Personal Video Database

Okay, since I don't know how the xml is setup for this thing I'll assume anything can be written in as long as you have the tags for it. That being said there needs to be some other things I think. So here's a list of features i'd like to see implemented as they would reflect some of the overall better features I've seen in other softwares. I'm not sure if any of these have been suggested already or not.

1 - implement custom images fields that can be set for whatever size. Lots of uses for this. Customimage01, customimage02, etc. For instance. That way the custom images can be used for banners or season images or something.

2 - with a lot of software using a hierarchical look, the lack of interactivity within the various branches of the tree make it difficult to organize things sometimes. Therefore, any main branch should be able to read things from the sub branches under it. This would be good for series, ie all episodes you have/want at a glance, or for websites and things where you download videos that you are cataloging, ie certain scenes from vod adult sites or support videos related to series you like. The potential here is amazing merely from an organizational pov.

3 - there must be some way to add more customizability to the skins layout. I've looked at a few other pieces of software that use xml for the data display so I know there's other options. I just don't know what all goes into the programming of said layout as its been quite awhile since I worked with any programming language.

4 - customize what gets displayed in the tree listing. A lot of other software has this ability, although some don't and it can be quite helpful in determing what gets quick displayed at a glance.

Since I'm at work right now its hard adding to this list so I'll add to it more later.

- katleeh

Okay so I am still working on the anime skin and it is very time consuming. I tried using the software that rick.ca recommended but couldn't figure out how to add new sections (ie anything like row/column) but I'll figure things out and probably code it textually. At any rate I want to have 2 tabs under the cast tab. One tab will be japanese cast, which has to be the main as not all anime is dubbed in english. The second tab will be for the english cast and will have to be entirely custom fields. So, if I use a custom memo box and display the cast names like for the standard, will they display the same way? In other words, in the cast box, <actor name> ... <character name> shows up with the ... being replaced by a large space to balance left and right justification. Will the custom memo box show up the same way?

And on aside note, has anyone tried making skins using !CDATA?

- katleeh

Okay, I've been struggling with this whole regex thing for a few days and its really frustrating since I don't have a standard naming structure on my files and just want the program to scan the things in the drive then ask me where to put them or if I want them to be put under a new movie/series. However, it doesn't look like this can happen so what about just being able to drag the movie/series files to the name already in the database and having it add the files as either a movie or series and adding a series number automatically if there isn't one.

Otherwise, Nostra please add a feature that allows you to change the title the scanned files are going to be put under. File scanner scans the files, displays them and doesn't let me make any manual changes to the movie I want them to go under or the series. Thanks. If you are wondering what I'm talking about, look at the program Extreme Movie Manager and you'll see what I mean. The file scanner works exactly that way using a combination of intelligent scanning and also being able to attach things to existing series/movies or adding new series movies if you tell it to.

- Katleeh

How about being able to link from episode to episodes within a series or to another series? What would this be used for? Well, let's take the Star Trek example again, there are several episodes about the Q in the various series. So, what if you want to run a link from the first episode to the second episode, etc? That way you could watch the relevant episodes. Another way this would be helpful is for something like Babylon 5 where you have made for TV movies that are related to some of the episodes. (If I remember correctly, Well of Souls related to the first season episode about the Soul Hunters, for instance.)

- Katleeh

Is there a way to link to other records in a database? For instance let's say I'm looking at the info for one movie and want to have a link to the next movie in the series, is there a way to do that?

- katleeh

It occurred to me the other day that having a specific skin load as default when certain databases are loaded would be a handy feature. After all, I have seperate databases for lots of things and would view each one using a different skin. Likewise there should be a way to attach specific custom fields to a database.

This would seem like the easy method: have pvd start a new data file which would store information specific for each database such as the skin used, custtom fields, etc.

- katleeh

Is there any way to do If/Then/Else statements, And statements, etc in XML? I've been reading up on it and most of the information refers to using XSL, but I'm not sure that's even compatible in this instance. Is there a format guide for how and what can be done in the skin files?

What i'm tryin to do is make it so that the skin will display different general images depending on what the data in the record is. For instance, if its a DVD, then it would display a DVD image, etc.

- Katleeh

Here's a couple of ideas that I think would work pretty well and would help out quite a bit with functionality:

First, since there's a lot of digital downloads being sold as well as digital versions of movies, I think it would be a good idea to have an option to somewhere display the total space taken up by the video files of the catalog as well as the total files. That should actually be a rather easy thing done as it would only require determining where to put the display at and some mathematical inputs for the totals. If you wonder what I mean, look at Anime List Builder. When you are cataloging your anime collection it will display the total size of your collection as far as the video files go.

Second, one of the things which it seems logical to be there is the ability to work with the various episodes information from within the main series "page" for lack of a better word. What I mean is that somehow, the episodes should be tied to the main series infocard so that you can work with the data. Another way of putting it is, you would click on the series name, then have a tab you could click which displayed the list of seasons/episodes along with other information you wanted listed like maybe length, size, date released, etc...

Oh, what about making it so the skins can use xhtml as opposed to just xml? That way it would make it easier for manipulation of the data for display.

Just some ideas.
- KatLeeH

Hello all,

I'm trying to either modify one of the other skins that are already there or make my own to help catalog my anime collection. In trying to make the changes I wanted things don't seem to be going correctly so I have some questions on just what can be done with the skins and information display for the movies/series.

1) I want to display a banner for the entire series/movie at the top of the information section as well as displaying posters and screenshots/fanart in another tab, but so far I haven't been able to get a banner to display properly as it keeps shrinking in size whenever I try and use the cdscan item. So what can I do here? If i use the screenshot section, it displays a list and I want to be able to have other fanart/screenshots that won't display with the banner.

2) Is there anyway to display information about the various episodes in the main information page? Information such as file size, length, etc?

3) What properties can be set/changed in the skins for display purposes? I know its based on XML but how limiting is what can be done there?

Thanks to anyone who can provide input here.

- KatLeeH