sbondCo
Text & HTML Exporting
Idea Overview Currently, sharing a list requires that the recipient have a user account on that Watcharr instance. This makes it difficult to share with friends, and impossible to share with strangers. I'd like to propose a few different solutions with different pros and cons.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. If I want to share my watchlist with someone, they require an account on my Watcharr instance. This presents both a barrier and a security concern. Having to have an account they can log into is mostly just annoying, but if I'm looking for feedback on what to watch based on my watchlist history, and I'm asking somewhere public like on a forum, I don't really want to share a URL to my instance (and that's not even viable if a tunnel is being used).
Describe the solution you'd like I have a few different possible solutions:
- Simply make it possible to view a shared list without needing an account. Pro: Very simple. Con: Still means having to share your Watcharr URL, which you may be hesitant to do with strangers, and isn't viable if a tunnel is being used. If this option is pursued, please make it so I can expose Guest-Watcharr on another port to create a separate URL to expose it with, such that someone sent the URL can't easily remove part of it to get to the sign in / create account screen, or alternatively at least make it possible to lock account creation so nobody can do so.
- Make it possible to sync to a public watchlist repository. For example, Letterboxd. Pro: Potentially familiar to non-Watcharr users. Con: Creates a dependency on a 3rd party API (assuming one exists).
- Make it possible to view user watchlists through a central Watcharr website that self-hosters can opt to connect to. Pro: Can act as a middleman between home servers and watchlist viewers, helping assure security for those self-hosters. Con: Requires at least some sort of call and cache system to be set up, and places a burden on your end. Also technically is a dependency on a 3rd party from the self-hoster's perspective.
- Make it possible to easily generate a plaintext list of titles, viewing status / watching episode and season, and rating. Pro: Very simple. Con: Kinda lame.
Side note: I'd love to see a way to toggle sharing of your watchlist with other users on your instance via switches next to their usernames. If enabled, they could then see your watchlist within Watcharr without even needing to receive a link.
Hi @LoganJFisher, thanks for opening this issue.
Solution 1: We do have plans to allow viewing a list without an account for some point in the future (#698).
Solution 2 is not something I want to work on (happy if anyone else would like to).
Solution 3 would be cool to work on, but not something that I think would add much value to Watcharr (effort to value).
Solution 4 would work. It could be spruced up with a html export option, so sharing the html file, anyone could download it and open it up in their browser to view your list with an actual ui (not sure that this is something strangers would risk doing, though you could potentially host it on a free public hosting service, if one exists, so that it can be accessed with a url).
Side note: I'd love to see a way to toggle sharing of your watchlist with other users on your instance via switches next to their usernames. If enabled, they could then see your watchlist within Watcharr without even needing to receive a link.
If you're sharing your watched list link, I assume your list is public?
If so, the other user could use the search to find you by your username, or they could follow you and always be able to access your list quickly with the following menu in the navbar.
Does that work for you?
Regarding solution 1: please accept my apologies for not having seen #698.
I agree that solutions 2 & 3 probably aren't good uses of time. I just figured I should lay out every option I could think of.
Your idea for solution 4 of having an html export option is intriguing. I do like the sound of that.
A user may only want their watchlist to be viewable by some users within the same Watcharr instance, but not others though. Consider a family — the parents may want to see the watchlists belonging to each other and their kids, but not want their kids to see theirs. As such, a per-user toggle to allow them to see your watchlist within Watcharr would be best.
@LoganJFisher Sounds good, we can look into a text and html export (Changing the title of this issue to something like "text and html exporting" might be good now we've picked a solution).
I can see how that could be useful, I think it'd be loosely related to #592 (we can make a new section under your profile for managing access to your list for both of these issues). I don't think we have another issue for this, so you may want to open up a separate one to track that.