Reorganise EPG searches

[IanSav]

In the forum post that triggered Issue #516 there was also a request for a change to the EPG search functionality. Given my recent annoyance with the current functionality I have added a version of that request here.

The idea is to change the way the YELLOW button handles searches in the EPG. Currently in the T Series EPG pressing:

• RED initiates an IMDb Search.

• YELLOW initiates an EPG Search.

The only way to initiate an EPG search of a user entered string is to press YELLOW to perform an EPG Search and then press YELLOW again to access the New Search function. This wastes button presses and processor time performing an unwanted search.

The original request was to set the default YELLOW search to be configurable between EPG Search and New Search. It was also proposed to offer long YELLOW to perform the alternate search.

I believe that the IMDb Search can also be folded into this YELLOW button function.

The available settings could be EPG Search, New Search, IMDb Search and Ask. The first three options are self explanatory while Ask should make the YELLOW button label become Search and pressing YELLOW brings up a pop up menu with three choices:

• EPG Search

• New Search

• IMDb Search

The new search pop up should be positioned and styled like the GREEN timer control pop up. That is, the pop up appears adjacent to the event to which it will apply.

A long press of YELLOW can be programmed to always bring up the Ask menu even if YELLOW has a specific search configured.

This change would also allow the RED button to be freed up for other uses.

Original forum thread: Option buttons Rec & Search as a single press from EPG.

[IanSav]

Correct case of "IMDb".

[prl]

There isn't currently an interface to the EPGSearch to allow it to open the search entry box at startup. For that to be implemented, it would need a change to the EPGSearch plugin, to add a PluginDescriptor to start it in the right mode (so that this mode can be accessed from menus etc where the EPGSearch plugin might insert itself) and to add the code to the plugin to have it ask for a search string at startup.

Also, my recent changes to EPGSearch have added the capability for it to initially open the search history popup to allow the search string to be taken from a recent search. People using other images seem to want to bind that to long-YELLOW in live TV. That can't be done in the Beyonwiz image at the moment, because long-YELLOW is currently "search IMDb", but it might be useful to think about how it could be added. In the new version of EPGSearch, "search from history" is on long-YELLOW, and "search from entered text" is on short-YELLOW. It might make sense for the interface from live TV to use something similar.

[prl]

I got an email notification on this topic with IanSav asking "What is the search history popup? Is this something new you have developed or is it something of which I should be aware." I'm not sure what happened to that comment, but here's the answer.

The history search function in EPG Search exists already, and can be accessed once in the EPGSearch screen using MENU>Show search history. My recent changes to EPG Search add long-YELLOW as an accelerator for that function within EPG Search, and the ability to start EPG Search in that popup when the screen is started. Other images will probably use long-YELLOW for that function. It will also be accessible in the MENU popup in the media selection screen (which currently just has "search EPG").

[IanSav]

I removed the question when you posted the answer on the forums.