Google Summer of Code/2022

2022-02-05T19:21:52Z

NikosSiak:

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[[File:GSOC_2016_logo.png|left|150px]]Welcome to the Kodi [http://summerofcode.withgoogle.com Google Summer of Code] ideas page.

'''This page is currently work in progress. Kodi has applied as mentoring organization for GSoC 2022. Accepted organizations will be announced on March 7.'''

We encourage interested students of all ethnicities and genders to review some of the ideas on this page, and then feel free to provide input on any ideas you may have in the '''[https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=315 Kodi GSoC 2022 forum]''' and chat about any project you’d love to cover. To propose a project, see '''[[#Students project proposal ideas]]'''.



== About Us ==
As there may be many students who have landed here as a result of GSoC, but are unfamiliar with the project, here are a few resources that may help explain what we are about.

:Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media, designed around the 10-foot interface (living room) environment. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, Kodi is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 500 software developers have contributed to Kodi, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 60 languages. For more information, see the page '''[[Kodi]]'''.

 
To get an idea of what Kodi is truly capable of, it really must be seen. Check out a few other user-created videos: 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcogPuSo-DU Kodi with the default Confluence skin] 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4asUCtE0ONU Kodi with Aeon Nox skin] 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NR57ELY28s Kodi on Raspberry Pi] 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_0PB5hfz_k Kodi's new PVR functionality] 
 

Kodi is written primarily in c++ and runs on a variety of platforms including Android, iOS, Linux, OS X, and Windows. It has been ported to work on several low-power platforms including the Raspberry Pi and Android.

Kodi was a mentoring organization in 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and had team members involved in GSoC for other projects during 2011.

If Kodi is selected as a mentoring organization for 2022, students will need to review the Overview of a good project proposal, follow the outline for proposals when applying, and review the list of project ideas detailed below. Students are welcome to propose ideas outside the list and are encouraged to be as creative as they like.

=== Mentors ===
All mentors and backup mentors are extremely experienced in the Kodi codebase and will thus be able to assist students in getting to know the codebase and in quickly identifying projects that are both achievable for someone unfamiliar with the internal workings of Kodi and desirable to the wider Kodi community.

==Prerequisites==
Some coding skills, basic familiarity with Git, solid understanding and interest in programming. Ability to quickly understand existing code is beneficial.

== Project Proposals ==
=== Overview ===
Qualifications for a good Summer of Code proposal:
* Discrete, well-defined, modular
* Comprised of a series of measurable sub-goals
* Based on open specs that are available free of charge
* Based on complete specs
An example of a good proposal is the implementation of a new feature or function that is not yet available in Kodi.

An example of a less desirable proposal is one that's not as measurable, such as refactoring an existing API. Bad proposals tend to be ones that would require touching a lot of core code.

To re-iterate:
* Localized/isolated code projects = ''good''
* Global code refactoring = ''bad''
* A project should have a set of subgoals, so even if the end goal turns out to be too big some of the parts will be of benefit.
* Not too big! This is an important problem when choosing a project, while it is fun to think about solving a grand project its not always realistic. It's better to finish a smaller project than to start a grand one.

Projects can have a workload of either 175 hours or 350 hours.

=== Where to submit proposals ===
In addition to submitting to the [https://g.go/gsoc Google Summer of Code] website, you are highly encouraged to submit your idea/proposal to the [https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=315 Kodi forum] for discussion. Any proposal not submitted to the forum for discussion will likely not be considered.

=== Outline for proposals ===
{{divbox|blue||
PROJECT TITLE GOES HERE

* '''Name:'''
* '''forum/e-mail:'''
* '''Summary:''' A somewhat small but explanatory walk through of the project. It should not be overly detailed just enough to understand the problem trying to be fixed and how this project opt to solve it.
* '''How will I achieve this:''' Explain how the project will be done, what technologies are needed and how to implement them.
* '''What will the project focus on:''' Explain what the project will focus on, what is the important parts of the project.
* '''Benefits:''' Who will benefit and why from this project. Think about what a user or developer may need or do to benefit from it. Why does it benefit many users.
* '''Goals:''' What is the goal of the project, a project may not always solve the problem entirely as it may take to much time. Think hard about what can be accomplished during a summer with your skill and deduct that quite a bit. If the project can't be done after this perhaps its better to opt for a smaller one or one with subgoals.
* '''What does it touch in Kodi:''' Think about what parts of the code this may touch, Kodi is a big application and a lot of the code is spread out and very complex. If a project touches to much it may be impossible to complete.
* '''Requirements:''' What is needed to complete the project, what code language knowledge what hardware etc.
* '''Possible mentors:''' Place to add possible mentors (Team-Kodi will add this).
}}

== Team-Kodi proposal ideas up for discussion ==

=== Explore building binary addons in rust ===
'''Description:''' While Kodi has python addons, it can also handle binary addons. But these need to be build one by one for each platform and also might fail on errors. Rust might help with both of those problems and more. The idea is to use the api we have but via rust ffi and see where that leads us.

'''Expected outcome:''' Documentation and templates on how to use rust with kodi. In the best case also one or two example addons.

'''Skills preferred:''' C++, Rust, C

'''Possible mentors:''' spiff, Razze

'''Difficulty:''' Hard

'''Type:''' Binary addon development

=== Finish the new web interface ===
'''Description:''' Kodi has a in development webinterface by the name of elm-chorus (https://github.com/xbmc/elm-chorus) which is written in Elm and is still missing some features of Chorus2 (the old interface). So the idea would be to bring it up to speed and do some additional styling and packaging work.

'''Expected outcome:''' Finished shipable version of the webinterface

'''Skills preferred:''' HTML, CSS, Elm

'''Possible mentors:''' Razze

'''Difficulty:''' Medium

'''Type:''' Webinterface development



===Add-ons===
====Automatic add-on checker for binary add-ons====
'''Description:''' Kodis add-on checker checks each Kodi add-on PR on GitHub for certain problems, which ultimately makes reviewing Python add-ons easier for the team. But the other type of add-ons, binary add-ons is not being checked so far, which makes reviews and coding guidelines hard to handle. Thus it would be nice to also check those add-ons, either via the current checker written in Python or a new binary add-on specific checker. Goals would include checking the addon.xml, the C++ code and a check for potentially malicious code.

'''Expected outcome:''' Being able to run the checker against all binary repo PRs on GitHub.

'''Skills preferred:''' Python, C++

'''Possible mentors:''' Razze

'''Difficulty:''' Hard

'''Type:''' Low-hanging fruit

===Using fuzz testing to fuzz test Kodi===
'''Description:''' Adding fuzz testing to Kodi would be very valuable to find problems in the current code base. Especially security problems. First step would be choosing a framework either American fuzzy lop, libFuzzer or other similar projects. After we decided on that it would be time to start to fuzz different methods that are widely used in Kodi and try to expose flaws in those. If this leads to success, it should be documented and made repeatable.

'''Expected outcome:''' Being able to easily add more fuzz tests and having the process to do this documented.

'''Skills preferred:''' C++, CMake

'''Possible mentors:''' Razze

'''Difficulty:''' Medium

'''Type:''' Risky/Exploratory



===Other ideas===
These ideas still need expanding and/or assigned a potential mentor. If one of these ideas interests you, feel free to ask for more info in the GSoC 2020 forum area. We may be able to assign a mentor if enough interest is shown
*Improvements to Retroplayer (retro gaming integrated in Kodi core)
*Visual Studio Code addon to validate/syntax highlight Kodi Addons

*High quality scalers for OpenGL(GLSL). Scale Y and UV plane separately (possible mentors: velocity)


*Implementing a performance critical element of kodi in rust
*Add multiroom audio support where each kodi instance can act as client or server. Maybe snapcast could be used somehow.

=== More ===
We feel it is important to note that, while we are interested in a focus on the listed ideas, we would like to stress passion, expertise, and creativity above all else. If you would like to do something completely different, definitely send in that proposal. The ideas listed above are, as always, merely suggestions. We will be interested in any idea, so long as you can communicate your interest, your background, and your solution the problem.

== Students project proposal ideas ==

Submit your own proposals on the '''[https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=315 Kodi GSoC forum]'''. They can be as big or as small as you feel you can comfortably accomplish between '''June 7''' and '''August 23'''. In the end, it's better to have a smaller, completed project, rather than a larger, incomplete project.

To submit a proposal idea:
# Copy the text from '''[[#Outline for proposals]]'''.
# Create a new forum post '''[https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=315 HERE]''' and paste the text.
# Fill out everything using your specific proposal.

[[Category:Google Summer of Code]]

Official Kodi Wiki - User contributions [en]

Google Summer of Code/2022