New Feature: programming Timers with full date, not only day of the week

[bttfba]

This is a suggestion for a new feature.
It would be extremely useful, in some cases, to be able to set a timers at a specific time of a specific day, which is out of the coming week. It means the ability to set a timer, for example, for August 15, 2023, at 12:00 PM (Today is July 24th)
Currently it is not possible to do so, since it is only possible to set timers in the coming week (in the next seven days).
Basically, instead of choosing among MON, TUE, WED, ... SUN, it should be possible to choose any day from a "monthly calendar" view, then the stating time and the duration, as usual.
I don't know how difficult is this and whether or not the system has the needed resources, but it could be very useful sometime.
Thanks for your attention
Ciao
Fabio

[Heckie75]

Hi @bttfba ,

the idea to schedule specific dates is good. But it is also related to some major changes. I think that changes related to the scheduler are more or less easy. The advantage is probably to re-think the user interaction. In addition KODI doesn't seem to have a datepicker dialog yet. Therefore it must be developed from scratch.

Some thoughts for this moment:

1. change timer object (new fields)
2. change storage of settings (new fields)
3. Refactor scheduler / timer classes (probably only apply method)
4. Update all unit tests (oh my god!)
5. develop datepicker dialog
6. Refactor settings, i.e.
   • remove day / days options
   • introduce date field
   • introduce date selection button (action) which opens datepicker
   • introduce options for repetitions, i.e. weekly and others?
7. new settings version, add migration
8. Change context menu "quick timer" for epg, set specific date instead of weekday
9. Change context menu "add timer" in epg, pre-select date, provide datepicker and repetition options
10. Change context menu "add timer" in general

The next version will be 3.8.0 (see https://github.com/Heckie75/kodi-addon-timers/tree/script.timers.3.8.0) This requirement would be something for a major release (4.0.0). I don't have much time but I keep this requirement in mind.

[Heckie75]

Hi @bttfba,

I have spent almost two days of my holiday to develop this feature ;-) It was very challenging and almost blew my mind but still was fun! You can find an early version of it here: https://github.com/Heckie75/kodi-addon-timers/tree/script.timers.4.0.0 (see latest zip file)

I have already used it the last 2 days and it looks pretty promising. Of course I am going to test it in a long term. Especially it is required to test timers that are scheduled a few weeks ahead without restarting Kodi. Unit tests might not able to cover this 'real-world-scenario'.

It is also required to test combination of timers that are scheduled by weekday, weekly timers and timers that are scheduled by date. Here especially situations where timers overlap and interrupt.

Known limitations

1. Concurrency detection when programming from context menu, e.g. EPG , in combination with weekly timers and timers by weekday does not work if timer is more than 7 days ahead. I don't expect that I'm going to improve this since timers work of course. The only thing is that user won't be asked which timer is more important.

2. Timers that have been missed, e.g. since Kodi was not running, are not cleaned up automatically. However, outdated timers are preselected in dialog for easy deletion. I don't expect that I'm going to implemented more than this since from my POV it is good enough and very transparent. [edit] has been implemented and can be configured in settings. Default is that outdated timers will be cleaned up

Open tasks

1. Write more unit tests esp. for timers by date, multi-week-scenarios
2. Some refactoring seem to be necessary. I'm not 100% happy with the code. It is much more complex than before
3. Maybe convert implicitly timers that are scheduled by weekday to timers scheduled by date (DONE)

I'm looking forward to your feedback!

[bttfba]

Hi Hechie, This sounds great! Sorry for spending your holidays for this. I'm currently traveling in UK, as soon as I'm back, I'll try to test Thank you again!! Fabio Il sab 17 ago 2024, 08:30 Heckie ***@***.***> ha scritto:

…

Hi @bttfba <https://github.com/bttfba>, I have spent almost two days of my holiday to develop this feature ;-) It was very challenging and almost blew my mind. You can find an early version of it here: https://github.com/Heckie75/kodi-addon-timers/tree/script.timers.4.0.0 (see latest zip file) I have already used it the last 2 days and it looks pretty promising. Of course I am going to test it in a long term. Especially it is required to test timers that are scheduled a few weeks ahead without restarting Kodi. Unit tests might not able to cover this 'real-world-scenario'. It is also required to test combination of timers that are scheduled by weekday, weekly timers and timers that are scheduled by date. Here especially situations where timers overlap and interrupt. Known limitations 1. Concurrency detection when programming from context menu, e.g. EPG , in combination with weekly timers and timers by weekday does not work if timer is more than 7 days ahead. I don't expect that I'm going to improve this since timers work of course. The only thing is that user won't be asked which timer is more important. 2. Timers that have been missed, e.g. since Kodi was not running, are not cleaned up automatically. However, outdated timers are preselected in dialog for easy deletion. I don't expect that I'm going to implemented more than this since from my POV it is good enough and very transparent. Open tasks 1. Write more unit tests esp. for timers by date, multi-week-scenarios 2. Some refactoring seem to be necessary. I'm not 100% happy with the code. It is much more complex than before 3. Maybe convert implicitly timers that are scheduled by weekday to timers scheduled by date — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#34 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APIABWWHYDUSKXVCQ3ZGJCDZR33ZNAVCNFSM6AAAAABMVGCJ72VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDEOJUG42DIMBXGE> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Heckie75]

Note

There are 2 issues related to Kodi v21, so that addon does not work for PVR at all and settings dialog is broken, see

• [Kodi v21] Addon can't play PVR items anymore #42
• [Kodi v21] Settings dialog is broken #43