Ok.
I'm a daft prick! Remember this when reading what follows...
Because I regard repository zip files as being basically an add-on (they are installed as add-ons if you use "install from zip file" for add-ons), what I thought was:
I'm going to create a repository solely to provide third party repository zip files!
Genius, right? Wrong!
It turns out that I can add my repo.something.zip file to XBMC. And make third party repositories appear under an "Add-on repository" category on XBMC add-on manager. And choose what repository to install.
Unfortunately problems start here. After hitting OK on remote, Enter on keyboard, whatever key that initiates an add-on install, in this case a new repository install, nothing happens.
xbmc.log shows that addons.xml, icon.png, fanart.jpg, etc can't be found when installing a new repository add-on file.
Because of that, and because I am a great Python expert
, I spent the last 3 days googling for "web file download python" and "execute command python" trying to build an add-on that:
- downloads a repository file
- adds the repository to XBMC by issuing a command like "install add-on". Or something!
I really hope you decide to work on this. I already have the repository files on my server, ready to use. Right now, I'm going to see if I missed any repositories and add them to the wiki. And sort them alphabetically.
h.udo