"validate server information" error for large kodi libraries

[trumad]

Hey, sorry to cross post, but I finally realised this is the right place to discuss this issue! This also exists on this closed issue here on the kodi-alexa repository.

Basically my kodi music library is huge, and I think it's the cause of the "validate server information" I get when generating slots on a kodi server that is definitely accessible.

Removing the music library makes it work immediately, and loads all the video content without a problem. Adding the library to kodi again results in the "validate server information" error.

Can anything be done for people with large libraries? If not, the error message should at least be updated to reflect the correct problem. I'm happy to let alexa simply play random music. I'll have to test if she plays music from the entire collection, or just from the list I specify in slots... Thanks!

[jingai]

Basically my kodi music library is huge, and I think it's the cause of the "validate server information" I get when generating slots on a kodi server that is definitely accessible.

Does it give you the error immediately, or after some time has elapsed? It might be timing out.

I'll have to test if she plays music from the entire collection, or just from the list I specify in slots

It will still work without the slot populated, albeit perhaps a little slower.

[trumad]

The error occurs about 5 seconds after clicking submit.

I've been able to generate just the video slots using this generator, and that works well. For the music, I copy/pasted the info manually from foobar2000. There were so many songs (21813!) that I couldn't save the skill in amazon developer, so I had to cut those down to a manageable number. But it seems to save ok with 1577 artists, 2354 albums, and 2933 songs.

I also created some playlists to play random songs or random albums, and even if I don't have all the songs or albums specified in slots, I can ask Alexa to run those playlists to play a selection from the entire collection. But are you saying that even if I don't have an artist specified in a slot, I can ask kodi-Alexa to play that artist and it will somehow find it?

The skill developer is a little picky about the content you can put in custom slots. No " are allowed, and it doesn't allow duplicate entries. I assume the slot generator strips out duplicate songs when it generates its list?

[m0ngr31]

The skill developer is a little picky about the content you can put in custom slots. No " are allowed, and it doesn't allow duplicate entries. I assume the slot generator strips out duplicate songs when it generates its list?

Yes, it strips all of that out.

The error occurs about 5 seconds after clicking submit.

I have a timeout of 5 seconds on the front-end, so I can bump that up and see if it helps.

[jingai]

For the music, I copy/pasted the info manually from foobar2000. There were so many songs (21813!) that I couldn't save the skill in amazon developer,

I have 25,000 songs in my library and have used the slot generator here for them. Granted, I used my own copy of it, not the one hosted on Heroku, but it did work.

I was also able to save the skill with that many, but I'm guessing you have enough movies/shows/etc to push you over the 50,000 item limit for slots.

I also created some playlists to play random songs or random albums,

You shouldn't need to do this, as that's what Party Mode is for. You can also say things like "play music by artist" to get random songs by a given artist.

But are you saying that even if I don't have an artist specified in a slot, I can ask kodi-Alexa to play that artist and it will somehow find it?

Yes, having the media in slots means it can potentially match quickly before it even hits the skill, but the skill will try harder if it doesn't find a match in the slots.

[jingai]

@m0ngr31 ah, sorry, I didn't realize there was a 5 second timeout when I added songs to the mix. That's very likely the problem he's seeing.

[m0ngr31]

I just bumped it to a 20 second timeout. Give that a shot @trumad.

PS. I love your avatar. That was my favorite game when I was a kid.

[trumad]

Haha, thanks :) Stan makes the perfect avatar - especially his animated gif version with the arms flapping!

Yes! It works perfectly after that little update. Thank you :) Thanks also for the tips about playing random music, and music that isn't in slots. My amazon echo hasn't actually arrived yet, so everything I'm doing is just by using the testing tab in amazon developer. Once Alexa is here I'll get more familiar with what all the kodi-alexa commands do.

Thank you guys so much for developing this. It's a remarkably robust app. All the best :)

[trumad]

Sorry, just one more thing as Colombo would say.

The slot generator appears to not strip out quotation marks (at least not in either the artists or the songs slots). Also, some of my songs are over 140 characters long, and amazon developer won't allow that either. It's not a big deal - a quick find & replace fixes the quotation marks, and there are not that many songs that are too long so they can be fixed by hand.

To be honest, the slot generator doesn't need to be completely automatic. What would you even do? Truncate the songs at 140 characters? Just thought I'd let you know it doesn't seem to be behaving as you described above - quote marks are not stripped out.

[jingai]

It should completely omit titles that are > 140 characters if that's not allowed.

[m0ngr31]

Okay, I'll strip out quote characters and limit it to 140 characters. Good limit to know.

[jingai]

Should it limit them or just remove them entirely? Having an incorrect title in the slots would be worse than no title at all, yes?

[trumad]

But you're very unlikely to say the entire title. You're more likely to say the first few words and then the fuzzy matching will do the rest, right?

[jingai]

Well, I guess you probably wouldn't say the entire title, but it will do the fuzzy matching even if the title isn't in the slots.

[bmc8519]

Hi. I'm getting the validate server and retry error. I have the timeout set to 20 second (this is on each app ie Exodus, Zen, etc, correct? If not, how do I change this timing.

Sorry if this is a novice question, I'm very new to this. Thanks for any and all help.