[vdb86]

HOW TO - Using GitHub to submit your add-on, skin, etc. (Simplified)

Hi everyone!
I decided to create this little guide since I'm more of a graphical interface person than a console using one.
Since I'm the developer of screensaver.digitalclock and have submitted various pull requests on GitHub I decided to share with you my approach to the whole thing.
Below you'll find every step with screenshots and some explanations and/or examples.
Keep in mind that I use Windows in this guide.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for what you do, the steps below work fine for me.

At this point I presume you have already registered an account with GitHub and that you have GitHub installed on your computer.
If that is not the case please register an account and download the installer from HERE (They have an installer for Windows and MacOS).
I also presume that you have your own add-on, skin or whatever else already on GitHub.
This also works for those of you that would like to contribute to Kodi code.

You should follow all the rules regarding add-ons and skins set by the Kodi team, you can find all of that info (and more) here:
Kodi add-on development
Kodi skin development

Setting everything up (Usually you need to do this only once)

A) You need to fork the Kodi script repository.
You do that by clicking HERE.
It will look like this:

Select your account and the forking process will start.

B) Now click on Clone or download.

And select Open in Desktop.

C) The GitHub application will open and ask you to choose where you want to save all these files.
Most people just use default location so it's enough to click OK.

You'll see something like this:

When the process is done you'll have this repository on your computer!

Creating a pull request.

Now that we have all of that covered it's time to move on to the real business.
1) Open GitHub application on your computer and on the left hand side select repo-scripts.

2) At the top of the screen you need to select a branch to which you want to contribute.
This is important because when you select a branch GitHub application fills the local folder with those files!

Now we have Krypton selected!

Keep in mind that you can have your add-on, skin, etc. in multiple branches.
This is common when your add-on, skin, etc. uses different Kodi features which are available only for specific Kodi version.
Make sure to use different version number for different branches - they can't be the same!
Example:
Krypton - 5.0.0
Leia - 6.0.0

3) Now we have to find the local GitHub folder.
In the application right click on repo-scripts and select Open in Explorer.

4) When you have that folder open you'll either copy the entire folder of your add-on, skin, etc. there or manually copy/paste specific updated files.

5) Any changes that you have made will be visible in GitHub application almost instantly.
You should review all those changes and make sure everything is ok.

.

[vdb86]

6) At this point you need to fill out Summary and Description.
The Summary should be in this format: [Name] Version number
Example: [screensaver.digitalclock] 5.0.3
Description should hold a list of changes made in this version and any additional comments that you might have.

7) When you're ready you can proceed with committing your changes to the current branch.

Now you have to click on Sync in the upper right corner.

8) Once you're done with that and the sync process is done, right click on repo-scripts and select View on GitHub.

This will open GitHub in your default browser.

9) Now select the branch to which you pushed your changes.

10) After that we need to compare our branch with the Kodi branch.
Click on compare.

You'll then see something like this:

11) Click on Create pull request. (We could have done this through the GitHub application, but this way we have more control)

You'll see something like this:

Make sure that the text is filled out similar to this:

And then click on Create pull request.

12) You'll see something like this in the end.

You're done!
If the Kodi administrators have any comments or questions they will comment here and you should receive an email.
Respond to them as soon as possible and follow their guidelines.
After they have merged your commit there's nothing else to do.


Keep in mind that I'm not a GitHub expert (obviously), some people will probably roll their eyes when they see this guide or even cry.
This works for me and I wanted to share it with everyone.
If you find this guide helpful great!
If you have any additional questions I'll do my best to answer them, you just need to understand that I might not have an answer...

If I see that this guide requires some changes or additional explanations I'll revise it gladly

[vdb86]

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[vdb86]

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[DarrenHill]

Thread moved to the guides section

[docwra]

Crazy it takes this amount of Github knowledge and tutorials just to submit an Add-on but nice guide

Just out of interest, how do you get the Github Client to be a dark theme?

[Klojum]

how do you get the Github Client to be a dark theme?

There are browser add-ons like Stylish, which will overlay its own css (color) sheet.

[chrissix666]

Unfortunately, despite this tutorial, i failed to do my very first PR.
The desktop application looks completely different now.
The points A, B, C i managed successful , but from then i was not able to continue.
Great thanks anyway for the tutorial.

[MapleFlakes]

How can I create an Repository for my skins and addons? Is it the same method?