v1.0.1 Release

[garyan2]

Been what, 6 weeks since the release of 1.0.0? Some nice updates. http://epg123.garyan2.net

• Reworked the tracing code to also add entries in the Event Log (see below). Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry.
• Checks for 0-byte length cache files that were causing execution to fail (0-byte length files occur when the drive runs out of space).
• Improved SDOverride flag to work correctly in all configurations.
• Brought back any Paid Programming images that are available.
• Corrected (again) the spacing for ‘Season XX, Episode YY’ in the episode description so it would appear properly in some views.
• Includes the newly added ‘Oceania’ geographic zone to include Australia and New Zealand in the lineups able to be added to the client’s account.
• Now cleans up the cache directory right after mxf file creation rather than after completion of the reindex task.
• Back to the original method of calling the ‘ReindexSearchRoot’ task to perform reindexing. If the task is not available (deleted), then will revert to using the ehprivjob.exe method.
• Prevents the host machine from entering sleep mode while updating the guide for those long downloads and short sleep timeouts.

[glorp]

• Reworked the tracing code to also add entries in the Event Log (see below). Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry.

I assume this isn't going to log anything on a server without a Media Center event log?

[garyan2]

• Reworked the tracing code to also add entries in the Event Log (see below). Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry.

I assume this isn't going to log anything on a server without a Media Center event log?

I haven't tried it out, but it looks to me it will create a 'Media Center' event log when I create the EPG123 source. I just didn't feel like creating a virtual server to test this out today.

There's nothing like real life tests though, so if you try it and it works, let us all know!

[IT Troll]

Thanks for the update. In the AVForums you mentioned about switching to standard zip files. I'm actually an advocate of 7zip but the 7z format does seem to be a barrier for some.

In this case 7z only saves around 200KB and so the convenience of native zip support is probably worth the extra bytes.

[garyan2]

Thanks for the update. In the AVForums you mentioned about switching to standard zip files. I'm actually an advocate of 7zip but the 7z format does seem to be a barrier for some.

In this case 7z only saves around 200KB and so the convenience of native zip support is probably worth the extra bytes.

Old habits ... I've included a zip package on the website as well. Thanks!

[garyan2]

• Reworked the tracing code to also add entries in the Event Log (see below). Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry.

I assume this isn't going to log anything on a server without a Media Center event log?

Just set up a virtual server (WHS2011) and checked it out. EPG123 successfully creates the Media Center log, so there should be no issues with event logging on a server/machine without WMC installed.

I guess I should point out for those that might want to use the events to trigger other actions, current defined eventIds are:

EventId 0 => mxf file creation
EventId 1 => mxf file import to WMC

[glorp]

EventId 1 => mxf file import to WMC

So there is an event log entry for import-only client set ups as well? This direction is a little confusing: "Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry." as I don't even have the EPG123 GUI installed on any clients anymore. Running epg123.exe remotely per our previous discussions isn't going to add a registry key to the remote machine so I wasn't going to do it since it sounded like the import isn't logged.

In fact, since all my *clients* are W7, I don't even bother with the two different packages and use the W7 one everywhere even though the server (WSE2012) is effectively W8.1. I assume this still works in these cases?

[stuartm]

• Reworked the tracing code to also add entries in the Event Log (see below). Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry.

I assume this isn't going to log anything on a server without a Media Center event log?

Just set up a virtual server (WHS2011) and checked it out. EPG123 successfully creates the Media Center log, so there should be no issues with event logging on a server/machine without WMC installed.

I guess I should point out for those that might want to use the events to trigger other actions, current defined eventIds are:

EventId 0 => mxf file creation
EventId 1 => mxf file import to WMC

Gary,
Thrilled to see event logging., snce I was one requesting this feature. For it to be really useful for me I would like to see a separate event ID for a failed EPG123 update. (Ideally different ID's for each different failure type) What I typically have set up are tasks that fire for each different (Source, ID) failure combination that Media center generates. The task runs a script that notifies me via e-mail of what HTPC failed and what the failure was. (e.g. recording failed and reason, guide update failed and reason, tuner failed and reason, etc)

Thanks

[garyan2]

EventId 1 => mxf file import to WMC

So there is an event log entry for import-only client set ups as well?

Negative on the import-only clients. The event log entries are created solely by epg123.exe.

This direction is a little confusing: "Note: to gain this feature, the epg123 GUI must be run once ‘as Administrator’ to create the registry entry." as I don't even have the EPG123 GUI installed on any clients anymore. Running epg123.exe remotely per our previous discussions isn't going to add a registry key to the remote machine so I wasn't going to do it since it sounded like the import isn't logged.

The need to run as administrator (or with administrator rights) was necessary because Windows would not let me create the registry key I needed to without it. Nothing has changed as far as running epg123 remotely ... no affect on the client machine.

In fact, since all my *clients* are W7, I don't even bother with the two different packages and use the W7 one everywhere even though the server (WSE2012) is effectively W8.1. I assume this still works in these cases?

Correct, this is still true. The epg123Client.exe executable is the OS dependent part of the package ... epg123.exe is obviously not.

Now obviously this is the very first rollout of this capability, so it can certainly be adjusted to be "better". I personally don't use the event log very much but if someone wants to use it with epg123 to email them when it works/doesn't work, then input on how to make this better would be appreciated.

EDIT: ^ and looks like stuartm has some input!

[glorp]

EventId 1 => mxf file import to WMC

So there is an event log entry for import-only client set ups as well?

Negative on the import-only clients. The event log entries are created solely by epg123.exe.

All right. I re-added the epg123.exe to each client and re-ran it locally. Obviously now for no reason, but I was visiting each one today anyway for it's weekly reboot. No harm, no foul. That's been done on the server too which created an empty Media Center log. The schedule grab run tomorrow should be logged @ the server. Thanks.

[garyan2]

Gary,
Thrilled to see event logging., snce I was one requesting this feature. For it to be really useful for me I would like to see a separate event ID for a failed EPG123 update. (Ideally different ID's for each different failure type) What I typically have set up are tasks that fire for each different (Source, ID) failure combination that Media center generates. The task runs a script that notifies me via e-mail of what HTPC failed and what the failure was. (e.g. recording failed and reason, guide update failed and reason, tuner failed and reason, etc)

Thanks

Right now I'm treating the Event ID as the stage (create/import) at which the entry is made ... the level handles whether it is Information or Error. I was starting to layout how to do what you want, but I really wanted to push out this release for the AU/NZ folks to give epg123/SD a shot. I realized the event logging would need a near total rework to do get there and didn't have the time.

[webminster]

So what level of access is the indexing expecting, since it (in my case) errors and falls back to the old-style indexing?

[8/28/2016 7:11:10 PM] [ INFO] Completed the automatch of lineup stations to tuner channels.
[8/28/2016 7:11:10 PM] [ERROR] ERROR: Access is denied.
[8/28/2016 7:11:10 PM] [ERROR] Error using schtasks.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 1
[8/28/2016 7:11:10 PM] [ INFO] Attempting ehPrivJob.exe /DoReindexSearchRoot to index guide data.
[8/28/2016 7:12:24 PM] [ INFO] Successfully completed the ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 0

[garyan2]

Good question ... don't know. I'm assuming your user has limited abilities?

[webminster]

Ran from the task scheduler with the task created by EPG123, my local user account. The account shows as an Administrator account in Control Panel User Accounts. Does the task scheduler task have to be amended to "run with highest previleges" now?

[Sammy2]

As version 1.0.0 works well for me, is there a compelling reason to go to 1.0.1?

[stuartm]

As version 1.0.0 works well for me, is there a compelling reason to go to 1.0.1?

Look at the release note and decide if any of the new features/improvements are something you want or need.

[webminster]

I haven't seen anything dramatic in my test environment, yet. Only obvious issue has been my error getting it to run the indexing, the "access denied" error running schtasks.exe. I think I've gotten it to go away by editing the created task to "run at highest privilege." Still testing before I deploy to the main HTPC, which is fine with 1.0.0 so far.

[garyan2]

I haven't seen anything dramatic in my test environment, yet. Only obvious issue has been my error getting it to run the indexing, the "access denied" error running schtasks.exe. I think I've gotten it to go away by editing the created task to "run at highest privilege." Still testing before I deploy to the main HTPC, which is fine with 1.0.0 so far.

Yah, looks like I didn't thoroughly test that one out. It was working just fine on my server, but the task was already using the Administrator account. I didn't pay much attention to it since there didn't seem to be too much of an issue running the task using schtasks.exe with previous versions. I think what's changed now is epg123.exe is calling epg123Client.exe which tries to start the schtasks.exe process; before, epg123Client.exe was not in play.

I'll play around with a few things, but right now the code is going to set the task to run with highest privileges.

[hansolo89]

this works fine for me, after anniversary update in win10 it had to be a manual task, which i always set to user to "system" highest privilege, i changed nothing just copying/overriding new files over, now have epg123 in event viewer...is that what we should for updates, just override files

[Sammy2]

I have so many tinkering, err, projects to do right now I think I'll wait. I have lots of room on my SSD boot drive now so I'm not getting zero bit files.

I'll wait a bit until I have time to verify the scheduled task is set to highest priorities as all my accounts are administrative accounts.