[Coro]

I am using Estuary mod V2 but the problem is the same on other skins (eg Aeon Nox Silvo)
It is on a fresh Kodi v18 install on a fresh install of Windows 10.


I want to add custom items to the home menu eg "Kid's Movies" etc.

I have 3 folders for my movies:
\Movies\
\Movies - Family\
\Movies - Kids\

I was hoping to setup 2 home items like this (so \Movies Family\ appears in both sources & home items)

Source "Movies" contains 2 paths:
\Movies\
\Movies - Family\

Source "Kids Movies" contains 2 paths
\Movies - Kids\
\Movies - Family\

I created a custom home item "Kid's Movies" and pointed it towards the Kid's Movies source which contains 2 paths.
When I select this new menu item, there are 2 x duplicate "Kids Movies" options showing:  They both contain the correct results (from the 2 folders) with the only difference being, 1 is in title order, the other is random order.  After trying to get my head around the skin shortcuts file I figure this is due to "3.xsp" & "3-randomversion.xsp".  But not sure why it is showing both of these (I only want Titles!).

At first I thought it might be a problem with the 1 source containing 2 folders, so I tried making more home items with other paths.  Had the same result so that can't be the cause.
However as I created each one I found that each custom home item displayed ALL of these items x 2 (1x title order, 1 x random order).



What am I doing wrong here!

[Karellen]

More of a question for the skins you are using.

Have a read here... Custom home items (wiki). There is also a How To guide for Aeon Nox:Silvo which may reveal the error if you follow it.

[Coro]

I actually went to post in the Estuary mod V2 thread, but then discovered it does the same in Silvo as well so figured it was not skin specific.

I have read both of those thoroughly and spent some quite time searching the forums but have not seen the same problem mentioned elsewhere.


Is there anywhere that gives a beginners overview of how the custom skins and script.skinshortcuts work together?

If it helps anyway else diagnose my problem, I have discovered this so far...

\script.skinshortcuts\mainmenu.DATA.xml contains:

xml:
<shortcut>

        <defaultID />

        <label>Kids Movies</label>

        <label2>Video Source</label2>

        <icon>DefaultShortcut.png</icon>

        <thumb />

        <action>ActivateWindow(Videos,special://profile/addon_data/script.skinshortcuts/2.xsp,return)</action>

\script.skinshortcuts\2.xsp contains:

xml:
<smartplaylist type="movies">

    <name>Kids Movies</name>

    <match>one</match>

    <rule field="path" operator="startswith">

        <value>smb://SynologyDS216j/Media/Movies - Kids</value>

    </rule>

    <rule field="path" operator="startswith">

        <value>smb://SynologyDS216j/Media/Movies - Family\</value>

    </rule>

</smartplaylist>

[Karellen]

<action>ActivateWindow(Videos,special://profile/addon_data/script.skinshortcuts/2.xsp,return)</action>
That does not look right to me. Run through the guide I gave you

[Coro]

Aha, is this what you want to see?

xml:
 <shortcut>

<defaultID>kidsplaylist</defaultID>

<label>Kids Movies</label>

<label2>Video Playlist</label2>

<icon>DefaultPlaylist.png</icon>

<thumb />

<action>ActivateWindow(Videos,special://profile/playlists/video/kidsplaylist.xsp,return)</action>

</shortcut>

 


I think was following my nose when I first did it, and when I looked into why it wouldn't work, I saw the "smart playlist" references in the xsp files and assumed it was creating it's own smart playlists. Woops!

I thought I had read somewhere though, that you could point the custom home menu items to most things that came up in options that are available when selecting a default action. So I guess it would appear that pointing towards a source does not work??

Thanks for your help!

[PatK]

A different perspective.

Create smart playlists based on the rule 'path' and point at your Family & Movie source.
Create smart playlists based on the rule 'path' and point at both Kids & Family source. 

Ensure they work as expected; mark them as a favourite.

Choose a skin that supports custom home page buttons/menus, in settings delete all other home page buttons/menus

Create new menu/buttons in the name chosen and link them to those favourites.

[the_other_guy]

Movies - Family\
\Movies - Kids\



you could do it with nodes

xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<node order="40" type="folder">

    <label>Other Movies</label>

    <icon>DefaultFolder.png</icon>

    <path>D:\videos</path>

</node>

or on mpaarating
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node type="filter">
    <label>test</label>
    <content>movies</content>
    <rule field="mpaarating" operator="is">
        <value>rated g</value>
    </rule>
    <group>sets</group>
</node>

[Coro]

A different perspective.

Create smart playlists based on the rule 'path' and point at your Family & Movie source.
Create smart playlists based on the rule 'path' and point at both Kids & Family source. 

Ensure they work as expected; mark them as a favourite.

Choose a skin that supports custom home page buttons/menus, in settings delete all other home page buttons/menus

Create new menu/buttons in the name chosen and link them to those favourites.

That's exactly what I did after I reread the guide closely!

I think what set me off on the wrong path, was I started by trying to isolate my home items from the source.  2nd mistake was thinking that sources would work as a filter from a chosen action menu.  Seemed logical to me!

I have since read about Plex users being able to separate their library options, opposed to Kodi being limited to Movies/TV Shows.  I would love to be able to create unlimited library root sources such as Kids Movies, Kids TV Shows, Documentaries, Home Videos etc.

I haven't seen anyone say why this is not a good direction to head with Kodi?
I have never used Plex so can't comment on if there might be some drawbacks/compromises to expanding library options beyond Movies/TV Shows

[Karellen]

There are two sides to Kodi.
1. File View which is just like Windows Explorer and you can browse all your sources and folders and files they contain. Accessed from Videos>Files
2. Library View, which are items in the library with rich information and enhanced features. Accessed from the main menu options.

Once items are in the library, sources are irrelevant as they are simply a means to get things into the library. If you like your source folder structure and want your library to sort the way you have your sources setup, and want the flexibility of the library features, then Smart Playlists are probably the best way to go due to their simplicity. Trying to tell Kodi to display your Source is exactly what you will get- a list of folders and files, not the library. The Smart Playlist will filter the library content to match that of your Source.

I have since read about Plex users being able to separate their library options, opposed to Kodi being limited to Movies/TV Shows. 

Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos and Music to be precise. What else is there, apart from those four, that Plex has in addition?

[Coro]

Once items are in the library, sources are irrelevant as they are simply a means to get things into the library. 

I see this is key, I did understand that previously but thought Sources would be a method to filter the library.

 

Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos and Music to be precise. What else is there, apart from those four, that Plex has in addition?

I don't know to be honest.  Documentaries is one I see pop up quite often?  I guess if I create home iitems using smart playlists (as per the manual!  ) then I may find there is no need for anything else!

It's just to my mind, being able to apply those type of filters from the beginning (when creating sources/libraries) it seems a bit more logical

[jjd-uk]

For video there only Movies and TV Shows by default as these are the only things for which there are web metadata databases from which we can pull artwork, descriptions etc to give a rich experience. For everything else there is Custom Home items (using smartplaylists) and Custom video nodes.

[PatK]

I would love to be able to create unlimited library root sources such as Kids Movies, Kids TV Shows, Documentaries, Home Videos etc.

Check the images here. https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2849518

Let's think about getting everything into the library (stuff that doesn't scan like documentaries, home videos, and one offs put into a separate folder Custom video entries (wiki)  to be dealt with later) , create those smartplay lists and do some linking; using Video nodes (wiki) really upgrades smartplaylists with hierarchy capabilities and of course Add-on:Library Node Editor (wiki) is where it's at.

Hint: treat one offs & docs as unscrapped library sources, with nothing and excluded from scans, file mode will allow play.

[Hitcher]

Looks like a skin shortcuts script problem to me.

[Coro]

OK, been playing a around some more and have had some success but got stuck again elsewhere.


I have successfully created a parent node "Kids", which contain child nodes "Kids Movies" and "Kids TV Shows".  I now need to check out how the widgets work to make these screens show what I want.

To help others...
1.  You must create the parent nodes/nodes first with Library Node Editor
2.  After testing that they work, then you can create a shortcut to these nodes from your skin setup menu (obviously skins that allows custom home items) I think when I was first creating parent nodes I was expecting them to appear in home menu automatically. 
3.  When creating nodes, filtering by source with a source containing more than 1 path does not work!  I created a node and filtered by source, and while it looked like it would work (I think it showed the 2 paths as "E:\Movies - Family|E:\Movies - Kids", when I created the home menu item), it most certainly won't.  Create the smart playlist filtering by path (more than 1 path here works OK), then point node towards this smart playlist rather than source.


 

Let's think about getting everything into the library (stuff that doesn't scan like documentaries, home videos, and one offs put into a separate folder Custom video entries (wiki)  to be dealt with later) , create those smartplay lists and do some linking; using Video nodes (wiki) really upgrades smartplaylists with hierarchy capabilities and of course Add-on:Library Node Editor (wiki) is where it's at.

Hint: treat one offs & docs as unscrapped library sources, with nothing and excluded from scans, file mode will allow play. 

The next challenge I have come up against is how to deal with non-library videos.  Eg both videos downloaded from Youtube etc or home videos.
It appears it is not possible to create smart playlists with non-library files?  (Is this what you meant above Patk?)

I am able to create a home menu item that opens one of these non-library folders in file view.  Using thumbnail view, this is all I need really....except I can't replicate this as a node (within a parent node).  I was hoping to place this as a node within home item "Kids"  alongside "Kids Movies" & "Kids TV Shows".


I don't need any of the other benefits that come with creating nfo files.  All I need is the filename and thumbnails.  Alas, I was happy to try out JustUseTheFileName addon, as it sounded simple enough to create the nfo files.  But it no longer works with v18!

I see that I can use other external software to create the nfo files, but it's a bit of a pain having to do that regularly as you add new videos, just so they appear in the library, when the existing "files" viewing option is all I need.

Is there another easy solution I'm missing for this one?

[PatK]

how to deal with non-library videos.  Eg both videos downloaded from Youtube etc or home videos.
It appears it is not possible to create smart playlists with non-library files?  (Is this what you meant above Patk?)

No you can't make smart playlists from media that is NOT in the library. You are close, you can take a source that has 'none' (file mode should work) and add it to favorites. Depending on the skin you can also add this to source to a direct path menu (T! allows a few of these). You will not get any scraped meta-data, but the folder artwork and artwork will show properly named and you will have view options. I have these as a listing in my 'Nodes' section. e.g. unsure at this point if I used the easy library editor or just manually placed the files. The below example is of a drive "P:" that is NOT in kodi's sources and is another work-round, but the contents act as a 'none' source: added to this list is contents from drive "H:" also not in sources or library. Basically these files are spread over 3-4 drives, most non active and until I hit the on switch.

node in C:\Kodi-Nightlies\Kodi\portable_data\userdata\library\video\broadcast is 'broadcast'

within 'broadcast' is a file called agriculture.xml and the contents as follows.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node type="folder">
    <label>Agriculture</label>
    <path>P:\TV/Agriculture</path>
    <icon>P:\TV\Agriculture\poster.jpg</icon>
</node>

within architecture.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node type="folder">
    <label>Architecture</label>
    <path>P:\TV/Architecture</path>
    <icon>P:\TV\Architecture\poster.jpg</icon>
</node>

etc.. in this case 'broadcast' also contains a folder called 'transportation' in this we find  automobile.xml; aviation.xml; bike-motorcycle.xml; boats.xml; index.xml; trains.xml

each with their own .xml as in

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node type="folder">
    <label>Automobile</label>
    <path>H:\Transportation\Automobile</path>
    <icon>H:\Transportation\Automobile\poster.jpg</icon>
</node>

etc. I find using smartplay lists, nodes, tags and file sources can stack the library into a glorious extensive growing collection.

Not to mention 3rd party stuff, but don't send me that debug.