Android Xbmchub Alternative
#1
I hope there is someone who can point me into the correct direction, I'm looking to create an installer for an android TV box that works like the XBMC Hub Config tool.. For those who are not familiar with it it is an addon that automatically downloads and configures specific addon's and customizations to your XBMC and skin for example you can select the Matricom installer for the gbox and it will load it up with the most popular addons and skins.

I want to be able to make weekly or bi-weekly builds of my configured skins or edited addons and be able to deploy them to all my friends and families units without having to collect and recall each one. and manually do this. I have spoken to them and they are all willing to chip some $$ to get tis off the ground, But I just don't know where to begin I can edit skins and install addon's with ease.. I just need a push in the right direction, or if there is someone out there that maybe able to get this off the ground I would be willing to compensate them.

thanks in advance
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#2
But hopefully doesn't install the illegal xbmc addons that aren't supported here right?

Why not put the relevant parts of your .xbmc directory on a webserver (password protected if you like) and give each of your friends, families and customers a script that simply downloads it on a regular basis?
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#3
I guess what you want to is set up your own repository for use by family members so add-ons and script updates can be automatically pushed to your family members.

I've not idea on the technicalities of this but a search of the wiki brings up this as maybe a starting point, see HOW-TO:Create_a_repository_for_add-ons (wiki)
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#4
Not possible without writing an addon that rewrites the stored config files for all addons and xbmc settings
You could edit all the default settings for the addons and then put them in your own repo. However this will only work once as the default settings are already stored. Or you need to delete the stored settings again so the default ones are reread.
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#5
Martijin Can you explain it again I think I lost you. I will need to edit al the default settings for the addon's and then add them to my own repo, then write a script that would edit the config files for the addons after they are installed by the repo and all this should be done after a factory restore of XBMC? PM me I'm looking for someone I can hire to do this sounds like it is beyond me.
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#6
I think my idea is far easier.
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#7
Do you have a sample or can help with writing a script to do this? I'm all ears. I would do it non password protected for now. The changes I simply make are update addons change favorites and update "ccm skin" tiles for easy navigation. when some links go dead or an addon stops working I change them out I want them to beable to do a factory reset and connect to my server and download all new addons and pre-configured skin. I have been giving them a sd card with a XBMC backup on them but for some reason xbmc is constantly losing the settings I assume its because of guisetting.xml is getting corrupt and then rebuilt by xbmc, I have to try and make some time to see if creating advancedsettings.xml helps
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#8
rsync is one way: if you want to replicate absolutely everything under .xbmc it is as simple as (with xbmc NOT running):

Code:
cd $HOME
rm -rf .xbmc
rsync -a example.com:/path/to/.xbmc ./

This removes your current .xbmc directory (including all addons, databases, setup files, watched status etc) and replaces it with whatever you have on your server at example.com

It would require ssh access to example.com so you'd want to set up keys so a password is not required.

Also you could do:

Code:
cd $HOME
rm xbmc.tgz
wget http://example.com/path/xbmc.tgz
tar -xzvf xbmc.tgz
Where xbmc.tgz is a pre-prepared tarball of the .xbmc contents managed by you.

In real life you'd want it a bit more sophisticated than that perhaps, I can think of the following:

1. Keep the last few setups locally in case you want to revert.

2. Test that a new setup is available before deleting the existing setup, so that if example.com is down, you don't trash things.

3. Use cvs or git to only download what is new, and maintain version control.

The possibilities are endless.
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#9
Will I need root access to do this?
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#10
I don't think so.
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#11
So would this have to be done outside of XMBC? I currently have the Android MX boxes boot directly into XBMC and I dont give any access to the android launcher. I do have Teamviewer installed on the units so I can access them remotely.
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#12
I somehow missed that you were using android. My code snippets were assuming that you were using a sensibe operating system, which I define as linux (although not trying to start a fight, it's what I know).

I think perhaps the best (and cross platform way) to do this is via an xbmc addon. When a user wants to go back to square 1 they run the addon, which downloads the settings files that need to be reset.

Thinking aloud here though, you can't update the settings files when XBMC is running, so at some point there has to be a program/script external to xbmc to reset something like guisettings.xml.

You perhaps need to define exactly what files you want to set/reset and then examine the problem with a precise definition.
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