[mythtv-users] Graphite and Arclight Themes

[Michael T. Dean]

  On 12/04/2010 09:17 AM, Richard Morton wrote:
> That's an interesting point about updating themes now theme
> downloading implemented separately from the package manager...
>
> If the backend is going to maintain a list of themes, I wonder if it
> is better that the backend also hosts the themes and serves them like
> any other content to the frontend. I understand that this is probably
> a rather large change to the architecture/system.

Chris already wrote that code.  That's exactly how it works.

So, if you use the theme downloader, you download the theme once from 
the Internet, then the master backend can push that theme out to all 25 
of your frontends--rather than having your package manager download the 
theme (and the themes you're not using) from the Internet once for each 
of your 25 frontends (and, for those with auto-builds enabled, once each 
day).

> The ability for the backend to auto-update the theme, or dare I say it
> put the themes back in the package manager...

There's no need for the package manager to know anything about the 
themes when you use the backend to download/distribute them.  At that 
point, themes are just application data.  For the same reason your 
package manager has no need to know about MythTV recordings, it has no 
need to know about MythTV themes.  (Or, put another way, these themes 
are not "installed" to system directories.)

And, yeah, for those who realize just how expensive it is to have a 1 to 
8 MB theme installed on the master backend--a system that probably isn't 
designed to handle storing things***--there will probably be an option 
eventually to allow you to delete unused themes using the UI.  Note, 
also, that the frontend automatically cleans up the "installed" copy of 
the previously-used theme when you switch.

Mike

*** Oh, wait, that's right.  The MythTV backend has to have storage--it 
stores and processes multi-gigabyte files routinely.  Guess < 10 MB is 
nothing.  ;)