Kodi addon for LaunchBox

[CoinTos]

11 minutes ago, nonstatik said:

Update: I removed the Cortana search bar and it's much better now!  You only see a shorter flash when first launching the add-on.  Before, you would see the longer line flash on three occasions:

1) launching add-on before startup video

2) between startup video and Big Box launch

3) after Big Box exit, before Kodi relaunch

Now it's only seen the first time, and less visible.  I think this is as good as it will get.

OK so I will add that into the workaround note as well. I only saw 1) because I never keep the Cortana search bar on any of my systems, that is the first thing I remove on a fresh system install.

[CoinTos]

Kodi addon for LaunchBox 1.5.5 released!

CHANGES in 1.5.5:
- Hide taskbar option added
- Hide mouse cursor while on Blank Black Gui
- Hide mouse Busy/Wait cursor
- Move mouse cursor to Top Right corner of screen
- Some code clean up for Python 3 prep

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.

RELEASE NOTICE:
This release is to try to minimize the effects the taskbar has on Kodi UWA and to hide the mouse better for those that don't like to see it. It is already known that the taskbar will raise itself over top of the black Gui the AHK script creates to hide desktop icons and taskbar on non-UWA Kodi whether it is set to AlwaysOnTop or not using Kodi Windows Store verion. So a hide taskbar option was added to reduce it to a thin line at the bottom of the screen. Removing the Cortana search bar is reported to minimize the 'flash' to just start up of the script when it transitions from Kodi to Bigbox.

IN DEVELOPMENT:
- Code rewrite in Python 3 compatible
- Back to looking into multiple Launchbox support

 

[nadonate]

I'm on windows 10, kodi 18.

The addon throws an error; it can't find my Bigbox.exe on my smb share (network directory). 

 

If I put launchbox in a local directory, I have no problems.

 

Any idea why it can't find the executable on a network path? 

[CoinTos]

18 hours ago, nadonate said:

I'm on windows 10, kodi 18.

The addon throws an error; it can't find my Bigbox.exe on my smb share (network directory). 

 

If I put launchbox in a local directory, I have no problems.

 

Any idea why it can't find the executable on a network path? 

Yep, it has to do with the way Kodi handles smb shares. I wrote a test file that translates it to something that could be passed to the helper script and the path detection but abandoned it when I couldn't cleanly handle usernames and passwords on shares. I am looking into a way of using powerscript to automate the creation of a temporary mounted network drive when a Kodi smb is supplied but that is currently delayed. I am back in classroom training newbies for the company i work for and have limited free time currently due to travel time. I plan to tackle the multiple Launchbox support and attempt the smb stuff during my vacation near the end of July. Current workaround is to create a mapped network share to assign it a drive and use that in Kodi.

[Bedwyr]

What changes would I need to make to adapt this script for GoG and the Epic Game Store?

[nadonate]

23 hours ago, CoinTos said:

Yep, it has to do with the way Kodi handles smb shares. I wrote a test file that translates it to something that could be passed to the helper script and the path detection but abandoned it when I couldn't cleanly handle usernames and passwords on shares. I am looking into a way of using powerscript to automate the creation of a temporary mounted network drive when a Kodi smb is supplied but that is currently delayed. I am back in classroom training newbies for the company i work for and have limited free time currently due to travel time. I plan to tackle the multiple Launchbox support and attempt the smb stuff during my vacation near the end of July. Current workaround is to create a mapped network share to assign it a drive and use that in Kodi.

Don't lose any sleep over it. All of us kodi users super appreciate the pro Bono work you have put in here!

Mapping the share to a drive works fine(ish)... 

Windows is unreliable at reconnecting to the network share after a reboot or resuming from a sleep state. 

Out of curiosity, has anyone here found a way to automate re-mapping of a network drive, or an app that will check and maintain it? ?

[CoinTos]

19 hours ago, Bedwyr said:

What changes would I need to make to adapt this script for GoG and the Epic Game Store?

You would have an easier time modifying Steam Launcher for those programs than using my script as base due to the way it uses launchbox's included autohotkey.exe to make the ahk helper script work. With Steam Launcher you would have to change: folder name, addon.xml, default.py (to look for the exe of those program launchers), strings.xml (setting display text) and recompile the autohotkey ahk file into a exe with the changes to monitoring names for those programs exe's which you have to use autohotkey window spy to get the detected window and/or class names.

20 minutes ago, nadonate said:

Out of curiosity, has anyone here found a way to automate re-mapping of a network drive, or an app that will check and maintain it? ?

I haven't really looked myself but that is why I want to make a PowerShell helper script to handle that by creating a mapping on Kodi smb link detection on launch and destroying it when Launchbox is done running. Doing that should allow it to be more stable and less unreliable when using sleep/hibernation etc.

[CoinTos]

Kodi addon for LaunchBox 1.5.6 released!

CHANGES in 1.5.6:
- Kodi 19 support
- Python 3 compatible
- Kodi SMB support

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.
- Kodi-six package is now required, addon will fail if after first installation of Kodi-six package dependency, Kodi was not restarted.

RELEASE NOTICE:
This release is to add python 2 and 3 support, as well as SMB support to the version 1.5 branch. This allows the addon to support Kodi 16 to 19 as well as be able to use a remote SMB share for the Launchbox location setting. Unless any bug fixes are required this will be the end of the version 1.5 branch after which support for Kodi 16 and Kodi 17 will be dropped. The next planned version will be moved to Kodi 18+ support to allow easier management of GUI interfaces code for the multiple Launchbox support.

IN DEVELOPMENT:
- Back to looking into multiple Launchbox support

Thanks goes to @nadonate for helping to test the SMB support over in the Kodi addon for Launchbox - Testing thread.

[Bedwyr]

Had to reinstall everything Launchbox from scratch as well as Kodi. Thank you! Especially for the Python 3 compatibility; I'm so glad the community has to collapse into one supported version.

I recall a vague conversation about adapting the launcher for other executables, but I can't find it on the forums. My searches aren't capturing it at least. If you or others know where to find that or what parts of the script to edit, I'd be grateful. I'd like to adapt it for GoG and Epic Games launchers.

[CoinTos]

On 6/5/2019 at 7:27 PM, CoinTos said:

You would have an easier time modifying Steam Launcher for those programs than using my script as base due to the way it uses launchbox's included autohotkey.exe to make the ahk helper script work. With Steam Launcher you would have to change: folder name, addon.xml, default.py (to look for the exe of those program launchers), strings.xml (setting display text) and recompile the autohotkey ahk file into a exe with the changes to monitoring names for those programs exe's which you have to use autohotkey window spy to get the detected window and/or class names.

Hey @Bedwyr,

Just got back from a week and a bit in the great outdoors, no cellular signal out where I go or I would have posted a reply sooner. Basically, the quote above is what I posted about porting a script to another program like GOG or Epic Games. That would be your simplest option. I hitting my slow season shortly with work which means I will look at improving my script some more with delayed ideas I have been toying with and I should be able to help you figure out the parts you are stuck on as I don't think GOG or Epic really need as much scripting as LaunchBox did to work properly.

[Bedwyr]

Awesome, thanks! I couldn't find that advice before. One application I'm thinking of editing in is Firefox. There's something about FF's new versions that cause it, and only it, to pop under Kodi using Advanced Launcher with no ahk scripts focusing Kodi. All other browsers behave themselves.

[LegzRwheelz]

Awesome addon for kodi. I have a bit of an issue that I am trying to sort out though. I run all of mmy games through steam for the ability to remap the controls on the fly. This includes launching BigBox. I have created a bat file that launches BB through steam and converted it to exe so it is invisible. I am trying to find in the script where it searches for the BigBox .exe and change that to my little launcher, but am not having luck finding it....can anyone help me with this. Even if its a post launch script. Thanks in advance

[CoinTos]

12 minutes ago, CtinD said:

Awesome addon for kodi. I have a bit of an issue that I am trying to sort out though. I run all of mmy games through steam for the ability to remap the controls on the fly. This includes launching BigBox. I have created a bat file that launches BB through steam and converted it to exe so it is invisible. I am trying to find in the script where it searches for the BigBox .exe and change that to my little launcher, but am not having luck finding it....can anyone help me with this. Even if its a post launch script. Thanks in advance

The addon requires you to specify your Launchbox directory in its settings in Kodi and uses that to pass the bigbox.exe location to the autohotkey script which then handles the launching and monitoring of BigBox. So you would have to edit the autohotkey script to instead use your launcher instead of the supplied bigbox.exe location.

[LegzRwheelz]

16 minutes ago, CoinTos said:

The addon requires you to specify your Launchbox directory in its settings in Kodi and uses that to pass the bigbox.exe location to the autohotkey script which then handles the launching and monitoring of BigBox. So you would have to edit the autohotkey script to instead use your launcher instead of the supplied bigbox.exe location.

That's what I was wondering. I use the same directory as launchbox for my launcher. I am somewhat experienced in editing AHK scripts from the early hyperspin/hyperlaunch days. I cant quite make heads or tails as to what I need to edit so that it looks for my launcher, which is named Bigbox[1].exe, rather than bigbox.exe.  I already have it launching bigbix perfectly through the add-on. I just want it to search for my launcher instead.

 

Honestly, this is only my second time asking for help in editing ahk scripts, It is pretty straight forward. I am juts lost in this instance.

Edited January 27, 2020 by CtinD

[CoinTos]

6 minutes ago, CtinD said:

That's what I was wondering. I use the same directory as launchbox for my launcher. I am somewhat experienced in editing AHK scripts from the early hyperspin/hyperlaunch days. I cant quite make heads or tails as to what I need to edit so that it looks for my launcher, which is named Bigbox[1].exe, rather than bigbox.exe.  I already have it launching bigbix perfectly through the add-on. I just want it to search for my launcher instead.

 

Honestly, this is only my second time asking for help in editing ahk scripts, It is pretty straight forward. I am juts lost in this instance.

Replace the %1% on line 67 of the autohotkey script with your full path to BigBox[1].exe (example line 67: BigBox = ?\Launchbox\Bigbox[1].exe).

[LegzRwheelz]

3 hours ago, CoinTos said:

Replace the %1% on line 67 of the autohotkey script with your full path to BigBox[1].exe (example line 67: BigBox = ?\Launchbox\Bigbox[1].exe).

awesome man! thank you so very much

Edit: This is strange, now it continuously launches bigbox after exiting and returning to Kodi. 

Edit 2: I added the steam address instead of the launcher and now it seems to be launching correctly

Edited January 27, 2020 by CtinD

[Cineaste]

EDIT: nvm

Edited January 27, 2020 by Thornback

[LegzRwheelz]

OK, so its not launching through my launcher. I changed the script to what you suggested but it's still just launching the BigBox.exe instead of my launcher. This is a rather sophisticated script and I dont want to break it. Any suggestions? I am sorry if i am being a pain

 

Edit: So I sorted it out by leaving the script alone and instead opening main.py and edited line 345    bigboxExe = os.path.join(launchbox, 'BigBox.exe')  to the launcher. Works perfectly for me now. Thank you for your help @CoinTos

Edited January 27, 2020 by CtinD

[CoinTos]

16 hours ago, CtinD said:

OK, so its not launching through my launcher. I changed the script to what you suggested but it's still just launching the BigBox.exe instead of my launcher. This is a rather sophisticated script and I dont want to break it. Any suggestions? I am sorry if i am being a pain

 

Edit: So I sorted it out by leaving the script alone and instead opening main.py and edited line 345    bigboxExe = os.path.join(launchbox, 'BigBox.exe')  to the launcher. Works perfectly for me now. Thank you for your help @CoinTos

Yeah, my bad, forgot to mention that you need to select the "Delete and update userdata scripts on next run" in the addon's advanced settings, that will actually replace the old ahk one with the one you modified. Editing the python main.py is the other way but the autohotkey way is usually easier, that is, when I put the sentence before in the instructions.

[LegzRwheelz]

2 hours ago, CoinTos said:

Yeah, my bad, forgot to mention that you need to select the "Delete and update userdata scripts on next run" in the addon's advanced settings, that will actually replace the old ahk one with the one you modified. Editing the python main.py is the other way but the autohotkey way is usually easier, that is, when I put the sentence before in the instructions.

I appreciate your help. That part kept catching my eye and left me wondering. However I'm pleased with the results and proud of myself for figuring it out. I'm going to replace the files in the add-on and keep this for the future. Again. Thank you. 

PS. Something tells me you're from Nor-Cal.