===========================================
 Elisa FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
===========================================

.. contents::
.. sectnum::


General
=======

What is Elisa
-------------

Elisa is a media-center solution for Unix and GNU/Linux systems. It is
intended primarily for use with a remote control and a television. It
supports features such as viewing photo collections, listening to
web-radio streams, watching videos and DVD's, playing music, sharing
media across your home network and more. It is also meant to be a
personal video recorder allowing you to record television shows and
radio programs.

Elisa is built using Python and the GStreamer multimedia framework. It
has a very flexible plug-in based design, allowing developers and
power users to easily and quickly add new features to the
system. Another design goal for Elisa is to be easy to install and
configure.

What standards does Elisa support?
----------------------------------

Elisa aims to interoperate with as many other systems as
possible. Current focus by the core team is full interoperability with
the DLNA_ specifications and support for `Intel ViiV`_.

.. _DLNA: http://www.dlna.org/
.. _Intel ViiV: http://www.viiv.com/


What is the relationship between Elisa and Fluendo?
---------------------------------------------------

The Elisa project was initiated by Fluendo, and Fluendo has multiple
full time coders working on it. Fluendo sells products and services
around Elisa and also plans on offering a set-top box using Elisa to
the wider market.

Are there any packages for my favorite linux distribution?
----------------------------------------------------------

Not yet. At the current stage of development it's safer to install
Elisa as a normal user so that you don't need to be root to try Elisa
out. In the future we will provide PythonEggs_ for Elisa and its extra
plugins. It will be as easy as downloading and copying them in a
determined directory of your hard drive to use Elisa's new features.

.. _PythonEggs: http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/PythonEggs#overview

Who created the artwork for Elisa?
----------------------------------

The default icon set for Elisa was created by `David Vignoni`_ who is
also known for having created iconsets for GNU/Linux desktops such as
Nuvola and Lush.

.. _David Vignoni: http://www.icon-king.com/

How is it licensed?
-------------------

The core Elisa system is licensed under the GPL with a special
exception for use with the proprietary Fluendo plugins and DVD
player. The plug-ins are mostly licensed under the MIT license.


Additional plugins
==================

Web radios plugin
-----------------

The web_radios plugin requires elisa's cache to be enabled in the
config. This file is located in $HOME/.elisa/ and called
elisa.conf. Edit it and simply set the `enable_cache` option to 1. You
can then enable the web_radio plugin by putting it in the plugins.misc
option:

::

  enable_cache = 1

  # ...
  plugins.misc = ['lirc', 'hal', 'web_radio']

Once the web_radio plugin is enabled in the config, start Elisa and
you should see a new menu with a shiny icon inside "Music".

iPod plugin
-----------

The iPod plugin allows to browse and play music stored on a given
iPod, if it has some :) To enable it you need at least libgpod_ and
its Python bindings. Once you have those installed, you can enable the
ipod plugin in the config by putting it in the plugins.data option:


::

  plugins.data = [..., 'ipod', ...]

Finally, if you want the ipod to magically appear in Elisa when you
plug it in, be sure to have a working hal/dbus/gnome-volume-manager
trio. If you don't, you need to manually add the mounted ipod in the
music locations option:

::

  [plugins.music]
  locations = ['file://./sample_data/music', 'ipod:///media/ipod']

To get dbus/hal support, you'll need to install HAL, DBUS and
python-dbus. To check if they are working, simply plug your iPod on
the computer and if you see the iPod icon appear on the desktop, it's
good to go.

.. _libgpod: http://www.gtkpod.org/libgpod.html
  

DAAP plugin
-----------

The DAAP plugin allows Elisa to browse and play remote music files
served by iTunes and friends on the local network. To enable this
plugin you'll need to checkout the Subversion repository of
PythonDAAP_:

::

  svn co https://jerakeen.org/svn/tomi/Projects/PythonDaap
  cd PythonDaap
  python setup.py install

.. _PythonDAAP: http://jerakeen.org/code/PythonDaap

To enable the DAAP plugin, edit the plugins.data option:

::

  plugins.data = ['daap_fs',...]


If you want DAAP shares to appear automatically in Elisa, you'll need
to install DBUS/Avahi, python-dbus, python-avahi and start
avahi-daemon. If you don't want to install those, edit the elisa
config and supply some DAAP locations:

::

  [plugins.music]
  locations = ['file://./sample_data/music', 'daap://host:port']

On Ubuntu Edgy avahi-daemon isn't automatically started. To make it
happen:

::

  $ sudo echo "AVAHI_DAEMON_START=1" > /etc/default/avahi-daemon 
  $ sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon start

Flickr plugin
-------------

The flickr plugin allows Elisa to browse and search the Flickr_ images
sharing website. To enable and use it you need a Flickr account and an
`API key`_. To configure the plugin, edit elisa.conf, as usual:

::

  plugins.data = ['flickr', ...]

  [plugins.pictures]
  locations = ['flickr://tags/spain', 'flickr://search/elisa', 'flickr://group/56878018@N00', 'flickr://user/foo']

As shown above, you can browse tag, search the website, browse groups
and users.




.. _Flickr: http://flickr.com
.. _API key: http://www.flickr.com/services/api/keys
