[Livin]

just installed Gotham nightly and MyPicsDB 12.3.7 and have a few questions...

1) I noticed the MyPicsDB update window does not hide, ever... so when a video is playing it is visible. Very annoying. Anyway to hide it?

2) I have a Synology and MyPicsDB is indexing all the Synology thumbnails... this is not desirable, causes the update time to be 20-30 minutes and also the database to grow far too large. Anyway to exclude them?

thank you

[dawson77]

Hi, I had the same problem like you.
I just have the german version so I don´t know, what it is called exactly but..

2)
... go to system -> settings -> add-ons -> activated add-ons -> picture-add-ons -> My Picture Database -> (context menu) Configure -> Files (the next after "general") -> excluded files (or so)
Here you can add the following:
folder.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_B.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_M.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_L.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_XL.jpg
... and so on.
I let the XL-pics in the database, because xbmc can´t display my raw-files, so I will look at the syno-pics instead.

Hope, this was helpful.

[Livin]

Hi, I had the same problem like you.
I just have the german version so I don´t know, what it is called exactly but..

2)
... go to system -> settings -> add-ons -> activated add-ons -> picture-add-ons -> My Picture Database -> (context menu) Configure -> Files (the next after "general") -> excluded files (or so)
Here you can add the following:
folder.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_B.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_M.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_L.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_XL.jpg
... and so on.
I let the XL-pics in the database, because xbmc can´t display my raw-files, so I will look at the syno-pics instead.

Hope, this was helpful.

I'll try this... thanks !

I also found the settings.xml filecould be edited in this location...
\userdata\addon_data\plugin.image.mypicsdb
... edit the line with id="picsexcl"

[Pernod]

Hi, I had the same problem like you.
I just have the german version so I don´t know, what it is called exactly but..

2)
... go to system -> settings -> add-ons -> activated add-ons -> picture-add-ons -> My Picture Database -> (context menu) Configure -> Files (the next after "general") -> excluded files (or so)
Here you can add the following:
folder.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_B.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_M.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_L.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_XL.jpg
... and so on.
I let the XL-pics in the database, because xbmc can´t display my raw-files, so I will look at the syno-pics instead.

Hope, this was helpful.

I'll try this... thanks !

I also found the settings.xml filecould be edited in this location...
\userdata\addon_data\plugin.image.mypicsdb
... edit the line with id="picsexcl"

I was about to post about the same issue, so thanks for the suggestion.

Ideally the addon should make use of the settings in advancedsettings.xml where I have:

Code:

<pictureexcludes>
        <regexp>@eaDir</regexp>
        <regexp>#recycle</regexp>
    </pictureexcludes>

[Livin]

Hi, I had the same problem like you.
I just have the german version so I don´t know, what it is called exactly but..

2)
... go to system -> settings -> add-ons -> activated add-ons -> picture-add-ons -> My Picture Database -> (context menu) Configure -> Files (the next after "general") -> excluded files (or so)
Here you can add the following:
folder.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_B.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_M.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_L.jpg|SYNOPHOTO_THUMB_XL.jpg
... and so on.
I let the XL-pics in the database, because xbmc can´t display my raw-files, so I will look at the syno-pics instead.

Hope, this was helpful.

I'll try this... thanks !

I also found the settings.xml filecould be edited in this location...
\userdata\addon_data\plugin.image.mypicsdb
... edit the line with id="picsexcl"

I was about to post about the same issue, so thanks for the suggestion.

Ideally the addon should make use of the settings in advancedsettings.xml where I have:

Code:

<pictureexcludes>
        <regexp>@eaDir</regexp>
        <regexp>#recycle</regexp>
    </pictureexcludes>

I agree, hopefully the dev will make this change. .. ideally this addon would just get merged into XBMC as is it VERY needed!

Hats off to the coder(s)!

[Xycl]

Code:

<pictureexcludes>
        <regexp>@eaDir</regexp>
        <regexp>#recycle</regexp>
    </pictureexcludes>

I agree, hopefully the dev will make this change. .. ideally this addon would just get merged into XBMC as is it VERY needed!

The reason MyPicDB doesn't read advancedsettings.xml were the add-on rules.
These rules are now redundant because I refused to comply with them, but...
1) I don't want to have 2 possibilities to exclude files.
2) Advancedsettings.xml is for advanced users. Using the MyPicsDB add-on settings dialog is easier.

Prospective development:
1) Remove MyPicsDB add-on settings completely.
2) Create a new configuration menu within the add-on and store the configuration into the database. Then you've everything in one place.
3a) Ask the user to automatically add existing picture sources to MyPicsDb.
3b) Ask the user to read the excluded picture regexps from advancedsettings and to store them.
3c) Ask the user to read the picture extensions from advancedsettings and to store them, too.

[Pernod]

Firstly... thanks for the reply.

Code:

<pictureexcludes>
        <regexp>@eaDir</regexp>
        <regexp>#recycle</regexp>
    </pictureexcludes>

I agree, hopefully the dev will make this change. .. ideally this addon would just get merged into XBMC as is it VERY needed!

The reason MyPicDB doesn't read advancedsettings.xml were the add-on rules.

Which rule says you can't read advancedsettings.xml?

These rules are now redundant because I refused to comply with them, but...
1) I don't want to have 2 possibilities to exclude files.
2) Advancedsettings.xml is for advanced users. Using the MyPicsDB add-on settings dialog is easier.

I agree that you wouldn't want to exclude files twice, but the advancedsettings is already designed for this purpose so why duplicate functionality? Using the MyPicsDB settings may be easier but it requires you to re-enter configuration that you have likely already done (adding sources, excludes, includes).

Prospective development:
1) Remove MyPicsDB add-on settings completely.
2) Create a new configuration menu within the add-on and store the configuration into the database. Then you've everything in one place.
3a) Ask the user to automatically add existing picture sources to MyPicsDb.
3b) Ask the user to read the excluded picture regexps from advancedsettings and to store them.
3c) Ask the user to read the picture extensions from advancedsettings and to store them, too.

Sounds good, especially item 3.

[Xycl]

Firstly... thanks for the reply.

The reason MyPicDB doesn't read advancedsettings.xml were the add-on rules.

Which rule says you can't read advancedsettings.xml?

4 Requirements for scripts and plugins ......
add-ons should store all their data in their own subfolder inside the addon_data directory. Access (read/write/delete) to any other files in settings folders is not allowed.

These rules are now redundant because I refused to comply with them, but...
1) I don't want to have 2 possibilities to exclude files.
2) Advancedsettings.xml is for advanced users. Using the MyPicsDB add-on settings dialog is easier.

I agree that you wouldn't want to exclude files twice, but the advancedsettings is already designed for this purpose so why duplicate functionality? Using the MyPicsDB settings may be easier but it requires you to re-enter configuration that you have likely already done (adding sources, excludes, includes).

The question is why did you do this configuration in advancedsettings?
I ask this because I would never use the XBMC picture file browser and I don't think that any other picture add-on reads the advancedsettings.

[Pernod]

Which rule says you can't read advancedsettings.xml?

4 Requirements for scripts and plugins ......
add-ons should store all their data in their own subfolder inside the addon_data directory. Access (read/write/delete) to any other files in settings folders is not allowed.

Fair enough, are the settings not accessible through the JSON-RPC API? (I guess not but worth investigating)

The question is why did you do this configuration in advancedsettings?
I ask this because I would never use the XBMC picture file browser and I don't think that any other picture add-on reads the advancedsettings.

The Synology NAS has a shared 'photo' folder that I connect to, and the Synology automatically indexes this folder creating hidden subfolder '@eaDir' containing various sized thumbnails for use in other Synology web based apps. If I don't exclude '@eaDir' in advancedsettings then the standard XBMC picture browser shows all these '@eaDir' hidden folders, and '#recycle' if the recycle bin is enabled on the NAS.

Ideally XBMC should have it's own picture library in the same way as video and music so you could easily query the picture library (which would already respect advancedsettings).

[Livin]

Which rule says you can't read advancedsettings.xml?

4 Requirements for scripts and plugins ......
add-ons should store all their data in their own subfolder inside the addon_data directory. Access (read/write/delete) to any other files in settings folders is not allowed.

Fair enough, are the settings not accessible through the JSON-RPC API? (I guess not but worth investigating)

The question is why did you do this configuration in advancedsettings?
I ask this because I would never use the XBMC picture file browser and I don't think that any other picture add-on reads the advancedsettings.

The Synology NAS has a shared 'photo' folder that I connect to, and the Synology automatically indexes this folder creating hidden subfolder '@eaDir' containing various sized thumbnails for use in other Synology web based apps. If I don't exclude '@eaDir' in advancedsettings then the standard XBMC picture browser shows all these '@eaDir' hidden folders, and '#recycle' if the recycle bin is enabled on the NAS.

Ideally XBMC should have it's own picture library in the same way as video and music so you could easily query the picture library (which would already respect advancedsettings).

Ditto - Ditto - Ditto

If you decide not to use the advancedsettings.xml I get it, no worries of course. But please keep your config file in a text format so we can easily edit it. Storing settings in databases and requiring editing through the XBMC UI is VERY tedious... taking several minutes vs seconds editing in notepad.

again... thank you for the very needed addon!

[Xycl]

After setting the general startup parm 'Init database on startup' all tables in the database are cleaned. But also the tables FilterWizard and FilterWizardItems are cleaned. That is not handy if you want to do a complete rescan of the database.

RFC: Is it possible to skip both tables in the database cleaning process ?
...

Done

just installed Gotham nightly and MyPicsDB 12.3.7 and have a few questions...

1) I noticed the MyPicsDB update window does not hide, ever... so when a video is playing it is visible. Very annoying. Anyway to hide it?
...
thank you

Should be possible. Good idea.

....
Prospective development:
2) Create a new configuration menu within the add-on and store the configuration into the database. Then you've everything in one place.
...

Done. But due to Livin's wish to use a file instead of the DB it's still in the settings.xml.

[Xycl]

I did some performance optimizations which should increase the response time especially on a Raspberry Pi.

[mhdebokx]

The new main menu-option "Add-on settings" is not available on Transifex. Can you add this label to the repository ?

[Xycl]

It always takes some time until changes are synchronized

[mhdebokx]

I have a new idea.
I'm using the element IPTC.Keywords for placing the names of persons available on the pictures. Nowadays each picture has also a date/time-original element. My suggestion is to introduce a structure in MPD to display people of a certain age.

What can be done in de setup/configuration, is to point out in which element the user has persons names (in my case the IPTC.Keywords)
In a new table in the setup/config we can add multiple occurences of 2 values: the name and the date-of-birth

A new way of browsing should be introduced; show the people of age 3 years for example. Perhaps this can be combined with the filter wizard, so that the persons name from the new config can be selected for browsing the age.

What do you think Xycl ? Is this feasible ?