[mythtv] patch-proposal: MythVideo list view changes

[Jeff Doozan]

I'm planning to rework some of the list view to, hopefully, make 
things a little faster and a bit more robust.  Currently, when using 
database mode (instead of file/directory mode), the tree is populated 
by obtaining a list of all videos, querying the directory of each 
video, splitting up the file path, and then climbing the 
subdirectories from the root of the tree to the branch that would 
contain the file.  In addition to being somewhat ineffecient, this 
also makes it impossible to categorize movies without having to place 
them in directories on the filesystem.


Using the DB instead of the Filesystem
======================================

I propose to change this by adding a new table to the database called 
VideoGroups.  This would just hold a list of group names and IDs:

Table VideoGroups
-----------------
int      GroupID
string   GroupName
int      ParentID

The videometadata table will also receive a new field called 
"GroupID".  Each file will be assigned to a group.

If /mnt/Movies is your base directory, then the file

/mnt/Movies/Horror/Cheesy/EvilDead.avi

would add two entries to the group table

   GroupID     123
   GroupName   Horror
   ParentID    0

and

   GroupId     124
   GroupName   Cheesy
   ParentID    123

the new GroupID field for EvilDead in the videometadata table would 
be set to 124.


Populating the Tree
===================

When the tree view is building the list of movies, instead of running 
through a list of all of the files, and then splitting the filename 
and crawling down the tree for each file, it will do something like 
this:


AddGroupToTree(Group) {
   Check for children by querying groups with parent matching this 
GroupID
   if this has children, recursively call this function for the 
children

   Create tree branch for this GroupName

   Query all movies in this group
   Add movies to this branch
}


Advantages
==========

This should make the creation of the List View window somewhat 
faster. Additionally, it has the advantage of allowing users to 
categorize movies on their own.  I have movies on two hard drives 
mounted in /mnt/movies/1 and /mnt/movies/2.  Rather than having them 
split into two directories in the list view, I'll now be able to 
manipulate their Groups to place them all in the same branch of the 
tree.


Please let me know if you have any comments/questions/concerns 
regarding this proposal.

Thanks,

Jeff Doozan