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Further Client/Server development?

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ThoBar:

--- Quote from: Mars on October 25, 2011, 03:06:13 am ---

* Configuring Theater View (So I wouldn't have to interrupt the playback and "steal" the display of the HTPC)
* Configuring View Schemes
* Renaming Files (under library tools) after a tagging work is made
* Assigning Cover Art and saving to the file folder
--- End quote ---

I'd really like to throw my support behind these suggestions - especially that 1st one! The HTPC should really not have to be taken offline to do that!

JimH:

--- Quote from: confishy on October 27, 2011, 01:16:53 am ---I'd really like to throw my support behind these suggestions - especially that 1st one! The HTPC should really not have to be taken offline to do that!

--- End quote ---
How could you both watch a movie and browse somewhere else at the same time?  Two screens?

MrHaugen:
I believe they are thinking of a more bidirectional synchronization of views between server and clients. In real time, more or less. That new view settings is read and applied when a new view is accessed. It would be very effective to change views or other setting this way rather than exiting TV, synchronizing or restarting MC, going back in TV and then checking the difference.

In my ideal setup, I would have one server with all the data. Options, Views and perhaps even several libraries for different client or user groups. You could switch the targeted group on the server. Change options, change views, test them locally on the server. Or you could change settings on your workstation, and have the settings duplicated to other clients within the same group. Syncing between one client to the server, and then to another client. Some options needs a restart for the clients to update of course. As usual.

This way you would never be forced to refuse your wife to use the HTPC. You would never have to get the mouse and keyboard for the HTPC. You'd not even have to connect remotely to your server to change some settings there. And you'll never have to change the settings on new clients, as they are saved together with the libraries.

Mars:
Exactly, in fact the main idea behind it is about the possibility of giving more power to the Client towards the Server, specifically in those mentioned areas:


--- Quote from: Mars on October 25, 2011, 03:06:13 am ---
* Configuring Theater View (So I wouldn't have to interrupt the playback and "steal" the display of the HTPC)
* Configuring View Schemes
* Renaming Files (under library tools) after a tagging work is made
* Assigning Cover Art and saving to the file folder
* Deleting Playlists
* Using more than one hosted library
* User Accounts System with permission for viewing and/or editing data, modifying configurations and settings,...
--- End quote ---

It was also commented that maybe some of them could involve deeper changes, such as the segmentation of the product:


--- Quote from: glynor on October 25, 2011, 11:27:39 pm ---The only ones I have any concerns about are last two.  I'd really like to see them, but I can say as someone who does use (and helps manage) a multiuser Digital Asset Management system at the office...

The UI to configure those things is not trivial.  That mocked-up dialog box MrHaugen posted is a perfect exemplar.  That's a dialog box only a computer science major or open-source geek could appreciate, and it is (IMHO) not appropriate in an application targeted at consumers (certainly high-end, technically adept, "pro-sumers", but consumers all the same, not system administrators only).

That's why I think the best long-term solution would be to eventually roll a separate MC Server Edition product.  Without it, MC would still have all the library sharing functions it does now (hopefully with items one through five in your list above checked off).  But, if you buy a separate license for (and run) MC Server Edition, it would add a whole new set of functionality:

1. Sharing multiple MC libraries simultaneously.
2. User-based access controls and user account rights management.
3. Server runs as a truly separate process, and uses MC "client" (ANY client) for configuration.
4. Server can run as a process on a headless server much more easily (running at the login window).
5. Metadata conflict resolution workflows.
 
--- End quote ---

ThoBar:

--- Quote from: JimH on October 27, 2011, 06:40:25 am ---How could you both watch a movie and browse somewhere else at the same time?  Two screens?

--- End quote ---
As MrHaugen has alluded to, this would be on a separate PC. Having said this, I believe there is no need for a Theater View view to be read every time a view is changed (in fact that could be detrimental) - every time Theater View is loaded is more than ample.

The main thrust of the request (point 1 only) - as I understand it - is to enable the definition of views in Theater View, from another PC.

For me, where my HTPC and server are one and the same it can be a right pain to try and modify the views in Theater View on the server. The HTPC is simply not setup for mouse & kb access. Ideally, I'd like an option - when editing views and connected to a MC Library server - to choose whether to edit views on the server or client.

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