2016-07-25, 18:36
I tried to modify a skin so that it would show a colourful flag if a subtitle in my language exists. But there are some obstacles for this method to work, so I'd like to make a couple of requests (as I have too little experience/knowledge myself) that could make Kodi more accessible and "parent friendly" in non-English speaking countries.
Register multiple subtitle languages when scanning for new content
Kodi isn't aware that a local subtitle file exists until you've pressed Play on a movie, which makes it impossible for skins to know if subtitles are available until you've actually used them. And if you have multiple correctly named subtitles ([...].eng.srt, [...].ger.srt etc.), Kodi only stores one of them in ListItem.SubtitleLanguage.
Instead, Kodi should store every available language code, when scanning for new content. This way, skin developers would have several options for how to show available subtitles in a reliable way.
(I can also add as a note that I'm aware that subtitles can be downloaded on demand through Kodi. That's great, but I find it irrelevant in this case.)
Access "Preferred subtitle language" and "Languages to download subtitles for" setting values from skin
Personally, I tried modifying the Transparency skin which actually shows a (unreliable) sprite indicating if there's any subtitles or not. I wasn't planning on showing any list of available subtitles, but instead just replacing the already existing sprite with a flag if a subtitle in my own language existed. And as a general fallback, I'd do the same for an English subtitle with a British flag. But (assuming that my first wish would become true) this would only work without modifying the skin according to your own preferences if the main language was fetched from a setting. So why not check for languages that you've already picked in the "Preferred subtitle language" and "Languages to download subtitles for" settings?
Rename "Languages to download subtitles for" setting
If the setting could be used for listing available subtitles, it wouldn't any longer only have to do with downloading, and could have a more suitable name like "Alternate subtitle languages", "Fallback subtitle languages", etc. And I don't really think that there's any point in stressing that subtitles will be "downloaded", both because there's a high risk that they won't be anyway if you need subtitles in other languages than English, and because we're talking such little data traffic per time.
Register multiple subtitle languages when scanning for new content
Kodi isn't aware that a local subtitle file exists until you've pressed Play on a movie, which makes it impossible for skins to know if subtitles are available until you've actually used them. And if you have multiple correctly named subtitles ([...].eng.srt, [...].ger.srt etc.), Kodi only stores one of them in ListItem.SubtitleLanguage.
Instead, Kodi should store every available language code, when scanning for new content. This way, skin developers would have several options for how to show available subtitles in a reliable way.
(I can also add as a note that I'm aware that subtitles can be downloaded on demand through Kodi. That's great, but I find it irrelevant in this case.)
Access "Preferred subtitle language" and "Languages to download subtitles for" setting values from skin
Personally, I tried modifying the Transparency skin which actually shows a (unreliable) sprite indicating if there's any subtitles or not. I wasn't planning on showing any list of available subtitles, but instead just replacing the already existing sprite with a flag if a subtitle in my own language existed. And as a general fallback, I'd do the same for an English subtitle with a British flag. But (assuming that my first wish would become true) this would only work without modifying the skin according to your own preferences if the main language was fetched from a setting. So why not check for languages that you've already picked in the "Preferred subtitle language" and "Languages to download subtitles for" settings?
Rename "Languages to download subtitles for" setting
If the setting could be used for listing available subtitles, it wouldn't any longer only have to do with downloading, and could have a more suitable name like "Alternate subtitle languages", "Fallback subtitle languages", etc. And I don't really think that there's any point in stressing that subtitles will be "downloaded", both because there's a high risk that they won't be anyway if you need subtitles in other languages than English, and because we're talking such little data traffic per time.
