Just wanted to show off some modifications i made

thesuffering · 2010-10-15 20:17

integrated Pandora, Apple Movie Trailers, and Hulu Desktop (external program) into my main menu. one step closer to making it exactly how i want it. (would love to integrate live tv viewing, hulu plus, and netflix, but i guess in time....
did this on dharma beta 3 on windows 7, turned off auto update of addons (as to not break my modifications. particularly happy with how hulu desktop is working now. i fought with getting it to focus after xbmc launches it (via launcher). the solution was a script in autohotkey to kill xbmc when hulu launches, give hulu focus, and then start xbmc back up when hulu exits. in eventghost i had to set my remote to emulate keyboard for the arrows, select (ok), and back (esc) to work right in hulu.
everything is now working beautifully. Big Grin

now im looking for more stuff to add and tie in since i have this working so nicely.

[Image: screenshot001.png]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ran70UBdxuw

i made the modifications in the mediastream skin but im sure the same could be applied to any skin. i added this to the home.xml

Code:

<item id="12">

                        <label>Hulu</label>

                        <label2>Watch</label2>

                        <onclick>RunPlugin(&quot;plugin://plugin.program.launcher/?Hulu&quot;)</onclick>

                        <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/hulu.jpg</icon>

                    </item>

<item id="13">

                        <label>Trailers</label>

                        <label2>Watch</label2>

                        <onclick>ActivateWindow(10024,&quot;plugin://plugin.video.apple.movie.trailers.lite/&quot;)</onclick>

                        <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/trailers.jpg</icon>

                    </item>

<item id="14">

<label>Pandora</label>

<label2>Listen to</label2>

<onclick>RunScript(&quot;script.xbmc.pandora&quot;)</onclick>

<icon>special://skin/backgrounds/pandora2.png</icon>

</item>

for autohotkey my script looks like this:

Code:

Loop

{

IfWinExist, Hulu Desktop

{WinClose, XBMC

}

{WinActivate, Hulu Desktop

}

{WinWaitClose, Hulu Desktop

}

{Run, C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\XBMC.exe

}

}

ashlar · 2010-10-15 23:44

Thanks for sharing!

puulima · 2010-10-15 23:51

This is great, I'm using NIGHT and looked at the home.xml file and noticed that item 12 is probably "user configurable" but 12 & 14 are "used" for Shutdown & Weather...so being new to this aspect - not sure how I get 2 more items in?

Code:

<!-- <item id="12">

                    <include>BackgroundVarsSignOut</include>                    

                    <label>31209</label>

                    <onclick>System.LogOff</onclick>

                    <visible>Skin.HasSetting(signout)</visible>

                </item>

  --> 

- <item id="13">

  <label>13005</label> 

  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/shutdown.jpg</icon> 

  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Shutdown_Folder)]</thumb> 

  <onclick>XBMC.Shutdown()</onclick> 

  <visible>Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoShutdownButton)</visible> 

  </item>

- <item id="14">

  <description>weather</description> 

  <label>8</label> 

  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/weather.jpg</icon> 

  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Weather_Folder)]</thumb> 

  <onclick>xbmc.activatewindow(2600)</onclick> 

  <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoWeatherButton) + !Skin.HasSetting(conditions_weather_backdrop)</visible> 

  </item>

And completely a noob with respect to scripts...so how does the autohotekey script you have listed fit into this?

Ultimately I want to add Home menu items for:
- Hulu Desktop
- Boxee (and hoping to find a way to have Boxee default to the "My TV Shows" screen on startup)
- Trailers (but likely LOCAL source - not AMT - since my DL speed is too slow currently.

For the trailers, I have the source setup as a Favourite and added a custom Home menu option for that - works for now but as I recall it drops back to the Video Sources screen when I hit the "BACK" button...

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have been using EventGhost to toggle between XBMC and Hulu Desktop (bring each to front etc) but would prefer not to have both running at the same time. Same with Boxee since Boxee or XBMC (dont recall which) responds to remote key presses regardless of which window is Active!

thesuffering · 2010-10-16 00:22

puulima Wrote:This is great, I'm using NIGHT and looked at the home.xml file and noticed that item 12 is probably "user configurable" but 12 & 14 are "used" for Shutdown & Weather...so being new to this aspect - not sure how I get 2 more items in?

And completely a noob with respect to scripts...so how does the autohotekey script you have listed fit into this?

Ultimately I want to add Home menu items for:
- Hulu Desktop
- Boxee (and hoping to find a way to have Boxee default to the "My TV Shows" screen on startup)
- Trailers (but likely LOCAL source - not AMT - since my DL speed is too slow currently.

For the trailers, I have the source setup as a Favourite and added a custom Home menu option for that - works for now but as I recall it drops back to the Video Sources screen when I hit the "BACK" button...

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have been using EventGhost to toggle between XBMC and Hulu Desktop (bring each to front etc) but would prefer not to have both running at the same time. Same with Boxee since Boxee or XBMC (dont recall which) responds to remote key presses regardless of which window is Active!

just go to your item ids, find the last one and add another one one number higher. example: highest item id currently in home.xml is 14. then make item id for your new menu 15.
<item id="XX">
mediastream has less menus id presume, which is why the item ids would be off.

as far as the second part, the script runs in the background watching xbmc and hulu desktop. as soon as it sees hulu launching, it kills xbmc. when it sees hulu exiting, it kills hulu. its a great way to handle it. you can use the same script and concept to make boxee work in the way you are wanting.

Quote:Ultimately I want to add Home menu items for:
- Hulu Desktop use launcher, I when it asks you to name it just name it Hulu, and then the <onclick> in my code will work for you
- Boxee (and hoping to find a way to have Boxee default to the "My TV Shows" screen on startup) put it in launcher. make it a favorite and you can get the code you need to punch in onclick in favourites.xml in the user data folder. modify the autohotkey script to make boxee work like my hulu example
- Trailers (but likely LOCAL source - not AMT - since my DL speed is too slow currently. i suppose you could add a trailers folder as a video source, then view it in file mode and have the menu jump to it via the activatewindow command. you can make it a favorite, and get the window id from favourites.xml

puulima · 2010-10-16 01:58

thesuffering Wrote:as far as the second part, the script runs in the background watching xbmc and hulu desktop. as soon as it sees hulu launching, it kills xbmc. when it sees hulu exiting, it kills hulu. its a great way to handle it. you can use the same script and concept to make boxee work in the way you are wanting.

Thanks for the info/tips! - How/where does the script run? Haven't used Scripts before...where do I start?

EDIT:
Also - when I setup Boxee to run via Launcher I get a "Fatal Error" noting "no suitable skin version found - requires 2.1000" or something like that...after I click OK I get a Visual C++ runtime error for Boxee - "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unsual way. Please contact the applications support team...blah blah blah..."

What is causing that?

Also noticed "Executor" in Program Add-ons - sounds like another way to Launch a program?

Also found this thread - but don't understand most of it :-(
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=55776

thesuffering · 2010-10-16 02:21

puulima Wrote:Thanks for the info/tips! - How/where does the script run? Haven't used Scripts before...where do I start?

download and install a program called autohotkey

open notepad, paste the code i gave in the first post into notepad (changing file path for xbmc if necessary) save as whatever you want .ahk. when you double click on this file it will run the script and a little green icon with a h will appear in your taskbar near the clock. as long as its running, it will do what i specified above. because my htpc is only used for htpc purposes, i have put the file in the startup folder so it starts with xbmc when windows starts.

thesuffering · 2010-10-16 02:23

puulima Wrote:Thanks for the info/tips! - How/where does the script run? Haven't used Scripts before...where do I start?

EDIT:
Also - when I setup Boxee to run via Launcher I get a "Fatal Error" noting "no suitable skin version found - requires 2.1000" or something like that...after I click OK I get a Visual C++ runtime error for Boxee - "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unsual way. Please contact the applications support team...blah blah blah..."

What is causing that?

the fatal error, is it a windows error or xbmc error?

puulima · 2010-10-16 02:26

thesuffering Wrote:the fatal error, is it a windows error or xbmc error?

Looks like a Windows Error...it's one of 2 windows labelled BOXEE in my task bar...the Boxee item is a black screen, the other is the error window.

And I edited my post AGAIN...sorry, found another (similar?) post on lunaching hulu (and others) - had the Boxee error also - but doesn't sound like it was resolved? See above...and THANKS for your assistance!

NOTE - Executor has some XBMC window options in the Configure section...I tried it with Boxee and it comes up with it's own error..."Can't find C:\Program " so isn't even seeing the entire program path?

puulima · 2010-10-16 02:44

thesuffering Wrote:download and install a program called autohotkey

open notepad, paste the code i gave in the first post into notepad (changing file path for xbmc if necessary) save as whatever you want .ahk. when you double click on this file it will run the script and a little green icon with a h will appear in your taskbar near the clock. as long as its running, it will do what i specified above. because my htpc is only used for htpc purposes, i have put the file in the startup folder so it starts with xbmc when windows starts.

Hey - I found AutoHotKey here: http://www.autohotkey.com/download/ - downloaded the first item (installer) and McAfee reports it's infected with a TROJAN: "Artemis!E42B81B96361" ?? I downloaded the ZIP file and it scans clean but do I only need to run the autohotkey.exe file then? The zip is choked full of lots of files ;-)

mcborzu · 2010-10-16 03:51

Starting page 2 of this thread explains Boxee and Launcher.

ashlar Member+ Posts: 2,048 Joined: Mar 2006 Reputation: 26	2010-10-15 23:44 Post: #2 Thanks for sharing!
	find quote

mcborzu Skilled Skinner Posts: 3,381 Joined: Feb 2009 Reputation: 15 Location: dsf	2010-10-16 03:51 Post: #10 Starting page 2 of this thread explains Boxee and Launcher. Check out The Carmichael - A Skin For XBMC Check out Night - A Skin For XBMC Check out Unfinished - A Skin For XBMC
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