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Plans (ways) to let plugins provide library content?

torarnvtorarnv Members, Plex Pass Posts: 8 Plex Pass
edited December 2016 in General (Third-Party Development)

Hi,

Today content is separated into:

  • Libraries (Movies, TV, etc) for local content
  • Channels for remote content

Are there any plans to merge the two somehow, for example by letting plugins provide items dynamically for a library (cached for perf. ofc)? Right now the only way to get content into a library is to have a scanner scan local files and insert media items into the database, and those media items can't be indirect and played via a URL service (as far as I know).

Having plugins provide library content would allow e.g. my 'TV' library to contain both local shows, as well as shows i've subscribed to from my national TV station, which has a Plex channel already, which would also allow me to search those shows from the main search bar.

I don't really care where the content comes from, I just want a single overview of all my TV shows/Movies/etc.

I feel Plex has a unique opportunity to merge/unify the different content silos, so that they are all available as if they came from the same source. Having to jump into 5 different Channels to check which provider has the video I'm looking for has the same issue as having to check Netflix/HBO/etc to find a movie.

Thanks for any input here!

Comments

  • RillonDodgersRillonDodgers Members, Plex Pass Posts: 3 Plex Pass

    I was just looking to see if there was a way for this to be done. I think this would be an absolutely amazing addition to Plex.

  • torarnvtorarnv Members, Plex Pass Posts: 8 Plex Pass
    edited December 2016

    I looked briefly at Kodi, and there plugins are using the workaround of generating on-disk fake files for the entries that are going into the library (which are then scanned by the normal scanner). The fake entries are then somehow redirected to the plugin to handle at some point when played back.

    As far as I can tell the latter part is not possible with Plex, unless there's something you can stick into the file and/or extra_data fields of media_parts to have it redirect to the URL service in question, just like eg. this.

    Even if it was possible, it would be so much smoother if plugins could just provide the media parts directly.

  • torarnvtorarnv Members, Plex Pass Posts: 8 Plex Pass
    edited March 9

    Was hoping for a comment from someone involved in the project :smile:

  • torarnvtorarnv Members, Plex Pass Posts: 8 Plex Pass

    @StSimm1 I notice Plex Cloud seems to scan file hierarchies via google:/foo/bar, which apparently (from the logs) are added to the DB like normal media items and parts, with the part filename http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/clouddrive/google/media/google:blah. How does that work? Does Plex internally handle the google: scheme, or is that something on the Linux filesystem level?

    And then, when the part is reflected in sections, it doesn't have the regular <Part id="123" key="/library/parts/123/456/file.mp4"> key, but a custom key="/services/clouddrive/google/media/google:foo" key, which allows the Plex Cloud to redirect playback. How is that handled? I haven't found any way to override the key for a media part, even after staring at the MediaPart::computeKey assembly for the past 30 minutes :smile:

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