[Kib]

current architecture doesn't allow to switch between XBMC versions, so we can only show the addons of one version. Added the mentioned import fixes and files a PR for the Gotham bump

Gotham uses both Frodo and Gotham repositories so this will need to be changed anyway.
Ideally we would show all of the addons and tag them with version, as well as include version filters.

It would require duplicating quite a bit of the repo selection logic that is in XBMC.

ps. I changed the thread title - hopefully people won'tmistake this for the 'lets complain about an addon thread' anymore

[da-anda]

PR with working Gotham repo already submitted. needs another pair of eyes though before it should be merged

[whufclee]

Hi guys, it's been a while since I've been on here but thought it was about time I rectified that

First of all thanks for this amazing code you've done here, it's brilliant and I was working on a much simpler (inferior) version around the same time as you came up with this so thankfully for the community my very poor initial attempts were scrapped and I borrowed your code! For any of you that haven't come across my new XBMC fansite it's called www.totalxbmc.tv and the idea is to be as unbiased and fun as possible - everyone is welcome no matter what forum (if any) you frequent.

Using and slightly tweaking your code I've also got an addons section that currently displays all of the addons ever made, or at least all of the ones I've been able to source. This does include all the third party repositories and old ones from the likes of Nuka back in the day! There's some old classics on there that have been forgotten in time so I need the community to help out and let me know which ones should now be classed as depreciated, which ones still work and if any need a little fix.

What's new:
I've added some new tags so if a youtube video tutorial or preview is available a link will display on the addon page. Here is a good example

Xbox Compatibility, the idea of the new site is to cater for all xbmc devices so if an addon has been marked as xbox compatible details will be displayed along with any relevant notes.

Search by genre or country, by adding some extra tags which I'm hopeful some devs will soon adopt the user can now search by much simpler criteria than the standard audio/video/image categories. For example they can search for sport, tech, podcasts etc.

A new feature I've just added is if a gotham fix to the addon.xml exists (the community can create them) the link will appear on the addon page. This is a feature I've only just added so at the moment I have one test subject that you can see here. I realise it's not an ideal solution as the developer should really update their code for Gotham support but it's a useful feature for addons that are no longer being maintained but still working, the version number in the addon.xml will not be bumped so any future updates can still take place as expected.

Source Code:
I think the base code I used was around December 2013 time but unfortunately I'm not entirely sure as I was only messing about with it at home as a bit of a hobby and have absolutely no coding experience so it was all very much trial and error! I've now added my code on github, it's most likely a bit of a mess so sorry about that - like I say I'm certainly no coder and this is all still pretty new to me. I've had a look at your source and it appears you've made some really great changes so I'll be looking into bringing mine in line with what you've done over the coming days and will make any changes to the github source code which can be found here: https://github.com/totalxbmc/addons-website

New Tags:
I've just created a section explaining what's needed with regards to repository structure and the new tags, you can find the details here.

It would be great if any of you have time to pop over and say hello, feel free to voice your opinions on what you want to see and what direction the site should go in. I'm always open to suggestions and need as much help as anyone can give - it's suddenly taken over my life! If you want to adopt any of the ideas I've added to your already brilliant addon browser please feel free and if you could let me know of any improvements you think can be made that will be great. I'll try not to leave it so long next time, think I've probably only posted about 2 times on here in the past 5 years but if you'll have me I'll become more active

#XBMCisFun

[Kib]

It might be easier to start by forking our current addons-site on github and then redo your changes on it. That way you can rebase much more easy.

[whufclee]

Thanks Kib that's a very good idea, I'll have to read up on how to use github properly. It's all very new to me, I had a googlecode SVN account many moons ago so I vaguely remember the basics... should be interesting!

[zag]

Regarding youtube demo videos.. this was actually in my initial code and I had the same idea as you for a new metadata tag.

I can't remember why it didn't make it, but I do hope its taken up in the future.

Its easy enough to embed a youtube instruction video and would help a lot of users.

The next feature I wanted was to grab screenshots somehow. I'd be interested if you have any ideas on that.

[learningit]

Hi guys, it's been a while since I've been on here but thought it was about time I rectified that

First of all thanks for this amazing code you've done here, it's brilliant and I was working on a much simpler (inferior) version around the same time as you came up with this so thankfully for the community my very poor initial attempts were scrapped and I borrowed your code! For any of you that haven't come across my new XBMC fansite it's called www.totalxbmc.tv and the idea is to be as unbiased and fun as possible - everyone is welcome no matter what forum (if any) you frequent.

This new site is going to create an enormous amount of headaches for addon developers trying to keep to xbmc.org standards for support and anti-piracy issues. Just to test my thoughts on that, I installed 2 addons from the site and wiped my configuration. I've spent a lot of time making sure that I follow the xbmc.org repo rules so that I don't have to spend all my spare time maintaining addons and I stay in a community which is mostly legal where I reside. 99% of the serious issues I see in forums are due to non xbmc.org addons and their side effects on working addons. This site (totalxbmc.tv) has just combined the world's addon problems into one great big cluster ****.

I'm a huge advocate of sharing code, thoughts ,etc. Just don't like web programmers who lump it all (piracy, malicious code, and valid addons) into a bin for an already confused end-user to figure out and want to be given kudos for it. Fork the addons, re-brand them, call them your own - mostly importantly YOU support them. Give addon developers who don't want to support your pile of confusion the ability to opt out.

[da-anda]

@whufclee thanks for sharing your changes. I had a veeeery quick look and would suggest to not misuse the Category action for all your different search/list modes. Instead create dedicated actions for those (like Genre, Platform, Compatibility, ...). Keep stuff clean and separated.

[whufclee]

The next feature I wanted was to grab screenshots somehow. I'd be interested if you have any ideas on that.

That's a very good idea, so something along the lines of what the Play Store (on android) currently does? I'll have a think about that but yeah I like where you're going with that, obviously creating a few screenshots and adding them to a screenshot folder is no hardship for a developer. Finding the best way to access multiple screenshots and somehow display them in the web page may need some thought but that would be a really useful feature. If I have a Eureka! moment I'll let you know

@learningit: Sorry to hear you feel that way, the fansite is designed to be a fun community for users to get together and impart their wisdom and learn new things. Many users have been caught in the cross-fire of various site owners wars and they deserve better, this is the reason I've designed the site to be run by the community so they get to choose what happens democratically. If your comment "mostly importantly YOU support it." is aimed at me then yes I will support it, I have next to zero coding knowledge, no funding and no web design expertise but have spent the past year creating this as my gift back to the community, the base of what I've created has been done off my own back and now it's up to the users to take it in whatever direction they choose. Many hours have gone into this project so I can assure you I have no intention of NOT supporting it! You mentioned an addon has wiped your configuration, I'm only aware of one addon that does that (a wizard style addon from one of the 3rd party sites) and I'm sure a user with as many posts as you have would be fully aware of that as it's been well discussed. If you've come across another addon that does indeed do this then please let me know which one it is (along with a log if possible) and I'll make sure a note is put on the addon page to warn users. Feel free to PM me the details or contact via the totalxbmc forum if discussion of the addon is not allowed on here. The notes section is something I've been looking into adding next so you could be the first one to contribute!

Please lets not make this thread into a totalxbmc discussion, stick to the topic. If you have suggestions for totalxbmc there is a forum there and everyone is welcome, I'm sure the guys here don't want their forum cluttered with it all!

---

@da-anda: Yes the categories stay as traditional categories, I would never mess with existing tags If you take a look here you'll be able to see the extra tags I've used so if any devs want to add them into their addons then great but if not it's not a problem, just means their addon may not be categorised into the correct genre.

[da-anda]

@whufclee - already seen your tags - had a look at the sync script What I meant with "don't mess with the category action" is that you use this controller action to handle all your different new tags as well - it at least seemed like that from my quick look.

@screenshots
The ONLY way to do this is to check out/extract all addons locally on the server and parse them for screenshots. Skins already ship screenshots. You MUST NOT try to grab the screenshots somehow from our mirrors or any other icon or file in this regard. Do it locally or don't do it. We also shouldn't grab the addon icons from our mirrors, but we haven't managed to find a nice way to check out and merge our addon git repos in a nice way.

[whufclee]

How about if the dev also adds a screenshot tag and that has a URL to either a special screenshot repository they've created or maybe a picassa/flickr folder? I'm not too sure how the repository idea would work with the code and how they would be displayed but it would be an easy way to access the files and very simple for the dev to update with any new screenshots. The simpler but possibly less elegant option would be to link to a photo hosting site such as flickr and just have a link similar to the existing forum/website/source buttons that open a new tab and external site.

[da-anda]

no extra xml tags and no picture websites. They have to be part of the addon and we already have the requirement for skins to ship screenshots - why add another rule? Clone the repo and do local file scan - simple as that. If you're serious about traffic and file sizes you have to resize the screenshots to get thumbnails anyways - and for this the file has to be on the server.
Please note that the current codebase of the site is sort of a dead end and won't be improved much (only stuff that really has to be fixed/changed) - at least not by me. We/I aim for something with a solid ORM and framework as foundation - either Symfonie or maybe even FLOW

[zeeman]

I am experiencing a "Script failed!" error when accessing two channels within the KidsPlace add-on, namely Hubworld and Kidmango. Kidmango shows empty subdirectories. I have recently discovered that Hubworld is now found at www.hubnetwork.com as opposed to www.hubworld.com which may be a source of the error. Could someone help with this issue, perhaps the creator of the script.

Thanks in advance!

[Milhouse]

Hmm... maybe addons shouldn't be accepted into the official repo without some way of contacting the author directly. There's no thread, website, or even github for this KidsPlace addon. The author (dfeet) is not a member on this forum. To me it looks like abandonware.

[muttley:bd]

When a donation button on add-on page? If remember well it's on the future features...