Overview

The NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor extracts metadata from

nfo-files

for series. It is one of currently two NfoMetadataExtractors. This wiki page describes particularities of the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor. General information applicable to all NfoMetadataExtractors can be found here.

Properties

MetadataExtractorPriority.Extended

true

Series

MediaAspect

VideoAspect

SeriesAspect

ThumbnailLargeAspect

Note: The

metadataExtractorPriority

is intentionally (and incorrectly) set to

Extended

although, depending on the content of the

nfo-file

, it may download thumbs from the internet (and should therefore be

External

. This is a temporary workaround for performance purposes. It ensures that this MetadataExtractor is applied before the VideoThumbnailer (which is intentionally and incorrectly set to

External

although it only uses local files). Creating thumbs with the VideoThumbnailer takes longer than downloading them from the internet.

Settings

Besides the general settings available for all NfoMetadataExtractors, the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor has the following settings:

tvshow

NfoFileNameExtensions

series nfo-file

Resource

The settings file name for the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor is

MediaPortal.Extensions.MetadataExtractors.NfoMetadataExtractors.Settings.NfoSeriesMetadataExtractorSettings.xml

Requirements

Besides the general requirements applicable to all NfoMetadataExtractors the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor has the following requirements to be able to extract metadata:

Other MetadataExtractors

The NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor can only extract metadata for video

Resources

. It will therefore only try to extract metadata if any MetadataExtractor applied before the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor (i.e. having

MetadataExtractorPriority.Core

) has recognized the

Resource

as a video and added a

VideoAspect

. This is typically done by the VideoMetadataExtractor. If no

VideoAspect

is present when the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor is called, the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor will do noting.

Directory and File Name Structure

For series there are two

nfo-files

that may contain information for a particular episode:

• The

  episode nfo-file

  , which contains information on the particular episode of a series.

• The

  series nfo-file

  , which contains information on the whole series; and

The

episode nfo-file

is required. If it is not present, the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor will do nothing (and not even try to find a

series nfo-file

. The

series nfo-file

is optional. If it is not present, the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor will only extract metadata from the

episode nfo-file

.

Episode nfo-file

To be identified as

episode nfo-file

, the

nfo-file

needs to be located in the

parent directory

of the

Resource

.

• If the

  Resource

  is a file, the

  parent directory

  is the directory in which the file is located.

  Episode nfo-files

  for episode video files must therefore be located in the same directory as the episode video file.

• If the

  Resource

  is the root directory of a

  ChainedResourceProvider

  (such as in case of a DVD iso file), the

  parent directory

  is the directory in which the file that was unfolded by the

  ChainedResourceProvider

  is located.

  Nfo-files

  e.g. for series iso files must therefore be located in the same directory as the series iso file.

• If the

  Resource

  is a directory (such as in case of a directory, to which the content of a DVD was copied), the

  parent directory

  is the directory containing that

  Resource

  directory.

The file name of the

episode nfo-file

must be the

ResourceName

.

• If the

  Resource

  is a file, the

  ResourceName

  is the file name of the

  Resource

  (without file name extension).

• If the

  Resource

  is the root directory of a

  ChainedResourceProvider

  (such as in case of a DVD iso file), the

  ResourceName

  is the file name of the file that was unfolded by the

  ChainedResourceProvider

  (without file name extension).

• If the

  Resource

  is a directory (such as in case of a directory, to which the content of a DVD was copied), the

  ResourceName

  is the name of that directory.

The file name extension of the

episode nfo-file

must be any of the values contained in the

NfoFileNameExtensions

settings.

Example:

Assuming you have default settings and the

Resource

is:

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\Flowers for Your Grave.mkv

In this case, the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor would look for the following files to identify an

episode nfo-file

:

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\Flowers for Your Grave.nfo

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\Flowers for Your Grave.xml

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\Flowers for Your Grave.txt

The file names (and file name extensions) are not case sensitive.

Series nfo-file

To be identified as

series nfo-file

, the

nfo-file

needs to be located

• either in the same directory as the

  episode nfo-file

  ; this is typically the case when you store all episodes of all seasons of a series in one directory;

• or in the

  parent directory

  (see above) of the directory in which the

  episode nfo-file

  is located; this is typically the case when you have a series directory with season sub-directories, in which you store the episodes of one season of a series, each.

The file name of the

series nfo-file

must be any of the values of the

SeriesNfoFileNames

setting.

The file name extension of the

series nfo-file

must be any of the values contained in the

NfoFileNameExtensions

settings.

Example:

Assuming you have default settings and the

Resource

is:

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\Flowers for Your Grave.mkv

In this case, the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor would look for the following files to identify a

series nfo-file

:

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\tvshow.nfo

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\tvshow.xml

D:\Series\Castle\Season 01\tvshow.txt

D:\Series\Castle\tvshow.nfo

D:\Series\Castle\tvshow.xml

D:\Series\Castle\tvshow.txt

The file names (and file name extensions) are not case sensitive.

Content of the Nfo-File

The

RootElementName

required for the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor is

episodedetails

in the

episode nfo-file

and

tvshow

in the

series nfo-file

. for details on the

RootElementName

please see the general section on the content of

nfo-files

.

The NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor has (in the NfoSeriesEpisodeReader class for

episode nfo-files

and in the NfoSeriesReader class for

series nfo-files

) a separate TryReadXyz method for every child element it can read, where Xyz is the child element name (despite the casing which in the

nfo-file

is always lower case). At the beginning of each TryReadXyz method in the source code of the NfoSeriesEpisodeReader class and the NfoSeriesReader class there is a comment showing an example on how the content of this child element must be structured so that the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor can understand it.

Imported Attributes

The following table contains the applied mapping of XML elements to

Attributes

in various

MediaItemAspects

.

XML elements contained in the

series nfo-file

are in the "imported XML element" column below prepended with

{s}

, whereas XML elements contained in the

episode nfo-file

are prepended with

{e}

.

If there are multiple XML elements in the "Imported XML Element" column separated by [priority 1], [priority 2], etc., then the value(s) of the XML element(s) under [priority 2] is/are only taken if there is no XML elemet present in the

nfo-file

that is listed under [piority 1] or there is no valid value for the XML element under [priority 1], etc.

If there are multiple XML elements in the "Imported XML Element" column not separated by [piority x] the behavior depends on whether or not the MediaLibrary can store multiple values for the respective

Attribute

. If so, all values are taken. If not, a random one is taken, unless specified otherwise in the table below.

Currenty, if a valid value was found for an XML element listed in the "Imported XML Element" column, any value that was stored in the respective

Attribute

by a MetadataExtractor applied before the NfoSeriesMetadataExtractor is overwritten. If no valid value was found or there is no XML Element listed in the "Imported XML Element" column, the

Attribute

is not touched.