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FMoviesPlus: Setup

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JamminR edited this page Feb 24, 2019 · 7 revisions

How to install FMP for Plex

Plex KB articles to reference for assistance -
How do I find the Plug-Ins folder?
How do I manually install a plugin?

Installation Overview:

  • Download the latest version of the plugin.

  • Unzip and rename folder to "FMoviesPlus.bundle"

  • Delete any previous versions of this bundle from your PMS plugins folder

  • Copy FMoviesPlus.bundle into the PMS plugins directory under your user account:

    • Windows 7, 10, or Server 2008:
      • C:\Users[Your Username]\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins
    • Mac:
      • ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins
    • Linux:
      • Linux based platforms need to chown plex:plex -R FMoviesPlus.bundle after moving it into the Plug-ins directory *(user:group may differ by platform)

  • Install Recommended Binaries (PhantomJS is minimal recommendation)

    • Binary files installation for OpenLoad and Mega support
      Binary files can be download from here with instructions on installation..
      Note: Since these binaries are not distributed with the Channel code, anytime you update the Channel version using WebTools/UAS or manually the binary files may need to be installed again as well. Once installed then follow the instructions below to set their options:
      • Enable Use OpenLoad and PhantomJS under the Channel Settings.
      • Using the client you are using for playback navigate to FMoviesPlus > Options > Device Options and enable Use PhantomJS. You need to do this for each playback client. Cryptodome -- Ensure you have restarted the Channel and the host Mega is enabled, shows working and has no errors in its display. Some AntiVirus such as Norton seem to flag this library.

  • Restart PMS

Note: This channel plugin has a number of its own plugins and libraries which can take from a few seconds to a couple of minutes to Initialize after Installation or whenever PMS is restarted.

Thanks to @Oldpapa and @JamminR for the process below:

Windows Installation (including PhantomJS)

  • Shut down PMS.
  • Use task manager to ensure phantomjs.exe isn't running in background, if any are, end task.
  • Delete your c:\users_\appdata...\plug-ins\FMoviesPlus.bundle folder.

  • Copy phantomjs.exe to c:\PhantomJS folder that you make on your C drive:

The phantomjs.exe is downloaded via Mega that is linked from the FMP Wiki pages or can be downloaded from the PhantomJS website http://phantomjs.org/download.html.
Only version 2.1.1 is recommended and tested.

Configuration

Though the below is based on Windows, much of it applies to FMP overall. PhantomJS paths and permissions should be adjusted to fit your O.S.

  • Start PMS.
  • In Plex Web, Go to Channels. (do NOT go INTO FMP yet)
  • Hover over FMP and click the Gear for settings of the channel of FMP

  • Ensure the base url is fmovies.taxi (watch here and Wiki for this - it can change - correct as of Feb 15, 2019)

  • Ensure "No Extra Info. for Nav. Pages (Speeds Up Navigation)" is CHECKED (Personal recommendation)
    Use Alternate SSL/TLS should be unchecked in Windows

  • Ensure "Use LinkChecker for Videos" is CHECKED (will slow down entering a video menu by 3-5 seconds average, BUT, you'll know almost immediately for Openload if the video won't be able to play due to file being GONE)

  • Ensure "Use OpenLoad" is CHECKED
  • Ensure "Use PhantomJS" is CHECKED
  • Ensure "Absolute path to PhantomJS folder (folder containing the binary file)" has C:\PhantomJS

  • Click Save.
    NOW, because we changed settings possibly while FMP was still initializing, SHUT DOWN PMS.
  • Use task manager to ensure phantomjs.exe isn't running in background, if any are, end task.
    Currently, latest Fmoviesplus bundled stops PhantomJS
  • Start PMS.
  • Wait ~5 minutes before entering Channels/FMP.
  • Try again on each client, ensuring each client that you go into Options - device settings - ensure enable phantomjs is checked.

The above process has worked for several Windows users with consistent results.
If you still get initializing after 5 minutes, it's possible you have a firewall or software preventing access by phantomjs to the internet, and it's getting hung.
If all is working, you should see this as an example

Not this

To test PhamtomJS: (Again thanks to JamminR)
For anyone with a mid-novice amount of PC tech skill - I present PhantomJS test
A (somewhat) quick way to test communication of your phantomjs to verify it's working on your operating system (ie, verify firewalls/anti-virus apps aren't stopping it) - let's take Plex and FMP out of the loop.
(I'm sorry, please don't ask how to do any of the following terminal commands below - if you aren't experienced enough with the below, Google should be able to help you - this research alone took JamminR 30-45 minutes of testing - and that's free support (and no, JamminR doesn't have paypal).

(*** tested on Windows 10 v1709 only - your OS mileage may vary)

  1. Create new text file (example = PJS_test.txt) in the same folder location you store phantomjs executable (previous forum examples for Windows users were C:\phantomjs )
  2. Open the file - Copy/paste the below code into that test file -
var page = require('webpage').create();
page.open('https://google.com', function(status) {
    console.log("Status: " + status);
    if(status === "success") {
        page.render('google.png');
    }
    phantom.exit();
});
  1. Save that file. (You can close notepad now)
  2. Open a command prompt or terminal.
  3. Change directory (cd) to where you stored the above file and have phantomjs.exe (or your os binary equivalent)
  4. From the command line, try phantomjs.exe PJS_test.txt
    Example:
c:\phantomjs\phantomjs.exe PJS_test.txt

The above should result in

Status: success

AND.. AND...!!!! Magic - if the user you're running this as has write permissions to the folder, you should now also have a google.png image screenshot of the Google search page you can open using your default image viewer.

Post from user planettab72 with PhantomJS issues. (copy-paste to help others.)

@Oldman3D @JamminR @coder-alpha Got it sorted out guys if "phantomjs is working" in the logs and "pairing required" is now gone in sources irrelevant of how busy OL sites might be as experienced previously with "L/K API is working". And yes, stuff plays.

What happened? In a nutshell, either binary version 1.x too low and incompatible and/or corruption in phantomjs 2.x download from mega and phantomjs.org in 1st page link

The long of it:

The binaries from download links just wouldn't work or from phantomjs themselves. Corrupt, who knows??? @JamminR test script demonstrated this, executable just wouldn't, well execute! Permissions all fine etc... Check External actually reports True in this state.

This led to sudo apt-get install phantomjs locally on the machine. This installed 1.x version and still no go. Googled around and found several repositories from the author. Got Ariya 2.1.1 version from https://bitbucket.org/ariya/phantomjs/downloads. Extracted and copied binary only over to usr/bin to replace apt-get 1.x install and also overwrote copy in Channel options path.

phantomjs --version now shows 2.1.1 and works. Permissions checked all fine. The apt-get install did add some dependency (not libfontconfig, already had it). I checked the original binaries before adding 2.1.1 to ensure it wasn't that dependency missing being the problem. It wasn't the issue.

Thanks guys. Hope this might contribute to doco

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