Vote: Features for 0.9.9

[jolly_bravo]

- Automatic screenshot making

screenshot making, for this option i just cant' wait

i quote myself

in Automatic screenshot making
it would be nice if u include 2 options (@ nostra)
enter a number of how many automatic screenshot will be made, 6 or 9 or 12...
and make screenshot every x minute...

u pipl are so great. i'll patiently wait for the 0.9.9. greetings

[meriator]

@rick.ca

2. I think two factors are going to affect requests of this sort. First, Customizable views and more flexible custom fields will improve our ability to add whatever we want. Second, the Scripting feature gives us the means to get the data for whatever fields we have added. The catch, of course, is that we'll have to do it ourselves. 

3. What do you mean by "movie-preview"? The current Actors section shows actors and their roles if Preferences-Movies-Information card Show credits as...roles is set.

thanks for u comment
2. I wouldn't do it via custom fields
..so far i found out there's a table named career
which seems to store all the info's about
person->profession and person->role per movie->ID
this is the right place
..but there should be the possibility
to assign labels to the interger->field ctype
wich seems to carry the profession->information.
(...and great would be to do it via a translation-table
but the trans-Table i found in the DB
has not the valid fields to store translations in diffrent languages for the same "term of meaning")

3. (sorry) movie->dataview is meant  ...thank you, this is it   ....

now taking an other deep breath.   
I may study the DB-structure a little more, because I'm not used to Firebird->DBs

thx again
cu meriator

[nostra]

- Automatic screenshot making

screenshot making, for this option i just cant' wait

i quote myself

in Automatic screenshot making
it would be nice if u include 2 options (@ nostra)
enter a number of how many automatic screenshot will be made, 6 or 9 or 12...
and make screenshot every x minute...

u pipl are so great. i'll patiently wait for the 0.9.9. greetings

All this stuff is already on my TODO list

[nostra]

2. I wouldn't do it via custom fields
..so far i found out there's a table named career
which seems to store all the info's about
person->profession and person->role per movie->ID
this is the right place
..but there should be the possibility
to assign labels to the interger->field ctype
wich seems to carry the profession->information.

It seems that you have some knowledge of database structures as you are perfectly right. It is really the best way to add additonal professions and I already have some plans to add this feature in future. I am not sure if the feature will already be available in 0.9.9, but it certanly will be implemented some time.

(...and great would be to do it via a translation-table
but the trans-Table i found in the DB
has not the valid fields to store translations in diffrent languages for the same "term of meaning")

What do you mean with translation tables?

[meriator]

forgot an other suggestion

the tag feature
as it is a very useful feature
it lacks on translation

it would be realy nice to a have these tags translated
in some other languages
there for I should be able to define some needed languages
and then, while importing the tag
each one should be saved
multible times accoriding to my needed languages
example
needed langs may be eng, ger, spa, fra
table fields
ID|lang|lang_value|default_value
1|eng||independent
2|ger||independent
3|spa||independent
4|fra||independent

if lang_value =empty default_value=taken instead
after translation the table may look like

ID|lang|lang_value|default_value
1|eng|independent|independent
2|ger|unabhängig|independent
3|spa|independiente|independent
4|fra|indépendant|independent

thx again
cu meriator

[meriator]

@nostra

What do you mean with translation tables?

I think my last post will explain your question

but may there's also the need of an ident_key
to mark translation to purposes

translation-table
ID|lang|ident_key|lang_value|default_value

translation-typ-table
ident_key|meaning
1|professions
2|genre
3|tags
and so on

in a realy relational DB a better way would be

translation-table
ID|lang|ident_key|lang_value|term_ID

terms-table
term_ID|lang|term_value
 
so we get no double values in default_value aka term_ID
and we are able to pre-translate terms by procedur/function
if term_value matches any new incomming value
but the overhead is
the user has to match the languge of new incomming terms before
(specialy imported tags from IMDB are in diffrent languages as I noticed)


thx again
cu meriator

ps.writing to fast forces me making spelling mistakes
if you find one keep it 

[rick.ca]

Could you add numbers while exporting according to poster number in movie preview?

Took me a while to understand this. In other words, you would like Save image to file to save to the filename [Title] ([image number]).jpg rather than [Title].jpg—so multiple images can be saved without having to edit the filename. Yes, that would be handy.

[rick.ca]

it would be really nice to a have these tags translated

I suppose it would, but where would the translations come from? There are currently 2200 items in my tag list. The ability to add translated values manually would not be practical for dealing with numbers like that. Do you have something automated in mind?

[nostra]

Could you add numbers while exporting according to poster number in movie preview?

Took me a while to understand this. In other words, you would like Save image to file to save to the filename [Title] ([image number]).jpg rather than [Title].jpg—so multiple images can be saved without having to edit the filename. Yes, that would be handy.

If save picture dialog is meant than it is easy to implement, so I'll do this in 0.9.9

[nostra]

in a realy relational DB a better way would be

translation-table
ID|lang|ident_key|lang_value|term_ID

terms-table
term_ID|lang|term_value

Yes, that's the way it should be done. Some other users wanted the same thing for genres and countries, so it seems like the feature is need, but rick is right it will be problematic to create those translation tables (especially for Tags as there are very many).

[meriator]

Do you have something automated in mind?

not realy but
they can be pre-translated via google etc..
and then correctd by your self
then the table should have an other field
terms-table
term_ID|lang|term_value|final
which mark a term_value as ....finaly translated 
.....and maybe PVD should colorize all untranslated terms....


it is also possible to implement the translation-table
this way as I have done in some Apps before
ID|ident_key|default_value|eng|ger|rus|fra|fin
adding a lang means then Alter "table" add fieldname varchar(....
where fieldname = the lang_identifier
deleting means ...drop fieldname...
but this way it is harder to mark single lang_terms as final or what ever
on the other hand it's possible to have diffrent meanings
via default_value and/or ident_key on the same term
because the default_value has no specific language
and the  ident_key will match the use of the term

good translations are hard work any way

an other idea on translating the terms might be
let PVD-users work together
create an online-db for translated tags
where PVD can synchronize the tag-table
may be the requierd fields only

2200 terms in 10 or more languages are possible to do this way
by myself  I could'nt do it
I do not trust google, or babelfish ..ect...that much   


thx again
cu meriator

[rick.ca]

...an other idea on translating the terms might be...

You seem to have some good ideas on how to implement this sort of thing. I know they must be good—I don't understand them. That's not a criticism of your ideas—I just know very little about anything technical. I do wonder, however, if we don't need to be clearer about what the problem is before trying to specify the solution. It's not clear to me, for example, why a non-English user is trying to translate information from the IMDb. I suppose it's because the IMDb is more complete than any alternative available in their own language. But, even then, I don't understand why translating parts of it is going to be all that helpful when other parts are remain in English.

It would be very interesting to know how our Russian friends see this issue. Unfortunately, I don't understand what they're talking about over there. Now there's an interesting feature suggestion for this forum—some sort of translation service (user provided?) to "link" us to the Russian forum.

[meriator]

It's not clear to me, for example, why a non-English user is trying to translate information from the IMDb

1.it is easier to understand
2. and I prefer my home-language
3.I'm sharing my DB with my people and not all of them understand/speak english
but some of my reallife friends are foreigners in my country (Germany)
and they do not speak german very well but english or italian or ...
so why not more then one language if it's possible to do
4. a lot of terms are coming up again and again
   like genres, professions and, why not,  tags too
once translated no more or less future trouble
5.I like to have my data in more then one language
and a lot of my DVD-movies are supporting my wishes 
sometimes I'm watching movies with friends in other languages then my own
and mostly a have seen the movie already in my language, this is funny
6. i like to work on DBs, and translations are a recuring challange
it's like surfing the Inet, relaying on only one language would be very boring

so I do not collect all needed/prefered infos from IMDB
but of course IMDB has a lot of them in 1 place
except older stuff

these are some Ideas why to do so
and maybe, Russia agree   

thx again
cu meriator

[rick.ca]

Thanks. That helps me understand a little better. What you seem to be saying is some users have an interest in having information in various languages, for various reasons. I wonder if the best solution is not just to make the entire database multilingual. That is, there would be separate "version" or "tier" of each record—one for however many languages the user wants to use. It would then be up to the user to decide what information (i.e., source) to download to each language tier. This might involve a script getting information in one language, and then translating it and saving it to the tier of another language. Multiple scripts could be run in batch mode to populate multiple tiers all at once—as new movies are added.

What I'm imagining is something where you could use your database in German, but switch it to English for a particular movie when you know the IMDb information stored there is more complete. And switch it to Italian when your Italian friend is visiting and doesn't quite understand the information in German or English. Even if you didn't want to maintain Italian information for all your movies, you would still have the option of switching it to Italian and downloading from an Italian source on an as-needed basis.

This is great. I think we're well on our way to having version 2.0 all mapped out—before nostra can finish 0.9.9. 

[nostra]

Another beauty issue:

Could you change the season icon?

Yes, if you give me one

[rick.ca]

Yes, if you give me one.

Don't you think we should put it to a vote?

Perhaps the first beta should have LOTS of bugs in it—to keep us off your back for little while. 

[nostra]

Don't you think we should put it to a vote? Wink

I do not like existing icons as well...

Perhaps the first beta should have LOTS of bugs in it—to keep us off your back for little while.  Grin

If the beta would have lots of bugs it would only transfer you from the back to my head

[nostra]

So, I am going to be the icon guy here, eh?

Seems so

OK, here are two icons (Open and Close). Also GPL from the net. Tell me what you think (and mention me in credits.  Tongue)

Hmm, I think both icons are too similar to each other and the filmstrip is not sharp enough. Maybe you'll find some more and I'll try all of them in the App and will take the best looking ones.

I can add you to the credits, but only if you supply all the icons in UI. It would be great to have some icon packages to choose from (like skins).

Could you please update the version in splash screen and in About?

What's wrong with it?

Could you also make the programme portable by default?

I think I can add an option in installer.

By the way, could anyone tell me why this enormous number of software still store there .ini files in Application Data?

It is the default path for storing such data in Windows...

Could you (the 1000th could you) add the wins and nominations beside the award name. e.g. Academy Award (4 Wins, 5 Nominations):

I'll check if it will not look too overloaded.

[patch]

Try these for now.

It would be useful to have larger versions of the icons for use on the large screens used for htpc.
Pardon my ignorance, but where were you suggesting the close icon be used? The current exit function is a lot different to the open database function, so the icons should reflect this.

[rick.ca]

here are two icons (Open and Close). Also GPL from the net. Tell me what you think.

Too small. Not as good as the current folder icons.

It would be useful to have larger versions of the icons for use on the large screens used for htpc.

Hopefully, the Customizable Views feature will allow us to create a view suitable for HTPC use. I think that's going to require a lot of discussion about how it's implemented and used. In other words, I think we need to wait to see what nostra has come up with before considering things like the best icons to use.

They still say: 0.9.8.20

That's what the file property of the executable says it is, so it's "correct" in that sense. I suspect a minor bug fix was made to 0.9.8.19, so the version was incremented, but the installer name, etc. were not updated. See this message. I think it would be a good idea to update the download page and change log. Once the beta is released, users are going to be paying more attention to version numbers.

I install the apps I like on drive D: if they are portable so they could stay theoritically forever without worrying.

I don't know how, but there must be a way of changing the location of the Application Data directory in Windows. I prefer to leave it where it is, and include it in my daily backup routines. I've never reinstalled Windows, but I often recover from my own mistakes by restoring application data from backup. BTW, even if the system drive is not the best place to put it, a separate data directory is much preferable to saving data with the applications.

I'll check if it will not look too overloaded.

I think there's "overload" already—just because of the number of different awards tracked by IMDb. I think this would help, particularly when there are a large number of nominations and only a few wins. It also resolves the shock of seeing "6 wins and 5 nominations" for a move like Catwoman. (Four of the wins are Razzie "worsts;" the other two are for makeup. )

BTW, I've noticed many award entries are duplicated (a varying number of times). It looks like it's because it's a "team" award given to a number of individuals—but the plugin is not getting (or correctly saving) the peoples' names.