Am I correct that InputDirectoryObjects on Plex/Web are only displayed as a search input field and not a Directory Object? And there is no way to change that? And that they can only be added at the top level Main Menu?
If that is not true, could someone point me to an example?
AFAIK, you are correct. Plex/Web treats InputDirectoryObjects essentially the same as SearchObjects and presents them as a Search field but without a “proper” directory item. I don’t believe that there is a workaround for this behaviour but, if a good case could be made for changing it then we might be able to convince the /web developer to tweak things.
Plex/Web is the one client that everyone has and would more easily lend itself to allowing users to cut and paste longer entries directly into an input screen. So I would think increasing the functionality of the InputDirectoryObject in Plex/Web would lend itself to the creation of more customizable channels that allow user input. Then users could use Plex/Web to cut and paste for their input and then take advantage of that inputed data on their other clients that may make manual input more difficult.
For example, my RSS Feed channel allow users to add a RSS feed that meets certain criteria. They enter the URL of that feed and the channel plugin produces a list of playable videos. Right now users of this channel plugin must hand type these URL address or, if they use a Roku, they can use the "Remoku" to more easily cut and paste the URL address. If the InputDirectoryObject worked on Plex/Web, users of my RSS Feed channel who do not have a Roku, could use Plex/Web on their PMS computer to more easily add these URL addresses to the input screen with cut and paste. And once the RSS feed is added to the channel, they can watch the videos for those added feeds on any of their clients.
I will add this as a comment on the Plex Web Client "Channel Support Wishlist" on github.
Thanks. It seems strange the way it works now, and I would definitely like a change to be considered. My current use-case is allowing user's to enter SmugMug nicknames to bookmark those galleries. Since there is no input mechanism on web, I've hard-coded 10 preference items, which means users can only have a maximum of 10 bookmarks. Similar to the way Shopgirl hard-codes 50 empty slots for shows in her Webisodes channel.