New Plugin Available: Plex Media Server!

[John Hixson]

Hello everybody ;-)

I'd like to announce the availability of the latest plugin for FreeNAS: The Plex Media Server! Much demand has been made for this plugin and it is finally here! Please feel free to give it a try. If there are any problems, please report them at http://support.freenas.org. This plugin is only available for 64-bit installations.

Once this plugin has been installed, you can create storage mount points for for all the Media you have on your FreeNAS system. I recommend just creating a storage mount point named "Media" and mounting it into the plugin, then when you configure Plex, specify that storage mount point for your media.

Feedback is welcome, and thank you for using FreeNAS!

Sincerely,

The FreeNAS Team

 

[jkh]

I'd like to announce the availability of the latest plugin for FreeNAS: The Plex Media Server!

Great work, John! I'd also like to mention that in addition to mounting your movie/tv show/music collection under /media in the plex jail for easy configuration using the plex UI, you can directly get to the Plex UI by clicking on the PlexMediaServer icon in the TreeMenu and when you get the popup window which simply says "Plex Media Server", click on the text to follow the link to your Plex configuration UI. From there, you can easily add the media, sign into your plex account, and so on.

It works great! I'm listening to music from my FreeNAS mini using the plex web UI right now. :)

 

[Krutet]

absolutely great! I'm installing right away..

 

[cyberjock]

So will this allow for updates in the future? It would suck to install and setup, then have to uninstall and setup again. Many people have manual setups for their movie lists and such, and having to reset those up every time could suck.

 

[jkh]

So will this allow for updates in the future? It would suck to install and setup, then have to uninstall and setup again. Many people have manual setups for their movie lists and such, and having to reset those up every time could suck.

Well, to be clear, if you choose to manually install the PlexMediaServer in your own jail (which, because it's available as both a PBI and as a port from KalleDK, can be done without too much trouble) then you don't have to tear those setups down or do anything particularly differently than you would when any other port or package is updated; just do the usual port/pkg operations inside the jail to upgrade it. Plugins are also upgradeable and have been since day one.

 

[xxJeevesxx]

Hey guys! This is great news! :). I have been pondering how I will integrate plex and my media collection. Last night I finished the upgrade to 9.1.1 and saw this and other changes. Great job! Everything works great so far! :)

 

[tanik1]

So where is the pbi located? I know its in the plugins location but is there a file for it?

 

[jkh]

So where is the pbi located? I know its in the plugins location but is there a file for it?

Well, you shouldn't need to download the PBI manually since the plugin manager will do that for you automatically now. Still, the plugins are always available from the appcafe site.

 

[xxJeevesxx]

So where is the pbi located? I know its in the plugins location but is there a file for it?

As Jordan said, you don't need to download the PBI. If you go into the plugins section you would see a list of available plugins. One should be Plex Media Server.

 

[xxJeevesxx]

Well, you shouldn't need to download the PBI manually since the plugin manager will do that for you automatically now. Still, the plugins are always available from the appcafe site.

Hi Jordan! I noticed the appcafe houses older version of the plugins. Do you know when and if they will be updated?

 

[tanik1]

As Jordan said, you don't need to download the PBI. If you go into the plugins section you would see a list of available plugins. One should be Plex Media Server.

yes i see that but i want to install it in the same location to share folders with my other plugins. I dont know another way to do that without the pbi file and uploading it within another plugin.

 

[xxJeevesxx]

yes i see that but i want to install it in the same location to share folders with my other plugins. I dont know another way to do that without the pbi file and uploading it within another plugin.

Ah, I see. Yea, I'm not sure on that one... Sorry.

However, for the updated PBI files look here. http://forums.freenas.org/threads/release-thread-sab-sb-cp-hp-maraschino-ll-gamez.10685/

 

[jkh]

Hi Jordan! I noticed the appcafe houses older version of the plugins. Do you know when and if they will be updated?

Not sure what you mean. http://www.appcafe.org/freenas and the plugins menu are the same - they pull the same bits. What plugins are "older?" If there is some upstream location we should periodically poll to get updates from, let us know (please try to be specific or we may google for a different result) and we'll refresh the plugin(s) in question. Thanks!

 

[jkh]

yes i see that but i want to install it in the same location to share folders with my other plugins. I dont know another way to do that without the pbi file and uploading it within another plugin.

Well, that's still kind of fragile since one plugin can potentially interfere with another - is there some reason you can't stick to the one-jail-per-plugin model and simply punch through the same locations for each plugin using the storage manager? You could even potentially do cross-jail nullfs mounts from the command line if you actually want one plugin to leave result for the other. It's a little byzantine, but at least they're now sharing data *explicitly* vs implicitly, and potentially not in ways you had counted on. Sorry, I guess I'm a bit of a stickler for security and clearly defined zones of influence by default. :)

 

[xxJeevesxx]

Thank you for your reply. My apologies for my lack of clarity! Hopefully I can be more clear this time. Please bear with me :). Yes I realize they are coming from the same thing. I guess I didn't put 2 & 2 together that the plugins have to be built and are separate from their actual releases. For instance, CouchPotato is on v2.1.0. The current version available through the Plugin Manager is 1.0.

I did find this thread http://forums.freenas.org/threads/release-thread-sab-sb-cp-hp-maraschino-ll-gamez.10685/ and Joshua Parker Ruehlig has the PBI with a newer version than available on http://www.appcafe.org/freenas. However I have tried downloading the PBIs there and installing but when trying to start the service in the Plugins tab under Service Status I always receive a "An Error Occurred" at the top of the GUI. So I have been sticking to the plugins available through the Plugin Manager of FreeNAS.

 

[jkh]

I guess I didn't put 2 & 2 together that the plugins have to be built and are separate from their actual releases. For instance, CouchPotato is on v2.1.0. The current version available through the Plugin Manager is 1.0.

Yeah, it's actually (still, unfortunately) a bit of work to make a FreeNAS plugin out of a non-FreeNAS-aware software package because the FastCGI management pieces need to be written by hand and usually by someone other than the software package's author - that's what allows the plugin to talk outside of its jail (under which it is otherwise completely confined) to the Web UI for configuration purposes or even just interact properly with the On/Off service switch for it.

The FreeNAS plugin system is pretty slick, but it's still kind of advanced class to actually create a new plugin for it. It's on our roadmap to make a more data-driven process for having a plugin declare its needs in the form of a data file to a more generic web management framework, but that's not even started yet, much less finished, so for now it's going to be a bit of work and that's why a little version skew is to be expected. Of course, once a plugin is up and working, it should be comparatively easy to update the non-plugin specific bits underneath it; I don't know who created the couchpotato plugin, but unless it's changed radically, 2.1.0 should be a lot easier to create than 1.0 due to code re-use.

Finally, as I said before, if someone does find a plugin "in the wild" that works (e.g. they've actually loaded and tested it :) ) and think it should be part of the appcafe collection, just let us know. We're constantly expanding that collection, as you can all see, and would like it to get even bigger since it's the easiest way to find and install plugins!

 

[xxJeevesxx]

Yeah, it's actually (still, unfortunately) a bit of work to make a FreeNAS plugin out of a non-FreeNAS-aware software package because the FastCGI management pieces need to be written by hand and usually by someone other than the software package's author - that's what allows the plugin to talk outside of its jail (under which it is otherwise completely confined) to the Web UI for configuration purposes or even just interact properly with the On/Off service switch for it.

I understand. I didn't mean to sound pushy or anything, sorry. I only wish I could contribute something!

It is very slick. I am very impressed!

I realize that it's about testing and making sure that everything works before releasing it. I was specifically having problems installing any PBI by itself (outside the Plugin Manager). I will wait to see what happens with the Plugin Manager.

I do appreciate your help and feedback! Thank you :). Much kudos to everyone working on the project!!

 

[ShinobiX9X]

Thank you for your reply. My apologies for my lack of clarity! Hopefully I can be more clear this time. Please bear with me :). Yes I realize they are coming from the same thing. I guess I didn't put 2 & 2 together that the plugins have to be built and are separate from their actual releases. For instance, CouchPotato is on v2.1.0. The current version available through the Plugin Manager is 1.0.

I did find this thread http://forums.freenas.org/threads/release-thread-sab-sb-cp-hp-maraschino-ll-gamez.10685/ and Joshua Parker Ruehlig has the PBI with a newer version than available on http://www.appcafe.org/freenas. However I have tried downloading the PBIs there and installing but when trying to start the service in the Plugins tab under Service Status I always receive a "An Error Occurred" at the top of the GUI. So I have been sticking to the plugins available through the Plugin Manager of FreeNAS.

Aren't Joshua Parker Ruehlig's PBI's For FreeNAS 8.3 and thus not working on FreeNAS 9.1?

 

[xxJeevesxx]

Aren't Joshua Parker Ruehlig's PBI's For FreeNAS 8.3 and thus not working on FreeNAS 9.1?

Ah, it seems that you would be entirely correct! I guess I completely missed the couple posts that pointed that out and where he said he would be working on the 9.1 versions. Thank you for pointing that out. My bad for not seeing that sooner!

 

[amires]

Thanks a lot for pms pluging. I dont have to install it via freshports anymore. Is there any chance for the developers to add PlexConnect to this plugin as well or make a separate plugin for it?