[tilgrieog]

I wasn't sure which forum to put this in as there might be various ways to do it, or also maybe none...

My use case is like this:

- A family member has a Kodi box I set up but no home internet and HDD space is limited. I've set them up a "permanent" collection of media which I always use local NFO files for.
- From time to time, I'm asked to provide a bunch of TV eps of stuff which they have no intention of watching more than once. For these "temporary" files, I just hand over a 64GB stick.
- I would like said family member to access the files on the stick to watch over a few weeks, and have the benefit of seeing thumbnails and metadata somewhere on their screen, to make the experience richer and easier to tell what they're watching. I'm happy to organise the USB stick with such metadata.

However...
I have gone to lengths to organise their library exactly how they like it, whereas I tend to care less about organising these temporary files and keeping with my minimum acceptable bitrate etc.
I don't really want the messy situation of them adding these files to the library, and then having to clean it up once they're unavailable. I kind of just see these files as being not part of the library at all, so they're not included elsewhere within the hierarchy.

What would be the cleanest way (i.e. for them being tech-illiterate, and me not having to be present), but most feature-rich way (if at all), for someone to access a temporary video source and have metadata benefits, but keeping this experience separate from the "permanent" library?

- Least-feature-rich is just to use the File Manager.
- Or I could set up this USB stick as a separate source, but I still feel like this just gets into a world of mixing these non-permanent videos with the rest of the library.

In my thinking, there are video addons e.g. which fetch on-demand videos from the internet, and these mostly seem to access and view metadata, but those videos seem to live separate to the library.
What I'm wanting is the equivalent way to open a temporary, but local, source, and view metadata on-demand, but knowing that once it's closed, it's forgotten.

Am I better to think a different way about video sources? Is there a more feature-rich File Manager addon that can "see" thumbnails and video info? Am I better to focus on automated library organisation?

[For some time now the world is increasingly consuming media on-demand, which is a different mindset to keeping and organising one's own collection of media. I'm trying to get my head around how Kodi can do the former, but under my control, when the model I have in my head of its information architecture is all about the latter...]

[izprtxqkft]

i think it's unreasonable to expect the file manager to behave like the library, it would break the entire point of a Kodi library
if you add metadata into the file manager then it's just the library with a different storage point which it's not designed for

i don't see how telling someone how to "Add Source" when adding a new show then "Remove Source" selecting yes remove it's content from the library is so hard
i do this with a few shows, offline stored on USB drives and MicroSD cards simply because they're only interesting to watch once every few years and dedicating online storage isn't a good use of it
so with that i understand the need for a modular library but still it's not hard to achieve

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if you want to complete remote control a library with an administrative interface consider setting up a media server
jellyfin and emby work great for this and if you're putting a whole show on a 64GB USB then the bandwidth requirements would be very low
and you can manage libraries and users from your own server to keep their remote libraries up to date

other than those 2 options i don't have first hand knowledge of their functionality but you can investigate those for your use if you would like to https://kodi.wiki/view/Syncing_and_sharing

[PatK]

You've encompassed many different perspectives in the post and without a face to face discussion, I'll just say Kodi is Kodi and development is an ongoing process, I'll try and tackle of few of your observations with work-rounds or solutions that don't involve too much effort, but the proper way is as you've pointed out 'the messy situation'.

set up this USB stick as a separate source,

Yup, this is the way. You can make these listing somewhat more palatable with gfx images fanart.jpg, folder.jpg, and thumb.jpg for each listing or folder and Kodi will appreciate the images in the cache (on first load, try an make the file size small so the load is fast). The old Western Digital TV player users put all the meta-data in the fanart page as a graphic (As I understand, there is a paint program that amalgamates written text with an image). This is what I've done for my collection, denied scraper scan and set for no-media.

just gets into a world of mixing these non-permanent videos with the rest of the library.

Setting this up with source/folder nodes, make them a favourite via the path rule should differentiate.. here's one of my Video nodes (wiki) path examples, but you should note, that some o/s like windows re-assigns drive letters like musical chairs, so what was path to drive H:/ is now J:/ etc.. to avoid this manually set the drive letter to Z:/
 

---

Code:

 
<node type="folder">
    <label>Art</label>
    <path>P:\TV/Art</path>
    <icon>P:\TV\Art\poster.jpg</icon>
</node>

Your observations regarding streaming are valid, atm Kodi is primarily a library for personal collections, encompassing a player that handles the latest encodes with aplomb. Developers have included hooks for many 3rd party (open source) to ensure a bright future; but taking on mass media was never in the cards as a path to follow.

[DarrenHill]

Thread moved to OS independent support

[scott967]

I think Kodi's python plugin interface can do what you want, but you would need to learn enough python to build the addon.

scott s.
.

[tilgrieog]

Your observations regarding streaming are valid, atm Kodi is primarily a library for personal collections, encompassing a player that handles the latest encodes with aplomb. Developers have included hooks for many 3rd party (open source) to ensure a bright future; but taking on mass media was never in the cards as a path to follow.

Thank you for your intelligent and engaging response. [As a BA/product owner I'm often disappointed by forum replies telling me why my use case is wrong and that I shouldn't want what I want.]

FWIW - I am a huge advocate of Kodi and enjoy getting my hands dirty - but I'm occasionally conflicted as I can't escape the probable future where there aren't many of us left who even own hard drives let alone organise their own local media collection. I don't personally want to go that way, and I usually assume people who tinker with Kodi are likely people like me who value having control of what they consume and the interface to it, rather than paying for the convenience but leaving it to someone else to decide what they want. The addons that bridge this gap are a good intermediary, for now...

I will experiment with some of your ideas re nodes and sources. But nevertheless,

I think Kodi's python plugin interface can do what you want, but you would need to learn enough python to build the addon.

Yes, I was halfheartedly leaving the door open to me learning python to give it a crack. I'm not a dev but usually do OK starting from someone else's code.

The way I figured, I use catch-up TV apps for Aussie TV at least, and presumably these go off to an API before presenting available videos. These come with metadata on-demand, which usually gets transposed into fields Kodi usually fills from its local library. But in the apps I use I don't believe anything gets stored to the library.
I wondered maybe a starting point would be an environment like those on-demand apps, but instead of fetching videos and data from an API, use the file space I'm interested in, and use an expected hierarchy and NFO files. This thread was for moral support and checking if anyone's already done this... 

But any thoughts or pointers would be appreciated too. If I learn Python I could end up being useful to this community one day.

[izprtxqkft]

But any thoughts or pointers would be appreciated too.

nice addition after a post that disregards thoughts and pointers because you don't like to hear the answer

[jjd-uk]

What exactly do you define as metadata? In the Videos -> Files views there will be a basic set of metadata like thumbnails and media info like video resolution and audio type, however the things like Plot and Posters will require adding to the Library.

[PatK]

pointers would be appreciated

Do install Add-on:Library Node Editor (wiki) create your Node and multiple sub-nodes with the editor, then manually replace code with example in post #3 changing path & titles in each sub-node. Entertain this add-on, it handles hierarchy files/sources not in the library.

[tilgrieog]

But any thoughts or pointers would be appreciated too.

nice addition after a post that disregards thoughts and pointers because you don't like to hear the answer

I am gobsmacked.
I've come to this forum as a novice, albeit gushing with praise for Kodi, and demonstrating a motivation to get involved with its very main drawcard - customisation to meet ones particular goals - and knowing there are infinitely more experienced and active members here who'll scrutinise anything I suggest - and yet the courage to start a conversation about features is met with this.
I read every word of every response and provided evidence of it.
The fact I took up a conversation with someone other than yourself is inexplicably deemed as not wanting to hear the answer.
There are constructive comments still being made that haven't yet resorted to telling me the requirements are wrong. I think that definitely suggests there were answers I appreciated hearing.
If you cannot think of how to achieve what I want, it does not mean I shouldn't want it. If that's how product development worked, no progress would be made on anything ever.

[tilgrieog]

What exactly do you define as metadata? In the Videos -> Files views there will be a basic set of metadata like thumbnails and media info like video resolution and audio type, however the things like Plot and Posters will require adding to the Library.

Yes, it's the plot and posters I'm talking about. And fair enough, the library is how Kodi works. I'm not expecting the File Manager to do it if it wasn't intended for it - but it was a reference point.
I guess where my thinking is, is Kodi obviously has the ability to load in local info when it adds media. So when I plug in a USB that I'm expecting to simply watch the contents once and then remove and return - I'm seeing this more like an old DVD, where I'd love to load and present the content being contained on the fly, but once I eject it, it's gone. Just a more dynamic presentation of metadata rather than storing and organising.
It's likely my view of this is guided by the fact I never use any scrapers. I prepare every NFO file to my liking for every single title. So I figure, Kodi's got a way of parsing that file -- I'm sure there's a way to trigger this action to just show it on screen without the library being involved. But as people have explained, there's no native way in the exact fashion I've described, so maybe experimenting with an addon is a future possibility.

[scott967]

Had some time so played around with the example video plugin from the Kodi addon development wiki.  It might help you do what you want/ see here
https://github.com/scott967/plugin.video...tag/v3.1.0

scott s.
.