Overview

This page contains information about usage scenarios of the MP2 system from the developers point of view. It describes use cases and MP2 concepts more in detail, with focus on important design aspects.

Installation and Usage Scenarios

MediaPortal 2 can be installed in different installation configurations, called installation scenarios. An installation scenario describes the configuration of involved PCs, the distribution of accessed media and the user's options to interact with each of those systems.

Singleseat Installation Scenario

In the singleseat installation scenario, the whole MediaPortal 2 system will run at only one machine. The MP2 server will run always during the system runtime and will manage all file access, the network servers and the MediaLibrary. The MP2 client will run on demand and provides the GUI. Both applications will communicate over their network UPnP interface, despite they are running on the same machine.

Multiseat Installation Scenario

In the multiseat installation scenario, MediaPortal 2 will run at multiple machines. One machine is the server, master or main machine where most of the to-be-managed media is located. The server machine is supposed to run most of the time during the usage of the MP2 system; it is supposed to run as a system service. There can be one or more MP2 clients assigned to the MP2 server. A client, which is assigned to a server, will automatically connect to it when started. Each client may go offline during the usage time of the MP2 system at an arbitray time without breaking the functionality of the whole MP2 system. All of the involved application instances will communicate over their network UPnP interfaces.

Hint:
If in a special configuration, more than one MP2 server is running, the different servers won't have the capability to connect to each other in their role as MP2 servers. Nevertheless it might be possible to connect a second MP2 server via a special SMB- or UPnP-connector. This type of usage is a possible configuration option but is not covered by the multiseat scenario.

On-Demand Usage

It is possible to just open a disconnected MediaPortal 2 client. If the user doesn't assign an MP2 server to a client, or if the assigned server is offline or not reachable via the network, the MP2 client is in disconnected state.

In this state, the client is still able to manage its own, local shares, access media items and play them. Only the server functionality, like queries of the MediaLibrary, isn't present then.

Management of Media

There are many sources of media to be managed by MediaPortal: The big music, video and pictures collection at the MP2 server, auxiliary file systems accessed by the server, removable DVD/USB media at the MP2 server or client, local media on the client's HDD, internet media like streaming video and radio accessed by the server or by the client.

Independent from the native location of those media files, it should be able to access them from any MP2 client in the system. So the server's local media should be able to be accessed from an MP2 client as well as the media provided by another MP2 client which is also online.

Each client is able to access its local media by its own (without the help of an MP2 server), but to access the media files from other MP2 clients, an MP2 server is necessary as mediator.

Shares

Shares are the means of MediaPortal 2 to include arbitrary file systems into the MP2 system. A share is a well-defined entry-point into a media file system, which is accessed by a participant of the MP2 system. The PC, where the share is located, is called the native system of the share. Each system manages its native shares, and redundantly, they are known by the MP2 server.

Querying/Navigating through Media

The presentation of available media will be based in a mostly hierarchically organized structure. Each collection of media items presented together is called a view. Similar to browsing the local computer file system with using the Windows Explorer, views can be browsed in the MP2 GUI. There are three kinds of views.

Local Shares Views

One way to navigate through local media files is to use the Local Shares Views. This navigation reflects the structure of an underlaying (mostly local) file system. Each local shares view presents the media items and sub directories located in the corresponding directory of the underlaying media provider. There are only few ways to filter the presented media, if any. Local shares views will be dynamically created by the MP2 client based on the local share's file systems.

MediaLibrary Based Views

Another way of navigating through the media files is the usage of MediaLibrary based views. This kind of navigation provides completely free configurable views which are always based on a MediaLibrary query. Like local shares views, MediaLibrary based views are also organized hierarchically. Each sub view represents a subset of media items. A default set of MediaLibrary views will be created by the MediaPortal 2 installer, but the user is completely free to configure his favored MediaLibrary views.

View Collection Views

View collection views provide a means to organize different independent sub views together in one view. They are completely configurable and can contain arbitrary sub views of all of the three view kinds.