[ponkotsu]

I'm running Rapier on 16.1 and was wondering what triggers the Recently Added widget(s) to refresh their contents?

I have a MacMini as my primary HTPC device at home and a second installation on a laptop at work VPN'd into home for downtime entertainment. Both use a single central MySQL instance for the library. All media files are stored on separate server at home.

If I scrape a new TV episode into the library using the Kodi installation on the work laptop, the Recently Added widget refreshes to show the new episode within seconds of returning to the home screen. But if I scrape a new episode into the library using Kodi using the home Kodi installation, the Recently Added widget will not reflect the newly-added episode. I usually lose patience in a minute or so and reload the skin, which then causes a refresh of the widget's contents.

Just curious what could be causing the discrepancy.

BTW, thanks Gade for keeping Rapier going all these years. It's the only skin I've used/needed on any of the XBMC/Kodi installations I've used since scarfa's days and I'm grateful it's always been around.

[Gade]

Hi runningnaked and thanks so much for the kind words and support throughout the years.


First, I have absolutely no experience with MySQL and Kodi.

The recently added widgets are created using smart playlists. Whenever content is added or removed from the library, they should get updated.
That's what happens on all platforms I have tested.


Have you tested with recently added widgets in other skins? Confluence, Estuary etc.

[ponkotsu]

Hi Gade

Thank you for the reply and sorry for being so slow getting back to you.

I gave it a try in Confluence:

• scraped a TV episode from computer 1
  
• let computer 2 sit idle with the Recently Added Episodes widget on the home screen
  
• 40+ minutes later (this was as long as I could bear having Confluence on-screen lol), computer 2 still did not show the new episode
  

Looks like it is not Rapier-specific, but rather the way Kodi refreshes the widget. It seems adding a movie or TV episode will trigger a refresh on the device where the new media was scraped, but there is no scheduled update that occurs at any regular intervals.

Thanks for the hint about the smart playlists. I dug around in the Rapier code, and think I found where the playlist is called in includes_Home.xml, inside RecentlyAddedTVShowsPanelLayout. I tried changing it to the script.skin.helper.widgets plugin call for recent episodes and widgetreload2, but IIRC that didn't refresh the widget for me either. I might have mis-typed the call to the plugin though, so I'll give that another try this weekend.


Unrelated (should I make another post?), pressing "I" on a YouTube video in the official repo's YouTube plugin no longer loads the video's info pane. This happens on both computers running Rapier, but works fine in Confluence. The icons for unwatched videos also don't look I think this started happening a week or so ago? Here's screenshots of what I mean:

[Gade]

Hi Gade

Thank you for the reply and sorry for being so slow getting back to you.

I gave it a try in Confluence:

• scraped a TV episode from computer 1
  
• let computer 2 sit idle with the Recently Added Episodes widget on the home screen
  
• 40+ minutes later (this was as long as I could bear having Confluence on-screen lol), computer 2 still did not show the new episode
  

Looks like it is not Rapier-specific, but rather the way Kodi refreshes the widget. It seems adding a movie or TV episode will trigger a refresh on the device where the new media was scraped, but there is no scheduled update that occurs at any regular intervals.

Hi runningnaked.

I don't think it's skin specific then. It must be related to MySQL.
There are people on these forums much more experienced with MySQL than me, so try asking this elsewhere. I'll be happy to hear whatever you find out.

Unrelated (should I make another post?), pressing "I" on a YouTube video in the official repo's YouTube plugin no longer loads the video's info pane. This happens on both computers running Rapier, but works fine in Confluence. The icons for unwatched videos also don't look I think this started happening a week or so ago? Here's screenshots of what I mean:

Thanks a lot for the detailed description.

The Youtube add-on was changed recently.
All those issues have all been fixed from Kodi Krypton / Rapier v10 and forward. It's currently not possible to backport as I don't have Kodi Jarvis installed anywhere.

I really recommend updating to Kodi Krypton as the new Kodi features and skin features are awesome!
Read about the new skin features here.

[ponkotsu]

Thanks Gade!

I'll try poking around in the MySQL setup. There's not much information on the schema, even column names seem cryptic. Definitely agree that it's not a problem with the skin.

I'd actually like to upgrade to Krypton, but my main HTPC is an older MacMini with Nvidia graphics, so as Memphiz recommended, I've got to stick with Jarvis for now or else face a bunch of video playback issues.

Thanks again for keeping Rapier alive and kicking! It's really the best skin I've ever tried.

edit: Thanks for the heads-up about the YouTube plugin change. In the YouTube plugin thread, it suggests that installing the "unofficial" version from the first post in the thread will restore the Info view. Just tested it, and it works like a charm! I guess I should learn to read and research a bit more thoroughly next time lol.

[Gade]

Amazing.

Great you got everything working - and thanks for the kind words.

I might add the video information window for video content (like Youtube) for Kodi Jarvis at some point.
But right now I can't even get Jarvis working properly on my test machine.
For the icons to be fixed, you'll have to wait for Krypton.

I have a MacMini as well (from 2012, with Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB) and upgraded to Krypton without any problems.

[ponkotsu]

I have a (seldom-used) Krypton installation via LibreELEC on a Chromebox (Haswell Celeron 2955, IntelHD gfx I think) that I mostly use for Retroarch emulation. Unfortunately, it's a custom build that uses Estuary. But I'm hardly ever actually seeing the Kodi skin since I'm mostly in-game when using that machine. I did try playing a few videos on it using Krypton, and it doesn't really have better or worse performance than my MacMini (early 2009, C2D 2.26, Nvidia 9400M 256MB).

I spend most of my time using the MacMini, though I may just retire it and pick up a second Chromebox to use as the HTPC. It can handle x264 8- and 10-bit media just fine under Krypton, but I think my older Mini will just choke REALLY HARD under Krypton. Maybe with the further improvements to the new video player in Leia, playback issues will be solved, but until then, I'm stuck with Jarvis there (which isn't a bad thing, I've been quite happy with 16.1).

PS: I posted in the sticky'd thread, but the changes you have planned for Rapier look fantastic!

[Gade]

I see. Thanks for the info.

All my systems run Krypton or Leia - including an Ipad 2, Ipad Air, HTC One Android phone, Mac Mini (from late 2012), Rpi2 with LibreELEC and most do quite fine.
Especially after I added the feature to disable view types in Rapier for Kodi Krypton / Leia it's running quite nice on lower powered devices.

But as you write, you could face some playback issues with Nvidia graphics on the Mac Mini.
I don't know anything about that, so if Memphiz recommends sticking with Jarvis, I'm not going to tell you otherwise.