NMJToolbox User Guide

Transcription

1 NMJToolbox User Guide Page 1 of 19

2 Contents Contents... 2 Introduction... 3 Pre-requisites... 3 Before you start... 3 The Main Screen... 4 Refresh Button... 6 Searching for a Database Entry... 6 Editing a database entry (Video & Episode)... 7 Video... 7 Episodes... 9 Adding and Changing Images New Image Location Use Dropped Image Name Overwrite Images Image quality Keep Aspect Disable Resize Changing Synopsis (Video & Episode) Delete Music (Album & Track) Options Details (Album) Details (Track) Page 2 of 19

3 Error messages Introduction The purpose of this tool is to give the user an easy way to edit and update the images and information stored in the database for the networked media jukebox for the Popcorn Hour 200 series NMT s. Pre-requisites A Windows (32 or 64 bit) compatible PC. Microsoft.Net 2.0 framework installed. The NMJToolbox executable. System.Data.SQLite.dll placed in the same folder as NMJToolbox.exe Before you start If you are editing the NMJ database directly on a networked share you must use mapped drive letters. NMJToolbox does not currently support UNC paths (e.g. \\pch-c200\share\nmj_database ). The application will let you select your media.db via a UNC path but you will get errors updating images if the media.db is not referenced by a drive letter. In the examples here: The internal PCH drive is mapped to P:\ NAS network drive is mapped to W:\ A USB HDD attached to the PCH is mapped to U:\ You may also copy the nmj_database folder (and all of it s contents) locally, edit the database and then copy the whole folder back when editing has finished. All edits are made immediately when clicking an Update button or dropping an image and edits are only on a per-record basis. This means that there is no need to remember to save the database. This also means that it is possible to use NMJToolbox to edit whilst other operations are being done (eg the NMJ is rebuilding). However, please be aware that if other operations are being carried out on the DB whilst NMJToolbox is being edited, you may get lock errors etc. Page 3 of 19

4 The Main Screen When you open the application you will see the following screen:- To start, select one of your databases by clicking the button at the top of the screen. You will be shown the browse folder dialog box. Browse to the drive that contains the media.db that is to be edited. Important note: If you have copied the database away from its normal location (i.e. copied it to a local drive, C:\ for example), you must check that the Actual NMT Drive drive letter is the drive that normally contains the database that is being edited. NMJToolbox will try to automatically select the correct drive but it may get this wrong. Once a database has been selected NMJToolbox will display the database entries for SHOW. This is the list of entries that you see in the main NMJ screen on your TV. The first entry in the database is selected automatically and the cover art (if any) is shown. Each column in the data grid can be resized by dragging either side of the column header. The data grid can be ordered by any column by left clicking on the column header that you want to sort on. Page 4 of 19

5 When clicking on any entry in the data grid, the information for that entry is displayed in the tab at the bottom. For reference the following is a brief explanation of the sections: Tab DB Table Notes Video SHOW The wall of covers that you see when browsing the NMJ. A small difference is that the synopsis on the Video tab is the one shown when you select the details in the NMJ (not the synopsis on the episode tab). Episode VIDEO The details that are shown when you select a cover in the NMJ. Music (Album) MUSIC_ALBUM The wall of album covers that are shown in the NMJ. Music (Tracks) MUSIC Details of the selected album including the album track listing and individual track details. The total number of entries in the section being viewed (shows, video episodes, albums or tracks) is shown in the status bar at the bottom left of the screen. Page 5 of 19

6 Refresh Button Clicking this (or <Alt>R) forces NMJToolbox to re-load the data from the database. Searching for a Database Entry To search for a database entry, type the search text in the box provided and click either the < or > buttons. < searches up the data grid (back) and > searches down the data grid (forward). Pressing <Enter> at the end of the text also forces a search forward. By default the NMJ will search the TITLE column of the section that you are currently in. However, you may change the column that is searched on by selecting the column name from the dropdown combobox to the left of the search text box. The selection in this combo automatically changes depending on the tab that is currently selected. The search text is a contains search so it will search for a match anywhere in the title. E.g. Searching for Good would find both Good will Hunting and The Good Wife. If other characters are used in the title (for example an apostrophe) then this must be included. E.g. Searching for Devils would not find The Devil s Advocate. Also, special characters are stored database safe. An apostrophe is literally stored as &apos;. You do not need to type this into the text for storing or searching. NMJToolbox will automatically change to database safe formats when saving/searching and also change them to human friendly format when showing the details (as in the synopsis). Page 6 of 19

7 Editing a database entry (Video & Episode) To edit an entry in the database, whilst on either the Video or Episode tab, click a row in the data grid and select the Edit button (or <Alt>E on the keyboard). Video After changing any details OK will save your changes, Cancel will throw your changes away. Most of the fields on this screen are free text and self explanatory. However, there are some that have specific formats or functions: Genre The box with the scroll buttons in the Genre section (indicated in the screenshot with crime, drama & mystery entered) are the current genres that are assigned to the video that you are editing. The dropdown combo box above is where you can type a new genre to add to the video. This may be one already in the database (the list will drop down with valid ones as you type) or a new one of your choice. Adding a genre is a simple case of typing (or selecting) a genre of your choice and clicking the Add button (or typing <Alt>A). the genre will be added to the video immediately (and saved to the database). If you wish to remove a genre from the video, highlight the genre that is to be removed in the list box and click Delete (or <Alt>D). The genre will be removed from the video. Deleting a genre from a video does not remove that genre from any other video records. Page 7 of 19

8 When adding or removing genres you may get warnings or errors reported: No genre line in the list of current genres on the video. Highlight a line before clicking Delete. The Genre text box is empty when Add was clicked. Some text must be entered before it can be added as a genre. The only/last genre on a video cannot be removed. Add one that should be on the video then delete the genre that is not required. A genre cannot be added to a video more than once. The video is already contained in the genre that is being added. Update Episodes When selected and after OK is clicked, all corresponding episodes linked to this video record will have their title and search fields updated to match this record. Usually only do this for movies. Page 8 of 19

9 If the video is a TV series then all episodes would be updated to have the same name (the individual episode titles will be lost). IMDB TT ID This is the unique 7 digit code used to reference the IMDB title. You may omit the tt prefix and NMJToolbox will automatically add the tt prefix for you. Note: This will not update the film/tv series details in the NMJ. To update the details, save the record and within the NMJ, select the film you have added/changed the tt ID on and select update. The NMJ should re-download the film/series details from IMDB (you may lose any other details that you have changed as the NMJ will overwrite the film details. Episodes After changing any details OK will save your changes, Cancel will throw your changes away. Most of the fields on this screen are free text and self explanatory. However, there are some that have specific formats or functions: IMDB TT ID This is the unique 7 digit code used to reference the IMDB title. You may omit the tt prefix and NMJToolbox will automatically add the tt prefix for you. Note: This will not automatically update the film/tv series details in the NMJ. To update the details, save the record and within the NMJ select the film you have added/changed the tt ID on and select update. The NMJ should re-download the film/series details from IMDB (you may lose any other details that you have changed as the NMJ will overwrite the film details. Page 9 of 19

10 Episode/Video Playback On the Episode tab at the bottom left of the Synopsis group box is a Play button. When the Play button is clicked the NMJJukebox will cause windows to play the selected episode in the default Windows playback application for the video file type. Adding and Changing Images There are a few parameters that can be amended for use by the image processing functions: New Image Location NMJ Folder This will store the images inside the nmj_database/media folder under the relevant sub folder (e.g. nmj_database/media /video/poster, nmj_database/media /music/thumbnail etc.). Media Location All images will be stored in the same folder that the media file is located. For this function to work correctly, the Actual NMT Drive near the top of the screen must be correct. Use Dropped Image Name If there is no image already stored in the database, the original name is always used whether or not this option is checked. If there is already an image stored in the database, with this option checked, the name of the image being dropped is used and added to the database. If this option is not checked and there is already an entry for an image, the name of the image stored in the database is used and the image that the database is currently using is overwritten. If the image stored is read-only then a time suffix is added to the name. Overwrite Images If this option is checked, existing images in the destination folder that have the same name will be overwritten. If not checked, the original image name is used. If there is a file with the same name already in the destination, the new image name has a time suffix added to the name to make it unique. Image quality This slider allows you to change the JPG compression ratio of the images that are stored. The larger the number, the higher quality the image will be but the resulting file size will be larger. The default is set to 85%. Keep Aspect This option is checked by default. Whilst checked, any images dragged and dropped are resized to the NMJ requirements. However, if the original image dimensions are not the same ratio as Page 10 of 19

11 the NMJ dimensions required, the artwork displayed may have borders at either side or at the top and bottom. If the Keep Aspect option is unchecked, the image created will be forced into the dimensions required by the NMJ but the image may appear squashed or stretched. This option is used on a per-image operation. You may have the option checked for one image and unchecked for another image. Disable Resize When this option is unchecked, NMJToolbox will resize any images dropped to be the optimum dimensions that the NMJ requires. This may reduce the quality of the images but may speed up NMJ navigation. When this option is unchecked all images are kept the same as the original being dropped. All image processing options (Keep Aspect & Resize Quality) are ignored. To add or change an image, simply drag the image (.jpg) that you want to use over the box for that section. NMJToolbox will resize the image to the optimum dimensions for the NMJ to use, save it to your desired location and update the database with that location. Note: The original image being dropped onto the control is not moved or changed in any way. A copy is made and stored in the location indicated by the New Image Location setting. Changing Synopsis (Video & Episode) When viewing the Video or Episode tab a text box is visible showing the current synopsis (plot) for that entry. This is a free format text box that allows full editing of the synopsis. Once the synopsis has been changed, select Update to save the synopsis to the database. Important note: The NMJ stores synopsis on both Video and Episode sections. However only the synopsis contained on the video tab is currently shown in the NMJ The Episode synopsis is stored but not currently shown. Delete When the delete option is taken it will delete the video entry from the database. As NMJToolbox has to maintain integrity between a numerous tables in the database this option will take a little while to complete. Page 11 of 19

12 Important Note: The delete option not only deletes the video record but it will also delete all linked records. This means all the episode, bookmark, chapter, video attributes, genre and last opened records linked to the video. Page 12 of 19

13 Music (Album & Track) Options When selecting the Music (Albums) tab the Edit button is disabled as all of the fields that are editable in NMJToolbox are present directly on the tab control. Details (Album) All of the fields here are freely editable. Once changes have been made, select Update to commit the changes to the database. Important note: In the November 2010 release of the NMJ, there are some issues with certain Various Artists albums. Rather than the album artist being marked as Various etc. it is marked with all of the artists available on the album (there are multiple records for the album artist). This does not make sense (in other cases various artist albums do get marked correctly). In these cases, as in the example above, the artist name is highlighted in red. If you change the artist on these cases (for example to Various Artists ), NMJToolbox will give the following warning: Page 13 of 19

14 Cancel will tell NMJToolbox not to update anything. No will make NMJToolbox update all details except the artist. Yes will update all details, make the artist equal the text entered and remove all extraneous artist records. Note: This will not affect the individual track artists. After selecting Yes and the artist has been updated, the artist text will change colour to black to indicate the album only has one artist entry (like a normal album). If Yes is selected, NMJToolbox will search the DB for an existing artist record that matches the text entered. If an existing artist is found, the following message is displayed: Clicking Yes will set the album to use the existing artist record. Selecting No will cause a new artist record to be created and the album will be linked to that record. The usual option here would be to select Yes as there is really no need to create a new duplicate record. Page 14 of 19

15 Details (Track) All of the fields here are freely editable. Once changes have been made, select Update to commit the changes to the database. Note: When changing the track number NMJToolbox checks all of the track numbers for all the other audio tracks on the same album. If more than one match is found the following message will be displayed:- You should review and correct track numbers for the songs indicated in the dialog box. When updating the track artist, NMJToolbox will search the DB for an existing artist record that matches the text entered. If an existing artist is found, the following message is displayed: Page 15 of 19

16 Clicking Yes will set the track to use the existing artist record. Selecting No will cause a new artist record to be created and the track will be linked to that record. The usual option here would be to select Yes as there is really no need to create a new duplicate record. Error messages Your DB Version (x.x.x) is lower than the minimum version (x.x.x) that this version of NMJToolbox requires. Please update the firmware of your PopcornHour. You have selected an older version of the media.db that is not supported by the NMJToolbox. This check is to ensure that the fields expected by NMJToolbox are present in the database being opened. Update the PopcornHour firmware and rebuild the relevant NMJ database. This application does not support UNC paths. Please map the database path to a drive letter. You have selected a media.db that is stored on a network drive that is not mapped to a drive letter in windows. This will cause some functions in the NMJToolbox to not work properly or throw windows errors. Map a drive letter in windows to the drive that contains the media.db you wish to edit and then reselect that media.db file within NMJToolbox. An image with the same name already exists, the DB reference has been updated but the original image has been left. When dropping an image onto a control there is an image already in the destination that has the same file name as the image being drag/dropped. This is only a warning. The database path for the image will be updated but the image already in the destination will be left untouched. This allows you to drop the same image onto multiple entries (e.g. in the case of album tracks) and update all of the paths but only use one image. Page 16 of 19

17 If you want to force the image in the destination to be replaced, you should delete the image from the destination and then drag/drop the image required again. Edit on this section is not currently implemented. The Edit function for this screen is not required or not currently implemented. None (other than further development!). Error updating grid: <Windows error text> This message appears when there is a problem saving changes made to the database. Report this in the NMJToolbox thread on the NMT Forums for investigation. Remember to detail what you did to generate the error so that it can be re-produced and corrected. None. Report to the developer. Delete <XXXXXX> not yet implemented. The delete option has not been added for the section (tab) that is currently displayed. None. A database must be loaded and a row must be selected to use the delete option. The Delete button was clicked when no valid row was highlighted in the data grid. Make sure a database has been loaded and make sure a record (row) has been selected before clicking Delete. Error retrieving plot. This appears when there is a problem accessing the database to retrieve the synopsis (plot). Report this in the NMJToolbox thread on the NMT Forums for investigation. Remember to detail what you did to generate the error so that it can be re-produced and corrected. Please check the drive letter in `Actual NMT Drive' to make sure it points to the drive that actually contains your media This is simply a warning. NMJToolbox will try to automatically determine the actual mapped drive letter that the media.db should reside on (it may be the drive it is currently on or it may have been copied Page 17 of 19

18 away for editing). This is only an issue if you have the Image Location parameter set to Media Location. Check that the drive letter in Actual NMT Drive indicates the correct drive letter. E.g. You have copied the nmj_database folder (and contents) from your P:\ drive onto C:\ and opened the media.db on C:\ The Database field in NMJToolbox would say C:\nmj_database\media.db The Actual NMT Drive field should indicate P:\ Error retrieving video location. This error occurs when dropping an image onto an image control and the option New Image Location is set to Media Location. It is indicating that the path where your media file is is either not accessible or does not exist. Check the path to the media file for that selection exists. Check that the path is writeable from your PC If all else fails, change the New Image Location to NMJ Folder. Error retrieving an example video location. When initially selecting a media.db for editing, NMJToolbox will select a video entry at random and search the drive letters on the local PC for that media file. This error occurs when the video file it is searching for cannot be found. Make sure the drive that contains the media for this database is accessible. Make sure that the media files actually exist (i.e they have not been deleted/moved elsewhere). IMDB 'tt' ID must be in the format 'tt '. When editing the IMDB tt ID the format is incorrect. Enter the ID in the correct format (7 digits with or without the tt prefix). tt is valid is valid t is not valid Page 18 of 19

19 xx is not valid is not valid Season number must be numeric or null. When editing an Episode the season number is not empty and contains non-numeric characters. Make sure the season field is blank or only contains numbers. Episode number must be numeric or null. When editing an Episode the episode number is not empty and contains non-numeric characters. Make sure the episode field is blank or only contains numbers. Page 19 of 19