[ShockViper]

What is the interest of using NFO files when you can :

• automatically scrap games infos from Internet,
  
• manually edit all games infos directly from XBMC,
  
• and manually edit the launchers.xml file which contain all the games infos?
  

Well if you have 3 PCs running advanced launcher and you have to wait for half an hour for 700+ roms to scrape. it could be annoying .

Yes i can edit the launchers.xml and replaca all of folder names with one command but some of the users may not know how to do that.

And since you already have the possibility to load plot from file you can put all infos there.

This is not essential functionality but I thought it might be useful

[-SPK-]

Hi, I have a problem, is the first instal of the script (latest version), and Advanced emulator only shows my Drive "E:" (have 5 drives in my PC) to select executables or emulators, anyone knows why?

I using XBMC Dharma Final and latest Night SVN Skin. (I try whith Alaska Revisited too, same result)

sorry my english

[Angelscry]

The new "Import plot from file" feature is broke. Instead of putting a file path, it put the whole plot! See screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/dIuZO.jpg

No, this is not a bug. This line simply show you the content of the plot tag. This option is to import the plot from a text file and not to link the plot to a file.

It also threw an addon.py error, which is here:
http://pastebin.com/f23uU8mJ

Thank you for your feedback. This bug will be fixed in for the next version.

- A "None" option (that skips scraping that file and moves to the next one. I can manually scrape the file later). Sometimes the scraper is just out to lunch so much that the game doesn't show up in the top 20 list.

I will try to do it. I'm not sure that will be possible because I'm not sure, when skipping, that it will be possible to make difference between skip scraping file and skip scraping game info. When the scraper is "out of lunch" could have 2 reasons : the game is not into the database, the query string is to different from the original title. In both cases the scraper give you the most close results. I cannot improve this.

- The filename of the ROM being scraped. (I can't tell if the scraper is doing it's job correctly if I don't know the name of the file being scraped). I was scraping "Snatcher" for SegaCD and the scraper told me that it was scraping for "Snack Attack".

Normally, when you start scraping a game, the rom filename is displayed. After the game data was saved, it is the rom title that is displayed (during image scraping). It is the same reason than previously explained. I will try to see if I can improve this.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Thanks for the updates!!

[Angelscry]

Well if you have 3 PCs running advanced launcher and you have to wait for half an hour for 700+ roms to scrape. it could be annoying .

Yes i can edit the launchers.xml and replaca all of folder names with one command but some of the users may not know how to do that.

I think that recursively replace a string into a text file is not so complicated when your are able to setup a local network with shares. All the text editors have this function.

And since you already have the possibility to load plot from file you can put all infos there.

It is just an import function. The imported text file could be anywhere and is never linked to a game. All the infos are into the launchers.xml file

This is not essential functionality but I thought it might be useful

Using NFO files will not solve your problem. NFO file will only contain data info, and not thumbs and fanarts images path. So you will still need to edit the launchers.xml file to have the right images path.

[Angelscry]

Hi, I have a problem, is the first instal of the script (latest version), and Advanced emulator only shows my Drive "E:" (have 5 drives in my PC) to select executables or emulators, anyone knows why?

Before start ALA you need to manually add your drives as sources into XBMC. Then ALA will be able to detect and acces those sources/drives : http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=89915

[fr500]

I think that recursively replace a string into a text file is not so complicated when your are able to setup a local network with shares. All the text editors have this function.

It is just an import function. The imported text file could be anywhere and is never linked to a game. All the infos are into the launchers.xml file

Using NFO files will not solve your problem. NFO file will only contain data info, and not thumbs and fanarts images path. So you will still need to edit the launchers.xml file to have the right images path.

This could actually work though. If we all agreed on a folder naming structure like the global XBMC database or something.

Code:

[font=Fixedsys]Games

Launchers
|
|--Comics
|     |----Comic 1
|     |       |___ Comic 1 Media files
|     |       |___ Comic 1 nfo
|     |----Comic 2
|             |___ Comic 2 Media files
|             |___ Comic 2 nfo
|
|--Games
|     |----Game 1
|     |       |___ Game 1 Media files
|     |       |___ Game 1 nfo
|     |----Game 2
|     |       |___ Game 2 Media files
|     |       |___ Game 2 nfo
|     |----Game 3
|             |___ Game 3 Media files
|             |___ Game 3 nfo
|
|--Emulators
      |----Nes
      |       |___NES  Game 1 Media files
      |       |___NES  Game 1 nfo
      |       |___NES  Game 1 rom
      |       |___NES  Game 2 nfo
      |       |___NES  Game 2 Media files
      |       |___NES  Game 2 rom
      |----Genesis
              |___ Genesis Game 1 Media files
              |___ NES Game 1 nfo
              |___ NES Game 1 rom


[/font]

It's an actual good idea but it gives users less flexiblity in the end. The plus side is it would be similar to managing the rest of your library. It could be even managed by Ember (for creating the nfo's, etc.) And would be more manageable with bigger collections since launcher.xml wouldn't be so big.

You would only add sources (like the games folder pictured above but it would be only the game launchers folder) You could have all your launchers as .lnk launchers there or something and have them all scraped automatically. You could add another source for comics, or books or whatever.

On the other hand it would be a loooooooot of work. And I'm happy with ALA the way it is now

[TheHazel3yes]

I just wanted to say that Night is an excellent skin for ALA users as it has integrated ALA support (at least in the recent versions), but see it yourself:






There is no plot support for quadratic images yet, but I guess that's just a bug as the other view type do show the plot.
Oh and you can add ALA directly onto the home screen as it supports favorites on it. Now that's what I call a great skin!

Also if any of you have got PSx controllers: There are really cheap converters (about 8$!) that are working out of the box on Dharma LIVE - even with rumble support! Now I finally can get rid of the 360 controller and its really bad D-Pad.

[Angelscry]

This could actually work though. If we all agreed on a folder naming structure like the global XBMC database or something.

Where will be located the thumbs and fanarts images in your diagram? If we replace the launchers.xml file by NFO files, where will be located the thumbs and fanarts images path informations? Into the NFO files? If you have XBMC installed on different computers you will still have the modify those path. Also, where will be located the launchers settings informations? We still need to use a central file to manage all this.

It's an actual good idea but it gives users less flexiblity in the end.

No more flexibility you mean. If your media files are located on different hard drives or into several network servers or shares, using your files organization, users will be forced to put all their media into the same place and using and forced to use a specific organization. With this organization, Advanced Launcher will become a roms/games manager instead of a flexible applications launcher.

The plus side is it would be similar to managing the rest of your library.

My actual XBMC system manage a lot of different video and audio files, all well identified, and I did not use at all any NFO files to obtain this. So the use of NFO files will not be similar to the rest of my library.

It could be even managed by Ember (for creating the nfo's, etc.)

Ember software is a Windows application (not on LInux) that only exists because there is no internal option into XBMC that allows users to directly edit their media infos. With Advanced Launcher you can actually do all of this using the edit option. So no need to use a third party software or create intermediate NFO files.

And would be more manageable with bigger collections since launcher.xml wouldn't be so big.

One big central file vs. One big central database + thousand redundant individual NFO files... personally the first option look more manageable for me. Also, since the latest ALA versions, you do not need anymore to touch at the launchers.xml file to manage your roms and launchers. You can do all directly from XBMC. Seriuosly, I would be very happy if this kind of management functionality would exist in XBMC to manage all my other media (video and audio).

On the other hand it would be a loooooooot of work. And I'm happy with ALA the way it is now

Heuuu... you simply ask me to restart all from zero and make an add-on quite similar to RCB.

[Robert de Clair]

polish r275 http://www.mediafire.com/?51akzq3rq7z33ve

[fr500]

Where will be located the thumbs and fanarts images in your diagram? If we replace the launchers.xml file by NFO files, where will be located the thumbs and fanarts images path informations? Into the NFO files? If you have XBMC installed on different computers you will still have the modify those path. Also, where will be located the launchers settings informations? We still need to use a central file to manage all this.

Here:

Code:

|     |----Comic 2
[b]|             |___ Comic 2 Media files[/b]
|             |___ Comic 2 nfo

You would need a central file to handle sources, yes

No more flexibility you mean. If your media files are located on different hard drives or into several network servers or shares, using your files organization, users will be forced to put all their media into the same place and using and forced to use a specific organization. With this organization, Advanced Launcher will become a roms/games manager instead of a flexible applications launcher.

That's exactly why I said less flexibility (less= no more) I agree with you on this

Ember software is a Windows application (not on LInux) that only exists because there is no internal option into XBMC that allows users to directly edit their media infos. With Advanced Launcher you can actually do all of this using the edit option. So no need to use a third party software or create intermediate NFO files.

True

One big central file vs. One big central database + thousand redundant individual NFO files... personally the first option look more manageable for me. Also, since the latest ALA versions, you do not need anymore to touch at the launchers.xml file to manage your roms and launchers. You can do all directly from XBMC. Seriuosly, I would be very happy if this kind of management functionality would exist in XBMC to manage all my other media (video and audio).

Just a different point of view

Heuuu... you simply ask me to restart all from zero and make an add-on quite similar to RCB.

Nonono you got me wrong, I don't ask for anything, I said I'm happy the way it is now and I was stating that It would be far too much work to implement this, why reinvent the wheel? it's working already. I just said it was a good idea nothing else

[Angelscry]

Nonono you got me wrong, I don't ask for anything, I said I'm happy the way it is now and I was stating that It would be far too much work to implement this, why reinvent the wheel? it's working already. I just said it was a good idea nothing else

No problem, we just share ideas and opinions...

[Angelscry]

polish r275 http://www.mediafire.com/?51akzq3rq7z33ve

Thank you !!!!

[srsobieraj]

No, this is not a bug. This line simply show you the content of the plot tag. This option is to import the plot from a text file and not to link the plot to a file.

Two items of note:
1) The plot comes from the text file, but the file itself isn't linked. How do I edit the plot text file then?

2) The plot doesn't parse the double quote character ( " ) correctly. Instead I see this ( " ).

[Angelscry]

Two items of note:
1) The plot comes from the text file, but the file itself isn't linked. How do I edit the plot text file then?

Import another text file or edit the launchers.xml file.

2) The plot doesn't parse the double quote character ( " ) correctly. Instead I see this ( " ).

Ok... thank you. I will try to fix this for the next version.