Using Sonarr / Lidarr for Automation.

[JohnRM22]

Hello all,

I'm trying to use Sonarr and Lidarr with NewsBin. I was successfully able to get Sonarr connected without an issue. However, when trying to connect Lidarr I get Category does not exist when clicking test. Where in NewsBin can I add the catagory?

I'm using Newsbin Pro version 6.72.

Thanks

[Quade]

It's probably going to require code changes since I never tested against Lidarr.

Newsbin doesn't actually use the category's so it just reports something that makes Sonarr happy. I'll have to look into it.

[JohnRM22]

The category Lidarr uses is music. I’m wondering if Lidarr would have worked on it’s own if I didn’t have Sonarr connected first?

I appreciate any help you can offer. If you need further assistance from me, please let me know!

[Absynthe]

Please implement categories. Since all of the bots have to share the same category sometimes things that have the same name get Taken by the wrong bot.

[jcthorne]

Any chance of categories being implemented in the future so Sonarr, Radarr and Lidarr will work correctly with newsbin?

I use them and manually work around the shortcoming but it sure would be less oneros if Newsbin implement categories so these would work side by side. On the flip side, those usenet downloaders that do use categories are not near as stable and fast as Newsbin so one takes the good with the missing features. One can ask though.

[Quade]

Explain to me how they're used and I can look into it.

[jcthorne]

Sonarr (engine for tv shows), Radarr (movies) and Lidarr (music) each have the capability of sending download requests via API using the SABnzbd protocol. Each assigns a category for the NZB and tracks progress, then renames, adds meta data and inserts the requested media to its archive location for Plex (or other media server) to catalog.

As it is now, only Sonarr works as it seems the remote NZB API was hard coded with the 'TV' category so Sonarr sees all files downloaded no matter if they are tv shows or not. I cannot use the API for Radarr or Lidarr as a result. Sonarr also picks up items it did not request as they too are assigned the hard coded 'tv' category.

It looks as if the change that needs to be made is to accept the category from the API request rather than using a hardcoded one and report that category back when asked for updates via the API. Sonarr, Radarr and Lidarr would each then ignore items not belonging to their respective categories.

This is about the best laymen's explanation I can offer but ask away if you have questions and I will try and answer or find a resource that can.

Appreciate your looking into it.

[Quade]

My impression is Sonarr only processed NZB's actually sent down by sonarr and ignored any other NZB's. I've never seen it pick up other NZBs. That said, it's a moving target to maybe it's now pulling all NZB's that mention "TV".

I'd probably have to add a list box to allow you to set categories in the Sab options, then offer this list to Sonarr and Radarr. Then they'd have to pick one to use. Then I'd have to add a field to the download list DB to add this property to each entry and/or overload an existing field so, these categories are tracked on restart and included in the "finished" list.

I'm interested in doing it. It just might be hard for me to test it here. So it might take a couple cycles to get it right.

[jcthorne]

Well, I am very willing to try beta code and report back. Just let me know what you need done or tested. Would be happy to help.

[Absynthe]

It's actually a little more complicated on the bot end, but for Newsbin it should be easier.

There is a show called 1. There is also a movie called 1. Because a show and a movie exist there is a soundtrack called 1.

Because you like 1, your bots are all looking for 1. Bots use Categories to mark their own NZBs, so they don't get confused.

Since Newsbin uses TV as the single category it will accept, all bots have to use the TV category to send things to NB. When any of the 1's are queued, it looks like a movie and a tv show and a soundtrack are queued to the bots, because they all have to use the same category.

Let's say it was the 1TV show that was queued, all of the bots see it and think it's theirs, since for Newsbin they all have to share the TV category.

Here comes the bad part, whichever bot processes the 1 download first wins, whether it actually sent it or not. This could (has) replace(d) the 1 movie with an episode of the 1 TV show.

This is why I had to quit using Newsbin for the bots.

The fix. Each bot has it's own standard Category, TV, Movie, Music. This way the 1 TV show does not interest the Movie bot, because the Movie bot is looking for the Movie category. This allows everyone to play in the same sandbox and not fight over toys.

[Quade]

I've got a prototype at this point. I'm working on a test tool to test it.

[jcthorne]

I've got a prototype at this point. I'm working on a test tool to test it.

Very Cool! So glad to hear you are tackling this. Looking forward to trying what you come up with. Thanks!