Architecture

Architecture

For developers. The user-facing behaviour is in the other pages; this one explains how the pieces fit together.

The family

 PVR key / plugin menu
        |
  MovieCockpit (MVC)  ---- UI: list screen, menus, player, setup
        |
        +--> CacheCockpit (CAC) ---- FileManager: SQL cache, file operations
        |         |                  Recording: reacts to timers, covers, series folders
        |         +--> JobCockpit (JOC) ---- runs file operations as background jobs
        |
        +--> MountCockpit (MNC) ---- bookmarks, mount points, share availability, free space
        |
        +--> ComponentsCockpit (COC) ---- skin sources, converters, renderers
        |
        +--> CoverCockpit (COV)  [optional]  ---- cover download, via a plugin hook
             TMDBCockpit, MediathekCockpit [optional] ---- movie info, Mediathek, via plugin hooks
             PowerCockpit (POC) [optional] ---- shutdown tasks: trashcan purge, archive

The plugin identifies itself to the others with the id MVC (Version.ID). FileManager.getInstance("MVC") returns the cache for it, MountCockpit.getInstance().getMountedBookmarks("MVC") the bookmarks. The same infrastructure serves MediaCockpit with the id MDC.

Source files of MovieCockpit

File	Role
plugin.py	Plugin descriptors. At session start it replaces InfoBar.showMovies with the function that opens the list (weight 1, so it runs after other movie list plugins), sets the EPG language and registers the bookmarks with MountCockpit
MovieCockpit.py	The list screen: loading, navigation, selection, delete / move / copy / archive, trashcan, series folders, player start
MovieCockpitActions.py	Key actions and the four-level colour-button matrix
CockpitContextMenu.py	The function menu and the plugins menu
MovieList.py	The list source: builds the rows (buildRow), sorting, list modes, selection
Sorting.py	Per-folder sort mode: read, write (cache and .sort file), toggle
ServiceCenter.py	A stand-in for eServiceCenter that answers service-info requests from the cache (title, times, description, size, cover)
CutList.py	Reading and writing the cut list (.cuts and the cache)
RecordingInfo.py	The technical info screen
MovieInfoEPG.py	The EPG info screen with the TMDB and Mediathek buttons
SetupScreen.py, setup.xml, ConfigInit.py	Settings
keymap.xml	Maps remote keys to the action names in the CockpitActions context
skin/default/*.ymlinc, skin/default/skin.xml	The skin (see Skinning)

The player and many helpers are shared sources (CockpitPlayer, CockpitSeek, CockpitSmartSeek, CockpitCueSheet, CutListUtils, FileUtils, FileManagerUtils, ServiceUtils, SkinUtils, ...). They live in the Common repository and are copied into every Cockpit plugin when it is built, which is why they appear in the plugin's folder on the box.

Data flow of the list

MovieCockpit.onDialogShow
   FileManager.onDatabaseLoaded(loadList)       -> called when the scan is finished
   FileManager.onDatabaseChanged(loadList)      -> called after every cache change
   Loading spinner
loadList
   MovieList.loadList(return_dir, return_path)
      FileManager.getDirList / getFileList      (SQL, no disk access)
      sortList                                   (per folder: date or alpha, up or down)
      buildRow                                   (date text, icon, progress, picon, colours)
   Service source <- ServiceCenter               (details pane, cover, front panel)

The list never reads the disks. The only disk access in the browsing path is the existence check when you press OK. Everything else is the SQL cache or the files that file jobs touch.

Row building

MovieList.buildRow appends nine display values to the 20 database columns (ROW_IDX_* in MovieList.py). The category priority for colour and progress bar is: marked or locked, then running recording, then normal. Progress is computed from the cut list's last position, or from now - event start for a running recording, or from the job's progress for a download.

Selection and cursor

getSelectionList returns the marked entries, or the entry under the cursor. When exactly one entry is selected the cursor is moved to the next one, so repeated use works through the list. return_dir and return_path are class attributes on the screen, so they survive closing and reopening the plugin within one session.

File operations

MovieCockpit collects (op, path, target) tuples and calls FileManager.execFileOp. For each, CacheCockpit

1. looks up the entry (and, for delete and same-disk move, every entry with the same relative path on other bookmarks),
2. checks free space for copies and cross-disk moves (free space x 0.8 must cover the size),
3. adds a job to JobCockpit; the job runs shell commands (mv, cp, rm, mkdir, helper scripts for folders) on all files that share the base name,
4. calls back; MovieCockpit reloads the list after a 500 ms quiet period.

Entries with a running job are in FileManager.getLockList(); the list shows the operation and the selection colour.

Deleting moves to <bookmark>/.Trash/<relative folder>; .Trash is excluded from the normal queries and from archiving. FileManager.purgeTrashcan(retention) deletes entries older than the retention; archive() queues moves from the archive source to the target bookmark. Both finish with a trim job.

Recording hook

CacheCockpit's Recording class listens to RecordTimer.on_state_change. On a timer start it writes the .xmeta file, adds the file to the cache and, if cover_auto_download is on, requests a cover through the WHERE_COVER_DOWNLOAD plugin hook; on timer end it records the stop time, refreshes the entry and applies the series-folder rule. If timer_autoclean is on, RecordTimer.cleanup() runs at start-up and two seconds after each timer end (the timer only joins the processed list after the state callback has returned).

Extension hooks

Hook (PluginDescriptor.where)	Value	Used for
WHERE_MOVIELIST	standard	The long-MENU plugins menu
WHERE_TMDB_MOVIELIST	-97	TMDB info (PluginUtils.WHERE_TMDB_MOVIELIST)
WHERE_MEDIATHEK_SEARCH	-96	Mediathek search
WHERE_COVER_DOWNLOAD	-94	Cover download

getPlugin(where) returns the first plugin registered for a hook, or None; the buttons depend on the answer.

Build, packaging, translations

• Autotools project (Makefile.am files); installed under .../Plugins/Extensions/MovieCockpit.
• CONTROL/control defines the package and its dependencies; postrm removes the plugin directory.
• Translations: po/MovieCockpit.pot is the template, po/de.po the German translation. Strings are wrapped in _() from the plugin's __init__; setup texts are in setup.xml.
• Logging: Debug.py sets up a logger with the prefix MVC: writing to stdout, so it ends up in the Enigma2 debug log. The level is the Log level setting.
• Releases are listed in .releases; the current one is 0.19.3.

Conventions

• Every file starts with the licence header (GPLv3), and uses logger.info("...") / logger.debug(...) at function entry.
• Row field and database column indices are named constants (FILE_IDX_* in FileManagerUtils.py); the skin uses the numbers, so keep both in sync.
• Anything that can block (network shares, disk operations) runs in a thread or a job; the list code only talks to SQL.