Hi,
I think it’d be great to re-skin the web interface for plex. I can imagine a simple, decent looking one would be a real bonus - I’m proposing a nice interface that’ll work nicely on the ipad or any laptop (and potentially smartphones too).
I’ve got a fair bit of web design experience so am happy to start working on one but just wanted to ask:
A - is it already out there? would there be a demand for it?
B - is it any more complicated than extracting the skin and doing HTML/CSS? If so - does anybody want to help!
Cheers!
Harry
That’s just what I was up to today but only really been looking through all the bits other thread
I’d be glad to help pitch in on this, been thinking about it for a long time.
I’d be willing to help out also. Been wanting to get more familiar with the server API’s. This would be a good excuse.
Is there a way to switch between multiple web skins?
Is there more than one skin available? Either way, yes, as it seems to support javascript you could "easily" add a button/link to allow you to switch stylesheets. Cool that people are interested. I'm just reading through the http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=The_Web_Interface before I go to sleep.
I've copied over the files so not entirely sure which version of the webserver plex is running or I guess will be. I think it's Project_Mayem_III_webserver_v1.0 Does that seem right?
The switch theme button makes sense. I guess I was just wondering about adding new themes. Kind of like the plugin architecture. Where you can download a plugin and its available. Download a theme and then I can switch to it all automatically.
I assume the themes would be stored on the plex server. But this part of the source may not be available for a while, if ever. So we need to find out from someone who is working on it what is possible and if the API's have changed at all. Personally I would like some sort of access to the web server part of the code. I Would like to add the ability to stream videos over http5 of flash. But this might end up being a side project and I get video info via API calls. would be cool if it were all one piece though.
Thanks for the heads up on the other thread, the "don't spend to much time on it" comment sounds rather ominous though - having said that, a good front end might be a useful contribution to whatever the replacement is anyway?
Streaming videos would be very cool, hope you get somewhere with it (sounds a bit out of my league).
Well it sounds like furby is on it - but maybe I'll post a couple of mockups and see what people think. That way you guys can use them if it's along the right lines/if you have the time, if not I'll have a crack at it!
Any ideas of what would be the best way to collaborate on this ? share mocks / code ?
i could start a github or google code project and host the basic files there?
any other ideas ?
-Nate
My MacMini died for the 2nd time. Annoyingly some of my files for this are on it. Boo!
Anyway, that was mostly some basic coding in rather than anything substantial.
How about we start with posting mockups (or ideas) and then see about the rest, so go for it whoever wants to. I’m not familiar with github or google code but whatever is easy I’m happy to go with.
I finally set aside some time tomorrow so I’ll try and post something then
I’m curious really what our end goal should be based on the last comment in the other thread. I’m all for rebranding the current webserver and making it really shine to match the rest of Plex, but if this is all for not I’m not sure its worth our time.
I’d like to have a Plex dev weigh in on this and let us know what if any current or future plans there are for this. Maybe we can work together?
I don't understand where this rumor of no plex web server is coming from. Anyone have any legit information?
Either way it's not that big of a deal imho. According to elan's latest blog post they plan on using http to distribute the videos from the plex server to any client. If we had to we could wrap our own server around their server api calls. basiclly making our own webserver into another type of plex client. This would probably be easier with what i plan on doing (video streaming online with plex db as the asset manager).
-Nate
You're right, after having just re-read Elan's blog post, it does seem that the webserver isn't disappearing all together and is instead being repurposed. The only question that remains is will they be doing away with the web interface with the implementation of the library xml api. It also seems the webserver is moving out of Plex and into the Plex Media Server, this is a problem as the Plex Media Server is currently not open source.
hmm... those are some good questions indeed. Both could be quite possible. we know for sure there will be new library API's. To get movie details etc from the server. Most likely the web server interface will probably move to the server side. They could just remove the web server / html front end too.
My only big concern is about playing content on the plex client. since this will most likely connected to the server. I wonder if the server will have a way to push a message to one of the clients saying. play this file, or jump to chapter 10, etc.. Or maybe there will be a separate client API for each client?
i don't see why the plex devs would want to loose these features. Just not sure how they will be implemented
lots of questions...
-Nate
Putting aside those issues for the moment I’m (finally) making progress with the interface.
I feel like this is something I could code into the current version so I’m posting it and will work at that later.
I started off trying to doing it to fit my iPhone so the actual navigation is more condensed and there’s probably too much wasted space. Basically I’ve caught myself at some odd dimensions <_<
I need to redo the play/pause etc buttons and maybe tone down the info bar but I still think I’ll code this version to get to know what it can do better. Got some other ideas which need a bit more refining but I’ve made a start so be gentle
Sooo, got distracted thinking about making this a webapp for this and I think I will definitely be heading down the road of making this more mobile device friendly.
I keep feeling like I could do better when I look at it but, a more Plex version as promised.
Copy it to
/Applications/Plex.app/Contents/Resources/Plex
web.zip (1.59 MB)
To do:
[list=1]
[*]Add Navigation controls (up, down etc).
[*]Proper images for the submenu items (info, restart).
[*]Make 'nicer' Playback Controls.
[*]Build in ability to select multiple skins.
[*]See what other functionality can be harnessed from the http api's
[*]Eyecandy
[/list]
Issues:
[list]
[*]Some sections don't seem to populate until you navigate to them in Plex directly. The playlist sections seem to work well though.
[*]It crashes Plex now and then but I've haven't tried to figure out what's causing it yet.
[/list]
So there is a start, I want to distil my UI ideas a bit more before I post them so will probably concentrate on function more next. I started a [github](http://github.com/furby/Plex-Media-Server) but never used it before so not sure I've done it right.
Could someone try out the pictues? I don't have any in my library
I will definately try this tonight when I get home!
the mock-up looks very good for the initial stage it’s in. keep it up!
Let me know how it goes.
Is a little toned down from the above but there should be quicker progress now
this is a great improvement, it looks so much better than the original already! I will be following your progress..
edit: the web page title is still called "xbox media center - remote control" that should be an easy fix ;)
Oops, schoolboy mistake there.
Updated a little.
[list]
[*]Added Navigation Controls.
[*]Fixed up the playback controls a bit.
[*]Changed the sub menu item images.
[*]Fixed up some of the code so hopefully stops crashing so much
[*]Made it into a DMG file for no particular reason (which has oddly made the file bigger)
[/list]
Next thing is to allow skin changes, and to try and recode so it's not so image dependent. Still not there, but progress :)
[Link to File](http://furby-home.com/upload/PlexWeb.dmg)
Also, if anyone has any ideas about the interface, please post them
making it a dmg has made it even easier to install, I like it.
I have a couple of remarks though:
the pause button does not really look like one. maybe the spacing between the two bars could be smaller or the bars could be a bit bigger themselves?
when you press the info button there are two links: media info and system info. I have no idea what they do?
I think it’s great that you have taken this onto yourself to change this. let’s hope the web-server will survive the transition to plex nine.
