Calendar Programming Mode?

[starkjames]

Hi Tunarr team! First of all a big thanks for all your hard work on this project! It's really great!!! I've got a few feature requests I'd love to put out to the community.

Quick background: I'm working on a project using Tunarr along with some RF modulator hardware and a pile of RPis to recreate 24 channels of 90s cable TV. As I sit here starting to plan out the process of programming the content for all of these channels, I'm beginning to see some "must have" features that I think would actually be major QoL upgrades for all users. So far I have a few major discoveries:

1. It would be very helpful to have a mode where Tunarr doesn't continue to fill in time after a time slot is added. E.g. if I add a 30 minute time slot to plan an episode of Home Improvement, it should only play that one episode and then go back to "dead air" or flex time filler until the next programmed time slot is reached. That way there's no confusion about what time slots still need content added to them in the overall programming process.

2. I'd love to be able to create a programming block. E.g. If I know every Friday night is going to have a 3-hour block of TGIF shows that always consists of one episode each of Family Matters, Step-by-Step, Full House, etc., it would be cool to define the block once and then just add it each week.

3. It would be super handy if episodes could have a flag of some kind to indicate when they've already aired and when they're flagged for syndication. That way I could have a weekly time slot when a show's newest episode airs, another slot(s) when re-runs of that show can randomly air, and blocks of syndication time when any random episode of a syndicated show can play.

4. This is probably the most important one...a Calendar View for programming! It would be SOOO helpful to have a weekly view like any calendar app where you can see what's currently programmed and where you have gaps that need to have content programmed. Not only would it make the overall programming process infinitely easier, but it would also help detect things like the end of a season where a time slot needs to be repurposed for a different show if we're following Fall/Spring/Summer TV scheduling.

That's all for now, but I'll be sure to add any more ideas or challenges that I encounter. Thank you all for taking the time to consider these features.

Cheers!

[chrisbenincasa]

Hey! I appreciate all of the ideas. I dig all of them. Some of these are definitely a bit more complex than others. I've been thinking of a calendar view for quite some time - though I was thinking of it as a view for the slot scheduler. It definitely feels like it would be a good start to just use the calendar view to see your lineup.

I have thoughts about each of the ideas, though. Probably too much to type out right now, though

[starkjames]

Thank you for taking the time to consider them! :)

Yeah, I was thinking calendar view for the slot scheduler as well. Sorry if I didn't explain myself clearly. But yeah, I agree that having the calendar scheduler would be a massive step forward and make my task of programming all of the content infinitely easier! The other features would all just be frosting on the cake after that. :)

[chrisbenincasa]

Hey just FYI here that I've introduced a calendar programming view in #1134. It's readonly now and just a way to see your current programming, but it's a stepping stone

[chrisbenincasa]

Initial calendar mode has landed in 0.18.17. It's just for viewing the schedule, at the moment.