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Add Kodi library support

Open dagwieers opened this issue 3 years ago • 7 comments

This adds support for adding VRT NU as a Kodi library source. To use this, add the following Video sources to your Kodi:

  • VRT NU - Movies
    • location: plugin://plugin.video.vrt.nu/library/movies
    • type: Movies
    • provider: Local Information only
  • VRT NU - TV shows
    • plugin://plugin.video.vrt.nu/library/tvshows
    • type: TV shows
    • provider: Local Information only

Then update your library to get VRT NU Movies and TV shows to show up in the standard Kodi library.

This fixes #833

TODO

  • Implement hash-support so Kodi does not update everything all the time
    • A poor man's implementation only hashes the URL + number of episodes (this works for series that fill up, and disappear at once, but also for weekly tvshows where an episode appears, and the oldest episodes disappears a few days later, typically 30 days retention)
  • Create a new Kodi Library settings tab:
    • Videos to export to the Kodi Library
      • Only export favorite and watch later Movies (default: off) → library_movies_use_favorites
        • Include documentaries in the Movies export (default: on) → library_movies_include_docu
        • Include music videos in the Movies export (default: on) → library_movies_include_music
      • Only export favorite TV shows to Kodi (default: on) → library_tvshows_use_favorites
    • Manage your Kodi Library exports
      • Clean up the VRT NU exported content
      • Update the VRT NU exported content
        • Periodically update your VRT NU content: 2h, 4h, 6h, 12h, 24h (default: 4h)

dagwieers avatar Sep 28 '20 00:09 dagwieers

After a discussion with @michaelarnauts, there is also an option to leave up to the user what Movies and TV shows are integrated, by adding:

  • plugin://plugin.video.vrt.nu/library/my-movies
  • plugin://plugin.video.vrt.nu/library/my-tvshows

Then the user can decide whether they want to include only the Favorites, or instead all the Movies and TV shows. So this is something we have to decide, do we have a flag in the settings to change the behaviour, or a different target?

I already made an option to include Docu and Music to Movies, I used to have different targets for these as well, but it is a lot more work for the end-user to have to add a new source for each.

dagwieers avatar Sep 28 '20 18:09 dagwieers

I only get favourite tv-shows with plugin://plugin.video.vrt.nu/library/tvshows

That is intentional. Using the "Recently added TV shows" it makes no sense to have to see all the episodes of everything at VRT NU.

But it will be a setting you can switch as well.

Then the user can decide whether they want to include only the Favorites, or instead all the Movies and TV shows. So this is something we have to decide, do we have a flag in the settings to change the behaviour, or a different target?

I think it is confusing to use a setting that changes the behaviour of the plugin url. Using different plugin urls is better. Especially when these plugin urls are used outside the add-on environment.

We debated this, and today came to the conclusion using settings was the most convenient for users. It would make the sources configuration identical for everyone. And similar across add-ons.

This adds support for adding VRT NU as a Kodi library source.

I'm not familiar with this functionality with regard to add-ons, does this have advantages over using the add-on itself?

You see movies and TV shows listed in a single interface, and see what movies or TV shows were recently added.

If you only use e.g. VRT NU, there is no real advantage. But if you frequently use more than one add-on it is nice to see new episodes in a single interface.

dagwieers avatar Sep 29 '20 18:09 dagwieers

I think the most clear experience would be to have the same behaviour for Movies and TV Shows and export only the items in your favourites by default. It seems like an odd choice to do it by default for series, but not for movies

michaelarnauts avatar Sep 29 '20 18:09 michaelarnauts

I think the most clear experience would be to have the same behaviour for Movies and TV Shows and export only the items in your favourites by default. It seems like an odd choice to do it by default for series, but not for movies

Well, on VRT NU a movie is usually only around for 7 days, so most people would never "Follow" or "Watch Later" a movie. In most cases if they were not aware, they would miss it. The nice things about the Kodi Library is that these new Movies (we only have a handful) would appear in the "Recently added " list.

Same for TV Shows, but there having all episodes listed would be a poor signal-to-noise ratio.

So for Movies, if you don't add all, you have no signal and no noise, but for TV shows adding them all, would mean mostly noise.

I am not optimizing for the most consistent behaviour, I am optimizing for the best user experience. The settings should make the defaults obvious and changeable by the user.

dagwieers avatar Sep 29 '20 19:09 dagwieers

Thinking about Netflix, I would probably do the same thing. I would like to know when Netflix adds new Movies, but I am only interested in new episodes of the stuff I am watching.

dagwieers avatar Sep 29 '20 19:09 dagwieers

I just noticed 5 new movies were released by Streamz:

  • Assassination Island
  • Pachamama
  • Ruin Me
  • True Grit
  • Waves

Our kids will only see Pachamama on their Recently added Movies section.

dagwieers avatar Sep 29 '20 22:09 dagwieers

I would like to get this ready for an upcoming v2.5.0 release, based on the implementation and settings from VTM GO and Streamz.

dagwieers avatar Jan 25 '21 13:01 dagwieers