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Full Version: Just wanted to show off some modifications i made
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integrated Pandora, Apple Movie Trailers, and Hulu Desktop (external program) into my main menu. one step closer to making it exactly how i want it. (would love to integrate live tv viewing, hulu plus, and netflix, but i guess in time....
did this on dharma beta 3 on windows 7, turned off auto update of addons (as to not break my modifications. particularly happy with how hulu desktop is working now. i fought with getting it to focus after xbmc launches it (via launcher). the solution was a script in autohotkey to kill xbmc when hulu launches, give hulu focus, and then start xbmc back up when hulu exits. in eventghost i had to set my remote to emulate keyboard for the arrows, select (ok), and back (esc) to work right in hulu.
everything is now working beautifully. Big Grin now im looking for more stuff to add and tie in since i have this working so nicely.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ran70UBdxuw

i made the modifications in the mediastream skin but im sure the same could be applied to any skin. i added this to the home.xml
Code:
<item id="12">
                        <label>Hulu</label>
                        <label2>Watch</label2>
                        <onclick>RunPlugin(&quot;plugin://plugin.program.launcher/?Hulu&quot;)</onclick>
                        <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/hulu.jpg</icon>
                        
                    </item>
<item id="13">
                        <label>Trailers</label>
                        <label2>Watch</label2>
                        <onclick>ActivateWindow(10024,&quot;plugin://plugin.video.apple.movie.trailers.lite/&quot;)</onclick>
                        <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/trailers.jpg</icon>
                    </item>
<item id="14">
<label>Pandora</label>
<label2>Listen to</label2>
<onclick>RunScript(&quot;script.xbmc.pandora&quot;)</onclick>
<icon>special://skin/backgrounds/pandora2.png</icon>
</item>

for autohotkey my script looks like this:
Code:
Loop
{
IfWinExist, Hulu Desktop
{WinClose, XBMC
}
{WinActivate, Hulu Desktop
}
{WinWaitClose, Hulu Desktop
}
{Run, C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\XBMC.exe
}
}
Thanks for sharing!
This is great, I'm using NIGHT and looked at the home.xml file and noticed that item 12 is probably "user configurable" but 12 & 14 are "used" for Shutdown & Weather...so being new to this aspect - not sure how I get 2 more items in?

Code:
<!-- <item id="12">
                    <include>BackgroundVarsSignOut</include>                    
                    <label>31209</label>
                    <onclick>System.LogOff</onclick>
                    <visible>Skin.HasSetting(signout)</visible>
                </item>
  -->
- <item id="13">
  <label>13005</label>
  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/shutdown.jpg</icon>
  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Shutdown_Folder)]</thumb>
  <onclick>XBMC.Shutdown()</onclick>
  <visible>Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoShutdownButton)</visible>
  </item>
- <item id="14">
  <description>weather</description>
  <label>8</label>
  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/weather.jpg</icon>
  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Weather_Folder)]</thumb>
  <onclick>xbmc.activatewindow(2600)</onclick>
  <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoWeatherButton) + !Skin.HasSetting(conditions_weather_backdrop)</visible>
  </item>

And completely a noob with respect to scripts...so how does the autohotekey script you have listed fit into this?

Ultimately I want to add Home menu items for:
- Hulu Desktop
- Boxee (and hoping to find a way to have Boxee default to the "My TV Shows" screen on startup)
- Trailers (but likely LOCAL source - not AMT - since my DL speed is too slow currently.

For the trailers, I have the source setup as a Favourite and added a custom Home menu option for that - works for now but as I recall it drops back to the Video Sources screen when I hit the "BACK" button...

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have been using EventGhost to toggle between XBMC and Hulu Desktop (bring each to front etc) but would prefer not to have both running at the same time. Same with Boxee since Boxee or XBMC (dont recall which) responds to remote key presses regardless of which window is Active!
puulima Wrote:This is great, I'm using NIGHT and looked at the home.xml file and noticed that item 12 is probably "user configurable" but 12 & 14 are "used" for Shutdown & Weather...so being new to this aspect - not sure how I get 2 more items in?


And completely a noob with respect to scripts...so how does the autohotekey script you have listed fit into this?

Ultimately I want to add Home menu items for:
- Hulu Desktop
- Boxee (and hoping to find a way to have Boxee default to the "My TV Shows" screen on startup)
- Trailers (but likely LOCAL source - not AMT - since my DL speed is too slow currently.

For the trailers, I have the source setup as a Favourite and added a custom Home menu option for that - works for now but as I recall it drops back to the Video Sources screen when I hit the "BACK" button...

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have been using EventGhost to toggle between XBMC and Hulu Desktop (bring each to front etc) but would prefer not to have both running at the same time. Same with Boxee since Boxee or XBMC (dont recall which) responds to remote key presses regardless of which window is Active!
just go to your item ids, find the last one and add another one one number higher. example: highest item id currently in home.xml is 14. then make item id for your new menu 15.
<item id="XX">
mediastream has less menus id presume, which is why the item ids would be off.

as far as the second part, the script runs in the background watching xbmc and hulu desktop. as soon as it sees hulu launching, it kills xbmc. when it sees hulu exiting, it kills hulu. its a great way to handle it. you can use the same script and concept to make boxee work in the way you are wanting.

Quote:Ultimately I want to add Home menu items for:
- Hulu Desktop use launcher, I when it asks you to name it just name it Hulu, and then the <onclick> in my code will work for you
- Boxee (and hoping to find a way to have Boxee default to the "My TV Shows" screen on startup) put it in launcher. make it a favorite and you can get the code you need to punch in onclick in favourites.xml in the user data folder. modify the autohotkey script to make boxee work like my hulu example
- Trailers (but likely LOCAL source - not AMT - since my DL speed is too slow currently. i suppose you could add a trailers folder as a video source, then view it in file mode and have the menu jump to it via the activatewindow command. you can make it a favorite, and get the window id from favourites.xml
thesuffering Wrote:as far as the second part, the script runs in the background watching xbmc and hulu desktop. as soon as it sees hulu launching, it kills xbmc. when it sees hulu exiting, it kills hulu. its a great way to handle it. you can use the same script and concept to make boxee work in the way you are wanting.

Thanks for the info/tips! - How/where does the script run? Haven't used Scripts before...where do I start?

EDIT:
Also - when I setup Boxee to run via Launcher I get a "Fatal Error" noting "no suitable skin version found - requires 2.1000" or something like that...after I click OK I get a Visual C++ runtime error for Boxee - "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unsual way. Please contact the applications support team...blah blah blah..."

What is causing that?

Also noticed "Executor" in Program Add-ons - sounds like another way to Launch a program?

Also found this thread - but don't understand most of it :-(
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=55776
puulima Wrote:Thanks for the info/tips! - How/where does the script run? Haven't used Scripts before...where do I start?

download and install a program called autohotkey

open notepad, paste the code i gave in the first post into notepad (changing file path for xbmc if necessary) save as whatever you want .ahk. when you double click on this file it will run the script and a little green icon with a h will appear in your taskbar near the clock. as long as its running, it will do what i specified above. because my htpc is only used for htpc purposes, i have put the file in the startup folder so it starts with xbmc when windows starts.
puulima Wrote:Thanks for the info/tips! - How/where does the script run? Haven't used Scripts before...where do I start?

EDIT:
Also - when I setup Boxee to run via Launcher I get a "Fatal Error" noting "no suitable skin version found - requires 2.1000" or something like that...after I click OK I get a Visual C++ runtime error for Boxee - "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unsual way. Please contact the applications support team...blah blah blah..."

What is causing that?
the fatal error, is it a windows error or xbmc error?
thesuffering Wrote:the fatal error, is it a windows error or xbmc error?

Looks like a Windows Error...it's one of 2 windows labelled BOXEE in my task bar...the Boxee item is a black screen, the other is the error window.

And I edited my post AGAIN...sorry, found another (similar?) post on lunaching hulu (and others) - had the Boxee error also - but doesn't sound like it was resolved? See above...and THANKS for your assistance!

NOTE - Executor has some XBMC window options in the Configure section...I tried it with Boxee and it comes up with it's own error..."Can't find C:\Program " so isn't even seeing the entire program path?
thesuffering Wrote:download and install a program called autohotkey

open notepad, paste the code i gave in the first post into notepad (changing file path for xbmc if necessary) save as whatever you want .ahk. when you double click on this file it will run the script and a little green icon with a h will appear in your taskbar near the clock. as long as its running, it will do what i specified above. because my htpc is only used for htpc purposes, i have put the file in the startup folder so it starts with xbmc when windows starts.

Hey - I found AutoHotKey here: http://www.autohotkey.com/download/ - downloaded the first item (installer) and McAfee reports it's infected with a TROJAN: "Artemis!E42B81B96361" ?? I downloaded the ZIP file and it scans clean but do I only need to run the autohotkey.exe file then? The zip is choked full of lots of files ;-)
Starting page 2 of this thread explains Boxee and Launcher.
mcborzu Wrote:Starting page 2 of this thread explains Boxee and Launcher.

Cool, It works! - well at least Boxee started from XBMC with no errors. It left the CMD window for Boxeelauncher running in the background - until I exited Boxee? Not a huge deal, but the screen flashes several times, switches windows, XBMC goes to a small window and finally Boxee starts - so a bit rough on the edges from an aesthetic point of view.

In this thread http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=55776 (Post #4) it notes bringing up a black screen during the transitions. The ZIP file isn't out there anymore - and I don't know how to compile or create this...but it sounds like a smooth way to go?

Any thoughts or recomendations on how to polish the transition?

Also - Boxee and XBMC don't do well when both running...I forget which but one of them keeps responding to the remote when the other is the focus.

@mcborzu - how are you using XBMC & Boxee? I'm not sure how much resources the 2 will hog if both running also.
puulima Wrote:Hey - I found AutoHotKey here: http://www.autohotkey.com/download/ - downloaded the first item (installer) and McAfee reports it's infected with a TROJAN: "Artemis!E42B81B96361" ?? I downloaded the ZIP file and it scans clean but do I only need to run the autohotkey.exe file then? The zip is choked full of lots of files ;-)

i just used this one
http://www.autohotkey.net/~Lexikos/AutoH...nstall.exe

windows security essentials didnt find any viruses. might just be mcafee being dumb? its a legit program, so im not sure why it pops up like that.
puulima Wrote:Also - Boxee and XBMC don't do well when both running...I forget which but one of them keeps responding to the remote when the other is the focus.

@mcborzu - how are you using XBMC & Boxee? I'm not sure how much resources the 2 will hog if both running also.

if you use the autohotkey script and modify it to kill xbmc when boxee starts it should fix up those issues.
thesuffering Wrote:if you use the autohotkey script and modify it to kill xbmc when boxee starts it should fix up those issues.

So I get how this script will work with 2 programs - but sketchy on how to structure it with all 3?

Simple scenario which is your scenario with Boxee thrown into the mix:
- What I have setup already:
* Autologon to Windows when HTPC starts
* XBMC starts up automatically as well
- Plan to do
* XBMC to get menu options to start (switch to) both Hulu & Boxee (killing XBMC to do so)
* To get back to XBMC - exit Hulu or Boxee - XBMC restarts

Can one script handle that? (ignoring the first 2 points of course which I have covered)

The trick is that this BoxeeLauncher works but as noted above - is a bit rough as it's transitioning - perhaps the AHK script will help since it will be killing XBMC - but not sure if that will take place after all the window switching noise?

Other question - besides scrolling down to the EXIT option in Hulu Desktop - is there a way to exit it via programming a button on the remote? (perhaps using EventGhost?)

If you can assist with how the script would read for the 3 app "simple scenario" - that would be great.

Much thanks!
thesuffering Wrote:as far as the second part, the script runs in the background watching xbmc and hulu desktop. as soon as it sees hulu launching, it kills xbmc. when it sees hulu exiting, it kills hulu. its a great way to handle it. you can use the same script and concept to make boxee work in the way you are wanting.

Been playing with some different ways to do this and finally tried your method tonight...both with the AHK script and AHK running in the background and with a compiled version. Results were the same - stuck in an endless loop! It works as you noted, but there is no way to get out of XBMC - if I close XBMC, the script starts it again, if I <alt><tab> to the dektop or any other program, the script sends me back to XBMC. I had to start task manager to kill it...and fortunately have 2 monitors going otherwise, it doesn't give you enough time to kill it before it shifts back to XBMC.

Do you leave XBMC running all the time? How do you get out of the loop when you shut down XBMC?
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