Hey, thanks for the responses and sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you.
(2017-05-15, 12:23)Wintermute0110 Wrote: (2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: 2) When scraping for a single item, you're brought back to the Rom list after every search, meaning that for every image or data value you import you need to submenu>edit rom>Edit Assets Artwork > Edit. It would be far more user friendly to return back to whatever menu was open before scraping and, as mentioned in 1) be able to search for all data/images at one time.
This is because of Kodi limited GUI controls. In theory, I can change the plugin so when you press cancel on a context menu you go back to the previous menu. However, that will increase the complexity of the code a lot. I will think about this and maybe make some tests on simple context menus like "Edit categories". If it works well then I will improve all context menus.
Thanks for considering this. I realize this is a hole in Kodi but without automating scrapers for either all attributes in a rom or all roms in a set, going one by one can be time consuming. I know the focus is on image collections, but particularly for rarer systems and roms it can be hard to find a set with the images you needs (same for people used to having artwork from a specific region). If bulk import is not an option, then minimizing the time to manually import would be greatly appreciated.
(2017-05-15, 12:23)Wintermute0110 Wrote: (2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: 4) There's no way to use Gamefaqs to search for boxfronts or fanart. If this is because Gamefaqs doesn't let you search by type (title, logo, fanart etc.) it might be usefull to have AEL search all items and allow the user to chose which to use.
Yes. Each scraper only supports some assets, not all of them.
How you propose to implement this feature with Kodi GUI?
This might require some additional thought, but maybe have a two-pronged approach where 1) scrapers are indicated by both site and image type (for example: Gamefaqs would become two scrapers "Gamefaqs (Game Box Shots)" and Gamefaqs (Reader Screenshots)") and then 2) users can assign scrapers arbitrarily to data type in settings (so then you'd set Boxfronts=Gamefaqs (Game Box Shots), Fanart=Gamefaqs (Reader Screenshots). This would require splitting all of the current scrapers into their data types, but would add a lot more flexibility for what sites we use for what data.
(2017-05-15, 12:23)Wintermute0110 Wrote: (2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: I also couldn't seem to get most of the online scrapers to get data. I found one that worked for fanart but I didn't find any box art no matter what scraper I used
Sometimes the scrapers work very slow, particularly TheGamesDB. From Japan, I think the faster scraper is MobyGames. Anyway, I will check the scrapers just in case the webmasters introduced changes in the HTML.
This seems to be improved greatly in the latest release (0.9.6 non beta). The only problem I still have is with Gamefaqs which seems to give me an error no matter what I search for (note that I'm able to the search the site just fine from the web so I am not IP blocked yet).
(2017-05-15, 12:23)Wintermute0110 Wrote: (2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: Importing
6) When importing a database from Advanced Launcher, all AL-based launchers show "No Roms" instead of the proper ROM count at the top level.
After you change anything from the launcher the number of ROMs will be updated. I will add a fix for this.
Also, note that the AL importer was useful long time ago, when AL and AEL had a lot in common. Now, AEL has diverged quite a lot from AL. If you want to use your ROM collection in AEL I recommend to setup AEL from the beginning as opposed to use the importer.
(2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: 7) All roms imported from Advanced Launcher copy their rom covers image over to the AEL Title attribute instead of boxfront/cabinet which is the more common usage (at least, as far as I know). It also means that roms imported from AL do not have any cover artwork shown (at least in Rapier Skin)
Yes... this is related with the previous issue. When importing AL roms, AL thumb is imported as Title and AL fanart is imported as fanart. I can change importing thumb to boxfront. However, this will not work for MAME roms, which do not have boxfront... As I said in issue 6), I believe now is better to start your AEL configuration from scratch setting all the directories for your assets from the beginning instead of using the AL importer.
Understood. The only request I have then is, given my huge AL setup I'd like some sort of easy way of transferring my current images to AEL. Is there a way to like copy over my current AL covers folder into the corresponding boxfront folder and have AEL see the images there during scraping? Or is there some way of zipping my current cover collection and use that as the offline boxfront scraper?
(2017-05-15, 12:23)Wintermute0110 Wrote: (2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: 8) When importing roms from a folder with nfo files for each rom included in the same folder as the roms, AEL does not import the nfo metadata even when AEL is set to import metadata from nfos/locally
This issue happens when you use AEL ROM scanner? If so, can you please post an XML launcher configuration and an NFO file example?
This doesn't seem to be a problem in 0.9.6
(2017-05-15, 12:23)Wintermute0110 Wrote: (2017-04-02, 14:50)atsumori Wrote: Multidisk Support
9) Multidisk support does not seem to support assigning arbitrary file names to the sub discs (Ex: "Metal Gear Solid (Disc 2) (VR Missions)). If the file names differ between discs 1 and the other discs, the other discs won't be added to the set.
There could be bugs in the multidisc filename extractor. Can you send an example of all discs in a set that should belong to the same set but are not included? I will have a look.
Here are a few:
Metal Gear Solid (Disc 1 of 3).cue
Metal Gear Solid (Disc 2 of 3).cue
Metal Gear Solid (Disc 3 of 3) - VR Missions.cue
Gets scraped as
Metal Gear Solid
Disc 1 (with Disc 2 in set)
Metal Gear Solid VR Missions
Gran Turismo 2 (Disc 1)(Arcade Disk).cue
Gran Turismo 2 (Disc 2)(Simulation Disk).cue
Gets scraped as
Gran Turismo 2
Arcade Mode
Gran Tursimo 2
Simulation Mode
And
Biohazard 2 (Disc 1 of 2){Leon Disk (English)}.cue
Biohazard 2 (Disc 2 of 2){Claire Disk (English)}.cue
Get scraped as
Biohazard 2
Biohazard 2
Finally, I noticed a new issue. When scanning multidisk roms and particularly multidisc roms with named roms, AEL will add corrupted text between the rom name and the disc indicator
Example from saved nfo: <title>Gran Turismo 2 ��� Arcade Mode</title>
As mentioned above, in a lot of cases games that should be included together (GT2 Arcade and Sim Mode or MGS+VR missions the separate discs are getting their own entries in AEL.
As always, thanks for your help!