i have all of my movie files stored on my server in different folders based on genre, i.e. a folder for action movies, a folder for classics, etc... is there kodi ui setting that will let me view those folders in the left panel (or along the top for that matter) a la plex? thanks!
ps - i've been away from kodi for quite a while but giving it another go, seems much snappier these days with a few new bells and whistles, so far so great!
(2019-12-07, 22:21)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]a la plex?
Plex is far too limiting; how your library is arranged can be skin dependant and I encourage you to try out a few.
(2019-12-07, 22:21)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]folders based on genre
Kodi handles genre through the scrapers and automatically aligns your collection, micro managing a media manager would seem to be a little overwork, but in some cases, it's a logical way of handling multiple sources (I'm guilty of this too). Key here is to start utilizing some of the real power of Kodi through smart playlists and nodes which should take care of all of this, keeping genre sources isn't discouraged and does make organization a bit simpler. You can see your collection in 'file mode' at anytime in some skins and even create favourites for those sources.
Set-up a node called "Vintage" for Classics, B&W, Silent, film-Noir as individual sources and allow smart playlists to augment the rules, link that node to the home page under any of the library listings, this way you get a top down approach that's snappy, instead of a huge list that needs to spin up a bunch of hardware.
Video nodes (wiki) and
Add-on:Library Node Editor (wiki) and
Smart playlists (wiki).
(2019-12-07, 23:57)PatK Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-07, 22:21)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]a la plex?
Plex is far too limiting; how your library is arranged can be skin dependant and I encourage you to try out a few.
(2019-12-07, 22:21)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]folders based on genre
Kodi handles genre through the scrapers and automatically aligns your collection, micro managing a media manager would seem to be a little overwork, but in some cases, it's a logical way of handling multiple sources (I'm guilty of this too). Key here is to start utilizing some of the real power of Kodi through smart playlists and nodes which should take care of all of this, keeping genre sources isn't discouraged and does make organization a bit simpler. You can see your collection in 'file mode' at anytime in some skins and even create favourites for those sources.
Set-up a node called "Vintage" for Classics, B&W, Silent, film-Noir as individual sources and allow smart playlists to augment the rules, link that node to the home page under any of the library listings, this way you get a top down approach that's snappy, instead of a huge list that needs to spin up a bunch of hardware. Video nodes (wiki) and Add-on:Library Node Editor (wiki) and Smart playlists (wiki).
thanks very much for the reply, but i really just want to set up folders in kodi that mirror my server folders, in the left panel of the gui or the like, as shown below, is there any way to do this, perhaps using a skin other than estuary?
You could do what I and some others have done to get an interface similar to that pic you posted, except the individual "folders" would show up as Main Menu items on the home screen.
In the pic below you can see my media folders. Most of them have been individually added to Kodi as a "library" or "source". Then, I make a "smart playlist" for each source I want to have as Main Menu item. Next, use a skin (Aeon Nox: Silvo is my choice) that allows you to easily customize the Main Menu. This article in the wiki might be helpful:
https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items
(2019-12-08, 00:46)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ]You could do what I and some others have done to get an interface similar to that pic you posted, except the individual "folders" would show up as Main Menu items on the home screen.
In the pic below you can see my media folders. Most of them have been individually added to Kodi as a "library" or "source". Then, I make a "smart playlist" for each source I want to have as Main Menu item. Next, use a skin (Aeon Nox: Silvo is my choice) that allows you to easily customize the Main Menu. This article in the wiki might be helpful: https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items
this looks great, can you post an image of your kodi home page that shows this folder structure? also, btw, i've installed @jogul's "kodi 19.0 windows hdr" build and am discovering that addons, at least the ones i've tried including some skins, don't work with matrix/python3, including library node editor... so will i have issues trying to setup up my gui in the folder layout you've shown? thanks again.
(2019-12-08, 01:36)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 00:46)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ]You could do what I and some others have done to get an interface similar to that pic you posted, except the individual "folders" would show up as Main Menu items on the home screen.
In the pic below you can see my media folders. Most of them have been individually added to Kodi as a "library" or "source". Then, I make a "smart playlist" for each source I want to have as Main Menu item. Next, use a skin (Aeon Nox: Silvo is my choice) that allows you to easily customize the Main Menu. This article in the wiki might be helpful: https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items
this looks great, can you post an image of your kodi home page that shows this folder structure? also, btw, i've installed @jogul's "kodi 19.0 windows hdr" build and am discovering that addons, at least the ones i've tried including some skins, don't work with matrix/python3, including library node editor... so will i have issues trying to setup up my gui in the folder layout you've shown? thanks again.
The pics in the wiki *are* from my Kodi setup :-) This link:
https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items/Aeon_Nox_Silvo is specific to Aeon Nox: Silvo on Kodi v18.
If the Aeon Nox: Silvo skin will install and run on your version you should have no problems. It works for me in the Kodi 19 Alpha 1 LibreELEC builds.
You might need the Python 3 updated scripts referenced in the first post of the Aeon Nox: Silvo thread in the Skin Support section of the forum.
(2019-12-08, 01:47)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 01:36)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 00:46)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ]You could do what I and some others have done to get an interface similar to that pic you posted, except the individual "folders" would show up as Main Menu items on the home screen.
In the pic below you can see my media folders. Most of them have been individually added to Kodi as a "library" or "source". Then, I make a "smart playlist" for each source I want to have as Main Menu item. Next, use a skin (Aeon Nox: Silvo is my choice) that allows you to easily customize the Main Menu. This article in the wiki might be helpful: https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items
this looks great, can you post an image of your kodi home page that shows this folder structure? also, btw, i've installed @jogul's "kodi 19.0 windows hdr" build and am discovering that addons, at least the ones i've tried including some skins, don't work with matrix/python3, including library node editor... so will i have issues trying to setup up my gui in the folder layout you've shown? thanks again.
The pics in the wiki *are* from my Kodi setup :-) This link: https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items/Aeon_Nox_Silvo is specific to Aeon Nox: Silvo on Kodi v18.
If the Aeon Nox: Silvo skin will install and run on your version you should have no problems. It works for me in the Kodi 19 Alpha 1 LibreELEC builds.
You might need the Python 3 updated scripts referenced in the first post of the Aeon Nox: Silvo thread in the Skin Support section of the forum.
ok, i see that the custom folders were added to nox's bottom bar, is there a skin that allows you to add custom folders to the left panel in the same manner, so it will similar to the picture i posted?
(2019-12-08, 02:38)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 01:47)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 01:36)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]this looks great, can you post an image of your kodi home page that shows this folder structure? also, btw, i've installed @jogul's "kodi 19.0 windows hdr" build and am discovering that addons, at least the ones i've tried including some skins, don't work with matrix/python3, including library node editor... so will i have issues trying to setup up my gui in the folder layout you've shown? thanks again.
The pics in the wiki *are* from my Kodi setup :-) This link: https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items/Aeon_Nox_Silvo is specific to Aeon Nox: Silvo on Kodi v18.
If the Aeon Nox: Silvo skin will install and run on your version you should have no problems. It works for me in the Kodi 19 Alpha 1 LibreELEC builds.
You might need the Python 3 updated scripts referenced in the first post of the Aeon Nox: Silvo thread in the Skin Support section of the forum.
ok, i see that the custom folders were added to nox's bottom bar, is there a skin that allows you to add custom folders to the left panel in the same manner, so it will similar to the picture i posted?
There's a vertical menu layout option...
(2019-12-08, 02:45)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 02:38)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 01:47)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ]The pics in the wiki *are* from my Kodi setup :-) This link: https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items/Aeon_Nox_Silvo is specific to Aeon Nox: Silvo on Kodi v18.
If the Aeon Nox: Silvo skin will install and run on your version you should have no problems. It works for me in the Kodi 19 Alpha 1 LibreELEC builds.
You might need the Python 3 updated scripts referenced in the first post of the Aeon Nox: Silvo thread in the Skin Support section of the forum.
ok, i see that the custom folders were added to nox's bottom bar, is there a skin that allows you to add custom folders to the left panel in the same manner, so it will similar to the picture i posted?
There's a vertical menu layout option...
that's awesome... question: i see that sci fi tv is highlighted, why isn't the right side populated? also, is there an option to have kodi boot into this view? thanks again!
(2019-12-08, 03:03)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 02:45)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 02:38)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]ok, i see that the custom folders were added to nox's bottom bar, is there a skin that allows you to add custom folders to the left panel in the same manner, so it will similar to the picture i posted?
There's a vertical menu layout option...
that's awesome... question: i see that sci fi tv is highlighted, why isn't the right side populated? also, is there an option to have kodi boot into this view? thanks again!
With both the horizontal and vertical menu layouts, I've set the backgrounds for each menu item to be rotating fanarts from each smartplaylist. Sci Fi TV shows fanarts from only the TV shows in the Sci Fi TV smartplaylist. I just happened to take the screenshot when The Expanse fanart was up. And, yes, the menu layout choice *sticks* and will be the same after a re-boot.
When I click on the Menu Item it takes me into that smartplaylist and shows the content. There is a wide variety of views to choose from once "inside" the menu item, one of which I post below:
(2019-12-08, 19:26)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 03:03)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ] (2019-12-08, 02:45)whysoserious Wrote: [ -> ]There's a vertical menu layout option...
that's awesome... question: i see that sci fi tv is highlighted, why isn't the right side populated? also, is there an option to have kodi boot into this view? thanks again!
With both the horizontal and vertical menu layouts, I've set the backgrounds for each menu item to be rotating fanarts from each smartplaylist. Sci Fi TV shows fanarts from only the TV shows in the Sci Fi TV smartplaylist. I just happened to take the screenshot when The Expanse fanart was up. And, yes, the menu layout choice *sticks* and will be the same after a re-boot.
When I click on the Menu Item it takes me into that smartplaylist and shows the content. There is a wide variety of views to choose from once "inside" the menu item, one of which I post below:
thanks for the reply... actually this conversation is bringing back memories of when i used kodi quite a while ago and edited a skin (fuse neue), got it just the way i wanted but could not figure out how to display a library when i scrolled to it, i had to click the label/title for it to appear, iirc i used playlist to set up my custom libraries.... the author of the skin was great and very helpful and, again iirc, told me that this couldn't be done in kodi, a library wouldn't appear in the right panel without clicking when using playlists....
(2019-12-09, 05:36)aeneas1 Wrote: [ -> ]told me that this couldn't be done in kodi, a library wouldn't appear in the right panel without clicking when using playlists....
Nah, you can totally do that, but you will need to edit the skin to do it most likely.
You need to set up smartplaylists that pull out the required content, so I have playlists for all the content of a source, in progress for that source, recently added, etc etc. Then I duplicated the movies menu in Estuary, changed the ID numbers and changed the links to point to my smartplaylists.
EG, the xmas menu entry is like this
xml:
<control type="group" id="25000">
<visible>String.IsEqual(Container(9000).ListItem.Property(id),xmas)</visible>
<include content="Visible_Right_Delayed">
<param name="id" value="xmas"/>
</include>
<control type="grouplist" id="25001">
<include>WidgetGroupListCommon</include>
<pagecontrol>18010</pagecontrol>
<include content="WidgetListPoster" condition="Library.HasContent(movies)">
<param name="content_path" value="special://skin/playlists/xmas.xsp"/>
<param name="widget_header" value="Xmas - All Films"/>
<param name="widget_target" value="videos"/>
<param name="list_id" value="25090"/>
</include>
<include content="WidgetListPoster" condition="Library.HasContent(movies)">
<param name="content_path" value="special://skin/playlists/xmas_inprogress.xsp"/>
<param name="widget_header" value="Xmas - In-progress films"/>
<param name="widget_target" value="videos"/>
<param name="list_id" value="25100"/>
</include>
<include content="WidgetListPoster" condition="Library.HasContent(movies)">
<param name="content_path" value="special://skin/playlists/xmas_recentlyadded.xsp"/>
<param name="widget_header" value="Xmas - Recently added films"/>
<param name="widget_target" value="videos"/>
<param name="list_id" value="25200"/>
</include>
<include content="WidgetListPoster" condition="Library.HasContent(movies)">
<param name="content_path" value="special://skin/playlists/xmas_random.xsp"/>
<param name="widget_header" value="Xmas - Random Films"/>
<param name="widget_target" value="videos"/>
<param name="list_id" value="25400"/>
</include>
</control>
</control>
That defines the content in the right pane. To define the entry in the left panel,
xml:
<item>
<label>Xmas Films</label>
<onclick condition="Library.HasContent(movies) + Skin.HasSetting(home_no_categories_widget)">ActivateWindow(Videos,special://skin/playlists/xmas.xsp,return)</onclick>
<onclick condition="Library.HasContent(movies) + !Skin.HasSetting(home_no_categories_widget)">ActivateWindow(Videos,special://skin/playlists/xmas.xsp,return)</onclick>
<onclick condition="!Library.HasContent(movies)">ActivateWindow(Videos,sources://video/,return)</onclick>
<property name="menu_id">$NUMBER[25000]</property>
<thumb>christmas.png</thumb>
<property name="id">xmas</property>
<visible>System.Date(11-10,12-31)</visible>
</item>
By using smartplaylists and those two bits of code, you can produce a customized skin that has menus on the left called whatever you want them to be and linking to any content you want to show in the right pane.
@
black_eagle
thanks for your post, it refreshed my memory from when i had a go at it a couple of years ago... having posters appear when focusing on a widget wasn't the prob, it was trying to get the library to show in the same manner, like with plex, without having to first click the widget, iirc i was told it wasn't possible with kodi...
btw, what is the setting (or code) to prevent scrolling in the library from looping to the top once you reach the bottom, i know i had my edit set up that way but forgot how i did it.... thanks!
(2019-12-10, 03:08)the_other_guy Wrote: [ -> ]is there kodi ui setting that will let me view those folders in the left panel (or along the top for that matter) a la plex? thanks!
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=345420
this could be set up with a node set up as path
i've been trying to use the kodi hdr fork (matrix) but it apparently doesn't play well with the addons i need for this, for example library data provider won't install....