In Krypton there is an entry "Edit timer rule" in the context menu of child timers.

[metaron]

Would it be sensible/possible to make the type 'read only' where a timer has a parent timer rule, and to display the correct timer type rather than 'Manual' in this case?

For pvr.hts I'm doing exactly this. Timers scheduled by a rule have a special read-only timer type. There is a timer type attribute for this.

There are things mythtv allows you to edit for 'upcomings' by setting an over-ride for a specific event. The pvr.mythtv client allows you to set recording priority (which I've checked works), start/end padding, recording group and recording lifetime.

Setting the type directly via kodi UI for a child timer however isn't one of the things which makes sense and I can't see why it ever would in the context of an over-riding parent rule.

Yes, if it's the special read-only type then you shouldn't be able to edit the timer type, but I think that also applies more generally to anything which has a parent rule.

Trying to edit the 'type' of something with a parent via kodi really means wanting to edit the parent rule to change how it works - that's where my 'you really want a button to edit the parent here' comment came from.

By the way, pvr.mythtv sets the 'can't be created by kodi' flag for the 'upcoming' which probably explains why it is defaulting to 'Manual' rather than displaying the actual name of the timer type. It would be good if the list were extended to include the 'current' setting even if that happens to be an 'invalid' one.

Pvr.mythtv also sets the 'can't be created by kodi' flag for a special 'Unhandled' timer rule which covers 'all those complicated things which the backend can do but kodi's UI can't handle'. Pvr.mythtv won't accept edits for these. I'm in two minds whether kodi ought to prevent the timer type from being changed for anything which sets the 'can't be created by kodi' flag, but I suspect that would be overly restrictive for one of the other backends.

Not directly related, but now you mention it, I like what you've done to simplify the context menu. It was too long.
I'm not sure 'deactivate' / 'activate' still needs to be there though. The 'Enabled' option is right at the top of the list of settings you get when you edit the timer.

[ksooo]

I think to prevent to change the timer type for every timer that has a parent will do the trick. Strictly speaking I do consider it a bug not to do so. This simply came not to my mind as I test with pvr.hts where this problem does not occure.

I guess I will PR this the next days. Should be a one or two liner only.

[metaron]

I think to prevent to change the timer type for every timer that has a parent will do the trick. Strictly speaking I do consider it a bug not to do so. This simply came not to my mind as I test with pvr.hts where this problem does not occure.

I guess I will PR this the next days. Should be a one or two liner only.

Cheers @ksooo