[tuxpoldo]

MediathekView Addon for Kodi

Yet another Kodi-Addon for the german public service video platforms... Why?

Because the approach of this addon is different from that of the already available addons: this addon uses the database of the popular project "MediathekView", which is updated hourly and contains more than 200,000 entries from all German public service video platforms. This approach has some significant advantages over the other add-ons that usually scan the ever-changing websites of the German public service video platforms:
 

• High speed browsing and navigation
  
• Independence from all changes to the page layout of the media libraries
  
• High reliability
  

If you have any questions or suggestions about this addon, please feel free to use the official Kodi Addon Forum topic or the German forum topic. Errors and feature requests can also be reported directly as GitHub Issue. The source code is available as well on GitHub.

Highlights

• Background updating of the database
  
• Amazing fast navigation and search
  
• Download with subtitles and automatic NFO file generation
  
• Internal standalone or shared MySQL database support
  
• UI localised to German, English and Italian
  

Availability and Links
The Addon is available in the official Kodi Addon Repository. If you are interested in testing new features and providing feedback, you can install a dedicated 3rd party repository that will give you access to the beta versions of the addon: The YeaSoft Beta Repository

A german discussion thread about this addon is also available in the official MediathekView Forum. Errors and feature requests can also be reported directly as GitHub Issue. The source code is available as well on GitHub.

How it Works
The addon downloads the database from MediathekView and imports it either into a local SQLite database, or alternatively into a local or remote MySQL database (for use by multiple Kodi clients). During the runtime of Kodi, only the differential update files are downloaded from MediathekView in a configurable interval (default: 2 hours) and integrated into the database. By the next calendar day after the last update at the latest, the update will be carried out again by importing the full MediathekView database.

System Requirements
The system requirements for the addon vary depending on the configuration. After installation, the addon starts in local mode: this means that a local SQLite database is used, which is also updated locally by the Kodi system. This is probably the most common scenario.

Ideally, using the local database requires a file system with a decent performance. A Raspberry with a slow SD card is certainly not the very best choice in this case but still acceptable. The full update will take in this case about 15-20 Minutes but since this happens in the background, you may be able to live with it.

The addon has been tested on different platforms under Linux, MacOS, Windows and LibreELEC/OpenELEC. Various Android systems have also been tested successfully. Due to the variety of platforms, however, it is not possible to make a final compatibility statement.

Alternate Configurations
If the Kodi system is too slow to manage its own database (e.g. Raspberry PI with a very slow SD card) or you want to share the database across multiple Kodi instances, it is also possible to use the addon with an external database (MySQL or MariaDB).

Since many Kodi users have their own NAS system to make their media available to the media center, this is usually also suitable as a MySQL/MariaDB database server since almost all NAS operating systems offer the installation of MySQL.

If the addon is configured to use a MySQL/MariaDB database, the database is created automatically if it does not yet exist on the database server. However, the specified database user must also have sufficient user rights in order to do this.

The connection to the database can be configured in the addon settings in the "Database Settings" section.

If at least one of the connected Kodi systems is able to update the database, the data is available to all Kodi systems. If this is not the case, it is also possible to run the update process on a different system (e.g. the NAS, the database server or another machine).

Standalone Database Update Process
A python2 interpreter as well as the unpacker 'xz' is requirered on the target system in order to execute the commandline update process. Additionally the following python libraries are required:

• ijson
  
• defusedxml
  
• mysql-connector
  

The required libraries can be installed via pip:

Code:

pip install ijson
pip install defusedxml
pip install mysql-connector==2.1.4

The update program is called mvupdate and is located in the root directory of the addon and must be executed from there. The whole addon has to be copied to the target machine. This can be either done by downloading and unpacking the addon archive or by cloning the source repository with git

Code:

git clone https://github.com/mediathekview/plugin.video.mediathekview.git

By specifying the option -h itself or after the requested database type, the application shows specific help instructions:

Code:

leo@bookpoldo ~/plugin.video.mediathekview $ ./mvupdate mysql -h
usage: mvupdate mysql [-h][-H HOST][-P PORT][-u USER][-p PASSWORD][-d DATABASE]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -H HOST, --host HOST  hostname or ip address (default: localhost)
  -P PORT, --port PORT  connection port (default: 3306)
  -u USER, --user USER  connection username (default: mediathekview)
  -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
                        connection password (default: None)
  -d DATABASE, --database DATABASE
                        database name (default: mediathekview)

Change Log

v0.5.0 (2018-08-08):

• Download option was missing in the context menu of some movies
  
• Support for older MySQL and MariaDB Versions
  
• Downloaded update files are deleted immediately after import
  
• Possibility to play a show with subtitles either with "Play with subtitles" in the context menu or automatically if configured in the plugin settings (if "Autoplay with subtitles" is enabled in the settings, the context menu command is not shown since it makes no sense)
  
• Search history
  
• Faster directory listing of live streams
  
• Possibility to download a show as Movie or as Series Episode. This implies two different configurable download locations, a different file naming scheme and different types of NFO files created
  
• Three different NFO file creation modes (None, simple or extended)
  
• Automatic detection of season an episode if possible
  
• Improved download settings (download locations, filename confirmation)
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented the creation of the SQLite database on some systems
  
• More efficient database layout
  
• The mvupdate script has got some additional options: --force and --interval
  
• "Update On Start" initiates the update when the plugin is invoked by the user
  
• Display of database type and version in the log file
  

v0.4.2 (2018-01-20):

• Display of channel logos in various UI screens
  
• Fixed wrong movie listing in "Browse by Show in all Channels"
  
• Fixed rare exception during database update
  
• Download mirrors are now shuffled
  

v0.4.1 (2018-01-20):

• Sorting in lists is now case insensitive
  
• Fixed broken download functionality
  
• Fixed "Search in Title and Description" when using MySQL database
  
• Both search functions now work also with quotes
  
• Fixed a rare concurrency problem that caused internal database corruption
  
• Fixed mvupdate utility
  
• "Browse Shows by Channel" brings you immediately to the movie list after selecting a channel
  
• New setting allows to configure the number of days considered as recent for "Recently Added"
  
• New setting allows to configure if "Recently Added" is calculated based on the air date or the database added date
  
• Fixed the movie count in "Recently Added by Channel"
  
• Fixed a few localisation errors
  

v0.4.0 (2018-01-14):

• Compatibility with Android and Windows: no external decompressor required
  
• The MySQL driver is now able to create automatically the database
  
• It is now possible to specify the port in a MySQL connection
  
• It is now possible to configure the maximal number of search results
  

v0.3.4 (2018-01-11):

• The search functions search now also in the show name
  
• New function "Recently Added by Channel"
  
• German and Italian UI is now working
  

v0.3.3 (2018-01-09):

• Selection of download quality
  
• Implemented standalone database update process
  
• Fixed error in generation of tvshow.nfo
  
• README.md now contains all translated versions
  

v0.3.2 (2018-01-08):

• Fixed error when downloading files with umlauts
  
• Downloads to VFS locations are now directly written without intermediate storage
  
• Improved quality of NFO files
  

v0.3.1 (2018-01-07):

• Download is now also compatible with Kodi VFS paths
  
• Fixed rare exception that kills database update
  

v0.3.0 (2018-01-07):

• Implemented movie downloads with metadata (nfo) and subtitles
  
• Fixed missing subtitle field during database update
  

v0.2.9 (2018-01-05):

• Longer lock timeout (60 seconds) for very slow systems
  
• Lazy commits (one commit each 1000 movie additions)
  

v0.2.8 (2018-01-05):

• Last update time not updated when update aborted
  
• Dramatic speedup of update with SQLite
  
• Handling of database corruption
  

v0.2.7 (2018-01-05):

• Fixed Naming Exception during update
  
• Updated English README
  
• Added German README
  
• Added Italian README
  
• Added LICENSE (MIT)
  

v0.2.6 (2018-01-04):

• Implemented differential update
  

v0.2.5 (2018-01-03):

• MySQL Support
  

v0.2.4 (2017-12-30):

• UI Improvements
  

v0.2.3 (2017-12-29):

• Several Fixes
  

v0.2.1 (2017-12-29):

• Implemented database update mechanism
  

v0.2.0 (2017-12-28):

• First working version with SQLite
  

v0.1.0 (2017-12-22):

• First working version