XBMC Add-On Frontend Repository

zag2me Wrote:If they have an XML feed then yes. Just let me know what it is.

I don't think that is the case. They all have their own seperate repo without anything like the simplestats.xml

Another thing is they are on XBMCHUB for a reason and if this app store is gonna be hosted on the XBMC.....

This may need some discussion within the XBMC team on how they want to handle 3rd party plugins/repo's keeping the piracy stance in mind. I also noticed that the simplestats.xml hasn't been updated for a long time.

Martijn Wrote:I don't think that is the case. They all have their own seperate repo without anything like the simplestats.xml

This could probably be added without much hassle.

Martijn Wrote:Another thing is they are on XBMCHUB for a reason and if this app store is gonna be hosted on the XBMC.....

This may need some discussion within the XBMC team on how they want to handle 3rd party plugins/repo's keeping the piracy stance in mind. I also noticed that the simplestats.xml hasn't been updated for a long time.

This is where the problem is at.

It's a discussion of where the XBMC-team should draw the line and it's a discussion only they should have.

Should they allow an addon which refers to other addons which potentially could help a user accessing video material which might be pirated?

If they banned and started policing their 3rd party add-ons then they wouldn't have any! Simple as that. Thats a very slippery slope to go down.

Apple don't allow tmdb or imdb scraping apps any more for exactly those reasons. Imagine if xbmc did that also.

I certainly have no problem hosting something that links to other things that link to other things. Its called the internet

What the plan to deal with repos? It's ok to list to addons, but the addons get updated from the repos.

Is the plan to automatically install the repo that goes along with the addon? If not people will have to update on their repo then your plugin repository. Could get messy.

zag2me Wrote:If they banned and started policing their 3rd party add-ons then they wouldn't have any! Simple as that. Thats a very slippery slope to go down.

Apple don't allow tmdb or imdb scraping apps any more for exactly those reasons. Imagine if xbmc did that also.

I certainly have no problem hosting something that links to other things that link to other things. Its called the internet

err, what? We do enforce our piracy policy..

Not sure what you mean by Apple not allowing TMDB or IMDB apps. IMDB specifically has an app in Apple's App Store, and there are multiple apps that use data from TMDB.

Also.. did no one mention yet that Team-XBMC already has existing plans for something like this? It won't be a "store", but it will be an web portal-like site for the xbmc.org repo, complete with ratings and reporting broken add-ons, etc.

Ned Scott Wrote:Not sure what you mean by Apple not allowing TMDB or IMDB apps. IMDB specifically has an app in Apple's App Store, and there are multiple apps that use data from TMDB.

The IMDB app is official I think(not scraping). Its a specific problem with Disney and Warner brother fanart and logos on TMDB. They are not licensed and the movie studios/apple have a problem with this apparently. Its probably not an issue for now but worth bearing in mind for the future if you are indeed going "official" with add-ons.

Ned Scott Wrote:Also.. did no one mention yet that Team-XBMC already has existing plans for something like this? It won't be a "store", but it will be an web portal-like site for the xbmc.org repo, complete with ratings and reporting broken add-ons, etc.

First I heard and good news indeed Should I stop working on this? Is there any development thread?

Honestly, I'm not sure what's going on with it. They might even want your help (or might not have even started anything). I'll look into it.

I was thinking about creating the same kind of thing myself as I've been having a hard time finding myself a nice new skin for my XBMC. I wrote a post http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=1...ost1012675 to see if anybody liked the idea and was pointed here.

If you need any help at all with any of this let me know. I think there is a big need for something like this

killfall Wrote:I was thinking about creating the same kind of thing myself as I've been having a hard time finding myself a nice new skin for my XBMC. I wrote a post http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=1...ost1012675 to see if anybody liked the idea and was pointed here.

If you need any help at all with any of this let me know. I think there is a big need for something like this

Cool, I'm kinda in limbo at the moment due to the post by Ned about someone else thinking about this project. I do have some spare time to work on this though if needed.

The source code for this xbmc repo is here. Its all PHP/XML based at the moment. Its just a simple list of the XML feed at the moment but its a start.

My background is in helping with the meedios web repository which is here if you want some other ideas. The xbmc requirements are certainly different but the basic idea is the same.

There have been some great developments with the android and itunes web stores that we could emulate. Featured content, user reviews and automated submissions all could be done quite easily but there are obvious questions such as where to store the data and what content is allowed to be decided first.

Great. Well I have already done a little work on a 'proof of concept' site on my local server at home. When I get back from work tonight I'll put it up on my public hosting and stick the source on google code too.

The code I am working on is in PHP based on the codeigniter framework with a MySQL database which I've already knocked together. I based a fair amount of it on your designs and it seems to be coming together quite well.

I have server space as I run a web hosting resellers business on the side. I don't push it too much and we have enough clients to break even on the expenses but the main reason I look after that is to have somewhere to put projects like this.