A Wiki page for every Add-on, including from 3rd party repos!

Every add-on in our official XBMC.org repo automatically generates a basic page on the XBMC Wiki: wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Category:All_add-ons

What's the point of these pages? Well, basically, they're a way to consolidate useful links and information related to these add-ons, as well as provide an internal link for Wiki how-to's, etc. They can also be used to point to the currently active thread about the tools (for example, Hulu ). It doesn't have to be anything fancy; it can literally be just a brief description and a list of links, like a community bookmark page.

However, it can also be much more if people wish, like documentation, how-to guides, embedded youtube videos, developer information, etc. Take a look at these examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

And we want a page for every add-on! Including those not in the official repo! (please follow the Forum Piracy Policy for all wiki topics)

Including add-ons not in the Official repo is easy. Just follow the examples here and here. Click "EDIT" on any page to see how they are made. Info for the {{Addon}} template is normally taken from the addon.xml file.

If anyone is interested in helping out, just make an account on the wiki and have at it. Anyone can edit. The wiki formatting is very easy to understand, and if you need any help you can PM me at any time. We also have a basic help page here.

Feel free to ask if you are unsure if you should make a page, but don't be afraid to make mistakes! No one will get mad or be punished for mistakes on the wiki. All edits are saved and we can roll back if there are mistakes. Be bold!

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Feel free to reply here or PM me directly.

Also, right now the pages give priority to Eden versions. I'm working out on some ways to auto-generate separate pages when the version/info is different between Eden and Dharma. For the time being, if you want to edit the existing pages, just throw Eden info on there, and we'll eventually get the (soon to be legacy) Dharma specific info sorted out.

Hi,

OK, I'll do with my addons.

A few comments regarding the wiki-bot:
- It would be nice if the changelog of the addons would be included
- Please let the bot parse "[CR]" and "[b]" in addon.xml's description-tag to wiki syntax
- It is not possible to search for (a part of) the addon id (e.g. "bigpictures")
- would be nice to have a link to the skin's _fanart folder and addon's fanart

regards,
sphere

I am sure this is a stupid question - how does one actually create a new page from the add on template - it seems like I am editing the template itself....

Also - my addons are currently in by own repo but I plan to submit to the official repo soon - should I just wait until then maybe?

If you just type in a new page title (use the "Name" from the addon.xml file) after

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=

Then it will say "no page here" and give you a "create" tab link. Then cut and paste the blank add-on template from the template page (where it says "Usage") into this new page.

As long as you use the same page title as "name" form addin.xml, then the bot script will find your existing user-generated page and update it as if it was always there, once it is added to the repo. It won't hurt anything to make it user generated first.

sphere Wrote:Hi,

OK, I'll do with my addons.

A few comments regarding the wiki-bot:
- It would be nice if the changelog of the addons would be included
- Please let the bot parse "[CR]" and "[b]" in addon.xml's description-tag to wiki syntax
- It is not possible to search for (a part of) the addon id (e.g. "bigpictures")
- would be nice to have a link to the skin's _fanart folder and addon's fanart

regards,
sphere

1. should be possible. I'm still learning python scripts, but I'll see what I can do and/or find someone to help me. I was also thinking of auto generating a Read me.txt sub-page.

2. Ack, I totally forgot about that. The bot script will now convert those to their wiki-equivilient formatting.

3. Been meaning to auto generate page name redirects based on the ID. Also been meaning to upgrade the wiki's search function, which is very lacking at the moment.

4. Will do.

Cool :-)

Ned Scott Wrote:1. should be possible. I'm still learning python scripts, but I'll see what I can do and/or find someone to help me. I was also thinking of auto generating a Read me.txt sub-page.

I could help you with python stuff. If you are interested we could talk about that in IRC in about 8 hours? ;-)

I might take you up on that offer! I have kind of an odd sleep schedule right now, so my online activity is a little all over the place. If you want to take a look, I use a set of scripts called Pywikipediabot and a copy of the scripts we use on the wiki are found at http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBMC:Add-on_bot.

DonJ originally made the Add-on bot scripts.

Due to the low level of spam, I'm trying out enabling page creation for brand new accounts, so anyone should be able to now make a page just by making an account.

Ok cool - I have done two:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XSqueeze

and

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Oz_Weather

..it won't let me edit the index page, though, for some reason?