[portal-xtra1] Custom TV Portal Alternative

[Ian Jukes]

A whole passel of OIPTV & hbbTV documents,
- http://tv.tausoft.co.uk

 

[Ian Jukes]

Update portal-xtra1_0.12.052.890

Ok, so there's a bug... I didn't set the run flags on the Jim file when I copied it to the path for packaging.

Update portal-xtra1_0.12.052.891 fixes it, so most of you won't of seen the 890 buggy one --whew--

...ian --grin--

 

[ChrisDaniels]

Ian, Red buttons 5 & 6 both point to YouTube..

Also, a little idea for a v quick mini app - a video streamer (the basic code for which i've posted previously somewhere). The only tricky bit would be the input. I'm thinking with the Formula 1 season approaching, hopefully someone will be hosting a live stream that I can watch

 

[af123]

It feels like it almost time to move this from a plugin to a complete replacement which is an alternative to the existing custom-portal package rather than an addition.

 

[ChrisDaniels]

Yeah I agree, its a lot better than my efforts

 

[ChrisDaniels]

As a very rough starting point for the streamer i mentioned above, i've chopped up the twitter code to use the virtual keyboard..
http://streamtohumax.comule.com/test.html
Dont know if i'm going to be able to get this going though as i'm not great with java & html..

 

[Ian Jukes]

It feels like it almost time to move this from a plugin to a complete replacement which is an alternative to the existing custom-portal package rather than an addition.

Yeah I agree, its a lot better than my efforts

Thank you both for the compliment.
Chris I had no intention of usurping your efforts, but if you really think so.

Can you both advise me how best to proceed with this,
Should I unpackaged the custom-portal, update the version numbers and redo the custom portal package with my replacement code?
And then release an update to xtra1 that contains nothing except a dependency requiring the latest custom-portal?

Then how should we best deprecate the current Xtra1 portal?
My code will ignore the xtra1 plugin if it exists, so uninstalling will not be essential, but it's extra gubbins.

 

[Ian Jukes]

Ian, Red buttons 5 & 6 both point to YouTube..

I'll check it out ASAP, probably Thursday daytime - busy with work stuff today and probably will not have chance.

Also, a little idea for a v quick mini app - a video streamer (the basic code for which i've posted previously somewhere). The only tricky bit would be the input. I'm thinking with the Formula 1 season approaching, hopefully someone will be hosting a live stream that I can watch

Specifying a stream by typing in with a USB keyboard would be a quick solution, as long as the stream were compatible with the Hummy, have to have a play with it.

I want to try it with a stream from the DNLA/UPnP server in the box too, so that you could play a recording from the box within the portal. --All good stuff if we can get it to work--

 

[ChrisDaniels]

Its all good Ian. Don't worry about usurping me, you're a better coder than me! lol I just hacked & slashed the humax portal to its bare bones.

I've really had no time since just before xmas to devote to it anyway due to moving house, passing my driving test, crashing my car, and then buying a new one what a start to the year

 

[ChrisDaniels]

If you unpackage the custom portal package, one of the files in there is config-ocontroller-si-rootfs.txt
This is the key to setting the portal homepage.
There is a key in there for mom.hbbtv.portal - you could just change that to point to your file as the homepage instead (i think)

af123 will correct me if i'm wrong, but you should be able to just change the above, up the version number, and ditch all my other files.
af might be able to knock a script together to tidy things up too - we had a bit of bother with permission issues and the like when we first launched it.

 

[ChrisDaniels]

PS. Found a new link to try in the portal.. not tested it http://tvstore.opera.com/

 

[af123]

Can you both advise me how best to proceed with this

I wouldn't try and merge the two or kill custom-portal completely. Here's what I would do:

• In the portal-xtra1 CONTROL file, note that it conflicts with custom-portal:
  • Just add Conflicts: custom-portal
• Copy the bootstrap code from the custom-portal package into the portal-xtra1 package (basically the contents of the boot/ directory in there;
• Tweak the portal startup page in boot/2/config-ocontroller-si-rootfs.txt - the mom.hbbtv.portal entry as Chris has already noted - so that is loads the page you want at startup;
• Move your code up a level so that it sits directly within /mod/var/mongoose/html/portal if that makes sense for your code structure;
• Provide an empty plugins/ directory in the same location as custom-portal did;
• Get the existing plugin authors (oh, that's just me : ) to update their package so that it references the new jquery library that you bundle, or the one in /mod/var/mongoose/html/js, rather than the one that came with custom-portal, or provide the old jquery 1.4.2 library alongside yours.

That way, the two portals can continue to exist but only one can be installed at a time. When you first do this, people will need to remove custom-portal in order to upgrade portal-xtra1 because of the conflict statement and if they ever want to switch back they need to remove the latter first.

 

[ChrisDaniels]

That makes more sense

 

[James]

Sorry for the cross posting, but with reference to the thread i started yesterday, I was suggesting an addtion to the xtra portal, by means of allowing customisation of the portal by allowing users to add links to the TBC menu via the webif. This would allow users to directly configure their portal to connect to other local services e.g. swiss center (www.swisscenter.com) and PlayON (Which may allow Netflix and Hulu to work on the box)

James

 

[Ian Jukes]

Ian, Red buttons 5 & 6 both point to YouTube..

Whups!

Link red/5 should be Flickr, fixed it, it will be in an update over the weekend. --grin--

 

[Ian Jukes]

That makes more sense

Or should I do exactly as you have said, but with a NEW package name "custom-portal-x", so it will list in the repository next to the old one.

So that people can still install exactly as now, or have the choice.
They will have to uninstall both xtra1, foscam and custom-portal.
I'll maintain both for a while before deprecating the plugin.

I will keep both jQuery libraries in the install for the moment, and I'll put a generic/duplicate library in there too.

The jQuery libraries could be a separate package, required by both portals, then the plugins can specify a version of the jQuery library.

I'll start working on it over the weekend, let you know when it's ready to go.

 

[af123]

Lots of options : )

I think we should keep it simple and accept that foscam is only going to work with the new portal - just link whatever jquery library you include to a generic name like jquery.js so that plugins can reference that.
foscam is the only plugin so far and it isn't going to care which jquery library's there, it's only using very basic functionality.

You could create a new package under a different name but I don't think anyone will stick with the old one (sorry Chris!). The xtra1 plugin version is going to get old very quickly too unless you're planning to maintain both.
Either way but I wouldn't split jquery out.

 

[ChrisDaniels]

Dont worry af, its evolution! and I actually find Ians code easier to read than my own lol

 

[James]

Sorry for the cross posting, but with reference to the thread i started yesterday, I was suggesting an addtion to the xtra portal, by means of allowing customisation of the portal by allowing users to add links to the TBC menu via the webif. This would allow users to directly configure their portal to connect to other local services e.g. swiss center (www.swisscenter.com) and PlayON (Which may allow Netflix and Hulu to work on the box)

James

I have had a go at linking out to my swisscenter server, and had some luck with it. (see photo)

However the screen resolution needs adjusting (something SC has built into it - I need to write a profile for the box in the SC database)

I have added it as an option on the blue button (hard written into the code) - However as everybody who has a html based media server will be on a different IP I think it should definitely be user config option.

Can anybody suggest to me where they think these options should be stored - I'm thinking as a table in the DB, but any other thoughts are appreciated.

James

 

[ChrisDaniels]

Hi Ian,

Noticed an issue with iPlayer loaded via Red/2 at the weekend.
If you go to search, and press ok on a letter, it selects it twice. Is there a keypress conflict maybe?
Also, the video did not seem to want to play either.

Loading via Humax portal works fine.