[rs] Improved conflict detection

[MymsMan]

I could certainly live with the horizontal display but I agree with BH and prpr that a vertical display would be better, there would be no need for separate tabular and graphic view, all of the table information could be contained within a vertical overlap display.
The horizontal display is rather too compressed.

I suggested the use of a jquery plugin to separate the data layer from the presentation layer, Using a plugin you are of course constrained by what the plugin developer has chosen to provide in terms of functionality but it does save the need for reinventing the wheel and creating all of the html tags needed to display a timeline. Instead all the server needs to do is generate a simple JSON data structure with the schedule data and let the browser handle rendering it. Potentially the same data structure could be used to generate horizontal or vertical timelines based on user choice.

Most of us have browsers running on computers far more powerful than the Humax, and in another thread it was mentioned that RS server used to be charged on processor usage so I think it makes sense for af123 to concentrate on the logic of conflict detection rather than generating a fully formatted display on the server.

PS. I notice the disable OTA reminder is not fully expanded in the schedule - While this, in itself, is not important other time scheduled repeating recordings and reminders should be expanded since they have the potential to create conflicts.

 

[af123]

It's definitely not practical long term, I'm just experimenting with ways of showing events (and new HTML bits that I hadn't played with before) as a way of validating the new conflict detection logic as much as anything else. Writing the visual display has already shaken a few bugs out of the underlying logic. An increasing number of things on the Humax web interface are now rendered in the browser for exactly the reasons you have given.

Coincidentally, this dropped into my mailbox this morning from the developers of highcharts (which is used for the sysmon graph rendering) - http://www.maani.us/css_xml_timeline/index.php?menu=Gallery&submenu=Schedule
I'm not sure it fits the bill and it seems a bit slow to me but there are certainly no shortage of options out there.

 

[4ndy]

I have a conflict highlighted on the RS homepage for the program Spin tonight. In fact it is the next program in my schedule. In reality, it is next week's episode (4th March) that is in conflict, and that is correctly shown on the conflicts page. af123, my device is 3119932352 you need to check it out (before 9:00 tonight or it will be gone).
.

I think this is more an unintended consequence than a bug.

Is the plan to continue showing conflicts on the home page and the "detail" on another page?

 

[af123]

I'm not sure what the plan is at the moment, other than we'll end up with something better than we have now. The detail page is currently just somewhere to check that it's doing the right thing (+ a playground of sorts).

So it appears that it was right to identify the conflict (something that old code wouldn't have done until tomorrow) but it's misleading in the way it's shown. I wonder how it could be made clearer that it's next week's episode that's in conflict...

 

[af123]

I had a little browse through jquery timeline packages - there are quite a few and this one looks quite promising http://www.jqueryscript.net/time-clock/Simple-jQuery-Schedules-Events-Plugin-graspSchedule-js.html
Demo http://www.jqueryscript.net/demo/Simple-jQuery-Schedules-Events-Plugin-graspSchedule-js

I've just tried that one - it's on the conflict page now if you want to see how it looks.
I don't think it's very clear unfortunately.

 

[MymsMan]

I've just tried that one - it's on the conflict page now if you want to see how it looks.
I don't think it's very clear unfortunately.

It would be much better if two events that started or finished at the same time aligned vertically. The box borders confuse the visualisation.

 

[cdmackay]

Here's an example, in the vertical layout, of a couple of pairs of consecutive programmes that appear to be indicated as concurrent?

The horizontal layout does show them as simple consecutive progs.

 

[af123]

PS. I notice the disable OTA reminder is not fully expanded in the schedule - While this, in itself, is not important other time scheduled repeating recordings and reminders should be expanded since they have the potential to create conflicts.

Thanks, fixed. I've also introduced a more compressed timeline view at the top of the page which eliminates periods of time where nothing is happening, giving more width for recording details (hover-over should still work too). NB: Any embarrassing recordings are test ones, obviously. I've deliberately scheduled conflicts for Thursday evening to check that it can handle multiple rows. I'm sure this won't be the final display, I'm still trying other options and welcome suggestions!

Next to support event clicking for re-scheduling conflicting recordings. Easy in principle for one-off recordings. For series, it should be possible to inject the particular episode into the 'already recorded' list and then set up a one-off for the episode in another slot, but it's going to take some work to get right.

 

[hairy_mutley]

Is it possible to incorporate queued and pending items into the conflict resolution to allow conflicts to be seen without having to wait for recorder reboots?

 

[af123]

Pending events are already included (do you have an example where they aren't?). Queued is harder since I can't be entirely sure how it will be incorporated into the schedule.

 

[MymsMan]

Pending events are already included (do you have an example where they aren't?). Queued is harder since I can't be entirely sure how it will be incorporated into the schedule.

For the purposes of conflict detection I would think you should assume that additions will occur immediately whilst deletions wont happen until after the end of the schedule period (though they should be shown with a dustbin in the displays)

 

[antipodean]

Excellent, I like it, even just for the visualization of the weeks programs.

 

[af123]

I've made the new algorithm the default for everyone now with an improvement to the list in that only the conflicting episode is now highlighted pink rather than the entire row. Similarly for the alert emails, the correct episode is now reported in the case of a series.
Thanks for the help and suggestions so far, I have more plans but no time to look at them at the moment.

 

[cdmackay]

Am liking the RS conflicts page very much, I must say, especially that it takes into account pending items, too.

One issue: slight formatting issue with a cross-midnight event.

Fri, 11 Mar 2016 2 3:30:00 +0000 Sat, 12 Mar 2016 02:00:00 +0000 102

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

 

[MymsMan]

Yesterday the conflict checker sent me

Conflicts have been detected in your recording schedule on Humax.
The following events conflict:

1 BBC ONE South   Thu 10/03/16 17:15 - 18:00: Pointless
3 ITV             Thu 10/03/16 17:00 - 18:00: The Chase
3 ITV             Thu 10/03/16 17:00 - 18:00: The Chase
3 ITV             Sun 13/03/16 22:15 - 23:15: New: Houdini & Doyle
1 BBC ONE South   Sun 13/03/16 22:00 - 22:20: BBC News at Ten
2 BBC TWO         Sun 13/03/16 22:00 - 23:00: Thirteen
1 BBC ONE South   Sun 13/03/16 22:20 - 22:30: South Today

Sunday is a genuine conflict but I have no idea why it thinks I am recording The Chase twice - it is a long standing series recording.
I meant to have a look at the actual schedule before it recorded but forgot - the actual recording was fine (just the usual spurious on screen conflict message at the start of Eggheads)

 

[GordoB]

I got a conflict email yesterday showing
14 More 4 Thu 10/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: New: The Good Wife
14 More 4 Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: New: The Good Wife
14 More 4 Thu 10/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: New: The Good Wife
14 More 4 Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: New: The Good Wife
2 BBC TWO Thu 10/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: Murder
2 BBC TWO Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: Murder
2 BBC TWO Thu 10/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: Murder
2 BBC TWO Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: Murder

Today I got one saying
2 BBC TWO Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: Murder
2 BBC TWO Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: Murder
14 More 4 Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: New: The Good Wife
14 More 4 Thu 17/03/16 21:00 - 22:00: New: The Good Wife

Last night's shows seem to have been recorded correctly.

If I log in to the remote scheduler, it has these highlighted in pink. The oddity is that RS shows most but not all scheduled events duplicated. The Web-IF also shows the same. Viewing the schedule via the TV shows the expected single entries.

Any ideas what's going on?

 

[af123]

Any ideas what's going on?

Not yet. Could you please send me your unique box ID (from the Settings page in the RS web interface) and I'll have a look.

 

[GordoB]

Box id is c258932450

 

[MymsMan]

Unique Identifier 574031595
Perhaps it could be include in the emails so that users are more likely to include it when posting problem reports.

I am currently recording both Pointless and The Chase but when looking at the conflicts on RS neither appear on the list for today or any day next week, is omitting future episodes of active recordings from conflict detection deliberate?

 

[af123]

Box id is c258932450

It seems that the database contains duplicates... don't understand why yet as your box should only upload events once!

Could you run the rs/push diagnostic on your Humax?