Configuring extra content sources

Media Explorer allows you to search through metadata about media from a variety of sources. By default, it has access to media on the local filesystem and on UPnP devices on the network.

However, Media Explorer can search beyond these if provided with access to more sources, such as Flickr and YouTube. Typically, this is done by supplying an API key (or keys) in a Grilo configuration file: Media Explorer uses Grilo to authenticate against content sources and to search/browse their media and metadata.

Warning

If you are using a version of Media Explorer supplied with a MeeGo distribution, it may not be possible to add extra content sources beyond the defaults (filesystem and UPnP).

If your version of Media Explorer is supplied by a 3rd party (outside the official MeeGo distribution) or if you have built Media Explorer yourself, extra content sources may be available and this section may be applicable.

If you want to work out which Grilo plugins are available in your version of Media Explorer, see this section for instructions on how to find out.

To configure content sources, use the Grilo configuration file, typically located in $HOME/.config/mex/grilo-system.conf. If this file doesn't exist, create it in a standard text editor. Its content should look like this (obviously replacing the xxx... strings with your real keys):

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
[grl-vimeo]
api-key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
api-secret=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[grl-youtube]
api-key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...

[grl-flickr]
api-key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
api-secret=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Some plugins require configuration (for example, vimeo and youtube, as shown here); others have defaults which can be modified but don't require configuration.

Note how the configuration for each plugin is inside a section headed [grl-$PLUGIN_NAME], corresponding to the ID of a Grilo plugin.

The configuration options for some of the standard Grilo plugins are covered below (NB whether they are available or not depends on your version of Media Explorer):