(2014-09-15, 14:03)jjd-uk Wrote: (2014-09-15, 12:10)Hedda Wrote: I really think the only way forward for such commercial apps would instead be for Kodi/XBMC to add native support for a existing framework that they already use, like HTML5.
As if and when Kodi/XBMC could support standard HTML5 apps (with EME extensions for DRM) then any existing HTML5 app should in theory just work*
*Sure in reality any existing HTML5 app would probably not "just work", at least not perfectly without a lot of debugging and optimizations, but in theory HTML5 is HTML5.
With streaming services such as Netflix getting more content quicker, I think that it's inevitable that an an embedded HTML5 engine is integrated into natively Kodi/XBMC.
Build it and they will come
The problem as far as I understand has been finding something that will work well across all platforms and won't add too much garbage to to Core app.
What about using Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Em..._Framework
Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is an open source framework for embedding a web browser control based on Google Chrome. It is a convenient way to implement an HTML5 based GUI in a desktop application or to provide browser capabilities to an application, and provides the infrastructure developers need to quickly add HTML renderer and JavaScript to a C++ project It also comes with bindings for C, C++, Delphi, Java, .NET, and Python and runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
CEF insulates the user from the underlying Chromium and Blink code complexity by offering production-quality stable APIs, release branches tracking specific Chromium releases, and binary distributions.
But you you are absolutely right. Hopefully it would not have to be a full web browser, at least not in the GUI experience sense as only simple remote control style navigation is needed.
Another approach could be making a HTML layout engine like Chromium/WebKit/Blink into a new video player for Kodi, similar to the DVDPlayer, and have that player be cross-platform.
DVDPlayer can today use libdvdnav/libdvdread/libdvdcss to playback DVD-Video movies with menus, and it can use libbluray/libaacs to playback Blu-ray Disc movies with menus.
Maybe an HTML layout engine like Chromium/WebKit/Blink could be made into its own player for XBMC, and that way "playback" Netflix HTML5 apps with menus.
At least then all the code would be contain within that one "Chromium/WebKit/Blink" (HTML5) player.
If that would be possible then it would also be simpler to one day replace that first HTML5 player with one made from a other HTML5 layout engine in the future.
Either way maybe try out Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) for it as a proof-of-concept?