21 KiB
Local Walkthrough
This article will walk you through getting Plex-Meta-Manager [PMM] set up and running. It will cover:
- Retrieving the PMM code
- Installing requirements
- Setting up the initial config file
- Setting up a metadata file and creating a couple sample collections.
The specific steps you will be taking:
- Verify that Python 3.7 or better is installed and install it if not
- Verify that the Git tools are installed and install them if not
- Use
gitto retrieve the code - Install requirements [extra bits of code required for PMM]
- Gather two things that the script requires:
- TMDb API Key
- Plex URL and Token
- Then, iteratively:
- use
pythonto run the script - use a text editor to modify a couple of text files until you have a working config file and a single working metadata file.
- use
Note that running a Python script is inherently a pretty technical process. If you are unable or unwilling to learn the rudiments of using tools like python and git, you should probably strongly consider running PMM in Docker. That will eliminate the Python and git installs from this process and make it as simple as it can be.
If the idea of editing YAML files by hand is daunting, this may not be the tool for you. All the configuration of PMM is done via YAML text files, so if you are unable or unwilling to learn how those work, you should stop here.
Finally, this walkthrough is intended to give you a basic grounding in how to get the script running. It doesn't cover how to create your own collections, or how to add overlays, or any of the myriad other things PMM is capable of. It provides a simple "Getting Started" guide for those for whom the standard install instructions make no sense; presumably because you've never run a Python script before.
Prerequisites.
Nearly anywhere you see
something like this
That’s a command you’re going to type or paste into your terminal (OSX or Linux) or Powershell (Windows). In some cases it's displaying output from a command you've typed, but the difference should be apparent in context.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This walkthrough is going to be pretty pedantic. I’m assuming you’re reading it because you have no idea how to get a Python script going, so I’m proceeding from the assumption that you want to be walked through every little detail. You’re going to deliberately cause errors and then fix them as you go through it. This is to help you understand what exactly is going on behind the scenes so that when you see these sorts of problems in the wild you will have some background to understand what’s happening. If I only give you the happy path, then when you make a typo later on you’ll have no idea where that typo might be or why it’s breaking things.
I am assuming you do not have any of these tools already installed. When writing this up I started with a brand new Windows 10 install.
This walkthrough involves typing commands into a command window. On Mac OS X or Linux, you can use your standard terminal window, whether that's the builtin Terminal app or something like iTerm. On Windows, you should use PowerShell. There are other options for command windows in Windows, but if you want this to work as written, which I assume is the case since you've read this far, you should use Powershell.
IMPORTANT: This walkthrough is assuming you are doing the entire process on the same platform; i.e. you're installing PMM and editing its config files on a single Linux, Windows, or OS X machine. It doesn't account for situations like running PMM on a Linux machine while editing the config files on your Windows box.
Prepare a small test library
While going through this process, Plex-Meta-Manager is going to load the movies in your library, create some collections, and apply some overlays. If you have a large library, this will be very time-consuming.
For learning and testing, you would be well-advised to create a small test library of a reasonable size, where reasonable it probably below a thousand.
The author has a small library of 10 movies that is used for fast tests.
For best results, your test library will contain:
At least two comedy movies released since 2012. At least two movies from the IMDB top 250. At least two movies from IMDB's Popular list. At least two movies from IMDB's Lowest Rated. A couple different resolutions among the movies.
That will ensure there's something to go into each of the example collections that will be created.
Starting up your terminal.
Since most of this is typing commands into a terminal, you'll need to have a terminal open.
<br/>
If your Linux system is remote to your computer, connect to it via SSH. That SSH session is the terminal you will be using, so leave it open.
If you are running this on a desktop Linux machine, start up the Terminal application. That window will be the terminal you will type commands into throughout this walkthrough, so leave it open.
<br/>
Open the Terminal app; this window will be the place you type commands throughout this walkthrough, so leave it open. The Terminal app is in Applications -> Utilities.
You can also use iTerm or some other terminal app if you wish. If you don't know what that means, use Terminal.
<br/>
Use the Start menu to open PowerShell. This will be the window into which you type commands throughout this walkthrough, so leave it open.
<br/>
Installing Python.
In order to run a Python script. the first thing you'll need is a Python interpreter. This is typically already present on Linux and Mac, but will probably have to be installed on Windows.
First let's check if it's installed already [type this into your terminal]:
python3 --version
If this doesn't return 3.7.0 or higher, you'll need to get Python 3 installed.
<br/>
Describing a python install for any arbitrary linux is out of scope here, but if you're using Ubuntu, [this](https://techviewleo.com/how-to-install-python-on-ubuntu-linux/) might be useful.
<br/>
Follow the instructions here: [Installing Python 3 on Mac OS X](https://docs.python-guide.org/starting/install3/osx/)
<br/>
Go to http://www.python.org/download and download the latest version of Python for Windows in 32 or 64-bit as appropriate for your system [probably 64-bit]. As this is written, that's 3.10.4.
Once downloaded, run the installer. Tick “Add to path” checkbox at the bottom and click “Install Now”.
For Windows 10, you will need to enable scripts in PowerShell. Follow the instructions [here](https://windowsloop.com/enable-powershell-scripts-execution-windows-10) to do so. If you skip this step you're going to hit a hard stop in a little bit.
<br/>
Installing git
To copy the Plex-Meta-Manager code to your machine, we'll be using git. This may be installed on Mac or Linux, and probably isn't in Windows.
First let's check if it's installed already [type this into your terminal]:
git --version
If this doesn't return a version number, you'll need to get git installed.
<br/>
The git install is discussed here: [Download for Linux and Unix](https://git-scm.com/download/linux)
<br/>
<br/>
The git install is discussed here: [Git - Downloading Package](https://git-scm.com/download/mac)
<br/>
<br/>
Download the installer from [here](https://git-scm.com/download/windows)
Run the install; you can probably just accept the defaults and click through except for the step that asks you to choose an editor; you probably want to choose something other than the default there:
This install comes with its own command line interface. **Do not use this interface in this walkthrough**. Continue to do everything here in Powershell.
<br/>
Retrieving the Plex-Meta-Manager code
Now we're going to use git to make a copy of the code on your local computer.
Clone the repo into your home directory and go into that directory [type this into your terminal]:
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/meisnate12/Plex-Meta-Manager
cd Plex-Meta-Manager
NOTE: The rest of this walkthrough assumes you are staying in this directory in this terminal/Powershell window.
IMPORTANT: In the future, when you want to run PMM at the command line, you have to be in this directory.
When you open a command window to run PMM, the first step will always be:
cd ~
cd Plex-Meta-Manager
There are parts of the code that are assuming and expecting that you will be in this directory when you run PMM [the fonts used in overlays are one example]. Be sure that you are always in this directory when you run PMM.
What did that do?
cd ~
This changes to your home directory, which will be something like /home/yourname or /Users/yourname or C:\Users\YourName depending on the platform.
git clone https://github.com/meisnate12/Plex-Meta-Manager
This uses git to make a copy of (clone) the PMM code from where it is stored on github.
cd Plex-Meta-Manager
This moves into the directory that was created by the clone command.
Later on you can move it elsewhere if you want, but for now put it there. This will ensure that everything to follow works just like it says here. Presumably you’re reading this because the other docs are unclear to you. Don’t make unilateral changes to my assumptions while doing this.
Why use git instead of downloading the release ZIP?
Retrieving the code with git makes updating simpler. When you want to update to the newest version, you can go into this directory and type:
git pull
No need to download a new ZIP, uncompress it, etc.
Also, if you are asked to [or want to] switch to the latest develop or nightly code, you can do so with:
git checkout develop
git checkout nightly
Setting up a virtual environment
This walkthrough is going to use a "virtual environment", since that provides a simple way to keep the requirements for a given thing self-contained; think of it as a "sandbox" for this script. It also provides a clean way to recover from mistakes, and keeps the host system clean.
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
python3 -m venv pmm-venv
```
If you see an error like:
```
Error: Command '['/home/mroche/Plex-Meta-Manager/pmm-venv/bin/python3', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']' returned non-zero exit status 1.
```
You probably need to make sure the Python 3.9-specific virtualenv support library is installed:
[type this into your terminal]
```
sudo apt-get install python3.9-venv
```
Then try the original venv command above again.
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
python3 -m venv pmm-venv
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
python -m venv pmm-venv
```
If you see:
```
Python was not found; run without arguments to install from the Microsoft Store, or disable this shortcut from Settings > Manage App Execution Aliases.
```
You apparently didn't check the “Add to path” checkbox above under [installing Python](#installing-python). "Repair" your Python install and check "add python to environment variables".
<br/>
What did that do?
python3 -m venv pmm-venv
This tells Python3 to use the venv module to create a virtual environment called pmm-venv. The only visible effect will be the creation of a pmm-venv directory.
That command will not produce any output if it works; it will display an error if a problem occurs. If everything is fine, you will be looking at something like this:
> python -m venv pmm-venv
>
If you aren't looking at an error, you're ready to move on.
That will create the virtual environment, and then you need to activate it:
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
.\pmm-venv\Scripts\activate
```
If you see something like this:
```powershell
.\pmm-venv\Scripts\activate : File C:\Users\mroche\Plex-Meta-Manager\pmm-venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink LinkID=135170.
At line:1 char:1
+ .\pmm-venv\Scripts\activate
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess
```
You apparently skipped the "enable scripts in Powershell" step above under [installing Python](#installing-python) for Windows.
You will need to take care of that before moving on. Follow the instructions [here](https://windowsloop.com/enable-powershell-scripts-execution-windows-10).
Once you have done that, try the activation step again.
<br/>
That command will not produce any output if it works; it will display an error if a problem occurs.
You may see a change in your prompt, something like this:
➜ Plex-Meta-Manager git:(master) ✗ source pmm-venv/bin/activate
(pmm-venv) ➜ Plex-Meta-Manager git:(master) ✗
Note that the prompt now shows the name of the virtual environment. You may not see this; it's dependent on your terminal configuration, not anything to do with Python or PMM.
What did that do?
This tells Python to make the virtual environment "active", which means to use the copy of python that is available there, install all support libraries there, etc. This keeps the PMM code and its runtime environment totally separate from your host machine's environment.
An advantage of doing this in a virtual environment is that in the event something goes wrong with this part of the setup, you can delete that pmm-venv directory and do the setup again.
IMPORTANT: In the future, when you want to run the script, you will need to do this "activation" step every time. Not the venv creation, just the activation:
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
.\pmm-venv\Scripts\activate
```
<br/>
Installing requirements
Plex-Meta-Manager, like every other Python script, depends on support libraries that manage things like connections to Plex, or getting things from the internet, or writing files and so on.
These support libraries are called “requirements”, and they are defined in that file called requirements.txt. To install them, type the following command [type this into your terminal]:
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
You should see something like this [I’ve removed a few lines for space, and the specific versions may have changed since this was captured]:
Collecting PlexAPI==4.7.0
Downloading PlexAPI-4.7.0-py3-none-any.whl (133 kB)
|████████████████████████████████| 133 kB 821 kB/s
Collecting tmdbv3api==1.7.6
Downloading tmdbv3api-1.7.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl (17 kB)
...
Installing collected packages: urllib3, idna, charset-normalizer, certifi, six, ruamel.yaml.clib, requests, tmdbv3api, schedule, ruamel.yaml, retrying, PlexAPI, pillow, pathvalidate, lxml, arrapi
Running setup.py install for retrying ... done
Running setup.py install for arrapi ... done
Successfully installed PlexAPI-4.7.0 arrapi-1.1.3 certifi-2021.10.8 charset-normalizer-2.0.7 idna-3.3 lxml-4.6.3 pathvalidate-2.4.1 pillow-8.3.2 requests-2.26.0 retrying-1.3.3 ruamel.yaml-0.17.10 ruamel.yaml.clib-0.2.6 schedule-1.1.0 six-1.16.0 tmdbv3api-1.7.6 urllib3-1.26.7
WARNING: You are using pip version 21.1.3; however, version 21.3 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the '/Users/mroche/Plex-Meta-Manager/pmm-venv/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.
Don't worry about the WARNING about pip version thus-and-such if it comes up.
What did that do?
This told Python to use the pip module to install some libraries that PMM needs.
Let’s make sure it’s working so far.
This is going to fail with an error, which you will then fix.
You should see something like this:
Config Error: config not found at /Users/mroche/Plex-Meta-Manager/config
That error means you don’t have a config file, but we at least know that the requirements are in place and the script can run.
Create a directory to quiet an error later
The default config file contains a reference to a directory that will show an error in the output later. That error can safely be ignored, but it causes some confusion with new users from time to time.
We'll create it here so the error doesn't show up later.
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
mkdir config/assets
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
mkdir config/assets
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
mkdir config\assets
```
<br/>
Setting up the initial config file
Editing the config template
First, make a copy of the template. This is going to create a copy of the base template that you can then edit. You only need to do this once.
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cp config/config.yml.template config/config.yml
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cp config/config.yml.template config/config.yml
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
copy .\config\config.yml.template .\config\config.yml
```
<br/>
Now open the copy in an editor:
Testing the config file
Save the file:
Then run the script again:
Creating a few sample collections.
So let's run the script and see this happen:
Setting up a metadata file and creating a sample collection.
Save the file:
Then run the script again:
Adding Overlays to movies.
Save the file:
Then run the script again:
When you are done, deactivate the virtual environment:
[type this into your terminal]
deactivate
Other Topics
Scheduling
I want to update to the latest version of PMM
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cd ~/Plex-Meta-Manager
git pull
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cd ~/Plex-Meta-Manager
git pull
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cd ~\Plex-Meta-Manager
git pull
.\pmm-venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```
<br/>
I want to use the develop branch
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cd ~/Plex-Meta-Manager
git checkout develop
git pull
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cd ~/Plex-Meta-Manager
git checkout develop
git pull
source pmm-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```
<br/>
<br/>
[type this into your terminal]
```
cd ~/Plex-Meta-Manager
git checkout develop
git pull
.\pmm-venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
```
<br/>
I want to use the nightly branch
Follow the instructions for the develop branch above, subsituting nightly for develop
I want to use the master branch
Follow the instructions for the develop branch above, subsituting master for develop
The reinstall of requirements every time is probably overkill, but it's harmless and ensures that you always get any new versions or new requirements.