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Kodi addon for LaunchBox 1.6.0

   (26 reviews)

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About This File

Launches LaunchBox in Big Box mode from within Kodi - It will close or minimize Kodi, launch LaunchBox in Big Box mode and when Big Box is exited Kodi will restart or maximize, with the option to run programs pre/post LaunchBox. It works with Windows only.

Features:
BigBox Startup video and splash screen support
LaunchBox and BigBox Updater support
LaunchBox (Free or Premium) and BigBox mode selection
Multiple Monitor detection and handling
Pre/Post scripts
Minimize or close Kodi option
Launcher Helper script version check
Supports Kodi 19, 20 and Kodi Windows Store versions.

Requirements:
Windows PC
LaunchBox (Premium or Free)
Kodi 19, 20 or Windows Store for Windows
Kodi 16, 17, 18, 19 for Windows (Up to version 1.5.9, BigBox only)

Known Issues:
Due to Windows Store's UWA security restrictions, user must set a save directory under the plugin's Advanced Settings to a directory of the user choice where the plugin's ahk helper script and icon file can be saved.
Taskbar will flash on Kodi Windows Store version (UWA) using 1.5.4+. Current workaround is to switch to Kodi non-UWA or to minimize effects, enable hide taskbar in advance options, remove Cortana search bar and change taskbar to black.
Starting with version 1.5.6, due to windows security restriction on SMB shares over IP  (eg. \\192.168.1.1\shared-folder\), the addon will produce an error saying it is not supported. Current workaround is to enable SMB fix in Advance settings to replace IP with supplied server name or enable SMBv1 on server and computer to allow NetBIOS name resolutions in Kodi.
Kodi-six package is now required with 1.5.6-1.5.9, addon will fail if after first installation of Kodi-six package dependency, Kodi was not restarted.

Install instructions:
Use 'Install from Zip' in Kodi and browse to the directory the plugin's zip was downloaded to and select it.

Configuration:
This plugin requires the user to set the location of their LaunchBox directory in the addon settings before first use. eg. C:\Users\<username>\LaunchBox\

PLEASE NOTE:
     THIS PLUGIN WILL PRODUCE AN ERROR DURING INSTALL IN KODI ON ANY OPERATING SYSTEM THAT CANNOT RUN LAUNCHBOX.
     SINCE LAUNCHBOX IS CURRENTLY WINDOWS ONLY THAT IS THE ONLY OPERATING SYSTEM THE PLUGIN CURRENTLY SUPPORTS.

ATTENTION: WILL NOT WORK ON ANDROID (BOX, SMART TV, ETC.), IOS or MAC AND LINUX.

Edited by CoinTos


What's New in Version 1.6.0   See changelog

Released

CHANGES in 1.5.9:
Add support for LaunchBox and BigBox modes
- Kodi 19+ support only
- Detect which monitor has Kodi on it and moves LaunchBox to it
- A ton of bug fixes

KNOWN ISSUES:
- The upgrade support in this addon's Autohotkey script will not work properly with the auto download background option for LaunchBox enabled. Current workaround is to remove the check mark from the "Automatically Download Updates in the Background" box in LaunchBox's Options under the Updates section.
- Taskbar will flash on Kodi Windows Store version (UWA). Current workaround is to switch to Kodi non-UWA or to minimize effects, enable hide task bar in advance options, remove Cortana search bar and change taskbar to black.
- Due to windows security restriction on SMB shares over IP  (eg. \\192.168.1.1\shared-folder\), the addon will produce an error saying it is not supported. Current workaround is to enable SMB fix in Advance settings to replace IP with supplied server name or enable SMBv1 on server and computer to allow NetBIOS name resolutions in Kodi.

RELEASE NOTICE:
This release moves the addon to only Kodi 19+ and dropping support for all previous Kodi versions. It also adds support for LaunchBox (Free or Premium) and BigBox modes as well as multi monitor detection.

  • Like 14
  • Thanks 3
  • Haha 1
  • The Cake is a Lie 1

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4 hours ago, niki201 said:

I need a script big box, but this is not a script

You need to be much more descriptive than that. What do you need and for what purpose are you hoping to accomplish?

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20 hours ago, lordmonkus said:

I removed the reviews that were either just a question or people who couldn't read that it is for Windows and not Android boxes.

Good!

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What are the advantages of using this vs just launching bigbox through advanced launcher in kodi?

Edited by tjwoosta
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First of all, thanks for a much needed Kodi addon. I had it working just fine in Windows 7 but had to reinstall with Windows 10 because the Xbox One controller was driving me nuts. So now that the controller is working, I've installed the addon but initially got an error that the script LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.ahk couldn't be found. After manually copying the "scripts" directory from the zip file to "AppData/Roaming/Kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.launchbox.launcher/" I am now getting the following error message:

"This script requires all arguments to be supplied but only received 6. See script file for details"

However it works fine when i enter "LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.exe "C:\LaunchBox\BigBox.exe" 0 false false false" in a command prompt.

In the Kodi Launchbox addon settings, quit kodi is set to Yes, directory is ok, portable mode is unchecked, and both scripts before and after are also unchecked.

Thank you in advance for any help/suggestions you may have =)

Edited by madcat
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On 2018-02-09 at 2:58 PM, tjwoosta said:

What are the advantages of using this vs just launching bigbox through advanced launcher in kodi?

How to find advanced launcher? Ive been searching like a maniac.

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On 2018-04-04 at 12:30 PM, madcat said:

First of all, thanks for a much needed Kodi addon. I had it working just fine in Windows 7 but had to reinstall with Windows 10 because the Xbox One controller was driving me nuts. So now that the controller is working, I've installed the addon but initially got an error that the script LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.ahk couldn't be found. After manually copying the "scripts" directory from the zip file to "AppData/Roaming/Kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.launchbox.launcher/" I am now getting the following error message:

"This script requires all arguments to be supplied but only received 6. See script file for details"

However it works fine when i enter "LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.exe "C:\LaunchBox\BigBox.exe" 0 false false false" in a command prompt.

In the Kodi Launchbox addon settings, quit kodi is set to Yes, directory is ok, portable mode is unchecked, and both scripts before and after are also unchecked.

Thank you in advance for any help/suggestions you may have =)

This is the problem I get as well. Hoping for a update!

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7 minutes ago, MaedMike said:

How to find advanced launcher? Ive been searching like a maniac.

Hmm, when I started using kodi it was in the official kodi repository. It seems the original author Angelscry abandoned it and its no longer available in the official repos. I still have version 2.6.1 installed from before it was removed and as far as I can tell it still works perfectly fine as an external app launcher like I use it.  With all of the time Ive been using it I never even realized it had been abandoned. I just create a launcher in advanced launcher, then add it to favorites, then set up a kodi main menu entry that points to the favorited launcher.

After some digging I was able to find an unofficial fork on github  https://github.com/SpiralCut/plugin.program.advanced.launcher

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ok so I don't know if this kodi launcher is outdated but the video sure is. The settings window is different now that were on kodi 17 I did and completed all the steps but on the last step I get an error. Its telling me that it cant read the path go to advance settings . also its popping up as launchbox file location not big box any help would be greatly appreciated

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I installed this and for some reason, nothing was happening when selecting Launchbox from the menu. But then one minute later BigBox started! I exited BigBox and it did go back to Kodi. I tried several times, and I still have the same issue: it takes 1 minute to start BigBox through this plugin.

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Same problem as SSjCosty: it was unusable for me because it does not immediately play the startup video like when I open Big Box from the desktop, it launches big box a minute or two after you click the button in the Kodi menu.

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Sorry to add a +1 - I am on Kodi 18.6 and am also seeing the delay in starting Big Box - in my case it's about 15-20 seconds. Before I upgraded to 1.5.7 everything was instant (until of course AHK's location changed).

I initially upgraded from 1.5.4, but to be on the safe side after seeing this problem, I blew away all of the addon files and addon_data, then reinstalled from scratch (including kodi-six, just to be double sure)..

Nothing super interesting in the kodi.log or LaunchBoxLauncher.log files. Doesn't seem to matter if I ask the script to quit Kodi or not. Happy to grab more debug info if it is needed.

**EDIT: figured it out.

locateAutoHokey() is slow because there's an os.walk() going on to figure out where AutoHotKey.exe is.

That's a ton of files in my case (with an entire Games\ directory that is actually a link to a network share..)
I assume you did that because, well, the location of the AHK binary might change again. It makes sense.

Anyway - I don't have a better solution right this minute, but I hardcoded the location of the binary and BigBox launch was instant.

Debug log below that helped me narrow things down..

2020-04-29 21:17:22.426 T:2236   DEBUG: CPythonInvoker(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py): start processing
2020-04-29 21:17:22.478 T:2236   DEBUG: CPythonInvoker(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py): the source file to load is "C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py"
2020-04-29 21:17:22.478 T:2236   DEBUG: CPythonInvoker(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py): setting the Python path to C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher;C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.module.kodi-six\libs;C:\Program Files\Kodi\system\python\DLLs;C:\Program Files\Kodi\system\python\Lib;C:\Program Files\Kodi\python27.zip;C:\Program Files\Kodi\system\python\lib\plat-win;C:\Program Files\Kodi\system\python\lib\lib-tk;C:\Program Files\Kodi;C:\Program Files\Kodi\system\python;C:\Program Files\Kodi\system\python\lib\site-packages
2020-04-29 21:17:22.478 T:2236   DEBUG: CPythonInvoker(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py): entering source directory C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher
2020-04-29 21:17:22.479 T:2236   DEBUG: CPythonInvoker(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py): instantiating addon using automatically obtained id of "script.launchbox.launcher" dependent on version 2.24.0 of the xbmc.python api
2020-04-29 21:17:22.524 T:2236   DEBUG: CAddonSettings[script.launchbox.launcher]: loading setting definitions
2020-04-29 21:17:22.524 T:2236   DEBUG: CAddonSettings[script.launchbox.launcher]: trying to load setting definitions from old format...
2020-04-29 21:17:22.525 T:2236   DEBUG: CAddonSettings[script.launchbox.launcher]: loading setting values
2020-04-29 21:17:22.530 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: ****Running LaunchBox-Launcher v1.5.7....
2020-04-29 21:17:22.530 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: System text encoding in use: mbcs
2020-04-29 21:17:22.530 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: usr scripts are set to be checked for updates...
2020-04-29 21:17:22.530 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: usr scripts are not set to be deleted, running version check
2020-04-29 21:17:22.530 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: sys "llsrevision=": 037
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: usr "llsrevision=": 037
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: userdata script are up to date
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: skipping deleting userdata scripts, option disabled: delUserScriptSett = false
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: script file already exists, skipping copy to userdata: C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.launchbox.launcher\scripts\LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.ahk
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: script file already exists, skipping copy to userdata: C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.launchbox.launcher\scripts\LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.ico
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: not a smb share skipping mapped drive creation
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: running program file check, option is enabled: filePathCheck = true
2020-04-29 21:17:22.531 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: BigBox executable exists C:\Launchbox\BigBox.exe

**** DELAY HERE ****


2020-04-29 21:17:41.942 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: pre launchbox script: false
2020-04-29 21:17:41.942 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: post launchbox script: false
2020-04-29 21:17:41.942 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: quit setting selected: 0
2020-04-29 21:17:41.942 T:2236   DEBUG: script.launchbox.launcher: attempting to launch: "C:\Launchbox\ThirdParty\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.exe" "C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.launchbox.launcher\scripts\LaunchBoxLauncher-AHK.ahk" "C:\Launchbox\BigBox.exe" "0" "false" "false" "false" "false" "false" "0"
2020-04-29 21:17:41.944 T:2236    INFO: CPythonInvoker(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py): script successfully run
2020-04-29 21:17:41.944 T:2236   DEBUG: CPythonInvoker::onExecutionDone(5, C:\Users\mediarouser\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\script.launchbox.launcher\default.py)

 

Edited by doogie
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@CoinTos

Many, many thanks for this addon. I spent some time this morning, trying to optimize how it locates AutoHotkey.exe, and got some good results to try and reduce the delay in starting up BigBox. I am a super duper novice in Python, mind you, so plenty of people will/should come along and say how wrong I am. Anyway:

In findApp() - main.py, line 232..you may want to put some constraints on the os.walk(), or potentially accept an exclude list of directories and/or filetypes as input to this function. As it stands I am excluding:

  • a list of Launchbox subdirectories that very likely do not contain what we want
  • constraining to the extension '.exe', as I understand this only works on Windows so should be safe

Results I saw:

  • without any constraints: 14.0886399746 seconds
  • with the ignore_dirs list and .exe constraint: 0.131103992462 seconds

If you have the addon in Github/etc I'm happy to submit a PR, otherwise I hope this helps.

def findApp(program):
    result = ''
    ignore_dirs = set(['Backups','Games','Images','LBThemes','Logs','Manuals','Metadata','Music','PauseThemes','Sounds','StartupThemes','Themes','Videos'])
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(launchbox):
        dirs[:] = [d for d in dirs if d not in ignore_dirs]
        files[:] = [f for f in files if f.endswith('.exe')]
        if program in files:
            result = os.path.join(root, program)
    return result

 

Edited by doogie
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@doogie

You are 100% right, I didn't constraint it which was dumb on my part. I will look into the code you posted and add you as contrib, releasing the fix shortly. I haven't done anything on Github because I really have no need for as I do this addon for fun and my own use. I post the releases here leaving the control of it's existence in the hands of the LaunchBox's moderators and administrators which so far has worked out well for me.

Thanks for helping out as I really haven't had time to look into this properly.

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Just finished 8 straight days of work in the field so I have just sat down with the code today. I will be posting a file in a few hours as I am currently reviewing and testing the fix and improving some debug logging.

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3 hours ago, CoinTos said:

Just finished 8 straight days of work in the field so I have just sat down with the code today. I will be posting a file in a few hours as I am currently reviewing and testing the fix and improving some debug logging.

That did the trick! Thanks so much. 

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On 9/17/2020 at 1:40 PM, debennett2 said:

Launching SUPER slow again. Anyone else? 

I am currently in the process of changing some logic for Autohotkey exe again and I think I know what is causing the slow down.

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Hi 

I downloaded the zip file and when I try to install I get the following.

"The dependency of xbmc.python 2.24.0 could not be satisfied."

Edited by catch22
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5 minutes ago, catch22 said:

Hi 

I downloaded the zip file and when I try to install I get the following.

"The dependency of xbmx.python 2.24.0 could not be satisfied."

Sounds like you are running Kodi 19, please download and use the other file that ends in "-py3.zip" if that is case.

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Hi I have a python 3.0.0 dependencies problem but my problem is caused by turkish translation. I turn back to english language and script works. 

Thanks. How can i add Turkish support on script.

I solved that. I can change language after install the extension. Thanks again.

Edited by eonder87
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