How You Can Help

On 20 Sep 2010, chefkoch suggested that this page or content is incomplete and needs to be expanded or rewritten.

1. -Write guides and documentation
   I have some documentation written, but it is not very detailed. If you have some experience with IR Server Suite and you think you can improve an area of documentation then please submit your changes in this post and I'll be sure to include them in the very next release. Documentation is necessary, but it can be very time consuming. I have to balance my time between:-
   • Developing new features,
   • Developing new device support,
   • Developing new command types,
   • Finding bugs,
   • Fixing bugs,
   • Solving problems,
   • Answering emails and forum posts,
   • and documentation. As you can imagine, documentation probably doesn't get the time it needs. If you think you can help, please do.
2. Donating a device you want supported
   The quickest way to develop support for a device is to have one to work with.
   Unfortunately, I can't be going around buying devices I don't need. I just can't afford to do that.
   opy was generous enough to donate an MCE keyboard, with it I was able to implement the keyboard IR protocol (which is different to the remote) into IR Server Suite. This means that I can make the keyboard work over a network and even with some receivers other than the MCE device.
   fiftychickens has generously donated some hardware to go towards setting up a testing/development PC which will help me reproduce and then remove bugs in a more timely manner.
   Not having a device I'm trying to support makes development 1000 times harder. There is almost always something different about the device that is not mentioned in the specs, and that's if you're lucky enough to find specs for the device.
   If you'd like to donate a device to support then please contact me either here in the forums or through Private Message. Just click on my username and it will show a menu with "Send a Private Message to and-81" as an option. That way we can discuss the details.
   I'm particularly interested in developing support for these remotes/devices:
   -Hauppauge
   Creative LiveDrive/Audigy Drive and
   X-Fi Remote
   Imon
   StreamZap
   IgorPlug
   Tira
   Version 1 MCE remote & Vista-only MCE remote
   X10
   Egon
   Pinnacle PC Remote Kit-
3. Provide IR Commands for your Set Top Box
   The TV Blaster plugins come with a collection of Set Top Box IR Commands to get you set up and going quicker.
   This collection is compiled primarily from user contributions, but also from codes found on the web at places like Remote Central.com/.
   If you have a set top box that is not on the quick setup list then please post a set of IR Commands and details about the STB and I'll include them in the next version.
4. -Anything you think would help that I haven't thought of.
   If there's anything you feel could help and I haven't mentioned it then please, post a reply and we can talk about it.
   Funnily enough, pretty much all of these things I've just mentioned are also things you can do to support MediaPortal in general.
   If you're thinking of supporting IR Server Suite then I urge you to consider supporting the MediaPortal project as a whole. We are currently short of developers, and that means the developers we have are over-worked and short of time. Anything you can do to help will either directly address the developer shortage or help our existing developers to get things done easier/quicker.-