Xbmcscripts.com scriptbrowser. suggestions?
#1
hi,

it's time to ask people for some help. it will not be about coding at this point. i sorta like doing things on my own, although the final product might suffer. the idea was that people can improve on my code later - that might sound stupid, but co-working on code can be quite the mess too...especially since i come up with how things should be as i code it.

what i really need help for is suggestions for a name and design. the name scriptservice is perhaps not the best, and it was actually more of a random name i thought about when introducing the idea to you. scriptbrowser is one suggestion, but i'd like more.

also, i'd like comments on the design. these are some early suggestions on the installer part:

Image
Image
Image

the bright bar at the bottom is a download progress bar. changes color after status etc and position after progress (doh). the rounded status bar above this will slide in and out when theres activity. is there something that would be crucial to an installer? button help etc will be on it's own screen, activated by whatever button i find left over.

please keep in mind that this is the installer part. i might do that one "completely done" first and release it, as waiting for me to finish the browser part too might take a while.

also note that the theme is far from done. the background will change, as will most other things too i guess Wink.


there is also another thing i'd like to know. in the script specifications...i somehow need to know what file to execute when there's more than one .py file. this could be solved by <execute> tags or something like that in the script.xml , or it could be solved by everyone using a standard name on the main .py file, like script.py . the advantage with the first method is that i can write tags to script.xml on scripts that isn't specs compatible, so that it remembers what file it should run even though the scripts doesn't follow the specs. please reply with suggestions...i don't want to make decisions myself without getting some input from the community.

the xml so far:

Quote:<info>
  <name>xbmclyrics</name>
  <author>enderw</author>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <updated>05-05-20t15:16:12</updated> #will be written to by script with data from site
  <description>fetches lyrics from the song you are currently listening to. uses lyrc.com.ar as a base. some more information could be here i'm sure, but i can't come up with any at the moment.</description>
  <changelog>xx-xx-xx: added animations on startup and end.</changelog>
  <firstrun>this will be displayed on first run</firstrun>
  <execute>xbmclyrics.py</execute> <---good or not?
</info>
xbmcscripts.com administrator
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#2
looks promising!
as for the name: why not call it "scriptaller" or "scriptstaller" or "scriptomatic"? don't know any better ones. names are always really hard.

as for the xml: i'd prefer the execute tag maybe it should be called "run" or "startup". but "execute" would be ok too.

maybe you should add a version attribute to the info tag. this way you could recognize future versions of the xml file.

i also would recommend four digits for years in dates.

maybe the changelog tag should contain subelements so people can add more than one entry.

cheers
bernd
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#3
i don't know if this has been suggested before, but if it has consider it a bump.

i would like for all the common parts that usually require editing in scripts to be placed in a seperate file to avoid repetition and also to allow scripts to work 'instantly' as it were.

i have found in several of my scripts that i have to type in the ip address of my pc or router, or usernames or something similar. would it be possible to get put all these in a seperate file so i would only have to do it once? or even better, get it from xbmc itself... i know that xbmc stores the internet gateway, as well as the pc's ip address in kai etc...

perhaps it's just a dream, but it would be nice.

good luck with the script! since scriptrunner stopped working, i have been waiting for this to come out!!!
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#4
Quote:looks promising!
as for the name: why not call it "scriptaller" or "scriptstaller" or "scriptomatic"? don't know any better ones. names are always really hard.

hmm...no offense, but i somehow don't like them. names are really hard for sure.

Quote:as for the xml: i'd prefer the execute tag maybe it should be called "run" or "startup". but "execute" would be ok too.

"run" would be a more straightforward name i guess. i think i will go with that.
Quote:maybe you should add a version attribute to the info tag. this way you could recognize future versions of the xml file.

yeah, that's a good suggestion. will do.
Quote:i also would recommend four digits for years in dates.

hmm...i actually though i had that already, but obviously i don't. will change i guess unless i find an argument not to.

Quote:maybe the changelog tag should contain subelements so people can add more than one entry.

hmm...perhaps a cdata storing a string? i have very little knowlegde about xml so for me suggesting what's best is stupid. i'll look around for some more info.

thanks a lot for the suggestions, i really appreciate it. keep the feedback coming everyone...

tomkun:

i don't think that centralized settings will happen anytime soon. what's more likely is that someone will implement info functions for ip/proxy and whatnot in xbmc. that would be handy.
xbmcscripts.com administrator
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#5
'script manager' or 'xbmc extensions manager'
For python coding questions first see http://mirrors.xbmc.org/docs/python-docs/
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#6
scriptzilla, scriptmonger, or scriptlink
--jaga
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#7
python-strike
scriptninja
python installation engine (p.i.e.) ..easy as pie etc.
script messiah / python messiah

etc, etc blah, blah...


:verysad:
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#8
hmmm. that's not too bad of a mockup. the progress bar is a cool idea that seems doable. im going to have to fix up my stuff to get ready for this thing. but a thumbnail would be pretty nice.

names are always tough.
is this script going to be integrated into your script runner one too?

if so maybe you want to call it scripter or xbmcscripts.
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#9
looks great so far... :kickass:

i have a suggestion though, would it be possible separate the server-side of things so we could choose from a list of mirrors/local hosts, i have a feeling this script will become very popular in the future! Nod

as for names how about keeping it simple and to the point, something like xbox/xbmc script installer (xsi) sounds good imho.
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#10
thanks for the suggestions. i have no decided on a name yet, but xbmcscripts is good option. somehow i like scriptninja, but i guess it would be too weird?

sadly things doesn't look as great on tvs as on a pc monitor, and the picture below should give you an idea how the final will look. it looks worse on a tv with overscan, believe me...will have to adjust that.

Image

as for thumbnail support - while i don't get why it's so important, you don't see much out of a thumbnail anyways - would be way more work than i will put into this. the reason is that the system (server-side) i use now doesn't support it easily.

as for mirrors and so on, the idea is that you shouldn't need a mirror. modifying the script for use on other sites wouldn't be hard, and if same xml format is inputted to the script it would be very easy.

the script will feature both a local browser and an installer, but i will finish and release the installer first i believe. can't hold onto this thing forever either...

thanks for the suggestions so far, but i'd love more feedback and suggestions!

-edit-
one more thing, you don't need any info inside the zip for it to work with the installer, but it needs to be inside a folder in the zip. the installer just unzips the zip into the script folder, so a subfolder (scriptname) is required.
xbmcscripts.com administrator
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#11
is it me or is the texture on the spin controls lacking an alpha channel? Huh never noticed that before. probably can't tell on a tv anyway.

the screenshot doesnt look too bad actually Smile is that progress bar functional yet? it is really eye-catching.

what do the numbers signify? popularity?
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#12
(asteron @ june 13 2005,15:35 Wrote:is it me or is the texture on the spin controls lacking an alpha channel?   Huh   never noticed that before.  probably can't tell on a tv anyway.

the screenshot doesnt look too bad actually Smile  is that progress bar functional yet?  it is really eye-catching.

what do the numbers signify?  popularity?
the progressbar isn't functional yet, struggling a bit with that as i have split things into two files and i need to get the percentage out of the module. i have made the code for it, but somehow it isn't working...have barely tried fixing it though, had more important things i needed to add.

as for the numbers they show what category the file belong in. will of course not be in the final version, it's just for testing purposes Smile
xbmcscripts.com administrator
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#13
as enderw and me are planning the new backend we also came up with the idea to include script category in the xml.
if you want to upload the script xbmcscripts.com the category has the be one of our predefined ones (to avoid chaos).
what do you think of the idea?
what categories should there be?

thx for ur feedback
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#14
hi,
this is my new proposed xml layout which every script should have to contain:

new proposed xml layout:
Quote:<xbmcscript>

 <name>xbmclyrics</name>
 <author>enderw</author>
<category>media</category>
<version>1.0</version>
<xbmc_revision>1.1109</xbmc_revision>

<description>fetches lyrics from the song you are currently listening to. uses lyrc.com.ar as a base. some more information could be here i'm sure, but i can't come up with any at the moment.</description>

<execute>xbmclyrics.py</execute>

<changelog>
<change>
<date>
<day>12</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2004</year>
</date>
<info>added fancy new logo</info>
<info>updated language file</info>
</change>
<change>
<date>
<day>10</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2004</year>
</date>
<info>fixed bugs</info>
</change>
</changelog>
</xbmcscript>

it features:
- an enhanced changelog,
- category
- xbmc revision the script was designed for (or tested with)
- removed firstrun element: i think the xml isn't the right place for this. if you want to show a popup or something on the firstrun you should solve thise somehow else. this is not a function the majority of scripts need

what do you think? i will work on a xml schema to validate the xmls...
please contribute towards this, as it is an important task to establish some standards for xbmc python scripts.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#15
i know i wouldn't bother writing a changelog if that was the way to do it. i still think it should be plain text, there's absolutely no reason to make it more complex than neccessary. also, xbmc revision is a bit pointless since everyone is "assumed" to have latest version anyways.
xbmcscripts.com administrator
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Xbmcscripts.com scriptbrowser. suggestions?0