(2020-05-10, 13:20)knappster Wrote: @learningit I am appreciate you maintaining this addon. There was a period of time that it only worked with some modifications which @Seraphpdh or @jmraker had posted. You mention that you would prefer a Pull Request on Github. Without being familiar with the structure of github for these addons, would this be the appropriate place for anybody who would like to contribute?
https://github.com/learningit/repo-plugi...hes/active
They could then select pbs kids from the active branches. I just thought having this information will make it easier for those who want to contribute.
P.S., the link on the first post of the thread appears to be broken when I click it:
https://github.com/learningit/plugin.video.pbskids
Just to kind of clear the air on things:
I absolutely encourage people to fork my repo and make whatever customizations, bug fixes, etc. they desire. I also encourage folks to submit those changes to be incorporated into the add-on in the repo, preferably through GitHub. My repo is a fork of the xbmc/repo-plugins. I very rarely delete branches for versions of add-ons that are submitted to the xbmc/repo-plugins (or repo-scripts). If you don't see a specific version branch (like for PBS Kids you'll see the latest branch at
https://github.com/learningit/repo-plugi...kids-3.0.7 ) you will need to look at addon.xml and figure out what branch the base code is in by looking at the version of xbmc.python.
If you are going to submit a PR against a branch, it's important that you name it something like leia-plugin.video.pbskids-3.0.7-oscarschanges so I know where you started from and what you're trying to add to.
I'm not sure that using branches/active as suggested above is always correct, branches do get marked 'stale' after a period of inactivity, but
https://github.com/learningit/repo-plugins/branches will show everything in the repo.
Having said all of the above, I rarely just incorporate a proposed change. Using recent history of this add-on, I would not add in the sorting of the episodes. My philosophy these days about add-ons is: less is better. Kodi has evolved to the point where an add-on shouldn't be doing many things that they needed to in the past. Most skins (certainly the default, Estuary) have options for selecting how to sort entries for a given directory. That is the correct place to handle sorting, not in the add-on. Things like image caching, etc. are also handled by Kodi and rarely need to be done in the add-on these days.
When I write an add-on I try to mimic the website usage as if a browser was being used as closely as I can. I avoid using urls or services which, though I may be able to get interesting things through them, are obsolete or being used for other purposes. Most users are not aware that there are a number of rules governing what is and isn't allowed in the official kodi.org repo. Simple things like string constants for displayable items aren't allowed, they must be translatable strings. Specific code styles for python are strongly encouraged. More complex things like code that allows a user to download a video or obtain a download url generally are not allowed unless the source website allows it. I get all kinds of requests, some innocent, some not so innocent about things I should add into add-ons. I generally ignore them as i try to keep add-ons within a framework so that I can maintain them more easily. As more functionality is built in to Kodi or it's skins, I tend to go back and rip out code to simplify add-ons and frown upon things that add complexity. So in a nutshell, even though you may be of the opinion that some thing should be added into an add-on, I may not. If you feel strongly about it, take the existing code as a base, rename the folder and addon id and create a new journey for yourself.
Lastly there are a number of my previous add-ons which are floating around in places that I would prefer them not to be. i don't have any control over that situation. Many of those add-ons received take-down requests in the kodi.org repo, mainly for use of logos, copyrighted content, etc. Kodi.org always honors those requests, as do I. I have seen patches submitted to the forum which try to keep those add-ons alive after takedown. People need to learn to respect those takedowns, they are important for the Kodi project's integrity.