Implement Channel Add / Channel Settings dialogs

[djp952]

I've been working on this, but custom dialogs in Kodi are difficult. I think the addon will be hard to use on some platforms like Android if there is no UI-based way to manipulate channels.

The current Import/Export JSON function works for now, but having the UI elements in place would open the addon up to a wider audience of Kodi users.

[djp952]

I've implemented a "Channel Settings" dialog for Matrix, but have run into enough problems trying to back-port it to Leia that I think that these dialogs/features will simply not be available on Leia. Matrix PVR API v7 finally provided access to the full Kodi GUI library, which has been the only way I've come up with to be successful here.

[djp952]

There is a bunch of "work in progress" on this for Matrix that fell by the wayside but I anticipate it being functional for a proper "1.0" release of the addon

[djp952]

Matrix will have channel settings, but not channel add capabilities in "1.0".

[djp952]

The FFT control was finally implemented for the Channel Settings dialog, and I've decided that Channel Add is indeed necessary for "2.0" (Matrix is now v2.x)

[djp952]

Channel Add is being more problematic than I expected it to be; the original intention was to be able to re-use the Channel Settings dialog to an extent, but I had to scale it back to just entering the frequency for the new channel. Even this ended up failing somewhat miserably so far; a Kodi addon window/dialog is limited to handling predefined Action codes or "clicks" and isn't able to handle certain keystrokes like BACKSPACE and PERIOD unless those trigger an Action code. I was able to make it fairly usable by forking Kodi's NUMERIC PAD dialog and automatically handling the PERIOD based on the input, but the user will have to click on a "<" button to simulate BACKSPACE.

I also either am doing something horribly wrong or there is a defect in Kodi when new (radio) channels are added; my expectation was that if "New channel" was invoked in the Channel Manager that it would be refreshed and the user could subsequently edit the channel name / channel logo via Kodi, but that isn't working for me yet. From what I see it should work, will build and step through a Kodi debug build to try and see what's going on there and what can be done differently.

[djp952]

Update on this, I have issued 2 of 3 expected PRs for the Kodi Channel Manager dialog (taking a long time due to other priorities), but only the cosmetic one has been flagged for backport so far when approved. The final PR to synchronize that dialog with the backend state (the primary issue) may be a tough sell for Nexus, I'm pretty sure it will require some rework, and Nexus (master) has already diverged from Matrix enough that I'm really doubtful about a backport since it technically wouldn't be one as Matrix would now need a different set of changes. Drag the feet, lose the seat, right?

As it stands, if the two PRs I have are both accepted and backported to Matrix I think we can use this dialog with directions/steps to work around the weirdness; at a minimum we'll be able to use Channel Settings this way, which is something. A truly workable scenario may not be possible until Kodi 20 "Nexus".

For Matrix, I'm probably going to end up recommending using the JSON file import for the channels like with Leia, I'm really not expecting Team Kodi to go along with everything I'm trying to accomplish with the Channel Manager, and the snail's pace I'm stuck on isn't helping matters.

[djp952]

Waiting on a final Pull Request against Kodi to make this work properly in all cases for Kodi 20 "Nexus". Kodi 19 "Matrix" is going to be little better than Kodi 18 "Leia" based on what has been accepted for backport, as a result I am probably going to have to tell any potential users to wait for another year or so. It is what it is.

[djp952]

They work well enough to consider this closed.