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Ideas to improve Emby for Kodi's start-up procedure


VaporTrail

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VaporTrail

Emby for Kodi is awesome, but there's one issue that continues to plague the user experience in my opinion.

 

If you don't turn off auto-updates, when you boot up Kodi you're immediately met with two competing processes:

 

1. Add-ons that auto-update upon boot,

2. Database sync between Emby & Kodi.

 

If you decide to process library updates from Emby for Kodi's overlay, the sync may cancel when your add-ons get simultaneously updated (ie. Embuary rebuilds the menu). To resolve, you either have to reboot Kodi or reboot Emby for Kodi in add-on settings to re-initiate sync.

 

Here's a couple random ideas to improve this:

 

1. An IFTTT solution, where Emby for Kodi checks if auto-updates are turned on, then waits until that process completes before attempting to process Emby library updates.

2. A simple 45 second delay before the sync options overlay, which may be enough for majority of auto-update tasks to process prior to sync.

3. Lower the opacity of the overlay screen, so users can see auto-updates complete in the background before pressing the green "yes" button to sync library updates.

 

I'm not sure how many run into this problem, but it feels like an unnecessary annoyance whenever I boot up Kodi, especially with so many frequent updates.

 

Hope this was useful as Emby for Kodi heads towards a stable release!  :)

 

 

 

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Angelblue05

What makes you think the sync is cancelled? Even if the progress bar gets closed, it should still be running. If that's not the case, can you provide your kodi log capturing this? Thanks!

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VaporTrail

What makes you think the sync is cancelled? Even if the progress bar gets closed, it should still be running. If that's not the case, can you provide your kodi log capturing this? Thanks!

 

Sure next time I run across this issue, will attempt to post a log. Perhaps I'm not patient to wait and see the updates posted to the homescreen, but this can be problematic if there's thousands of updates to process.

 

Not knowing when the sync completes is a little disconcerting. Do I just sit on the homescreen and wait? If not, I imagine using a low-powered android client while it scans in the bg might crash Kodi? 

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Angelblue05

Not really a problem anymore as the add-on no longer writes to the database directly. The only issue would be running out of memory (I did try to limit memory usage by the add-on with the new approach) or some lag.

 

I'm not sure how we'd force the progress dialog to remain around, even if you navigate the interface... but it does not stop the progress, you could check your logs live and see it continue to do stuff.

Edited by Angelblue05
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sualfred

@@Angelblue05

 

If you give me a prop like "Window(home).Property(emby.isupdating)" I could add a indicator that the sync is still running. Like a small busy spinner icon in a corner.

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Angelblue05

Interesting, how are you updating the DB now?

Write to a journal, then commit all the changes at once to the db. If anything happens, then it won't corrupt the db, etc. It doesn't lock the db which is what the issue was.

Edited by Angelblue05
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Angelblue05

Yep, and did I say, it doesn't lock the database while writing commits to the journal? :P 

 

I agree, it looks promising so far. For now, it'll contain the plugin path to keep things working. I will look into direct server links to avoid needing the plugin system in the future for playback.

Edited by Angelblue05
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VaporTrail

If you give me a prop like "Window(home).Property(emby.isupdating)" I could add a indicator that the sync is still running. Like a small busy spinner icon in a corner.

 

Thanks @@sualfred! Can this be attempted @@Angelblue05?

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