2023-11-10, 17:05
Design ideas continued from the previous post
2023-11-10, 21:01
Please don't post massive images to the forum, especially like the one above which (at a glance) to me seems like the same image repeated several times without any kind of meaning or context...
2023-11-11, 09:15
2023-11-11, 19:38
Update:
Added the feature to show video with multiple versions as folder in library, a new setting has been added, it can co-exist with the movie set feature.
Added the feature to show video with multiple versions as folder in library, a new setting has been added, it can co-exist with the movie set feature.
2023-11-11, 19:48
Busy with real work, so don't have much time to work on this for the asked feature, but I finished the most wanted feature to show video with multiple versions as folder in library. 
Thanks for the suggestions for the version management dialog, I have thought a lot before designing the dialog. It refers the "Set Content" and "Add Source" dialog, I believe it follows other dialogs in Kodi. Usually, you only have very few major versions of a movie (let's say 2 will cover most cases), so it's meaningless to make the list very long, and keep both version and extras in same location is saving time to press buttons to show them, etc. And I added shortcut to the dialog with the "left" button to quickly switch between version and extras lists.
I would greatly appreciate it if any Kodi team members could kick a test build for the latest change. Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestions for the version management dialog, I have thought a lot before designing the dialog. It refers the "Set Content" and "Add Source" dialog, I believe it follows other dialogs in Kodi. Usually, you only have very few major versions of a movie (let's say 2 will cover most cases), so it's meaningless to make the list very long, and keep both version and extras in same location is saving time to press buttons to show them, etc. And I added shortcut to the dialog with the "left" button to quickly switch between version and extras lists.
I would greatly appreciate it if any Kodi team members could kick a test build for the latest change. Thanks!
2023-11-11, 19:57
As my real-life work is jumping in, after 3 months (not counting the months spent on the previous design) of heavy work on researching how Kodi works in various part of the code and developing this feature, I couldn't spend much more time on this anymore, but I believe I've made the feature in good shape and wish Kodi team can talk if/how to merge the change.
2023-11-11, 20:46
Thanks for the update XODIDOX
New build job started https://jenkins.kodi.tv/job/BuildMulti-All/2663/
New build job started https://jenkins.kodi.tv/job/BuildMulti-All/2663/
2023-11-11, 23:29
(2023-11-11, 20:46)jjd-uk Wrote: Thanks for the update XODIDOX
New build job started https://jenkins.kodi.tv/job/BuildMulti-All/2663/
Thanks!
2023-11-11, 23:37
Seems like the OSX-64 build didn't complete, perhaps just a glitch in Jenkins.
2023-11-11, 23:37
(2023-11-11, 19:38)XODIDOX Wrote: Update:Just tested and it's working exactly as I'd hoped.
Added the feature to show video with multiple versions as folder in library, a new setting has been added, it can co-exist with the movie set feature.
Many thanks for your contribution.
2023-11-12, 15:47
(2023-11-11, 19:57)XODIDOX Wrote: As my real-life work is jumping in, after 3 months (not counting the months spent on the previous design) of heavy work on researching how Kodi works in various part of the code and developing this feature, I couldn't spend much more time on this anymore, but I believe I've made the feature in good shape and wish Kodi team can talk if/how to merge the change.
Oh, well... glad it's work related. When people go silent on the web you never know. Work is good, up to a certain extent, I suppose. :-)
Thanks for the modifications, I will test them soon. From what Hitcher wrote, it seems you have implemented things the way we discussed. Great!
2023-11-12, 17:35
Ok, I have briefly checked the new build. There is now an option to browse multiple versions similar to what happens for Movie Sets. It's found under Settings/Media/Videos/Show video with multiple versions as folder.
There is still some "differences" in how content is presented, for instance there is no managing the single versions as you can do for Movie Sets entries (choosing art, etc.). One can handle those things in the "regular" movie versions dialog but, maybe for future releases, I think it would be better to have a unified, coherent way of presenting content between Movie Sets and Movie Versions. Without going into which way is better, Movie Sets is an established feature and I think people are by now used to it and to how it works. Expectations of Movie Versions to behave similarly are, I think, understandable.
But, again, this can be for the future, if devs are ok with the way things stand now for Movie Versions. I surely wouldn't object.
Something which I don't know if it's a bug or me not understanding how things work: once I add multiple versions of a movie (in my case 1080 and 4K versions), I can't seem to be able to access online artwork that was previously available when the two versions were separate movies. If I invoke the Manage/Movie Version dialog and go to "Choose Art", Kodi tells me there is no art available and the only option I have is to browse for local art.
Lastly, I think there's some performance issues with this build. When entering and exiting the Movie Version dialogs there is a one/two seconds delay where Kodi displays the "rotating wheel" (or whatever it is, the equivalent of the old Windows hourglass). I don't get that if I display Movie Versions with the regular dialog, only if I select the option to display movie versions as folder.
Thanks a lot @XODIDOX for all the work you put into this!
There is still some "differences" in how content is presented, for instance there is no managing the single versions as you can do for Movie Sets entries (choosing art, etc.). One can handle those things in the "regular" movie versions dialog but, maybe for future releases, I think it would be better to have a unified, coherent way of presenting content between Movie Sets and Movie Versions. Without going into which way is better, Movie Sets is an established feature and I think people are by now used to it and to how it works. Expectations of Movie Versions to behave similarly are, I think, understandable.
But, again, this can be for the future, if devs are ok with the way things stand now for Movie Versions. I surely wouldn't object.
Something which I don't know if it's a bug or me not understanding how things work: once I add multiple versions of a movie (in my case 1080 and 4K versions), I can't seem to be able to access online artwork that was previously available when the two versions were separate movies. If I invoke the Manage/Movie Version dialog and go to "Choose Art", Kodi tells me there is no art available and the only option I have is to browse for local art.
Lastly, I think there's some performance issues with this build. When entering and exiting the Movie Version dialogs there is a one/two seconds delay where Kodi displays the "rotating wheel" (or whatever it is, the equivalent of the old Windows hourglass). I don't get that if I display Movie Versions with the regular dialog, only if I select the option to display movie versions as folder.
Thanks a lot @XODIDOX for all the work you put into this!
2023-11-12, 19:25
@ashlar, movie version and movie set are totally different, though they look like similar in some ways. Movie set item itself is virtual and is generated on the fly, but all items in the movie set are real items, they are in video database, each one has separate entry, and Kodi is designed to work with them natively. In contrast, all movie versions under a movie item are virtual and are generated on the fly, they shared the same entry in video database. The movie item itself is in video database. If you checked the "as folder" option, the movie version item itself is virtual too.
Each time you are entering (or returning to) a media folder, the list will be refreshed, and Kodi will recreate these virtual items. The perf problem seems to be due to the additional database access for video version information query (if you uncheck the "as folder" option, no database access at all), I'll see if I can optimize the additional database access. You have many items in the list, right? It may help me debug the problem if you can share the debug log.
For the artworks, I designed a new media type for the movie version, so each movie version can have different artworks. I may be able to use the artworks from the movie item itself if the artworks for the movie version are empty, to "improve" user experience (I didn't add this as I thought using same artworks for all items in a folder looks boring).
Each time you are entering (or returning to) a media folder, the list will be refreshed, and Kodi will recreate these virtual items. The perf problem seems to be due to the additional database access for video version information query (if you uncheck the "as folder" option, no database access at all), I'll see if I can optimize the additional database access. You have many items in the list, right? It may help me debug the problem if you can share the debug log.
For the artworks, I designed a new media type for the movie version, so each movie version can have different artworks. I may be able to use the artworks from the movie item itself if the artworks for the movie version are empty, to "improve" user experience (I didn't add this as I thought using same artworks for all items in a folder looks boring).
2023-11-13, 01:21
(2023-11-12, 19:25)XODIDOX Wrote: Each time you are entering (or returning to) a media folder, the list will be refreshed, and Kodi will recreate these virtual items. The perf problem seems to be due to the additional database access for video version information query (if you uncheck the "as folder" option, no database access at all), I'll see if I can optimize the additional database access. You have many items in the list, right? It may help me debug the problem if you can share the debug log.As for the debug log, here it is, with movie versions as folders option active. In it, I enter the Movie section, Kodi "freezes" for 3-4 seconds, I enter a Movie with two versions (that happens immediately) and then I go back the whole list of movies and Kodi "freezes" for 1-2 seconds. Bear in mind I use a Ryzen 5 3600 with 16GB of RAM, performance shouldn't be a problem. Movies in the database are slightly less than 2500.
For the artworks, I designed a new media type for the movie version, so each movie version can have different artworks. I may be able to use the artworks from the movie item itself if the artworks for the movie version are empty, to "improve" user experience (I didn't add this as I thought using same artworks for all items in a folder looks boring).
https://paste.kodi.tv/zuqokeguhu.kodi
As far as the artworks are concerned, I am not sure if I understand what you mean. Since Movie Versions are not created automatically as it happens for Movie Sets (when the relevant setting is activated), all movies have their own artwork lists. But when they become part of a movie with Movie Versions... that info is lost and you are only left with local artwork loading as an option. I don't see why you thought using the same artwork for all items would be involved, since pretty much all movies have multiple fanarts/posters/etc. available. But they are simply not accesible through Movie Versions. At least, that's what I'm experiencing.
2023-11-13, 02:08
(2023-11-13, 01:21)ashlar Wrote: As far as the artworks are concerned, I am not sure if I understand what you mean. Since Movie Versions are not created automatically as it happens for Movie Sets (when the relevant setting is activated), all movies have their own artwork lists. But when they become part of a movie with Movie Versions... that info is lost and you are only left with local artwork loading as an option. I don't see why you thought using the same artwork for all items would be involved, since pretty much all movies have multiple fanarts/posters/etc. available. But they are simply not accesible through Movie Versions. At least, that's what I'm experiencing.You can change the artwork from the information dialog.
