Service add-ons
Service addons will be automatically started when a user profile logs in or on Kodi startup, and stopped when the user profile logs out. These addons must offer the xbmc.service extension point. Here's a typical example of the addon.xml the addon needs to provide:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <addon id="service.example" name="Example service" version="1.0.0" provider-name=""> <requires> <import addon="xbmc.python" version="2.1.0"/> </requires> <extension point="xbmc.service" library="service.py" /> <extension point="xbmc.addon.metadata"> <platform>all</platform> <summary lang="en"></summary> </extension> </addon>
If your addon is meant to be run while Kodi is running, you need to periodically check if Kodi is exiting. The addon is responsible for terminating when Kodi wants to exit. This can be checked by creating a xbmc.Monitor
instance and calling the abortRequested()
method. To wait for this event instead, call waitForAbort()
.
Example service that prints "hello addon!" every 10 second until Kodi exits:
import time import xbmc if __name__ == '__main__': monitor = xbmc.Monitor() while not monitor.abortRequested(): # Sleep/wait for abort for 10 seconds if monitor.waitForAbort(10): # Abort was requested while waiting. We should exit break xbmc.log("hello addon! %s" % time.time(), level=xbmc.LOGDEBUG)
Gotham and earlier
abortRequested()
and waitForAbort()
are new in Helix. In Gotham and earlier, use xbmc.sleep
and check the xbmc.abortRequested
attribute periodically.
Example:
import xbmc if __name__ == '__main__': while not xbmc.abortRequested: # some code xbmc.sleep(500)
Prior to Kodi 18 Leia there was an additional option start="startup" that would start the service add-on before the first profile login, but that functionality and usefulness were limited so this option was removed.