Development

XBMC Media Center (formerly named "XBox Media Center") is a free and open source software (GPL) Cross-platform media player and entertainment hub. Originally developed as XBox Media Player (XBMP) for the first-generation Xbox game console in 2002, XBMC Media Center have since been ported many other platforms so that it today runs natively under Linux, Mac OS X (including Leopard, Tiger, and Apple TV), and Microsoft Windows operating-systems. There is also a bootable Live CD version with embedded Linux that we call "XBMC Live".

Contributing to the XBMC project

Third-party developers/programmers can make and submit source code patches/modules with new features, functions, or bug-fixes to us via our Tracker (Trac) on this site.

The XBMC source code structure uses a fairly modular design (with libraries and DLL files), the structure is large, though relatively easy to grasp by most programmers. XBMC's source code is predominantly written in the C++ programming-language, though there is a small splattering of C libraries and assembler for good measure. XBMC for uses the Microsoft DirectX multimedia framework (Direct3D) on the Xbox, and the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) framework with OpenGL rendering for all other operating-system platforms versions of XBMC, (ie. Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows).

The main XBMC program is developed using Microsoft Visual Studio (or the free Visual Studio Express) for the Windows and Xbox builds of XBMC, and there are KDevelop project files for Linux, and Xcode (and Eclipse) project files for Mac OS X. For the Xbox version a copy of the latest Microsoft Xbox SDK (a.k.a. XDK) and DirectX 9.0 SDK Update (Summer 2004) is also required, though obviously this is not required for any other of the platforms that XBMC can be compiled for.

XBMC's code also contains three player cores: One core based on MPlayer that is only available to the Xbox version of XBMC, another in-house developed (FFmpeg-based) dedicated video-player core that is used for video playback on all other platforms, and an in-house developed dedicated music-player core which works on all platforms.

Some of the XBMC libraries are in the C programming-languages but those then uses a C++ wrapper and are loaded via XBMC's own DLL loader. The Xbox Operating-System/BIOS is kind of Win32-based however it does have all of the resources or capabilities of a full Microsoft Windows Operating-System, (for example: DirectShow, registry, nor DLL are nativly supported on the Xbox). Because of the constraints on the hardware (like only 64MB shared memory and a 733Mhz PIII CPU) and the XDK environment of the Xbox, all software development for XBMC is highly focused on reserving the limited resourses that exist, the main hindrance of which is the amount of available random access memory at any one time, (which is why XBMC code structure is built so modular, enabling libraries to be unloaded when they are not in active use). For more detailed information about XBMC inner working please follow these links and the categories at the end of this article:

XBMC programming and code formatting convention guidelines

Note! More specifics to come based on ongoing discussions, see Proposed code formatting conventions for XBMC

General guidelines

• Code documentation (DocBook, rst, or doxygen for the code documentation steps, preferably the latter, doxygen).
  • Like for example every field of public API structures should have a doxygen comment.
• Self-containment - XBMC should be as little dependent as possible on operating-system and third-party services/deamons/libraries
  • XBMC should for example contain all file-system and network-client (like samba) support built-into the XBMC package
• Modular design - independent modules made up by localized/isolated code libraries without dependencies
  • XBMC should still compile and run if a non-essencial module/library is disabled or removed
• Aim for the GUI/interface to run smoothly on a low spec computer (less than 1Ghz)
  • 3D graphic controller (GPU) will always be required hardware for XBMC so try to utilize the GPU as much as possible
• Avoid harddisk trashing (excess read/write/erase cycles), so no harddrive paging, (utilize RAM memory intead).
  • End-users will be running XBMC and the operating-system on Solid-State memory as a Live CD (LiveDistro) of a USB-key
• Fast load and boot times for end-user perception (other thing can still run/start in the background without the user knowledge)

User-friendliness is next to godlyness

One of Team-XBMC major ongoing goal have always been to make XBMC and its user interface even more intuitive and user-friendly for its end-users, based on the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy. We think that usability is very important for media players like XBMC. Many user interface deciscions are being made by developers who often have little experience in user interface design, in order to improve this, we try to listen to XBMC's end-users for how XBMC is actually being used and how we can improve the user experience. We also aim to do regular overhauls, improving existing features/functions, and scrapping outdated code and features/functions (as "to much stuff" can also be a bad thing).

XBMC as a whole must...

• Be easy to install, set-up, configure, and maintain, (so that the end-users do not get fed up with it and quit).
• Have an user interface simple and intuitive enough so that less geek-savvy people are not intimidated by it.
  • Make common usage easy, simple 'Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)', from the viewpoint of an ordinary user.
• Be able to play audio and video files that have been compressed using divx, xvid, etc. directly out-of-the-box
• Be able to and organize audio and video files in an easy and user-friendly way.
• Use standards and be consistant, (the music section can for example not use completely different controls from the video section)
• Perform actions in the GUI with as few 'clicks' as possible
• Require little to none non-GUI configuration (and all such non-GUI config should be via advancedsettings.xml)
  • There is still a little work to be done here, for example RSS-feeds settings need to moved to the GUI
• Look nice.

Development Catagory Sections

• XBMC Inner Workings
• Development
• Skin_Development

Development HOW-TO

If you are a programmer/developer but not have access to VS.NET and the XDK then you can work on XBMC for Linux, XBMC for Mac OS X, or XBMC for Windows (Win32), (or you can contribute indirectly by helping the FFmpeg project as all XBMC versions uses FFmpeg open source codec-libraries). See bellow for more information.

XBMC inner working and platform-independent HOW-TO guides

• HOW-TO submit a proper bug report
• HOW-TO submit an official feature request
• HOW-TO help with Quality Assurance
• HOW-TO submit a patch (contribute source code)
• HOW-TO create Plugins (with Python) for XBMC (content addons)
• HOW-TO create Scripts (with Python) for XBMC (widget addons)
• HOW-TO skin/theme XBMC (making or modifying GUI skins)
• HOW-TO debug Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL)
• Information on Language Support
  • Overview of input methods + code changes for multi keyboard language support
• Basic overview of the XBMC source code
• The HTTP API (Web Server HTTPAPI)
• The EventServer API (and EventClients for it)
• XBMC's SQL databases (database libraries)
• Audio Players (and audio codecs/demuxers)
• Video Players (and video codecs/demuxers)
• Apply to join the Official XBMC Development-Team

XBMC for Linux

FYI; XBMC for Linux is a port of XBMC for Xbox:

• XBMC for Linux port project
• HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code

XBMC for Mac OS X

FYI; XBMC for Mac OS X is a sub-project of the *XBMC for Linux port project:

• XBMC for Mac OS X port project
• HOW-TO compile XBMC for Mac OS X from source code

XBMC for Windows (Win32)

FYI; XBMC for Windows (Win32) is a sub-project of the *XBMC for Linux port project:

• XBMC for Windows port project
• HOW-TO compile XBMC for Windows from source code

XBMC for Xbox

• HOW-TO compile XBMC for Xbox from source code
• HOW-TO compile mplayer.dll from source code

Contact methods

These are developers forums for XBMC development, (programmers/coders only!).
Respect, these are not for posting feature-requests or end-user support requests!

• IRC: #xbmc-linux on freenode official IRC network channel for the XBMC Linux port project
• IRC: #xbmc-osx on freenode official IRC network channel for the XBMC Mac OS X port
  • (You may also sometimes find developers hanging out at #xbmc on freenode)
• XBMC for Linux port Community-Forum for developers only
  • XBMC for Linux port Community-Forum for end-users (unmoderated so far)
• XBMC for Mac OS X port Community-Forum for developers only
  • XBMC for Mac OS X port Community-Forum for end-users (unmoderated so far)
• XBMC for Windows port Community-Forum for developers only
  • XBMC for Windows port Community-Forum for end-users (unmoderated so far)