[WIP] WebKit HTML Layout Engine / Web Browser integration into XBMC - developers only
#16
Nope, sorry - had more pressing things to work on unfortunately
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#17
Slightly off-topic but maybe relevant to the idea: I've been hacking/poking at the Crunchyroll site for a while now and unfortunately they have the whole thing locked up by encrypting the subtitles making the direct playback of movies on that site impossible or just to much work.

If I had a webkit engine (or similar) with Flash support however, it would probably be possible to control the native CR movie player from XBMC (using JS to glue the 2 together)...

Or am I missing something vital here?

On a side note, since this is in the dev section: is there actually a semi-working XBMC version where I could attempt something like this or is it too buggy to even contemplate running JS and Flash?
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#18
cyberwizzard Wrote:Slightly off-topic but maybe relevant to the idea: I've been hacking/poking at the Crunchyroll site for a while now and unfortunately they have the whole thing locked up by encrypting the subtitles making the direct playback of movies on that site impossible or just to much work.

If I had a webkit engine (or similar) with Flash support however, it would probably be possible to control the native CR movie player from XBMC (using JS to glue the 2 together)...

Or am I missing something vital here?

On a side note, since this is in the dev section: is there actually a semi-working XBMC version where I could attempt something like this or is it too buggy to even contemplate running JS and Flash?

Pure speculation, but the components (in order of importance would be if not difficulty) would possibly be:

Browser w/ Alpha Layer (skin) adaptation (since XBMC can already launch external apps this is where the magic is)
Extended HTTP-API controls or a completely novel interaction model (an xml schema +JS? as you suggest)
File/stream type associations
Possibly sync with other player components

What I'm really interested in is seeing how synergistic skinning can be made with standardized browser kit like JS and CSS3 (and now HTML5). It would be pretty awesome (although quite superfluous) to have the skinning system completely "browserfied", in the minimal sense have an ability to push CSS to it. But I digress....
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#19
Big Grin 
Late nights make me ponder about previous ideas and so I wind up back here Smile

Soju Wrote:Pure speculation, but the components (in order of importance would be if not difficulty) would possibly be:

Browser w/ Alpha Layer (skin) adaptation (since XBMC can already launch external apps this is where the magic is)
Yes and no. For my goal, the page does not have to be part of the original GUI as the player is a flash applet anyway.
Stuff like volume controls might be rendered over the webkit frame but since that would probably mean full integration I'd settle for a top-level frame.

Soju Wrote:Extended HTTP-API controls or a completely novel interaction model (an xml schema +JS? as you suggest)
That is one possible approach, but since RPC calls imply running a web server, that might not be far fetched (looking at the embedded server).

The most important thing is to be able to provide feedback to XBMC (playback started, playback stopped etc) and perhaps a way to swtch from the webkit frame back to XBMC. That way going in or out a webkit based plugin is a matter of switching views.

When I think about my particular goal, one would have a library like view to select content (rendered by Webkit, not XBMC) and selecting an item will bring up a new page with the flash player in full screen.

The latter might require passing button presses from XBMC to the webkit engine. Or even better, straight to the embedded scripting engine (Javascript?).

Soju Wrote:File/stream type associations
Possibly sync with other player components
When viewing webbased content, there is little use for file types and the only sync you will likely need is the signaling when a video or music player starts and stops.

Soju Wrote:What I'm really interested in is seeing how synergistic skinning can be made with standardized browser kit like JS and CSS3 (and now HTML5). It would be pretty awesome (although quite superfluous) to have the skinning system completely "browserfied", in the minimal sense have an ability to push CSS to it. But I digress....
Although cool, I think (ab)using a web-engine to render high-performance GUI's like XBMC might take a bit more integrating then the proposed ideas Smile
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#20
cyberwizzard Wrote:Late nights make me ponder about previous ideas and so I wind up back here Smile

Train rides and showers for me Rofl

Quote:Yes and no. For my goal, the page does not have to be part of the original GUI as the player is a flash applet anyway.

So you are interested in mostly a swf player? We have external player control now, what would be the mainstay advantage?

Quote:Stuff like volume controls might be rendered over the webkit frame but since that would probably mean full integration I'd settle for a top-level frame.

Yeah I guess we'll see an evolution of this once the framework is introduced.

Quote:That is one possible approach, but since RPC calls imply running a web server, that might not be far fetched (looking at the embedded server).

Like Paste?

Quote:The most important thing is to be able to provide feedback to XBMC (playback started, playback stopped etc) and perhaps a way to swtch from the webkit frame back to XBMC. That way going in or out a webkit based plugin is a matter of switching views.

right that makes sense day 1.

Quote:The latter might require passing button presses from XBMC to the webkit engine. Or even better, straight to the embedded scripting engine (Javascript?).

You'll still need some intermediary skin controls to access the AJAX. That is probably the non trivial step. And once done, advanced controls can be accomplished [extended with XML] I bet.

Quote:When viewing webbased content, there is little use for file types and the only sync you will likely need is the signaling when a video or music player starts and stops.


That was true even 6 months ago. Now, I dont know. First of all, (as I posted in another thread about this as a bump) it's a fast track to get vector graphics capability into the skinning system w/o rewriting it from scratch. We can also enjoy all the new stuff coming down the road via HTML5, namely canvas objects and embedded player (that will never equal what we have in the native player) that some new video sites/services will most definitely use, and soonish. Flash is not the only game in town Nod.

Quote:Although cool, I think (ab)using a web-engine to render high-performance GUI's like XBMC might take a bit more integrating then the proposed ideas Smile

For me the most awesome part of the XBMC platform is the incredible alpha layer, the skinning system. Creating a seamless capability in it, extending it tool-wise (e.g., via vector graphics, CSS etc) will only grow the community and make incredible facades to a great rendering engine.
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#21
Soju Wrote:So you are interested in mostly a swf player? We have external player control now, what would be the mainstay advantage?
Actually, thats hitting the nail on the head: XBMC can not play the content from CR. The media is encrypted and requires the flash player from CR to be played back.

Without the flash player from the site itself (which for security purposes and just to make my attempts on reverse engineering a hell) has multiple versions depending on which encryption is used (so you need the flash applet that is embedded in the page you are viewing).

If not for this, you could simply rip the media stream and feed it to XBMC, making the whole webkit idea useless (the old plugin worked this way, before CR had to make sure only their own player could play their media).
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#22
motd2k Wrote:Nope, sorry - had more pressing things to work on unfortunately

Hey motd2k,

Hope all is well with you. Are you planing on working on this for the next release? I wonder if you published the code to date in the SVN (I looked briefly a while back but couldn't find anything)? My friend and I want to take a shot at it if you are not going to work on it. If you have some general principles you want followed and the scaffold code is in the SVN then we'd like to try ASAP! My hope is to get more out of it than just Flash support BTW.
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#23
That`s awesome. I hope we get a webkit browser in one of the next xbmc versions.

Because that`s interesting to do something like iTunes Extras with MKV,AVi,... Movies.
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#24
If this gets off the ground, would this allow for playing of RTMPE streams?

~ A Canadian hungry for content.
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#25
Would this be better than WebKit ?

http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/6509
The normal XBMC log IS NOT a debug log, to enable debug logging you must toggle it on under XBMC Settings - System or in advancedsettings.xml. Use XBMC Debug Log Addon to retrieve it.
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#26
CrashX Wrote:Would this be better than WebKit ?

http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/6509

Why should a flashplayer be better than webkit? They don't even have the same purpose. A flashplayer doesn't allow displaying whole websites or executing javascript code. It only plays flash.
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#27
I am excited about the possibility of an integrated browser. The first thought that pops into mind is Hulu. It probably won't happen anytime soon, but I am glad it is being discussed. Smile
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#28
Quote:Why should a flashplayer be better than webkit? They don't even have the same purpose. A flashplayer doesn't allow displaying whole websites or executing javascript code. It only plays flash.

The XULRunner Engine is supposed to be the easiest way to embed the gecko web engine (the same engine as firefox). I suggested integrating XULrunner into XBMC (http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/6509) because people might be able to look at how Boxee did it.

XULRunner is more than just a flashplayer.
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#29
Thing is work has *already* begun and on webkit. There is a proof of concept done. So following what the XBMC guys have started probably is a good idea since they know how to tightly bind a browser engine into the rest of the system. No updates though at the moment...
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#30
Hello all,

I saw the the following recent check-in (link) on the front page of xbmc.org and was wondering if an integrated WebKit-based browser has been placed on the roadmap or not?

I scanned the forums and could not find any posts on this development and I know this is not the forum for feature requests but this is more of a question than a request. Does anyone have any information on if WebKit is planned for inclusion in the next one or two releases?

If anyone feels strongly about this being the wrong place to post, then feel free to move or close the thread and my apologies.

Thanks,

Chris
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