My feature suggestion which I feel would increase the flexibility of XBMC would be to standardize and generalize all information contained in libraries and .nfo files.
What i mean by that is to create a standard descriptive XML file that can describe any file on a computer using general non specific terms.
Additionally this would allow a single menu style to be able to handle many different file formats with no change in code.
An example would be that a .nfo file for a .avi file would contain information pertaining to the file that could be used in any of the main file menus but is sorted by a XML tag or by the skinner using a file type filter.
<xml>
<Type>TV SHOW</Type>
<SubType>Action<SubType>
<SubType>Drama</SubType>
<Sort></Sort>
<Title>24</Title>
<Date>01/01/1987</Date>
<Description01>Ewww Boring!</Description01>
<Description02></Description02>
<Image01>c:\Fanart01.jpg</Image01>
<Image02>c:\Fanart02.jpg</Image02>
<Video01>c:\Trailer.flv</Video01>
<Handle></Handle>
<Arguments>-e -640x480</Arguments>
<Actor></Actor>
</xml>
or
<xml>
<Type>Game</Type>
<SubType>SNES</SubType>
<Sort>Side Scrolling</Sort>
<Sort>Mario Games</Sort>
<Title>Mario</Title>
<Date>01/01/1987</Date>
<Description01>We FUN!!!!</Description01>
<Description02></Description02>
<Image01>c:\Preview.jpg</Image01>
<Image02></Image02>
<Video01>c:\Preview.flv</Video01>
<Handle>c:\run.exe</Handle>
<Arguments>-e -640x480</Arguments>
</xml>
So instead of looking in TV SHOWS/ and MOVIES/ you could just have it scan the computer for media then use the .NFO files to create a XML database that contains the needed information and sorts the files into the proper menu.
This would make setup easy and with an option to create the .NFO files you could make your files portable so you do not have to re-scrape everything.
Also you could include .NFO files for things such as roms or other files that XBMC has no support for as of yet and simply by changing the <type> tag you could create a new menu for it to be placed in, and adding a <sort> tag you could create the sub menus and genre's and system's and such.
The Generalization doesn't have to be to all encompassing as long as the skin maker knows to call for the <Actor> or other non standard tags.
You could also create menus that act as groups that group similar tags, so if an actor also did the voice in a game the actors menu would bring up all content relating to that actor.
Also, this is the last one, if you created a folder where emails were downloaded into with NFO files for them then they could be sorted to a menu for <Type>Emails</Type> then you could read your emails through XBMC launching notepad or firefox.
Just an idea, I cannot submit it into the official bug tracker site but maybe someone else will.
What i mean by that is to create a standard descriptive XML file that can describe any file on a computer using general non specific terms.
Additionally this would allow a single menu style to be able to handle many different file formats with no change in code.
An example would be that a .nfo file for a .avi file would contain information pertaining to the file that could be used in any of the main file menus but is sorted by a XML tag or by the skinner using a file type filter.
<xml>
<Type>TV SHOW</Type>
<SubType>Action<SubType>
<SubType>Drama</SubType>
<Sort></Sort>
<Title>24</Title>
<Date>01/01/1987</Date>
<Description01>Ewww Boring!</Description01>
<Description02></Description02>
<Image01>c:\Fanart01.jpg</Image01>
<Image02>c:\Fanart02.jpg</Image02>
<Video01>c:\Trailer.flv</Video01>
<Handle></Handle>
<Arguments>-e -640x480</Arguments>
<Actor></Actor>
</xml>
or
<xml>
<Type>Game</Type>
<SubType>SNES</SubType>
<Sort>Side Scrolling</Sort>
<Sort>Mario Games</Sort>
<Title>Mario</Title>
<Date>01/01/1987</Date>
<Description01>We FUN!!!!</Description01>
<Description02></Description02>
<Image01>c:\Preview.jpg</Image01>
<Image02></Image02>
<Video01>c:\Preview.flv</Video01>
<Handle>c:\run.exe</Handle>
<Arguments>-e -640x480</Arguments>
</xml>
So instead of looking in TV SHOWS/ and MOVIES/ you could just have it scan the computer for media then use the .NFO files to create a XML database that contains the needed information and sorts the files into the proper menu.
This would make setup easy and with an option to create the .NFO files you could make your files portable so you do not have to re-scrape everything.
Also you could include .NFO files for things such as roms or other files that XBMC has no support for as of yet and simply by changing the <type> tag you could create a new menu for it to be placed in, and adding a <sort> tag you could create the sub menus and genre's and system's and such.
The Generalization doesn't have to be to all encompassing as long as the skin maker knows to call for the <Actor> or other non standard tags.
You could also create menus that act as groups that group similar tags, so if an actor also did the voice in a game the actors menu would bring up all content relating to that actor.
Also, this is the last one, if you created a folder where emails were downloaded into with NFO files for them then they could be sorted to a menu for <Type>Emails</Type> then you could read your emails through XBMC launching notepad or firefox.
Just an idea, I cannot submit it into the official bug tracker site but maybe someone else will.
