Kodi Community Forum

Hi, I'm Naveen. I'm a CS undergrad (well, Information Science, but our course doesn't differ much from the usual CS course) student from India.

I've been coding for a few years now, and I learnt python on my own. I built the entire platform of Musicwhim - Cloud architecture and everything else and I have some other experience helping friends on their projects as well. 

I saw the list of ideas, and I'm interested in working on [4.5.1] Add code validation and do static code analysis in Kodi's add-on checker and [4.5.3] Addon submissions.

I have used Kodi for a short duration long back, on my laptop.
Speaking of which, my primary laptop is a MacBook Pro with 10 or 12Gb Memory (I swap out the memory during summer and get it down to 10Gb because it's overheating nowadays). I have an Android Phone with 3Gb Memory. I also have access to two windows machines.

The usual stack I use for websites is Python - Flask + Bootstrap + PostgreSQL + Apache2.

Given my skills, I think I'll do a good job on 4.5.3 where I think its better to create a website for addons submission with A profile for developers, login at GitHub and send a PR in the name of the author to the correct repo and branch on Kodi's GitHub, Code check to detect any errors in their addons, some opinions on the code that will be committed before it actually gets sent, some approval mechanism (maybe?!) and so on. I believe I can code the entire website, deploy it and even maintain it

4.5.1 - the addon-checker also interests me. I've downloaded the repo, and I'll try using it. It seems like a very interesting project!

I would really love to get your opinion on this and on what Project I should pursue.
I can put in atleast 30 to 40 hours per week in working on this project and more if it demands

Possible mentor: @Razze 

Looking for help,
Naveen Kumar

Hey nice to meet you!

You really need to decide on your own.
So far we got not that many people working on 4.5.3 Addon submissions

Very nice to meet you too @Razze!

Okay so, I'll definitely work on 4.5.3 - Addons submissions. I went through the wiki to get a sense of how addons are being added to the official repository now. (and I'm using the generator tool you wrote to create a plugin so that I can get a sense of how it all fits in )

Since this would be a new site, what features do you think it should have? and the flow?
I have a flow in mind, something like this:

1. A dev lands on the site where he/she's presented with a page like Github's explore page, where each addon (depending on the privacy setting set by its dev) can be viewed by anyone, comment, suggest ideas, and so on (an interaction, a community sense)
   
2. Then, when the dev wants to upload his/her's addon, they'll have to register using Github or Gitlab and then proceed to uploading their addon (better yet, submit the Github url of their addon repository).
   
3. Now comes in backend preliminary code check to validate simple aspects like the code, packages and their versions, support for kodi, catch some common errors and so on. (Maybe even use the addon-checker to check)
   
4. When moderators have suggestions, they can do so by either creating an issue and that'll reflect on the submission-website and there we can build the replies in a conversation form or we can even have a forum kind of a format where moderators can comment directly on the site instead of through issues.
   
5. Once it's all good, it will the login at GitHub and send a PR in the name of the author to the correct repo and branch on Kodi's GitHub.
   

I might have it totally wrong, This is a very rudimentary idea and I'd love to get your input on this! With your inputs, I'd like to begin by creating some wireframe mockups so that there'll be a agreed upon layout and experience. 

I took the liberty of designing a profile page, with some basic elements and it can be found HERE. This is just to get an idea and we can redesign it later adhering to Kodi design principles. Hope you like it

Also, The description says "The user experience needs to be very good to not keep anyone from submitting". I didn't understand this. Can you explain this please?

Also, about the draft, should I post here first and then submit in GSoC website?

Looking forward for your input and guidance,
- Naveen

Hey there,

flow sounds interesting, very open approach. But it's unlikely that moderators will comment on ongoing code, that's not in discussion to get merged to the repo.

The profile page design is not accessible for me

The sentence aimed at the fact that some devs don't get our git workflow from the start as it's different from having your own repo. So they struggle with it and some get scared away.

You should post a draft to the website, you can post here too, others might repsond, but I will keep it to the gsoc site only in that case.

Hey @Razze !

You bring up an interesting point which I hadn't mentioned (I hesitated a bit because it might be misconstrued as something its not). We'll also have to add some sort of a approve action right? Approved to be merged with the Repo.

I'm not sure why you weren't able to access it but I'm sorry you couldn't access it. I've uploaded it here too: https://postimg.org/image/sgmiprhud/  and the old Dropbox link.
I hope this works

Also, About posting draft to the website, you mean GSoC homepage right?

yes, the gsoc homepage