Add-on repositories

Repositories

Beginning with Dharma, XBMC includes an interface to browse remote repositories where add-ons can be retrieved. The model is similar to the way many current Linux distributions work, whereby there is a "main" repository that is the default, and additional ones may be added by the user. The Official xbmc.org Repository is included with XBMC by default and is maintained by the XBMC team.

Ingredients for a Repository

Repositories were created with the idea that they should be simple and easy enough to setup for anyone interested. The basic requirements are as follows:

• An HTTP server. Any should work.
• Some addons.
• A master xml file. This file contains metadata about all available add-ons.
• (Optional) A checksum of the above file.
• A repo addon for distribution. This allows you to share your repo with others.

Directory Structure

 addon.id
    addon.id-x.y.z.zip
    changelog-x.y.z.zip
    fanart.jpg
    icon.png
 addon2.id
    addon2.id-x.y.z.zip
    changelog-x.y.z.zip
    fanart.jpg
    icon.png

• addon.id should be the same as the addon's id, which is expected to be unique.
• x.y.z is the addon's version, the same should be listed in its version attribute.

Addons.xml

XBMC expects to fetch a master xml file that contains the information for each addon inside the repo. This file is named addons.xml - it can be placed external to the main repository of addon files if you wish. This file merely encapsulates ther other addon.xml files in an <addons> tag. See below for the basic structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<addons>
  <addon
    id="sample.addon1"
    ...
  </addon>

  <addon
    id="sample.addon2"
    ...
  </addon>
</addons>

Repository Addon

Repositories are distributed just like any other add-on. In order for you to browse one in XBMC, you'll need to create an add-on and install it. The repository addon extends the xbmc.addon.repository extension point, so in addition to the general XML structure and icons required for an icon, you'll need an <extension> block as follows:

  <extension point="xbmc.addon.repository"
              name="Official XBMC.org Add-on Repository">
    <info compressed="true">http://mirrors.xbmc.org/addons/dharma-pre/addons.xml</info>
    <checksum>http://mirrors.xbmc.org/addons/dharma-pre/addons.xml.md5</checksum>
    <datadir zip="true">http://mirrors.xbmc.org/addons/dharma-pre</datadir>
  </extension>

<info>

URL to the main xml file, compressed="true" parameter specifies that XBMC may fetch a zipped version by appending .zip to the URL.

<checksum>

An (optional) checksum file of the main xml file. If present, XBMC verifies the addons.xml file against this MD5.

<datadir>

URL to the root directory that contains the addons (i.e. the directory holding the addon.id subdirectories). If the zip attribute is set to true, then XBMC downloads addons via <datadir>/addon.id/addon.id.x.y.z.zip. If zip is set to false, then XBMC assumes that each addon.id directory simply contains the addon itself, i.e. <datadir>/addon.id/<files for addon>. Online repositories should always have zip set to true, both for efficiency of download and for the protection that .zip offers by way of verifying the download (i.e. can we unzip it).