[Montellese]

Hey everyone

I've been working on a new feature the last couple of days. It's an activity log or notification center which stores a list of all activities/notifications that were sent to it during the uptime of Kodi. The idea is to make it easier to review problems like a broken script or which items haven't been scanned into the library etc. But we could also put in informational stuff like "Addon X has been updated". In addition to simply being able to see certain activites and inspect them in more detail it is also possible to specify an action that can be performed for an activity. So for the activity "Addon X has been updated" the action would take the user directly into the addon browser to the list containing addon X. For a file that couldn't be scraped into the library the action would take the user directly to that file in the files view so that he can try to manually scrape it.

I've written the basic code to send and handle activities/notifications and now I'm looking for ideas/input/feedback on how to integrate it into the GUI.

Some background info on what is currently there. The activity log simply stores a list of activities sorted by date and supports listing/adding/deleting activities.
Every activity consists of

• a level (information, warning, error)
  
• a label/title
  
• a description
  
• a datetime
  
• an icon (optional)
  
• a detailed description (optional)
  
• a label for an execution button (optional)
  
• an action to be executed (optional)
  

Right now I've implemented the GUI with a select dialog showing the icon, label/title and description and clicking on an activity will execute the action. But obviously that's very ugly and hacky (feast your eyes on the screenshot ).



What I imagine is a window with a list of activites, some options/settings like "show/hide information activites", "show/hide warning activities" and "show/hide error activities" and some actions like deleting an activity, deleting all activities, inspecting an activity (which should show a dialog with more space for the detailed description and maybe buttons for deletion and execution) and executing an activty.

I'm pretty open as to how this should be integrated into the GUI so it could be done like the addon browser (allowing to reuse the same controls and their IDs) i.e. a huge list with a view extra options/actions or it could be a completely new window. So let me know what you think of the idea, if you think something doesn't make sense or something is missing and how you would like to see it implemented from a GUI point of view (in terms of mockups or specific controls).

[Hitcher]

Not even sure if this is possible with a dialog but with all those options available for each item won't the context menu be a good idea for them?

PS Great addition by the way, will come in very handy for those of us who leave Kodi running 24/7 to see what's happened while we were away.

[Montellese]

Not even sure if this is possible with a dialog but with all those options available for each item won't the context menu be a good idea for them?

Well I was thinking that there would be a dedicated window with an additional dialog to show the activity details. There would only be 3 per-item actions (Information, Execute, Delete) which could be in the context menu and assigned to the usual buttons (I, Enter, DEL) and 4 global options (3x show/hide <level> toggle and a clear all action).

I just thought I'd ask the skinners for their opinion on what the easiest way of integration (e.g. by duplicating most of the code from another window) would be before I start coding something completely new which will be a PITA for you guys.

PS Great addition by the way, will come in very handy for those of us who leave Kodi running 24/7 to see what's happened while we were away.

Glad you like it.

[Hitcher]

I see from the screenshots this is accessed from settings but have you considered activating it after a certain idle period?

Ideally I'd like to see any activities that occurred while I was away and woke Kodi from the screensaver without having to go into the settings.

[phil65]

I see from the screenshots this is accessed from settings but have you considered activating it after a certain idle period?

Ideally I'd like to see any activities that occurred while I was away and woke Kodi from the screensaver without having to go into the settings.

Placing it in DialogButtonMenu would be a nicer way I think. Auto-opening such a dialog after idle would be script stuff in my opinion.

[Montellese]

I see from the screenshots this is accessed from settings but have you considered activating it after a certain idle period?

Ideally I'd like to see any activities that occurred while I was away and woke Kodi from the screensaver without having to go into the settings.

I just put it there because I added the other two settings and it was the easiest way to trigger opening a dialog. In the end it would probably be an input action which could be triggered from anywhere in the skin (and by addons).

[Hitcher]

Glad to see you've started working on this again and apologies for forgetting about it.

I'm not against a new dialog as it's a nice and simple layout. You mention new icons but maybe you could utilise the kaitoast ones?

[Montellese]

You mention new icons but maybe you could utilise the kaitoast ones?

I just thought it might be nice to have a visual indicator for the level / severeness of an activity. We already show the icon of the activity itself (addon icon or whatever) so showing another icon might be a bit much. Not sure if different background or text colors would work. I have a feeling that would look out of place with the rest of the skin.

Thanks for your feedback and input.

[Rantanplan-1]

To be honest, i dont see the need for someting like this.
We already got the DialogKaiToast which shows if an addon is updated, and if we need info we can always have a look in to the log.

Would rather like to see someone work on other requests like
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=144410

But of course, its your sparetime, and not everyone lay the same "waight" on the same stuff.

Probably its also just me who dont see the impotance and the need for such a feature.

Regards

EDIT:
O.K. did rethink about a "EventHystory" maby underneath the "Options"-Item probably as Submenu Item.
Could be handy for some Users who dont wanna thake a look in the log to figure out which items the scraper probaby missed out.

[sualfred]

It's useful. The last time I spent "hours" to find out which addon wasn't working on a device of a friend. He simply wasn't able to a) find the log by himself without an treasure map with an big fat X and b) to find the correct line in the logs
-->
"There is an addon error"
"Which addon?"
"I dunno?"
"-.-"

[Rantanplan-1]

Addon error? what kind?
if thers a Script error the dialogKaitoast already show up with a message and the Addon Name. For debbunging pruposes you have to thake a look in to the log anyway.

but o.k. alredy told it could be handy 4 some users (Edit above)

[Hitcher]

The problem with the kaitoast dialog is you might not be there to see it.

[jurialmunkey]

To be honest, i dont see the need for someting like this.

There are heaps of uses for it. For instance, something suddenly stops working properly - Look through activity log and see a related addon updated around that time, realise that the updates to that addon caused a change in behaviour - investigate further...

Have PVR setup to record something but it doesn't record. Look at activity log and see a PVR related error at that time.

So on and so on. Logs contain a lot of information that can be daunting for people to understand - further, accessing the log on something like openelec involves having to ssh in. This provides some info that is useful for detective work in a more user friendly and accessible way. Plus its just interesting seeing what has gone on whilst you are away

[phil65]

whilst you are away

..and also while you were watching a movie

[Rantanplan-1]

with "no need" i didn't meant its useless.

Regards