Information and Error message display idea

[clach04]

I've been thinking about error conditions related to network (and server), e.g. network and/or server is down for what ever reason.

The current dialog that pops up must be dismissed.

Does it make sense to use Toast-style notifications for some conditions?

I've not got this bit thought out properly, but imagine the scenario where the server is on the internet. just started watching and the internet goes down so the scrobble for "start" fails but video plays as it is local. Need to dismiss the error to see the video being watched.

Does it make sense to use toast-style when playing is in progress? Maybe switch to a dialog style when not playing?

E.g. press play, get toast style. Press pause, get dialog style?

Quick and dirty hack to ONLY show toast style for 3 seconds (error text will scroll):

def show_message(self, message: str):
        # https://kodi.wiki/view/List_of_built-in_functions
        # Notification(header,message[,time,image])
        xbmc.executebuiltin('Notification(HTTP Scrobbler Toast, {}, 3000)'.format(message.replace(',', '.')))  # this works, and shows (i) icon

Thoughts?

[Programie]

You are right, toast-style notifications would be better. I'm not sure whether we should difference between whether something is currently playing or not (i.e. pause) as the toast-style notification should always work.

The reason I've used the dialog-style in the first place was simply because it was the first thing which came into my mind to clearly show an error.

The only thing which I don't like about the toast-style notification: I do not want to use the xbmc.executebuiltin() function to call a function which is assembled by simply concatenating the string which should be shown. The string probably contains stuff which could lead to code execution. I'm just thinking about showing the server response in the toast notification which might include something which is then executed by Kodi.

Unfortunately, I could not find anything to show a toast-style notification without building the function call using a string.

[clach04]

You are right, toast-style notifications would be better. I'm not sure whether we should difference between whether something is currently playing or not (i.e. pause) as the toast-style notification should always work.

My personal preference is toast for all 😀 . I could see an argument being made that making the user respond to the dialog is useful. I wasn't sure what your opinion would be hence floating the idea of differentiating. I prefer simplicity of toast-always (both for UX and the code implementation).

The only thing which I don't like about the toast-style notification: I do not want to use the xbmc.executebuiltin() function to call a function which is assembled by simply concatenating the string which should be shown. The string probably contains stuff which could lead to code execution. I'm just thinking about showing the server response in the toast notification which might include something which is then executed by Kodi.

Unfortunately, I could not find anything to show a toast-style notification without building the function call using a string.

Same here, I saw the everything is passed and NOT delimited and almost 🤮 . The string replace of the comma was my quick and dirty attempt to nerf the chance of outside bad actors.

One alternative would be to use the xbmcgui lib to implement a toast style notification. I think this is possible, I don't personally want to spend time on it even though it might be an interesting project 😉 If this path is taken it would resolve the API concern, and potentially would also offer the chance for some control over the size of the pop-up box. It's remotely possible someone else has had this idea already BUT I don't know the Kodi/XBMC ecosystem well enough to research this.

[Programie]

I've found an easier and better way: Using the JSON-RPC interface.

I'm able to display a notification using the JSON-RPC method GUI.ShowNotification. Then I simply specify title, message and optionally image (to specify the icon) as params and the notification is shown as expected. It's also possible to specify the timeout in milliseconds using displaytime but the default looks fine.