Kodi Community Forum
Maraschino (formerly HTPC Frontend) - a summary web interface for your XBMC HTPC - Printable Version

+- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv)
+-- Forum: Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=33)
+--- Forum: Supplementary Tools for Kodi (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=116)
+--- Thread: Maraschino (formerly HTPC Frontend) - a summary web interface for your XBMC HTPC (/showthread.php?tid=113136)



- mrkipling - 2011-11-01

HarryRosen Wrote:Hi I have been trying to figure out how to install this on my xbmclive machine, i have all the files downloaded and installed the mod_wgi but have no idea where to go from here, any help would be appreciated

If you don't have any experience of setting up a webserver then it might prove a bit tricky. I'd love to make it easier to set up, but it's early days yet, and as it currently stands it does require a little bit of technical know-how.

Have you followed the instructions on the project page, in particular paying attention to the instructions that I linked to on the Flask website?

If you've never set up a site using Apache before then the following might not make much sense, but the basic steps are:

* Clone the git repository into a directory such as "/var/www/htpc-frontend"

* Copy settings_example.py to settings.py and fill out the settings (or for testing purposes, until you've got Apache serving the site you could remove all modules)

* Create a wsgi file (e.g. "htpcfrontend.wsgi") in the directory that you cloned htpcfrontend into. It could look like this:

Code:
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "/var/www/htpc-frontend")
from htpcfrontend import app as application

* Create an Apache configuration file for the site in sites-available, which tells Apache about the wsgi file that you just created (example on the Flask website)

* Enable the site (e.g. "sudo a2ensite htpcfrontend", assuming that you named the site htpcfrontend)

* Restart Apache (e.g. "sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart")

Hope that helps.


- mrkipling - 2011-11-01

Just pushed an update - if you add TRAKT_USERNAME and TRAKT_PASSWORD to your settings.py file then an "add shout" box appears in the trakt module which allows you to, well, add a shout. Been meaning to do this for a while. Works quite nicely for me, but if any trakt users would be willing to test this then that would be appreciated!

Further planned upgrades for the trakt module include the ability to like/dislike things, a trakt recommendations module (shows and movies that trakt thinks you'd like based on your viewing history), and when they add it to the API, similar shows/movies.


- Livin - 2011-11-01

mrkipling

Really like what you are building. A few questions...
  • Are you planning to, or can you, make a widget for uTorrent?
  • Are there full XBMC 'remote' and library capabilities - like AWX, coming?
  • Is the plan to make it equal on browser platforms for mobile devices (phones, tablets)... Android, iOS, Firefox, Dolphin, TouchPad, Amazon Fire, etc -- maybe HTML5?

My household has multiple devices (TouchPad, iOS, Android Tablets & Phones, Win7 w/ 21" Touch Screen, etc) and I could see running this to be able to control XBMC, and view status, from any device.

Having "profiles" to be able to customize what widgets show on what devices, and screen size / layout based on device need, would be awesome.


- HarryRosen - 2011-11-01

I think I got most of it, but when I do the restart i get the following error

root@FamilyRoom:/etc/apache2/sites-available# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
* Restarting web server apache2 apache2: bad user name user1
[fail]
root@FamilyRoom:/etc/apache2/sites-available#

my apache file looks like this

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName htpcfrontend

WSGIDaemonProcess htpcfrontend user=user1 group=group1 threads=5
WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/htpc-frontend/htpcfrontend.wsgi

<Directory /var/www/htpc-frontend>
WSGIProcessGroup htpc-frontend
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


- mrkipling - 2011-11-01

HarryRosen Wrote:I think I got most of it, but when I do the restart i get the following error

root@FamilyRoom:/etc/apache2/sites-available# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
* Restarting web server apache2 apache2: bad user name user1
[fail]
root@FamilyRoom:/etc/apache2/sites-available#

my apache file looks like this

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName htpcfrontend

WSGIDaemonProcess htpcfrontend user=user1 group=group1 threads=5
WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/htpc-frontend/htpcfrontend.wsgi

<Directory /var/www/htpc-frontend>
WSGIProcessGroup htpc-frontend
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Looks like the user "user1" probably doesn't exist (and I'm guessing that the group "group1" probably doesn't either) - if this is the case then create a new user and enter the user's name and group here.


- mrkipling - 2011-11-01

Livin Wrote:Really like what you are building.

Thanks!

Livin Wrote:Are you planning to, or can you, make a widget for uTorrent?

It wasn't explicitly planning to, but I think that would be a useful widget. I've added it to my "todo" list - not sure when I'll get around to it, though, as I have a few other things higher up on the list.

If anybody reading this thread has used the uTorrent API before, knows a bit of Python and fancies having a pop at it then let me know - it would get done faster that way Smile

Livin Wrote:Are there full XBMC 'remote' and library capabilities - like AWX, coming?

You can currently browse your entire movie and TV show collection, start any episode/movie playing by clicking on it, and there are controls for play/pause and stop - so it's kind of like a cut-down remote at the moment. I quite like the simplicity of it - it's handy for when you know what you want to play, and faster than AWX because it doesn't load loads of thumbnails and extra info. The library browser is also integrated with the currently playing bar - you can click on the show name or season number in the "currently playing" bar to open that section.

That said, it would be quite nice if I could figure out a way of displaying movie/episode information and thumbnails without slowing things down. Perhaps instead of "click to play" in the library browser module, clicking loads in that item's details (release date, synopsis, thumbnail, etc.) with an option to play. I plan on doing this eventually, probably sooner rather than later.

Also, the ability to create/edit playlists would be quite nice - another thing that I want to add.

Livin Wrote:Is the plan to make it equal on browser platforms for mobile devices (phones, tablets)... Android, iOS, Firefox, Dolphin, TouchPad, Amazon Fire, etc -- maybe HTML5?

An adaptive layout for smaller displays would be great. Added to the list.

Livin Wrote:Having "profiles" to be able to customize what widgets show on what devices, and screen size / layout based on device need, would be awesome.

I've been trying to avoid using a database for this project (it's just one more thing that needs to be set up) but I'm starting to think that it might be beneficial. Something to think about, for sure.

Thanks for all the great ideas, they've been helpful.


- rflores2323 - 2011-11-01

I was wondering if there was a way to get this to work on an android tablet? This would be awesome to have as I use my tablet to control xbmc and it would be great for the wife to have these widgets on a screen to download movies, tvshows, check trakt, etc...


- mrkipling - 2011-11-01

rflores2323 Wrote:I was wondering if there was a way to get this to work on an android tablet? This would be awesome to have as I use my tablet to control xbmc and it would be great for the wife to have these widgets on a screen to download movies, tvshows, check trakt, etc...

You could always try it and see what happens. Theoretically it should be okay - it works mostly okay on my Nexus One, except it's not really that useful on a <4" screen Smile

As suggested above by Livin, it would be great if the app had an adaptive layout - so that perhaps it switched to a 1-column layout on mobile devices, for example.

If you try it out as it currently is then I'd be interested in hearing how how you get on.


- HarryRosen - 2011-11-01

still working on it, I think i got the user and groups done, but I think I am missing something, do i have to do anything other than go to the page by using a link like this

http://192.168.1.146/htpcfrontend

??


- rflores2323 - 2011-11-01

mrkipling Wrote:You could always try it and see what happens. Theoretically it should be okay - it works mostly okay on my Nexus One, except it's not really that useful on a <4" screen Smile

As suggested above by Livin, it would be great if the app had an adaptive layout - so that perhaps it switched to a 1-column layout on mobile devices, for example.

If you try it out as it currently is then I'd be interested in hearing how how you get on.

I have know idea where to start to try to get this working. I have a server already on my htpc (XAMPP for linux) and I have mediafrontpage on it running. So I know how to clone the git repo however how would I get the widgets on my tablet to work? No idea how to do it?


- mrkipling - 2011-11-01

rflores2323 Wrote:I have know idea where to start to try to get this working. I have a server already on my htpc (XAMPP for linux) and I have mediafrontpage on it running. So I know how to clone the git repo however how would I get the widgets on my tablet to work? No idea how to do it?

You need to set it up to be served by your webserver, and then you can view it in any web browser (although as mentioned above I haven't tested it on a tablet yet).

I've written a brief guide on the project homepage and explained it in a bit more detail in this post.

As already mentioned, setting up this project requires some technical knowhow (not much - just enough to configure Apache) so I'm afraid that I can't really explain in any more detail than that, sorry.


- Livin - 2011-11-01

mrkipling Wrote:I've been trying to avoid using a database for this project (it's just one more thing that needs to be set up) but I'm starting to think that it might be beneficial. Something to think about, for sure.

I'm not sure a DB would be needed - I'm thinking more like XML "definition" files for each screen size. It would also be useful since users could create their own, share with others, etc - especially as screen sizes/resolutions change, etc.


- xcitedk - 2011-11-02

It seems that the github repo isn't working? Cannot clone..


- mrkipling - 2011-11-02

xcitedk Wrote:It seems that the github repo isn't working? Cannot clone..

I've just renamed the project. It is now called Maraschino, and you can find it here:

https://github.com/mrkipling/maraschino

If you cloned the repository when it was called htpc-frontend you'll need to edit the repo's git config file. Open ".git/config" and change "url" in remote origin to "git://github.com/mrkipling/maraschino.git"

Really sorry to break the old URL, but I figured that it was better to do it now rather than later. I've also registered maraschinoproject.com and have moved the documentation there.


- HarryRosen - 2011-11-02

damn I still can't get it to load properly.

I think i did everything right

all applications installed apache2, mod_wsgi python and all the setup tools

made my maraschino.wsgi that looks like this

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "/var/www/maraschino")
from maraschino import app as application

renamed the settings.py

created the file in /etc/apache2/sites-available called maraschino

that looks like this

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName maraschino

WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/maraschino/maraschino.wsgi

<Directory /var/www/maraschino>
WSGIProcessGroup maraschino
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

then I ran sudo a2ensite maraschino

then sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

only error I get is

* Restarting web server apache2 apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
[Tue Nov 01 21:46:10 2011] [warn] NameVirtualHost *:80 has no VirtualHosts
... waiting apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
[Tue Nov 01 21:46:11 2011] [warn] NameVirtualHost *:80 has no VirtualHosts
[ OK ]

but don't think that is a problem, am I missing something else?

when i goto http://192.168.1.146 which is my xbmc machine i get nothing

Please help Thanks