2015-08-20, 22:06
I've been waiting until Isengard to post this, just as I know features were frozen leading up to the release. Hoping this might get some attention now.
One of the most frustrating things working with Kodi is how the guisettings.xml file is handled. For people with systems on OpenELEC, or Fire TV, Android, iOS type devices it is very difficult to restore settings or copy files as often the only interface for doing so is within Kodi itself. This works for most files except the guisettings.xml file since it's contents are dumped when Kodi closes.
There are some workaround for this, like kill the app after you restore the file instead of shutting it down gracefully. Another is replace the file when Kodi isn't running, or use Putty in some manner. But these are just that, workarounds. "Regular" users aren't always knowledgable enough to do these things and something simple like restoring your settings shouldn't require 12 steps. It would be nice if there was a way to prompt Kodi to read from a new, or restored file, instead of having to trick it into using the settings you want. I happen to maintain an addon dedicated to Backing Up/Restoring your Kodi settings and this is by far the most common complaint I hear as it is difficult for users to understand why their settings are still gone after restoring the file.
My feature request is fairly simple (I think). Provide a way for Kodi to look for the presence of a "restore" file for the guisettings.xml file on startup. I've been including a "guisettings.xml.restore" file in my Backup addon for a while just to make the file copy easier for people. If Kodi was to check for the existence of a file like this and use it on startup instead of the guisettings.xml file that would solve this problem. Once the file is read it can be deleted and Kodi can continue to use the normal guisettings functionality they way it always does. This simply provides a way for users, or automated scripts, to restore these settings in a way that doesn't involve a weird workaround or other process.
I would honestly do something like this myself and submit a patch, but my C++ skills are severely lacking. I have the hardest time just getting a dev environment setup for Kodi. Hopefully someone will see this and put a patch together for inclusion.
Thanks.
BTW - I am aware of a pull request to address this which was created quite a while ago. The goals of that particular request where way beyond just this file and dealt with backing up all config files and dealing with detecting corruption. It stalled out and was never included. I'm sure that is important but just addressing the guisettings.xml file directly would solve way more problems in my opinion than a more bloated solution since other files can easily be backedup/restored by users.
One of the most frustrating things working with Kodi is how the guisettings.xml file is handled. For people with systems on OpenELEC, or Fire TV, Android, iOS type devices it is very difficult to restore settings or copy files as often the only interface for doing so is within Kodi itself. This works for most files except the guisettings.xml file since it's contents are dumped when Kodi closes.
There are some workaround for this, like kill the app after you restore the file instead of shutting it down gracefully. Another is replace the file when Kodi isn't running, or use Putty in some manner. But these are just that, workarounds. "Regular" users aren't always knowledgable enough to do these things and something simple like restoring your settings shouldn't require 12 steps. It would be nice if there was a way to prompt Kodi to read from a new, or restored file, instead of having to trick it into using the settings you want. I happen to maintain an addon dedicated to Backing Up/Restoring your Kodi settings and this is by far the most common complaint I hear as it is difficult for users to understand why their settings are still gone after restoring the file.
My feature request is fairly simple (I think). Provide a way for Kodi to look for the presence of a "restore" file for the guisettings.xml file on startup. I've been including a "guisettings.xml.restore" file in my Backup addon for a while just to make the file copy easier for people. If Kodi was to check for the existence of a file like this and use it on startup instead of the guisettings.xml file that would solve this problem. Once the file is read it can be deleted and Kodi can continue to use the normal guisettings functionality they way it always does. This simply provides a way for users, or automated scripts, to restore these settings in a way that doesn't involve a weird workaround or other process.
I would honestly do something like this myself and submit a patch, but my C++ skills are severely lacking. I have the hardest time just getting a dev environment setup for Kodi. Hopefully someone will see this and put a patch together for inclusion.
Thanks.
BTW - I am aware of a pull request to address this which was created quite a while ago. The goals of that particular request where way beyond just this file and dealt with backing up all config files and dealing with detecting corruption. It stalled out and was never included. I'm sure that is important but just addressing the guisettings.xml file directly would solve way more problems in my opinion than a more bloated solution since other files can easily be backedup/restored by users.
