[BUG] new tv shows error

[kodi-lover]

Logs

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/t62MpWMrdt/

Describe the bug New tv shows menu comes up with error.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to discover tv shows
2. Click on new tv shows
3. See error

Expected behavior Other menus in discover tv shows work fine except this particular menu.

Screenshots If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Kodi Version (please complete the following information):

• Kodi Version 19
• Version 2.0.16+matrix.1

Additional context Add any other context about the problem here.

[Nuklear92]

+1 to this issue, it's also plaguing TV Shows Watchlist and many of the Trakt Liked Lists under the My TV Shows section.

[cg00001]

Latest Matrix version of Seren suddenly made my TV Shows Library, and widgets stop working after updating today.

[RichardPIS]

Same here on 2 devices, Android and Linux, can't search for movies nor tv-shows.

[cg00001]

@nixgates this might be a TMDB or Trakt issue?

[xxlren]

I have this problem from a fresh install of kodi. I installed seren, and can't search TV shows. Can't search by actor. Also my lists which include TV shows only show an error with Seren

[BinaryAssault]

Same thing on Leia

[peno64]

I have a "fix" (most probably not a definite one but it makes possible to continue searching tv shows). Note that it is only for searching tv shows on name of tv show. Not by actor, year or whatever. I haven't looked at that since I never use it. In Addons\plugin.video.seren\resources\lib\indexers\tvdb.py change the following:

def _handle_response(self, language, item):
    result = {}
    item = self._try_detect_type(item)
    if "mediatype" not in item:
        return item

to

def _handle_response(self, language, item):
    result = {}
    item = self._try_detect_type(item)
    if item is None or "mediatype" not in item:
        return item

and

def _try_detect_type(item):
    if "airedSeasons" in item or "seriesName" in item:
        item.update({"mediatype": "tvshow"})
    elif "episodeName" in item:
        item.update({"mediatype": "episode"})
    return item

to

def _try_detect_type(item):
    if item is None:
        return item
    if "airedSeasons" in item or "seriesName" in item:
        item.update({"mediatype": "tvshow"})
    elif "episodeName" in item:
        item.update({"mediatype": "episode"})
    return item

After this, restart your kodi (important) and then search works again for me.

[sabatale]

@peno64 's workaround works for me!

[peno64]

If needed , I can make a zip file available so that seren can be updated temporary with this patch until the addon is updated.

[penguinspl]

If needed , I can make a zip file available so that seren can be updated temporary with this patch until the addon is updated.

That zip file will be great because editing this files on amazon fire stick is a pain..

[peno64]

See https://peno64.github.io/ to install the temporary fix. Please read the note in bold. For some reason you need to have a bit of patience to install this.

[peno64]

Oh and I also included the fix for #552

[BinaryAssault]

The fix by @peno64 didn't work for me on windows 10. Actually made it worse, I was not able to play any videos on top of viewing list issue with the modification. I didn't use your temp versions I directly modified the file myself. At least I was able to revert fairly easy. Can't view lists but I can at least search and watch

[peno64]

That is a pitty for you See message #550 A user there says that it even fixes more than what I thaught it would fix. Maybe you did something wrong...

[BinaryAssault]

That is a pitty for you See message #550 A user there says that it even fixes more than what I thaught it would fix. Maybe you did something wrong...

I'm not discrediting your fix as it works for others. Just adding another data point that there may be another issue somewhere else.

[peno64]

@BinaryAssault Well as I said previously, my change is not really a fix but more a temporary work-around until the Seren developers themselves can look at it. Most probably there are also other issues. I know for example that search on author also doesn't work. My guess is that it has to do with changes in tvdb.

[hluaces]

I've been trying to figure out the problem and I got to a point where I'm fairly certain of what's going on, at least on my use case.

I got to this error whenever I tried to:

• Search a new show or movie.
• Use the Next Up feature to see what unseen episodes I had in my Trackt collection.

By tracing what Seren does I got to the point where I found that there's a method that can return None in some edge cases and I think that might not be intentional.

This happens on the resources/lib/indexers/tvdb.py file:

https://github.com/nixgates/plugin.video.seren/blob/38db0e0d5bfac4a697de55bcfc40cb0bb2cc81f3/resources/lib/indexers/tvdb.py#L929-L935

Whenever the method receives a response object such as this:

{
  "data": []
}

The result is that the method returns None because the check if not response: returns True on Python3. If this were to be fixed so that it returns the empty array (return []) the problem would be fixed, at least on my installation.

But wait: there's more.

I've been searching why this empty returnset got to the _flatten method and got to something very interesting, the API call to tvdb for series/253463/actors is returning that the show has no actors. If you are curious, the show with ID 253463 is Black Mirror. You can check by yourself that the shows has no actors by checking the Black Mirror's homepage on thetvdb.com.

So, just for science, I did the following to confirm whether that was the issue for me or not:

• Deleted the history for Black Mirror on trakt.tv.
• Deleted the show from my collection on trakt.tv.
• On Seren's settings I cleared the addon's cache and Trakt's metadata.
• Exited Kodi completely.
• Logged in again.

To my surprise everything began to work properly, so It's kind of confirmed that:

• The problem arises because some APIS (presumably, tvdb's) are returning empty sets of data for some calls (for example: an empty list of actors).
• The _flatten method can't handle empty lists properly and returns a None result.
• The None result can't be properly parsed by some other methods that require it to properly work (this can be mitigated with the hotfix in one of the comments prior to this one).
• Some shows might have some empty sets of data. If you have Black Mirror on your Trakt's collection, that's one of the culprits. Delete it from your collections, clear your caches and metadatas and restart Kodi. You might have some more shows with the problem, so this is note a sure fix.

Depending on what happens on the next days and what @nixgates has to say about this I might open a PR or even upload the hotfix somewhere so that people can use it without editing their Python files on their sticks or android tvs until our savior has time to look at this.

TL;DR: a method might be returning None whenever it receives an empty array and this should be looked at. If you have Black Mirror on your Trak's collection, delete it, clear Seren's cache and Trakt's metadata and restart Kodi.

[hluaces]

There are more shows that are returning no actors and triggering the issue, I'll add them here as soon as I discover them.

• Star Trek: Short Treks with ID 376108

[peno64]

@hluaces Great job. Looks fine by me

[drinfernoo]

This should be solved in 2.0.17.