[bsoriano]

@bsoriano 
I was trying to figure out a way of doing exactly the same thing on my own skin mod. Only difference, I was looking to start playing a random movie from my library when a button was selected. Check out the below link for a post I made ages ago in 2019 as it might give you some hints on how to achieve this kind of functionality. The playlist I used could of course be changed for random episodes:-
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2845289
Let me know if you have any success.
Cheers

@Dumyat, thanks! I was thinking along the same lines, a smart playlist of a single random episode.  With that as the onclick for the button I think it could work.  Also, looking at your referenced post, does your skin mod use skinshortcuts? As far as I recall, skinshortcuts asks you what you want to do with a playlist, either play it or display it.

Regards,

Bart

[Dumyat]

 

I was thinking along the same lines, a smart playlist of a single random episode.  With that as the onclick for the button I think it could work.  Also, looking at your referenced post, does your skin mod use skinshortcuts? As far as I recall, skinshortcuts asks you what you want to do with a playlist, either play it or display it.

No, my skin mod is based on default Estuary skin, so no skinshortcuts. Yeah, my main issue was getting the playlist to autoplay when using the <onclick> tag. The best I could achieve was getting current skin view to display a random movie item, but not actually play it.
Maybe you will have better luck if skinshortcuts does allow a play it or display it feature.

[bsoriano]

 

I was thinking along the same lines, a smart playlist of a single random episode.  With that as the onclick for the button I think it could work.  Also, looking at your referenced post, does your skin mod use skinshortcuts? As far as I recall, skinshortcuts asks you what you want to do with a playlist, either play it or display it.

No, my skin mod is based on default Estuary skin, so no skinshortcuts. Yeah, my main issue was getting the playlist to autoplay when using the <onclick> tag. The best I could achieve was getting current skin view to display a random movie item, but not actually play it.
Maybe you will have better luck if skinshortcuts does allow a play it or display it feature.

@Dumyat , yes, I just tried it and skinshortcuts gave me the option.  The <onclick> that it generated for the menu item I added was this:

xml:


<onclick>PlayMedia(special://profile/playlists/video/EpisodeSurpriseMe.xsp)</onclick>

And my EpisodeSurpriseMe.xsp is this:

xml:


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

<smartplaylist type="episodes">

    <name>Surprise Me (Episode)</name>

    <match>all</match>

 <rule field="playcount" operator="is">

  <value>0</value>

 </rule>

    <limit>1</limit>

    <order direction="descending">random</order>

</smartplaylist>

And sure enough, when I click the menu item, a random unwatched episode starts playing.

Regards,

Bart

[VonMagnum]

Is there any way a random TV episode option could be added to the side bar (perhaps one for all TV shows and one for a specific TV show?)  It might be nice to have the device pick out a random episode of Seinfeld or Big Bang Theory or whatever instead of reading the descriptions and thinking, "yeah I've seen that" and be more like just turning on the TV for a repeat and watching whatever happens to be there.  Sometimes, I sit there and look through episodes and get disgusted and just don't watch anything because the description has me replaying the whole episode in my head and then I think why bother to watch it?  Maybe, it's just me. 

@VonMagnum , how do you envision this working? Having a button on the sidebar that takes you to a random episode? I do not think this is possible without using an addon like Embuary Helper or something like that.  Wouldn't it be similar to what you want having the "Random Episodes" widget on your TV Shows menu item? or would you like to have a submenu option that takes you to random episodes?  I think I can manage that last one, but it would be random episodes of all shows, not a specific one.  If you would like that option, would you like to include already watched episodes in that? Please let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

I was thinking along the lines of something similar to how the Pictures "random" mode works.  If you're in a directory of a specific set of photos, the start slideshow button only selects random photos from within that directory, but if you're in the main pictures directory where many subfolders exist, it selects random photos from among all the sub-directories.  Thus, a "start a random episode" would pick among all TV shows if in the main TV shows area, but if you click on a specific TV Show or even a specific season, it would only pick a random episode from within that show or season (i.e. "all seasons" would pick among all of them).  

I'm not sure if it can work, etc.  It was just an idea I thought might be more useful for when you have a hard time trying to decide what to watch.

[bsoriano]

Is there any way a random TV episode option could be added to the side bar (perhaps one for all TV shows and one for a specific TV show?)  It might be nice to have the device pick out a random episode of Seinfeld or Big Bang Theory or whatever instead of reading the descriptions and thinking, "yeah I've seen that" and be more like just turning on the TV for a repeat and watching whatever happens to be there.  Sometimes, I sit there and look through episodes and get disgusted and just don't watch anything because the description has me replaying the whole episode in my head and then I think why bother to watch it?  Maybe, it's just me. 

@VonMagnum , how do you envision this working? Having a button on the sidebar that takes you to a random episode? I do not think this is possible without using an addon like Embuary Helper or something like that.  Wouldn't it be similar to what you want having the "Random Episodes" widget on your TV Shows menu item? or would you like to have a submenu option that takes you to random episodes?  I think I can manage that last one, but it would be random episodes of all shows, not a specific one.  If you would like that option, would you like to include already watched episodes in that? Please let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

I was thinking along the lines of something similar to how the Pictures "random" mode works.  If you're in a directory of a specific set of photos, the start slideshow button only selects random photos from within that directory, but if you're in the main pictures directory where many subfolders exist, it selects random photos from among all the sub-directories.  Thus, a "start a random episode" would pick among all TV shows if in the main TV shows area, but if you click on a specific TV Show or even a specific season, it would only pick a random episode from within that show or season (i.e. "all seasons" would pick among all of them).  

I'm not sure if it can work, etc.  It was just an idea I thought might be more useful for when you have a hard time trying to decide what to watch.

@VonMagnum , thanks for the additional info.  I saw an addon that works in Matrix that might be useful in acheiving this.  I will run some tests this week to see if it is possible.  To be clear, you would like to play a single, unwatched, random episode from either all tv shows, a single tv show, or a season of a tv show? Please confirm. 

Note that I am not including "all seasons" in my question, since it is not a real season in Kodi and does not have a database id.  However, playing a random episode from "all seasons" should be equivalent to playing a random episode from the whole tv show.

Please confirm that this is what you would like.  If the addon I am thinking of works for this, it can also play multiple random episodes, not just one.

What I do not think I can do is take you to a details (info) screen of the episode to be played; most likely the button would just start playback of the episode.  You could always press Info while the episode is playing to see details.  Would that be OK with you? Please confirm also.  Thanks.

I admit this is an interesting challenge, which I hope I can solve.  Thank you for the request.

Regards,

Bart

[bsoriano]

@VonMagnum , please try the latest from GitHub, I have added a first approach to your request.  You will need to install script.playrandomvideos, which is available in the Kodi repo for Matrix, under Context Menu addons.

I added a "Play Random" button to the sideblade, which looks like this:



This button will play a single, random, unwatched episode from the TV show that is highlighted.  If you open the tv show, and highlight a season, the sideblade button will play a single, random, unwatched episode from that season of the tv show.  If you highlight "all seasons", then the button plays a random episode from the whole tv show.

If you want to play a random episode taken from all of your tv shows, you can go to the Videos main menu item, select the Titles submenu, and then highlight TV Shows, open the sideblade and click on "Play Random". 

It is interesting to note that the button also works for movies and music videos (concerts).  For example, you can go to Movies, Genres, highlight any genre, open the sideblade dn click on "Play Random' to play a random movie of that genre.  The same would apply to Years, Actors, Directors, Countries, Studio, Tag, etc.

Are you interested in me coding an option that you can add as a menu item, or submenu item, that will play a single, random episode from all of your tv shows? Please confirm.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[pavichokche]

Hello all,

At the request of user @pavichokche , I have added new widget options for Recent Movies, Episodes and Concerts that include watched items.  You can find the new options here:

As you can see, the new options have the "(includes watched)" at the end.

@pavichokche , please let me know if this is what you were looking for and if it is working correctly.  Thanks.


The changes are already on GitHub: https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.xonfluence

Regards,

Bart

WOW thank you so much for implementing this so quickly! It works just as intended, yes.
I have some questions/ideas.
1. Is it possible for the widget entries to have a checkmark if they have been watched, like the thumbnail views do in a list? It's cool if it's not a simple thing to enable/implement, I was just wondering
2. Is there an easy way to rename the 'Videos'/'Movies'/'TV Shows' entries on the home page so that they are all capital letters? I don't mind editing files where necessary, if that would achieve the desired effect
3. Can I edit the HD quality icon on my end somewhere because the shade of blue is too dark and hard to read against the icon's dark background? I'm talking about this one:

[rafikW]

Hello all,

At the request of user @pavichokche , I have added new widget options for Recent Movies, Episodes and Concerts that include watched items.  You can find the new options here:

As you can see, the new options have the "(includes watched)" at the end.

@pavichokche , please let me know if this is what you were looking for and if it is working correctly.  Thanks.


The changes are already on GitHub: https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.xonfluence

Regards,

Bart

[...]
3. Can I edit the HD quality icon on my end somewhere because the shade of blue is too dark and hard to read against the icon's dark background? I'm talking about this one:

Regarding icons. I agree, current icons are too "aggressive" from color and brightness perspective. In previous version it was much better. Therefore when I have update completed I'm always replacing Textures.xbt. Would it be possible to somehow choose which Textures are going to be used during the skin's installation or update?

Kodi.Texture.exe is a tool for unpacking and packing icons from/into xbt file so use it and create your own set of icons.
Alternatively you can replace Textures.xbt with the one I have uploaded here: https://file.io/0CfpUJHzMxQh

Few general remarks:
1. Thread title. Should be changed to Xonfluence (Leia v18.x & Matrix v19.x) We can forget about Krypton v17. I doubt anyone still uses it.
2. Would be nice to see Xonfluence available in original Kodi repository

[bsoriano]

Hello all,

At the request of user @pavichokche , I have added new widget options for Recent Movies, Episodes and Concerts that include watched items.  You can find the new options here:

As you can see, the new options have the "(includes watched)" at the end.

@pavichokche , please let me know if this is what you were looking for and if it is working correctly.  Thanks.


The changes are already on GitHub: https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.xonfluence

Regards,

Bart

[...]
3. Can I edit the HD quality icon on my end somewhere because the shade of blue is too dark and hard to read against the icon's dark background? I'm talking about this one:

Regarding icons. I agree, current icons are too "aggressive" from color and brightness perspective. In previous version it was much better. Therefore when I have update completed I'm always replacing Textures.xbt. Would it be possible to somehow choose which Textures are going to be used during the skin's installation or update?

Kodi.Texture.exe is a tool for unpacking and packing icons from/into xbt file so use it and create your own set of icons.
Alternatively you can replace Textures.xbt with the one I have uploaded here: https://file.io/0CfpUJHzMxQh

Few general remarks:
1. Thread title. Should be changed to Xonfluence (Leia v18.x & Matrix v19.x) We can forget about Krypton v17. I doubt anyone still uses it.
2. Would be nice to see Xonfluence available in original Kodi repository

@rafikW , I did not change anything with the icons, that's how I "inherited" them.  I agree that they are aggressive, and I like yours better in terms of color, brightness and contrast.  I will be placing yours as the default ones for the skin, and will rename the current one.

You can decide which textures file is used by going to System, Interface Settings, and choosing what "Theme" to use.  What shows up there is the list of .xbt files which are in the skin's "media" folder.

As for your remarks:

1.  I am not the thread owner, so I cannot change the title.  Perhaps one of the moderators can do that for us.

2.  Once I include all of the skinning engine changes for Matrix,  I will go through the code to see what needs to be removed/change in order qualify for inclusion in the Kodi repo.  This might take a while.

Regards,

Bart

[Klojum]

1.  I am not the thread owner, so I cannot change the title.  Perhaps one of the moderators can do that for us.

Done.

[odoll]

@odoll, as far as I know, there is a Kodi issue in Matrix with wraparound navigation on touchscreens.  I do not recall if the skin has an option to turn off wraparound navigation.  If it does, turn it off.  I will check later today.

Yes, luckily I was able to get to the System -> Skin config menu using a Bluetooth mouse paired with my tablet, thus I could change the settings. (So I didn't manually had to search for the option in Xonfluences config files(s)

Turning it off mitigates the situation

however IMO it's not perfect, yet.

[rafikW]

@odoll, as far as I know, there is a Kodi issue in Matrix with wraparound navigation on touchscreens.  I do not recall if the skin has an option to turn off wraparound navigation.  If it does, turn it off.  I will check later today.

Yes, luckily I was able to get to the System -> Skin config menu using a Bluetooth mouse paired with my tablet, thus I could change the settings. (So I didn't manually had to search for the option in Xonfluences config files(s)

Turning it off mitigates the situation

however IMO it's not perfect, yet.

Showing screenshots with non-English words is a very bad idea :-)

[bsoriano]

1.  I am not the thread owner, so I cannot change the title.  Perhaps one of the moderators can do that for us.

Done.

@Klojum, thanks!

Regards,

Bart

[bsoriano]

Hello all,

At the request of user @pavichokche , I have added new widget options for Recent Movies, Episodes and Concerts that include watched items.  You can find the new options here:

As you can see, the new options have the "(includes watched)" at the end.

@pavichokche , please let me know if this is what you were looking for and if it is working correctly.  Thanks.


The changes are already on GitHub: https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.xonfluence

Regards,

Bart

WOW thank you so much for implementing this so quickly! It works just as intended, yes.
I have some questions/ideas.
1. Is it possible for the widget entries to have a checkmark if they have been watched, like the thumbnail views do in a list? It's cool if it's not a simple thing to enable/implement, I was just wondering
2. Is there an easy way to rename the 'Videos'/'Movies'/'TV Shows' entries on the home page so that they are all capital letters? I don't mind editing files where necessary, if that would achieve the desired effect
3. Can I edit the HD quality icon on my end somewhere because the shade of blue is too dark and hard to read against the icon's dark background? I'm talking about this one:

@pavichokche , thanks for confirming it works well.

As to your questions/ideas:

1. Sure.  I just implemented this, the changes are on GitHub already.  How does this look to you?





Please let me know if this is what you were looking for.  Thanks.


2.  I looked at this, and made it an option you can now choose in the skin settings.  The changes are already on GitHub.  You can find the new setting here:



And it looks like this:



Please let me know if this is what you were looking for.  Thanks.

3.  I "inherited" those icons and I am not a good designer, so I could not go about changing them.  However, user @rafikW did provide an improved version of these, which are now the default in the skin.  The new icons look like this:



You can always go back to the previous icons by going to System, Interface, Skin, and selecting "Previous" as the Theme:




Regards,

Bart

[VonMagnum]

@VonMagnum , how do you envision this working? Having a button on the sidebar that takes you to a random episode? I do not think this is possible without using an addon like Embuary Helper or something like that.  Wouldn't it be similar to what you want having the "Random Episodes" widget on your TV Shows menu item? or would you like to have a submenu option that takes you to random episodes?  I think I can manage that last one, but it would be random episodes of all shows, not a specific one.  If you would like that option, would you like to include already watched episodes in that? Please let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

I was thinking along the lines of something similar to how the Pictures "random" mode works.  If you're in a directory of a specific set of photos, the start slideshow button only selects random photos from within that directory, but if you're in the main pictures directory where many subfolders exist, it selects random photos from among all the sub-directories.  Thus, a "start a random episode" would pick among all TV shows if in the main TV shows area, but if you click on a specific TV Show or even a specific season, it would only pick a random episode from within that show or season (i.e. "all seasons" would pick among all of them).  

I'm not sure if it can work, etc.  It was just an idea I thought might be more useful for when you have a hard time trying to decide what to watch.

@VonMagnum , thanks for the additional info.  I saw an addon that works in Matrix that might be useful in acheiving this.  I will run some tests this week to see if it is possible.  To be clear, you would like to play a single, unwatched, random episode from either all tv shows, a single tv show, or a season of a tv show? Please confirm. 

Note that I am not including "all seasons" in my question, since it is not a real season in Kodi and does not have a database id.  However, playing a random episode from "all seasons" should be equivalent to playing a random episode from the whole tv show.

Please confirm that this is what you would like.  If the addon I am thinking of works for this, it can also play multiple random episodes, not just one.

What I do not think I can do is take you to a details (info) screen of the episode to be played; most likely the button would just start playback of the episode.  You could always press Info while the episode is playing to see details.  Would that be OK with you? Please confirm also.  Thanks.

I admit this is an interesting challenge, which I hope I can solve.  Thank you for the request.

Regards,

Bart

Yes, that sounds just like what I was looking for.  I don't need to see the episode info.  Thanks.  I don't need it on a context menu (it feels like they're getting messy as it is).  On the side looks fine to me.  I'll try it out.