[harpua1982]

Android User here.

I have Kodi/Nodi running on several different Android devices.
1. Nvidia SHIELD (2015) - running FULL Android Nougat ROM (not stock) - rooted
2. Lenovo 10" Tablet - Android Marshmallow
3. Nokia 6.1 Phone - Android Pie

all running the most current version of Kodi.

I'm trying to use AEL to launch games that are Android APKs (not emulators)

First, is this possible? I assume so, b/c in the listed features, I see: 
"Runs ANY Windows, Linux, Android, and OS X Application"

Second, will the scrapers pick up the artwork. I assume that it will b/c I can provide my own.

Third, HOW?

From what i know so far, I need to use the application:
/system/bin/am     ...or
  <application>/system/bin/am</application>       ....inside the xml (yes, I know rooted is a different path, but I cant think of what that is atm)

The arguments are what confuses me. I see examples throughout the thread, but they all seem to point to an emulator, not a specific .apk.

So let's say I'm trying to launch "Marvel Future Fight" from AEL. What would the Arguments be to launch that game?
The App Name is:
"Future Fight"

The package name is:
"com.netmarble.mherosgb"

So, my MAIN question is, how would I implement the app name and/or the package name when defining the arguments to launch this specific APK from within AEL?

Additionally, I could use other apps that I've created using Tasker and Tasker App Factory that would allow me to do MANY MANY other things (like launching a game from my PC in my office and displaying it on my Living Room TV while switching inputs on my TV)....soooo many options!! I can't stop salivating..

Anyway, sorry for the long post! Thanks for this amazing AddOn! If I somehow missed the answer for this w/ incorrect search queries throughout this forum thread, please advise and point me in the right direction!

note: My forum sig needs to be updated...bad!

[chrisism]

Android User here.

I have Kodi/Nodi running on several different Android devices.
1. Nvidia SHIELD (2015) - running FULL Android Nougat ROM (not stock) - rooted
2. Lenovo 10" Tablet - Android Marshmallow
3. Nokia 6.1 Phone - Android Pie

all running the most current version of Kodi/Nodi.

I'm trying to use AEL to launch games that are Android APKs (not emulators)
...
Anyway, sorry for the long post! Thanks for this amazing AddOn! If I somehow missed the answer for this w/ incorrect search queries throughout this forum thread, please advise and point me in the right direction!

note:My forum sig needs to be updated...bad!

Hi, so a whole story, but I'll help out where I can.
- First: Does it run and launch on Android? Yes. I myself use stock android on a Shield. Used it some time ago on an old Minix with android.
- Second: You can do manual scraping or even manual setting of images. Current stable version 0.9.7 online scrapers are broken. @Wintermute0110 is working on it so be patient, but manual should work.
- Third: How?
Well I hope you read the intro and checked AEL-Assets repository. You can find some good examples for launching android 'emulators' which is in general the same thing so you can apply that same logic for standalones. Currently however it is not supported out of the box. One way how I tried to solve this was to add android apps as favourites and used a favourites launcher, but that is still in development and ufortunatly there is currently no way that we can request a list of installed android apps through Kodi or python.
Best way is to create a standalone launcher pointing to some random file so you can finish the 'create launcher' wizard steps and then go to the categories.xml file in the addon data folder for this plugin. You can then look up the standalone launcher you have created and alter the call just like one of the launcher android examples from the AEL assets library.
You do need the know the exact intent to launch the application. This can be hard to find out!
Unless you the apk manifest.

Will be something like:

xml:
 <application>/system/bin/am</application>

  <args>start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER -e IME com.android.inputmethod.latin/.LatinIME-n com.retroarch/.browser.retroactivity.RetroActivityFuture</args>

 

And from the activity manager help (am):

bash:


am start: start an Activity. Options are:

-D: enable debugging

-W: wait for launch to complete

--start-profiler <FILE>: start profiler and send results to <FILE>

-P <FILE>: like above, but profiling stops when app goes idle

-R: repeat the activity launch <COUNT> times. Prior to each repeat,

the top activity will be finished.

-S: force stop the target app before starting the activity

--opengl-trace: enable tracing of OpenGL functions





<INTENT> specifications include these flags and arguments:

[-a <ACTION>] [-d <DATA_URI>] [-t <MIME_TYPE>]

[-c <CATEGORY> [-c <CATEGORY>] ...]

[-e|--es <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_STRING_VALUE> ...]

[--esn <EXTRA_KEY> ...]

[--ez <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_BOOLEAN_VALUE> ...]

[--ei <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_INT_VALUE> ...]

[--el <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_LONG_VALUE> ...]

[--ef <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_FLOAT_VALUE> ...]

[--eu <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_URI_VALUE> ...]

[--ecn <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_COMPONENT_NAME_VALUE>]

[--eia <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_INT_VALUE>[,<EXTRA_INT_VALUE...]]

[--ela <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_LONG_VALUE>[,<EXTRA_LONG_VALUE...]]

[--efa <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_FLOAT_VALUE>[,<EXTRA_FLOAT_VALUE...]]

[-n <COMPONENT>] [-f <FLAGS>]

[--grant-read-uri-permission] [--grant-write-uri-permission]

[--debug-log-resolution] [--exclude-stopped-packages]

[--include-stopped-packages]

[--activity-brought-to-front] [--activity-clear-top]

[--activity-clear-when-task-reset] [--activity-exclude-from-recents]

[--activity-launched-from-history] [--activity-multiple-task]

[--activity-no-animation] [--activity-no-history]

[--activity-no-user-action] [--activity-previous-is-top]

[--activity-reorder-to-front] [--activity-reset-task-if-needed]

[--activity-single-top] [--activity-clear-task]

[--activity-task-on-home]

[--receiver-registered-only] [--receiver-replace-pending]

[--selector]

[<URI> | <PACKAGE> | <COMPONENT>]

ps.
system/bin/am is for not-rooted actions. Rooted you use su.
Let me know how it works out, I am interested.

[harpua1982]

Android User here.

I have Kodi/Nodi running on several different Android devices.
1. Nvidia SHIELD (2015) - running FULL Android Nougat ROM (not stock) - rooted
2. Lenovo 10" Tablet - Android Marshmallow
3. Nokia 6.1 Phone - Android Pie

all running the most current version of Kodi/Nodi.

I'm trying to use AEL to launch games that are Android APKs (not emulators)
...
Anyway, sorry for the long post! Thanks for this amazing AddOn! If I somehow missed the answer for this w/ incorrect search queries throughout this forum thread, please advise and point me in the right direction!

note:My forum sig needs to be updated...bad!

Hi, so a whole story, but I'll help out where I can........
Edit: See previous post for full quote.... 
See This post for original question      

Thank you so much.
I'll admit, it's a lot to take in but i did check out The AEL-Assets Repo and I admittedly need to setup emulators before I worry about Sandalone APKs. I have worked w/ this Addon before (w/ Windows) and didn't think the android setup was quite that complicated. I thought it might be easier now that a few years have passed since the original AL and this AddOn is so awesome!

So, I need to capture the intents when a specific app is launched? I think/hope this might be possible on an App by App basis. If you've ever heard of Tasker or any of the AutoApps (made by same developer), it might be able to find these intents a lil easier. Hopefully...

Although, I'm not that educated on how Intents operate on Android fully, I'm sure I can figure out a way to Automate (using Tasker and AutoApps like AutoInput and AutoTools) by flashing text or setting a clipboard each time an app is launched. Perhaps this might be an easy way to figure out the intents needed to launch the .apk directly from AEL...

Or perhaps, you or someone else knows Tasker and AutoApps better than me and I'm way off base. In that case, please advise

That being said, I'll be more than happy to post my findings.

[chrisism]

...

note:My forum sig needs to be updated...bad!

Hi, so a whole story, but I'll help out where I can........
Edit: See previous post for full quote.... 
See This post for original question       

Thank you so much.
I'll admit, it's a lot to take in but i did check out The AEL-Assets Repo and I admittedly need to setup emulators before I worry about Sandalone APKs. I have worked w/ this Addon before (w/ Windows) and didn't think the android setup was quite that complicated. I thought it might be easier now that a few years have passed since the original AL and this AddOn is so awesome!

So, I need to capture the intents when a specific app is launched? I think/hope this might be possible on an App by App basis. If you've ever heard of Tasker or any of the AutoApps (made by same developer), it might be able to find these intents a lil easier. Hopefully...

Although, I'm not that educated on how Intents operate on Android fully, I'm sure I can figure out a way to Automate (using Tasker and AutoApps like AutoInput and AutoTools) by flashing text or setting a clipboard each time an app is launched. Perhaps this might be an easy way to figure out the intents needed to launch the .apk directly from AEL...

Or perhaps, you or someone else knows Tasker and AutoApps better than me and I'm way off base. In that case, please advise

That being said, I'll be more than happy to post my findings. 

Well I get my intents by searching the internet. In the the end what AEL is doing is just sending an /system/bin/am start command. So if you have that you can trigger it. If anybody has another way of getting to know the am commands or intents for different android apps please let me know.

An alternative approach is launching favourites. In the development branches I added a favourites launcher, but since Kodi doesn't allow addons directly interacting with application config files, it might be that it won't be actually released with AEL.
What I did was open up the android apps screen in Kodi, mark the android app I wanted as a favourite, then go to AEL and create a launcher based on that favourite. A small workaround.

So, for now just finding the correct am commands and intents is the only way to go, but if there is anyway of doing it easier I'll be on top of it and make sure Wintermute will add it to AEL.

[Steveneska]

Hello there,

I've been following this thread for some time now and I'd like to say that I appreciate a lot the work that you've done with this add-on. I don't know if you still need designers on this but since I'm a UI/UX designer in real life myself, I thought I'd ask.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I tried to PM you but couldn't. Anyway, do let me know.

[Shadow128]

OK. Please install AEL from this commit. Recently I did some work on AEL trying to revive the scrapers with some code from master branch made by Chrisism, however it is still far from finished. Next couple of weeks I will be on holidays so expect no support. The commit I gave you is the current most stable version of AEL. 

Hi there
I installed AEL from this commit, but it seems, that the scraper are not working. I tried with MobyGames and TheGamesDB (for PSX games).
Can anyone confirm, that the scraper are at the moment working? And are scraper only for game information working or also scraping images?
Ot maybe it's also a configuration failure from my side

[Wintermute0110]

OK. Please install AEL from this commit. Recently I did some work on AEL trying to revive the scrapers with some code from master branch made by Chrisism, however it is still far from finished. Next couple of weeks I will be on holidays so expect no support. The commit I gave you is the current most stable version of AEL. 

Hi there
I installed AEL from this commit, but it seems, that the scraper are not working. I tried with MobyGames and TheGamesDB (for PSX games).
Can anyone confirm, that the scraper are at the moment working? And are scraper only for game information working or also scraping images?
Ot maybe it's also a configuration failure from my side

Scrapers are not working even on the commit you mention. That commit is the most current stable version of AEL and the scrapers are not working on that version nor 0.9.7. Note that the offline scraper works. Currently, with the help of Chrisism, I am coding what will be release 0.9.8 and the main feature will be that all scrapers will work again.

[Wintermute0110]

Hello there,

I've been following this thread for some time now and I'd like to say that I appreciate a lot the work that you've done with this add-on. I don't know if you still need designers on this but since I'm a UI/UX designer in real life myself, I thought I'd ask.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I tried to PM you but couldn't. Anyway, do let me know.

I'm assuming you are talking about artwork and not about skin design. If I'm wrong sorry.

I appreciate your offer. I believe I'm a reasonably good coder but I'm totally null regarding artwork.

If you can install AEL from this this commit in Github, what will be release 0.9.8 already includes some new artwork for the Favourites, Collections, virtual launchers, etc. Advanced MAME Launcher is in desperate need of artwork (for example, Icons and Fanarts for the Main filters, for the Favourites, etc.), please install it and have a look.

Also, you can have a look at the AEL asset library. Currently the Icons and Fanarts are OK, but honestly I picked all the artwork from many sources and there is no uniformity about all platforms. For example, it could be very nice to have a set of Icon, Fanart, Poster and Banner for all platforms. I know this is a loooot of work.

Another thing that needs help is the platform icons. You can have a look at the icons here. I took them from a Retroarch theme and some AEL platforms do not have a corresponding icon. For a list of AEL platforms have a look here. Note that some platforms are aliases (for example, Megadrive and Genesis) but the hardware is externally different and will be nice to have separate icons.

[Shadow128]

OK. Please install AEL from this commit. Recently I did some work on AEL trying to revive the scrapers with some code from master branch made by Chrisism, however it is still far from finished. Next couple of weeks I will be on holidays so expect no support. The commit I gave you is the current most stable version of AEL. 

Hi there
I installed AEL from this commit, but it seems, that the scraper are not working. I tried with MobyGames and TheGamesDB (for PSX games).
Can anyone confirm, that the scraper are at the moment working? And are scraper only for game information working or also scraping images?
Ot maybe it's also a configuration failure from my side  

Scrapers are not working even on the commit you mention. That commit is the most current stable version of AEL and the scrapers are not working on that version nor 0.9.7. Note that the offline scraper works. Currently, with the help of Chrisism, I am coding what will be release 0.9.8 and the main feature will be that all scrapers will work again. 

OK, thanks for the information
Then I'll wait for a new release from your great addon

[Mysticalp]

I have been working for a while on an exporter from LaunchBox data into AEL and thought I would probably help someone if I sent the link here. Maybe it could even be added directly to AEL in some way.

The link is https://github.com/jmriego/emulation
The basic instructions are to download that repo, create a config.ini based on the config.ini.example and then run LaunchBox2AEL.py

It should export everything from LaunchBox and let AEL access the images in the LaunchBox folders directly
I use that to have categories, launchers and games populated as easily as possible

Hi Mysticalp, I am getting the following error, not sure if you could see anything that I may have wrong from this error?

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Launchbox2AEL.py", line 87, in <module>
    write_files(categories, launchers)
  File "Launchbox2AEL.py", line 69, in write_files
    tree.write(f_rom_base_noext, pretty_print=True)
  File "src\lxml\etree.pyx", line 2048, in lxml.etree._ElementTree.write
  File "src\lxml\serializer.pxi", line 721, in lxml.etree._tofilelike
  File "src\lxml\serializer.pxi", line 780, in lxml.etree._create_output_buffer
  File "src\lxml\serializer.pxi", line 770, in lxml.etree._create_output_buffer
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

I made sure Launchbox Dir and AEL Dir were correct in config.ini

Thanks
Tony 

Hi TonyBirt, sorry I didn't see your message earlier.
That error is caused because it cannot find the output folder.
So that's either because there's some issue in config.ini or because AEL was not opened at least once.
Does a folder called "db_ROMs" exist inside the path you configured as AEL directory?

Anyway, just open an issue in https://github.com/jmriego/emulation/issues and I'll help you fix it

[Steveneska]

Hello there,

I've been following this thread for some time now and I'd like to say that I appreciate a lot the work that you've done with this add-on. I don't know if you still need designers on this but since I'm a UI/UX designer in real life myself, I thought I'd ask.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I tried to PM you but couldn't. Anyway, do let me know.

I'm assuming you are talking about artwork and not about skin design. If I'm wrong sorry.

I appreciate your offer. I believe I'm a reasonably good coder but I'm totally null regarding artwork.

If you can install AEL from this this commit in Github, what will be release 0.9.8 already includes some new artwork for the Favourites, Collections, virtual launchers, etc. Advanced MAME Launcher is in desperate need of artwork (for example, Icons and Fanarts for the Main filters, for the Favourites, etc.), please install it and have a look.

Also, you can have a look at the AEL asset library. Currently the Icons and Fanarts are OK, but honestly I picked all the artwork from many sources and there is no uniformity about all platforms. For example, it could be very nice to have a set of Icon, Fanart, Poster and Banner for all platforms. I know this is a loooot of work.

Another thing that needs help is the platform icons. You can have a look at the icons here. I took them from a Retroarch theme and some AEL platforms do not have a corresponding icon. For a list of AEL platforms have a look here. Note that some platforms are aliases (for example, Megadrive and Genesis) but the hardware is externally different and will be nice to have separate icons.

Very well. I will install and update you over the weekend to see where I can get started with AEL.

[Wintermute0110]

Survey to AEL Users - Unique Launcher ROMs artwork directory

I'm currently working on version 0.9.8 and the main feature will be the resuscitation of the scrapers. However, I am also thinking on some changes in AEL towards making AEL more friendly with a future Kodi games database. One of these changes is the location and placement of the ROM assets. I am doing this survey because this change will complicate a bit the upgrade from 0.9.7 to 0.9.8, requiring the exporting of your configuration in XML with version 0.9.7, editing the XML and then reimporting the edited XML with 0.9.8.

Let's go to business. Currently, when creating a ROM Launcher you are asked for the ROM asset path. AEL then creates inside this directory the boxfront, boxback, etc. directories, where the ROMs artwork are stored. However, in the database each path is stored separately and can be edited later. For example, when using XML to configure your launchers, you can specify the <ROM_asset_path>, or alternatively <path_title>, <path_snap>, etc. (have a look here for more details). This approach is very flexible. However, it makes the code of AEL more complicated. For example, if a new piece of artwork is created in the database (and another new feature of AEL 0.9.8 is the support for 3D Boxes), a new tag <path_new_artwork_piece> is needed, all the launchers need to be modified, etc.

Why AEL uses this approach in the first place? This is a legacy feature from old good Advanced Launcher. AL sopported only two types of artwork: Icons and Fanarts, and stored both paths separately. When I created AEL I simply added more artwork directories and just simplified the Launcher creation process. However, all the separated paths of the ROM artwork directories are there in the database.

The proposed change is as follows: only the <ROM_asset_path> will be asked for and stored in the database. Users will not be able to configure the path of each piece of artwork separately. AEL will automatically create the subdirectories boxfronts, boxbacks, snaps, etc., as required inside the <ROM_asset_path>.

How many of you agree with the change? Is anybody using ROM artwork directories that to not share a common root path <ROM_asset_path> anyway?

[mac1202]

Agree with the change

[chrisism]

Good for me. Not using alternative paths anyway, just the default setup.

[sagrath]

+1 For this!