CCML Plugin (Updated 2012-05-20)

[squadjot]

Ok, i guess that means you could make your own custom "Actors" folder? - infact, any other structure where you'd like the same movie to be represented in more folders.
But.. the structure of the "meta" file would then be something like:

Title="Wedding Crashers"
Year="2008"
Genre="Comedy"
Genre="Drama"
Master=Actors
Genre="Owen Wilson"
Genre="Vince Vaughn"
Genre="Christopher Walken"

a bit messy, on the other hand..it gives you quite some freedom to customize...
Anyhow...my little script is not outputting data like this (can be change to whatever)

Code: Select all

datecreated=01-02-2012 08:58:14
id=0396269
title=Wedding Crashers
year=2005
runtime=119 min
rating=7.1
pg=R
genres=Comedy|Romance
tagline=They're just a couple of guys who just wanna have fun.
plot=Divorce mediators John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey are business partners and lifelong friends who share one truly unique springtime hobby--crashing weddings! Whatever the ethnicity of the wedding party--Jewish, Italian, Irish, Chinese, Hindu--the charismatic and charming duo always have clever back stories for inquisitive guests and inevitably become the hit of every reception, where they strictly adhere to their proven rules of wedding crashing to meet and pick up women aroused by the very thought of marriage. At the tail end of another successful season of toasting brides and grooms, Jeremy learns that the daughter of Treasury Secretary William Cleary and his wife, Kathleen, is getting married in what is sure to be the Washington D.C. social event of the year. After infiltrating the lavish affair, John and Jeremy quickly set their sights on two bridesmaids, Claire and Gloria Cleary. With the lavish reception in full swing...
writtenby=Steve Faber|Bob Fisher
directedby=
cast=Owen Wilson(nm0005562)|Vince Vaughn(nm0000681)|Christopher Walken(nm0000686)|Rachel McAdams(nm1046097)|Isla Fisher(nm0279545)|Jane Seymour(nm0005412)|Ellen Albertini Dow(nm0016687)|Keir O'Donnell(nm1218757)|Bradley Cooper(nm0177896)|Ron Canada(nm0133474)|Henry Gibson(nm0002099)|Dwight Yoakam(nm0948267)|Rebecca De Mornay(nm0000360)|David Conrad(nm0175633)|Jennifer Alden(nm1124005)|
width=1280
height=544
framerate=23.976
codec=AVC|AVC
duration=7620667
bitrate=1800000


...I'd imagine any following categorization could be nice:

A-Z
Year
Actors
PG
Genres
Rating
Added
Codec
Runtime
Resolution
Director
Writer
Framerate

[jdknight]

For your example, you don't really need to use the master category.

If you had your above meta file description (seen also below) for a media file, the following would be generated.

Media file 'Wedding Crashers.m4v'.

Meta file 'Wedding Crashers.m4v.meta':

Code: Select all

Title="Wedding Crashers"
Year="2008"
Genre="Comedy"
Genre="Drama"
Master=Actors
Genre="Owen Wilson"
Genre="Vince Vaughn"
Genre="Christopher Walken"


This would result in the following categorization:

Code: Select all

Actors
   Genre
      "Christopher Walken"
         Wedding Crashers.m4v
      "Comedy"
         Wedding Crashers.m4v
      "Drama"
         Wedding Crashers.m4v
      "Owen Wilson"
         Wedding Crashers.m4v
      "Vince Vaughn"
         Wedding Crashers.m4v
   Title
      "Wedding Crashers"
         Wedding Crashers.m4v
   Year
      2008
         Wedding Crashers.m4v


I assume this is not what you desire. The following might be what you are looking for:

Code: Select all

Year=2008
Genre=Comedy
Genre=Drama
Actor=Owen Wilson
Actor=Vince Vaughn
Actor=Christopher Walken


Results in:

Code: Select all

Actor
   Christopher Walken
      Wedding Crashers.m4v
   Owen Wilson
      Wedding Crashers.m4v
   Vince Vaughn
      Wedding Crashers.m4v
Genre
   Comedy
      Wedding Crashers.m4v
   Drama
      Wedding Crashers.m4v
Year
   2008
      Wedding Crashers.m4v


The 'Master' category is helpful for classification at one (1) more level higher. For instance, if you have a favourite Actor in both a bunch of movies and also a couple of series, you may not want to have all movies and series items under the actors name.

Code: Select all

Actor
   MyFavouriteActor
      MyMovieOne
      MyMovieTwo
      MyMovieThree
      MySeriesOne
      MySeriesTwo


If you tagged the movie meta files with 'Movies' and the series meta files with 'Shows', you would have the following instead:

Code: Select all

Movies
   Actor
      MyFavouriteActor
         MyMovieOne
         MyMovieTwo
         MyMovieThree
Shows
   Actor
      MyFavouriteActor
         MySeriesOne
         MySeriesTwo


I hope this helps.

[squadjot]

ok! - Thank you for elaborating!

[squadjot]

Hi JD, got a question..

You know.. in PMS you can set a common path for artwork and subtitles..
would it be difficult to add an option that let you define a common path for the meta files this plugin reads?

[jdknight]

Hi JD, got a question..

You know.. in PMS you can set a common path for artwork and subtitles..
would it be difficult to add an option that let you define a common path for the meta files this plugin reads?

Sure, I'll try to have it for next release (hoping before the end of the month).

[squadjot]

cool! =)

[JohnDixon]

I saw earlier in this post where the suggestion of using the meta file for MyMovie's could possibly be an option?

I think that would be fantastic actually because all of my movies already have that XML Document in each of my movie folders.

Sorting by year is cool, and genre and so on but my only hope is that I can sort by Actor/Actress without having to create these individual files myself. (especially when they are already there).

I had tried out Mezzmo and actually it does this fairly well. All you have to do is add the Actor folder and it gathers all of his movies (that you have) in one easy location.

I love the PSMS though so, obviously I want it to do everything under the sun.

by the way I DL'd the CCML_v3_x1.50 (jar file) and placed it in the plugins folder. Didn't work. Placed it in the Main directory and still didn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. Maybe it's because I don't have the right Meta file?

[jdknight]

I have yet to look into parsing files for categorization other than meta files. Doesn't mean I haven't thought about it though. I'm in the process of still making other minor tweaks and what not for this plugin first. Once those are done, I'll try to find way to support different types of categorization if it is really wanted.

As for the plugin not loading; my only advice would be to check the trace logs in your PMS. The plugin file should be placed in the 'plugins' directory. You should see a trace log starting "[CCML] Loading plugin." or see an option "Custom Category Media Library" under the plugin system area under "General Configuration". If you find something wrong/broken, I'd be more than willing to investigate why.

[squadjot]

I saw earlier in this post where the suggestion of using the meta file for MyMovie's could possibly be an option?

I could look into an converter? - it should be pretty easy to let than run through all .xml files and format ccml meta files from that.

I also have some problems using the plugin.. but havent had time to test properly.

[squadjot]

Just a question:

Let's say you have 2gb drive of movies all with meta files.. would that cause CCML to take very long time to prescan all these before it can display the CCML folders?
I guess if thats so.. thats... not so great