3.1.0 new path substitution

[tobedeleted 4]

With 3.1.0 a new kind of path substition seems to be introduced. I have some problems with that:

 

1. Before, I coud do one path substition for all my libraries on the server. Is it correct that now I have to enter the path substition for every single library? This seems to be very awkward, as basically the network paths are the same for every library. Is there a way to get the old behaviour back, i.e. "global path substition"?

 

2. I can only enter one path substition per path. My libraries are, depending on the device, accessed as NFS-mounts or as libnfs-share (i.e. nfs://... URLs). With the old solution I simply gave two path substitions one time. Now I can only enter one path substition, but have to enter it every time.

 

Also, the paths in the library currently cannot cannot be really edited. You enter new paths which don't appear, and also deleting paths does not always work. Maybe this is because my openSUSE rpm currently has only a 3.1beta version.

[Luke 37244]

Hi, there is no global option, but the feature is exactly the same. People found it to be a confusing feature, now it's very simple. Yes it takes a few extra keystrokes, but it's worth the trade-off for ease of use.

 

You can edit edit the existing paths by clicking on them, it's just not currently very obvious.

[tobedeleted 4]

Thanks for the quick reply. However, I have to disagree, I considered the old solution much more convenient and obvious (as the necessary path substitions tend to be all the same for all libraries and don't change from library to library). But then I'll have to re-setup my libraries, OK.

 

And one feature is missing: The ability to give more than one path substition per library path, if different devices access the server with different protocols.

[Luke 37244]

I understand, but the needs of the many trump the needs of the few. Most people never caught onto the fact that you could just do a single path substitution. The change has vastly reduced the number of support questions we have to answer about setting up libraries, so it has been well worth it. @@Angelblue05 can attest, it was just every single day multiple people constantly needing help on it. Now, not so much anymore.

 

If you would like to volunteer to be the person to answer questions on it, then maybe we can go back to the old way.

 

As for the multi-protocol thing, that was never being used, because the first matching substitution was always the winner, so that never really mattered anyway.

[tobedeleted 4]

Another thing comes to my mind:

Do I need path subsititution if I set up my home network so that from all devices the media is accessible with the same paths, e.g. using symlinks (in Linux)? Or is direct streaming only enabled if a path substitution is set up?

[ebr 14959]

Another thing comes to my mind:

Do I need path subsititution if I set up my home network so that from all devices the media is accessible with the same paths, e.g. using symlinks (in Linux)? Or is direct streaming only enabled if a path substitution is set up?

 

You only need to setup the network paths if the normal paths are NOT directly accessible by your clients.

[medric 5]

I think all new feature or feature removal should be in the patch notes and should be added to the wiki so users can see it and be prepared for the switch. the path substitution is missing however is still shows up in your system.xml file but in the gui there is no place to added it and all local apps start to transcode not dircetplay. thats a big issues to diagnose with doc is saying everything is as it was. there is a new place to put the path sub back however it is not even called that which adds  to the issue of non-communication.

 

the user must go to library and select the library they want and then select the folder and under the folder you will see an new option called (Optional) Shared network folder: this is where you will put your unc / path substitution 

[tobedeleted 4]

Because of this unannounced feature I had to re-setup my complete library. My Kodi setups at home relied on being able to substitute more than one network path. And as there is no more option to globally substitute network paths, I had to do this manually for every library in my setup. So, while I understand Luke's sentiment concerning reduced support ressources, I also am not really amused by the way this regression - and that's it for me - simply appeared unannonced.

 

Moreover, my setup still seems to be confused by the "old" substituted paths. At least it is very unreliable to add and remove paths from libraries right now. Some paths cannot be removed at all, some suddenly appear double, if removing one path Emby removes another path, making my library a complete mess right now in the process of the upgrade to 3.1.

 

So yes, I also would appreciate a smoother and better documented upgrade path when changes like this are introduced :-( ...

[Luke 37244]

You didn't actually have to re-setup anything. 

 

Your existing path substitutions that you setup before are still utilized and respected, so you could have just left everything alone until the time comes that you change your library setup.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

This change is on of the worse changes to happen for literally no reason. Better documentation would have the same affect on support requests without requiring advanced users to reconfigure everything.

 

Only found out about it myself when stuff stopped being accessible and libraries disappeared from clients.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Koleckai Silvestri

[Angelblue05 4130]

It wasn't without reason. And documentation doesn't help for this imo. When every client devs had to help people setup their library, something needs to be changed. It's better to have the path substitution in the same window as the library folders.

 

Edit: however, I do agree. Changes like that need to be better announced.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited December 20, 2016 by Angelblue05

[Abobader 2956]

Good day,

 

My personal view, the way it is now, way better than before, but indeed need some info for whom used the old way.

 

My best

[tobedeleted 4]

OK, because of the change I re-setup my library so that, using symlinks, the paths are all the same on all devices and on the Emby server. So I can do with only ony path substition for nfs:// - URLs.

 

My old path substitutions are still there, however, judging from the entries in in system.xml. I see no option to remove those, which I'd like to do to avoid complications. I can edit the config file manually, to be sure, but I think, if you disable an option, you should define a cleaner migration in path than leaving options somewhere hidden with unsupported/unpredictable legacy behaviour. I think the right way, if you want to change the path substitution behaviour, would have been to copy the old "global" substition to the new-style per-library setting of every existing library and than get rid of the old style.

[Luke 37244]

Yes that's a good idea, thanks.

[tobedeleted 4]

However, while the Kodi plugin seems to handle that kind of setup fine, playing from within the web browser (Firefox) transcodes everything, although the paths are directly accessible :-(. I don't know if that's the same problem or another one, though.

[Luke 37244]

Web browsers do not have file system access.

[tobedeleted 4]

OK, thanks for the clarification.

[Vidman 589]

OK, because of the change I re-setup my library so that, using symlinks, the paths are all the same on all devices and on the Emby server. So I can do with only ony path substition for nfs:// - URLs.

 

My old path substitutions are still there, however, judging from the entries in in system.xml. I see no option to remove those, which I'd like to do to avoid complications. I can edit the config file manually, to be sure, but I think, if you disable an option, you should define a cleaner migration in path than leaving options somewhere hidden with unsupported/unpredictable legacy behaviour. I think the right way, if you want to change the path substitution behaviour, would have been to copy the old "global" substition to the new-style per-library setting of every existing library and than get rid of the old style.

Yes I still have no enhanced TV shows view because I disabled it a while back and now the option has been removed