[Gamester17]

Could you grand me access to, if I may be so frank?

You should already have access

[HexusOdy]

If the core is stable and easy to address, the usability is all about the interface. If all goes as planned it will be fairly simple to create an interface (or multiple) that suits everybody's needs. But I completely agree that there are numerous options and the users should not be confronted with all of them.

An example that might simplify things is to add automatic resolution detection. Based on the resolution XBMC is using, the nearest resolution fanart is automatically downloaded. Not everybody will want this, so it would be nice if it could be turned on or off (allowing manual resolution selection). Or maybe even integrated (optionaly automatic) resizing and image quality control could be added. This would savo a lot of work for the XBOX users, no more manual resizing (Optimize downloaded images for XBOX : [PAL | NTSC | 720p]).
Weather this should (mainly) be part of the View or the Controller is a different discussion

Nice idea, but alot of people (like me) use XBMC to stream from another PC in the home or a NAS in which case the app will not be able to auto detect.

The simpler solution is to have an initial setup screen when you install the app where you can setup wizard for crucial info such as your ideal fanart resolution, language, prefered poster size, poster/banner etc

Those settings will already be there in preferences if they need to be changed later. But a wizard at the start to quickly set these will make it easier to jump into.

[Bram77]

You should already have access

Bram77, you do not have permission to access this page.

@HexusOdy: Sure it's possible! I'm using a similar configuration. I'm running XBMC on my XBOX and all media is a fairly simple NAS. Why would autodetection (although that wasn't what I was aiming at) not be possible on a samba share? Once connected/mounted all storage is the same from XBMC's point of view. There will be a noticable scan-speed-performance impact using samba shares, depending on your network configuration.
Or am I missing your point?

What I'm describing is ment to be an option, and not the only one

[davemf]

Bear in mind that some people (like me!) have multiple XBMC devices pointing at a single NAS/server. I'd need a different resolution of fanart for the xbox from the HTPC. Not sure there's a way around this with XBMC as it stands, mind.

[HexusOdy]

Sure to XBMC all Media looks the same.

But for example, all my Media is on this PC I am using to type this. It is my main home PC. My HTPC under my TV is a small unit that pretty much just runs XBMC.

Any Media Manager I use is going to be on this main PC I am using. It is the faster machine with a normal keyboard and mouse and thus easier to use.

My point was, is UMM is on this machine, how is it going to Auto detect the screen resolution setting in XBMC on another machine? Is that possible?

It was in answer to the suggestion that UMM could auto detect that setting.

[Bram77]

If you'd read the whole thread you would have know that the idea (at this point) is to create a supporting-media manager that will be part of the XBMC package and can be operated with a web interface. It communicates with XBMC directly so it can easily figure out the resolution used. It won't matter where what media is stored. As long as XBMC can access the data, the media manager can. Sure, it will take a bit longer to scan all media and copy the downloaded data to your share over the network. But there are also a lot of advantages to centralising the control over the media on the XBMC machine.

[HexusOdy]

In that case I retract my opinion

I don't know anything about programming, what I do know through my career is how to find the elegant solution and the best economy of effort. If you like, picking through the deluge of ideas to find the one that will work best.

I think a package combined with XBMC thats accessed via a web interface is the perfect solution. Obviously I didn't read that before though!

[CrashX]

I vote to use wxpython ( http://www.wxpython.org ) ... It works for all platforms including mac, windows, linux ..

wxPython is a cross-platform wrapper for the GUI API (often referred to as a 'toolkit') wxWidgets (which is written in C++) for the Python programming language.

How about naming XBMC-Utility ... Would love to see one utility that supports all of the following:

1) Scraper Development
2) Plugin Development
3) XBMC Database Editor / NFO Generator ( Supports HD Flagging )
4) Auto Update XBMC

[Montellese]

Well I don't know wxWidgets very well and I don't know wxPython at all but isn't wxWidgets dedicated to GUI programming? What we are mainly talking about is a programming language for the core independent of the GUI.

[mafis90]

I think we need a public list for wishes.

[Gamester17]

If you'd read the whole thread you would have know that the idea (at this point) is to create a supporting-media manager that will be part of the XBMC package and can be operated with a web interface. It communicates with XBMC directly so it can easily figure out the resolution used.

I though that the initial idea was to first create standalone media manager software that you install on your desktop computer sepratly from the media center, (so same as Media Info Plus and Media Companion work for the user today, with the only real major difference would be that it would have cross-platform and a WebGUI), then later maybe the option to integrate and bundle it with XBMC could be an option (and secondary priority for development)?

The point with it first focusing on being a standalone application for desktop computers usage is that it could then also allow for it to be used and developed for and by MediaPortal and MeediOS users as well if developers who are also users of those media center software applications also join this project. So they could add support for this "Unified Media Manager to also export XML/NFO metadata files and artwork that MediaPortal and MeediOS can import too.

The preference for a WebGUI is that it would then make this application flexible enough to install onto a headless NAS (like for example the free VortexBox or the commerical Windows Home Server), or with a living-room HTPC that stores all its files locally, and be able to access the full media manager interface from any computer remotely via any web browser, (from anywhere in the world).

Maybe I got the concept wrong?

[Montellese]

I think we need a public list for wishes.

I think we first need to define what exactly we want to accomplish and then we can start taking "Feature Requests". Otherwise we end up with a looong list of requested features and functionality but don't even exactly know what we want to do at all.

@Gamester: That's how I thought about it as well.

I really think we need to write down the basic structure of this media manager before we start discussing about any options, features etc...

[zitroneneis]

If you'd read the whole thread you would have know that the idea (at this point) is to create a supporting-media manager that will be part of the XBMC package and can be operated with a web interface.....

You mentioned that it will (might) be a part of the XBMC package.
I think if this is the goal, that mono is not an option, because every user would be forced to install the mono implementation of the .net framework....
maybe I'm wrong - but if this is the target the language of choice would have to be c++

[Bram77]

I'm not sure what will be the choice of the core developers. I'm just repeating what's already been stated in this topic. But it doesn't look like C# or Java will be used. I'm guessing C++

[CrashX]

Well I don't know wxWidgets very well and I don't know wxPython at all but isn't wxWidgets dedicated to GUI programming? What we are mainly talking about is a programming language for the core independent of the GUI.

Well we still need GUI for user interaction ... XBMC plugins are written with python .. So I figured we use something that has both which is wxPython .. We have alot of python developers here already ..

wxPython has alot more than a GUI Framework .. Compression library ... XML library .. Network Library ..

Here is sample hello world gui program :

Code:

import wx  
class MainWindow(wx.Frame):  
    def __init__(self, parent, id, title):  
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title, size=(200,100))  
        self.control = wx.TextCtrl(self, 1, style=wx.TE_MULTILINE)  
        self.Show(True)  
app = wx.PySimpleApp()  
frame=MainWindow(None, wx.ID_ANY, 'Small editor')  
app.MainLoop()