2016-05-12, 02:54
I thought I'd let folks know that a beta of AS 2.0.0 should appear on my beta repository in the next couple of days. I'm finishing up some burn-in testing before releasing it. There are some pretty substantial changes to the way artwork and information is downloaded as well as a bunch of behind the scene changes, so I'd definitely like some folks to test before releasing it. If you haven't installed my beta repo before, you can get it here:
https://github.com/pkscout/repository.be...-1.1.0.zip
Upcoming User Facing Changes
The biggest change is that you can now select exactly what services will download what piece of information and with what priority. The images section hasn't changed, but for artist bios, artist albums, and similar artists, you will need to go in and select which of the services to enable and then set a priority for them. So, for instance, you can enable both last.fm and theaudiodb.org to download the artist bio and then set last.fm with a priority of 1. AS will try to get the bio from last.fm. If it can't, it'll try theaudiodb. You'll also note that AS can now use Kodi as the source of the bio. All this means the settings area is getting a revamp.
The other big change is the frequency with which AS downloads updated information. Previously Kodi would wait 2 weeks before downloading information for a given artist again. With the new version the cache time will now be randomly set between 4 and 12 weeks, and images will never be downloaded again (unless you manually delete the image). I know that seems like a long time, but most of this information is very stable, and as AS has grown in popularity it has started putting a strain on some of the services it uses. By increasing the time and randomizing it, I hope to both reduce the overall load and keep spikes from happening.
Back End Changes
The big back end change is that AS now uses plugins to talk to the various external sources (right now fanarttv, theaudiodb, last.fm, and htbackdrops), and each plugin defines the information it provides (images, artist bios, artist album info, and/or similar artists). There aren't any plans to add any other services for the 2.0 release, but this will make it much easier to add something in the future.
I appreciate the love folks have given AS over the years, and I'm excited about what this update could mean moving forward. Please remember that AS is possible only because of the work of the back end providers. I'm not now and have no plans to ask for donations to support AS, but I would like to ask everyone to go support one (or more) of the back end providers. Without them AS would basically be nothing.
fanart.tv: https://fanart.tv/contribute/
theaudiodb: http://www.theaudiodb.com
htbackdrops: http://htbackdrops.org/v2/index.php
https://github.com/pkscout/repository.be...-1.1.0.zip
Upcoming User Facing Changes
The biggest change is that you can now select exactly what services will download what piece of information and with what priority. The images section hasn't changed, but for artist bios, artist albums, and similar artists, you will need to go in and select which of the services to enable and then set a priority for them. So, for instance, you can enable both last.fm and theaudiodb.org to download the artist bio and then set last.fm with a priority of 1. AS will try to get the bio from last.fm. If it can't, it'll try theaudiodb. You'll also note that AS can now use Kodi as the source of the bio. All this means the settings area is getting a revamp.
The other big change is the frequency with which AS downloads updated information. Previously Kodi would wait 2 weeks before downloading information for a given artist again. With the new version the cache time will now be randomly set between 4 and 12 weeks, and images will never be downloaded again (unless you manually delete the image). I know that seems like a long time, but most of this information is very stable, and as AS has grown in popularity it has started putting a strain on some of the services it uses. By increasing the time and randomizing it, I hope to both reduce the overall load and keep spikes from happening.
Back End Changes
The big back end change is that AS now uses plugins to talk to the various external sources (right now fanarttv, theaudiodb, last.fm, and htbackdrops), and each plugin defines the information it provides (images, artist bios, artist album info, and/or similar artists). There aren't any plans to add any other services for the 2.0 release, but this will make it much easier to add something in the future.
I appreciate the love folks have given AS over the years, and I'm excited about what this update could mean moving forward. Please remember that AS is possible only because of the work of the back end providers. I'm not now and have no plans to ask for donations to support AS, but I would like to ask everyone to go support one (or more) of the back end providers. Without them AS would basically be nothing.
fanart.tv: https://fanart.tv/contribute/
theaudiodb: http://www.theaudiodb.com
htbackdrops: http://htbackdrops.org/v2/index.php
