My Lil Movie JukeBox Maker!  (revision6)


 

APPENDIX 7. Revision 6 changes
Revision6:
1. Improved support for TV Series and Boxsets.
2. Quick Update button (for when you're just adding a movie or two.)
3. Bypass for Zero Movies check (ie, use when you have all genres with at least 1 movie)
4. Option to List movies on the Index "Paged -Alphabetically" instead of by 1st letter of alphabet.

Below are some screens from the revision6 export.

uac1.png

The above shows the detail screen for a TV Series. To get your TV Series to display like this, you must enter the "episode details" inside Movie Collector for each episode. (see Movie Collector for doing this). Then, in the LINKS section, you must enter the link for each episode. The Description for these episodes should be E01, E02, E03, etc ... instead of PLAY that we enter for movies.
(the last 2 digits MUST be the episode number!)


Please note that we forcibly disabled "fancy movie covers" and the ability to re-size the covers
for Series (episodes). Only the thumbnail is displayed because we need to reserve as much room as possible to properly display the episode info on the screen.

You need to do nothing else for this display. But, what if you have Boxsets or Series with not just one Season, ... but 4 or 5?  It would be nice to have the ability to have a main boxset "cover" (no movies links) for display on the index pages, yet when you CLICK on this Movie Cover, instead of being taken to the Details page, ... you're "Re-directed" to another menu page showing the covers for the included movies in this boxset (Or, in the case of a TV Series, you would be taaken to a page that will show you the covers for each set of Seasons, ie .. .Season 1, Season2, etc..)

I'll do a walkthrough using Planet of the Apes Boxset as an example.

uac1.png

As you can see from the above, ... I've made a Genre called "boxset". I also added a movie called Planet of the Apes Complete Saga. I then added each individual movie included in this boxset, an added the Play button Links inside each movie.
 

So, we now have two options for displaying the Planet of the Apes.

uac1.png

 Method 1.  We can add the Boxset to our collection, then add 5 Movie File Links, one for each movie:

Play1 = Planet of the Apes
Play2 = Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Play3 = Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Play4 = Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Play5 = Battle for the Planet of the Apes
   

But with this method there's no way to enter the different actors that appear in the different movies.  Soooooooooooo
 

uac1.png

 Method 2. We add the Boxset, but now we also add the individual movies that appear in the boxset.

We don't add any Play Links here, but instead ...
a. Make a new Genre called Boxset and put this movie in it.
   (also leave in original genre as well, ie  Science Fiction)
b. In the User Text 1 field, type in  PlanetApes
  uac1.png
a. We add the Play Link for this movie
b. Make the Series field for this movie say  PlanetApes
c. Do not add this movie to the Boxset Genre, ... just leave it in the one genre Science Fiction
  uac1.png
a. We add the Play Link for this movie
b. Make the Series field for this movie say  PlanetApes
c. Do not add this movie to the Boxset Genre, ... just leave it in the one genre Science Fiction
  uac1.png
a. We add the Play Link for this movie
b. Make the Series field for this movie say  PlanetApes
c. Do not add this movie to the Boxset Genre, ... just leave it in the one genre Science Fiction
  uac1.png
a. We add the Play Link for this movie
b. Make the Series field for this movie say  PlanetApes
c. Do not add this movie to the Boxset Genre, ... just leave it in the one genre Science Fiction
  uac1.png
a. We add the Play Link for this movie
b. Make the Series field for this movie say  PlanetApes
c. Do not add this movie to the Boxset Genre, ... just leave it in the one genre Science Fiction
     

With Method 2, we now have a great way of displaying the boxsets. and we'll make it so that whenever we Click on the Planet of the Apes Collection, ... we will get re-directed to a page that shows all 5 of the Planet of the Apes movies.


Now, let's continue.
What I would like to do in Movie Collector, .... is When I view the main Index on my Popcorn Hour, I only want to see ALL Individual movies (and no boxset covers) (for me this is the way I like it, ... ie, INDEX means ALL MOVIES in my Collection) sooooooooooooooo    I must EDIT the Filters, and change filter 100 All Movies and add a condition that says GENRE not equals BOXSET.
In my main Menu on the Popcorn, I'll only see individual movies, and NOT any Boxset covers

But, I'm not done yet,..... I'll also have to edit all of the other Filters, 101- thru 120 add add a condition.   so that, for instance, Filter 113 SciFi  will have 2 conditions:  Genre equals ScienceFiction   AND   Series equals  (blank)

So, when I view the Genre SciFi on my Popcorn,  I'll ONLY see the Boxset Cover for Planet of the Apes Collection, then should I Click on it, ... I'll be taken to another menu page that shows the 5 individual movies as below:


uac1.png


So what about adding a TV Series?   Let's go thru it, basically it's the same things with a few exceptions:

 

uac1.png

 We add the Dexter Series Cover, but now we also add the individual Seasons for Dexter.

We don't add any Play Links here, but instead ...
a. Make a new Genre called TV and put this movie in it.
b. In the User Text 1 field, type in  Dexter
  uac1.png Dexter Season 1
a. We add the episode Play Links for this movie (see below)
b. Make the Series field for this movie say  Dexter
c. Do not add this movie to the TV Genre, ... just leave it in the genres' Crime, Mystery, Thriller
d. Add the Episode information. (see below)



Now Add the individual Play Links for each of the Season 1 episodes, and make certain that the 'description field ends with 2 digits that describe the episode. /// ie 01, 02, 03.... etc.


uac1.png


Now we have to add the episode info for this Season. (Note: there's script over on the Movie Collector forums ... that will help you do this step,  but we won't go into that one right now.)


uac1.png
 
  uac1.png Dexter Season 2
Ditto as for Season 1
     
  uac1.png Dexter Season 3
Ditto as for Season 1






Let's go into more detail and see exactly how to do this:


STEP 1:  We now use the "USER TEXT 1" field for RE-DIRECTION. ... which means that whatever value we enter into the User Text 1 field inside Movie Collector, ...  will be used as an html link (re-direct).

Normally, when we click on a Movie in the index, .. we're taken to the details page for that movie, which is some number like 42333.htm , but if we've entered a value into the User Text 1 field,
(say PlanetApes in this case) we will be re-directed to PlanetApes.htm instead.

I know this might sound confusing at first, but bear with me here.

Sooooo, for the Movie Cover "Planet of the Apes Collection" we would NOT enter any movie links here, but instead just enter a 'unique' value in the User Text 1 field, say PlanetApes.

The below graphic shows the PlanetApes entered into the User Text1 field.

uac1.png

Now, .. somehow we need to  figure out how to associate each of the 5 movies included in this boxset, .. with "PlanetApes"   so that when we Click on the Boxset Movie Cover, we will be taken to another menu showing the 5 individual movies in this Boxset.

STEP 2:  Edit the 1st movie in the boxset, Planet of the Apes. Locate the "Series" field as shown below, it originally will be blank.


uac1.png

Click on the 'down-arrow' on the right side of the series box, as shown below, and Click on
[ADD SERIES]

uac1.png

Now, Click on the green "+" symbol to add a series.

uac1.png

and name this one PlanetApes

uac1.png

STEP 3: Repeat this process for every movie that's included in this boxset.


uac1.png

STEP 4:  We now must make a filter in Movie Collector for this boxset. Click on the Filters icon, then Click on Create/Modify filters. We now need to add a filter for Planet of the Apes. Boxsets should always start with 300 xxx, and TV Series 200 xxx .  As you can see from the above, we made 301 PlanetApes, ... and in the "condition field", we made it
SERIES equals PlanetApes   ...  this spelling should be the same as we entered when we created the Planet of the Apes Series.

STEP 5:  We're now ready to run the Export program. Click on the Boxsets tab, and enter
the boxset information. As you can see, we entered PlanetApes for filter 301 and the named the title Planet of the Apes.

uac1.png


You can repeat this process for all of your Boxsets and Series. Below is the TV Series filter page.

uac1.png





QUICK UPDATE: When you run the export, ... you'll notice a QUICK UPDATE button on the bottom right. This is useful for those occasions when you're just adding a movie or 2 to your collection.

QUICK UPDATE does the export forcing the following conditions:
1. Copy Resources folder = NO
2. Copy Actors folder = NO
3. Thumbnail Cleanup = NO
4. Overwrite existing details = NO
5. Perform Actor export = NO
6. Use other settings that were previously entered.
7. Update all three indexes (Index, Index sort up, and Index sort down), but only update
the Genres if there's been a change (to the number of movies in that genre) since the last time an export was done.

I have over 1200 movies and a "Quick Export" on my system took just a little over 2 minutes to complete.


Also added was a "Skip Zero Movies Check" ... which speeds up the export if you already have enough movies in your collection to at least have one movie in every genre.


uac1.png

 

STILL HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING SERIES and BOXSETS?

Here's a question that someone asked on the forum, .... with a very nice explanation by GSBAKER, ... that might also helpl you to understand. (thanks GARY!!!!)

Quote: Like the previous poster - I am having trouble adding a genre.

I can see how to change a filter but not a genre, meaning in my example where i changed the filter from clint to boxset - i cannot add the genre boxset - what i really mean is that i could not have added the genre clint either - the genre list on the movie editing screen seems to be a master default rather than reflecting the filter list we created.

(Gary's answer:)
MLMJ and MoC use the terms "Box Set" and "Genre" to mean slightly different things.

Genre's - MoC has a set of tags that can be assigned to each entry in the database that it calls "genre". These tags are most often picked up from the on-line information sources, but can be user edited, including adding new "genre's" and adding them to existing database movie entries. MLMJ uses these MoC genre tags only indirectly. Since there can be many genre's, MLMJ uses "FILTERS" to re-create genre's that can summarize the MoC genre's into groups. MLMJ uses the FILTERS in the range 101 - 120 to recreate "genres" for display on the PCH. (100 is a special filter to isolate those movies you want to display on the main index in the PCH). Refer to the detailed instructions for more information.

Box Sets and Series- While MoC has some capability to tag movie entries as part of what it calls a "Box Set" MLMJ does not use this feature. Rather it contains its own functionality for use with "BOX SETS" and "SERIES". The primary capability of MLMJ's BOX SETS/SERIES is to use a single cover image in the main indices which links to a second index page (instead of the normal movie detail page) containing cover images for all entries in that BOX SET/SERIES. Detailed instructions are on Legion's web-page but using this functionality in MLMJ involves the following steps:

1. Adding a single cover in MoC that will serve as the cover image in the main index pages. This MoC entry will NOT have any media files linked to it. You will also need to add a "descriptive tag" in the "User Text 1" field in MoC for this entry (such as "Bond" for your collection of James Bond movies).

2. Adding each individual movie that form the BOX SET/SERIES in MoC. Each of these entries will have the relevant media files linked to it. For EACH of these entries you need to enter the same "descriptive tag" you used for the User Text 1 field of the corresponding box set/series main cover entry in the "Series" field for the movie. This establishes the connection between the BOX SET/SERIES title entry (item #1 above) with each corresponding detail entry)

3. Create a FILTER in MoC using the numeric range 200 - 239 or 300 - 339 for each BOX SET/SERIES that you create. Continuing the example - this would mean creating a Filter called "300 Bond" with the rule "Series=Bond; User Text 1=null". Legion has nominally organized these into TV Series (range 200 - 239) and Movie Box Sets (range 300 - 339) but I think they both work the same way.

4. Repeat steps 1 - 3 in MoC for EACH Series/Box Set you wish to create - using a unique "descriptive tag" for each.

5. When running the export script (123108 version only) populate the "TV Series" and "BoxSets" tabs with EXACTLY the same filters created in item 3 above. So you would have "Bond" as the "BoxSet HTML Name" for item #300 on the "BoxSets" tab. You can use whatever you want in the "BoxSetTitle" field - such as "James Bond Collection". You would populate similarly for other 200 and 300 filters you created in Step 3.

Episodes - MLMJ uses a different detail page layout to better display movie entries that contain episode information (this is independent of whether you use the Genre or Box Set/Series functionality described above). If your entry in MoC contains data in the "Episodes & Features" tab, the MLMJ script will try and match up the Episode data with the Media links. To get a correct match you must include a 2 digit number (include leading 0's) to the "Description" for each media file - to match it with the "Episode" number in the "Episodes & Features" tab. Therefore to match your first media file with the Episode title and plot for Episode 1 in the "Episodes & Features" tab - call the media file something like "Episode01" in the "Description" field in the "Links" tab. If you do not want to use the revised "Episodes" page layout - simply make sure that your MoC entry contains no data in the "Episodes & Features" tab.

 
 
 

 

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As Although all of my hobby software is free, the time and effort that has gone into this endeavor has been fairly heavy. I estimate more than a thousand hours have gone into development, answering emails, webpage maintenance and finding servers willing to host it all!

So, I am now asking for donations from anyone who is willing to help. I am not going to ask for a specific amount as I appreciate that people have differing financial resources, just whatever you feel that you value the software. If you do Donate I guarantee to personally answer via email any questions that you have.

I want to be clear - the software is FREE and if you feel you should not (or cannot) donate or have any reason why you would rather not donate - that's perfectly fine. However, a $? general donation will go a long way to helping keep my software available for as long as possible. So go ahead and download my software - use it all you like. If you feel you got $? worth of use out of any of it and wish to contribute please press the Donate button.


 Comments? by all means email me at aks@iglou.com . Should you have questions about setting up your Popcorn Hour, please visit the USER APPS section of http://www.networkedmediatank.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=34 and ask your questions there. I do this part-time, ... so I'm not able to answer tech questions via email, but I will respond and answer any/all questions about the Movie Jukebox on the NMT forums.

If you DONATE, ...then I'm more than happy to answer questions via email, and I'll provide my phone number for tech support a well.


 

Table of Contents:


  1. Movie Jukebox Main Page

  2. My Movie Jukebox Features

  3. Getting Started - Installation and Setup
    Appendix 1: Setup for Best Picture

  4. Appendix 2: Adding your Movie Links.

  5. Appendix 3: Changing Filters/Genres.

  6. Appendix 4:  Media Location Variables.

  7. Appendix 5: User Account Control (Vista)

  8. Appendix 6: Setting up SMB shares
    Appendix7: Revision 6 Changes
    Appendix8: Adding Fanart

  9. Tips & FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

  10.