[darthgamer64]

Could someone assist me in the proper way to test out Kodi Skins??
For the longest time, I made a backup of Estuary and just kept tweaking this (requiring me to run Notepad++ as admin).

I feel like an idiot because I'm only now just figuring out this new method and was wondering if this is the right way or im completely and utterly WRONG!

I copied over the Estuary skin somewhere else on my PC (Documents), edited the "Addon.xml" file to rename it to something else, and renamed the actual project folder as well. Then I zipped it up and opened the zip file from my documents folder and then it asks to install this zip.
SO I'm now working off of the file in my AppData folder, has to be better than running Notepad++ as admin, right? or is there a different way I should be editing this?!

[jjd-uk]

If all you're doing is modifying the skin xml files to tailor a skin to your needs then yes what you're now doing seems to right.

So taking Estuary as an example in the addon.xml:

xml:
id="skin.estuary"

is the folder name used for the skin.

xml:
name="Estuary"

is the label used to identify the skin in the GUI.

In the case of Estuary you don't need to do the install zip file steps as Estuary has no dependancies to load at install time. Thus you could have just copied skin.estuary into the Appdata addons folder then renamed the folder e.g. skin.estuary_darth and then editted the addon.xml so id is skin.estuary_darth and name is Estuary Darth and then enabled it in My addons.

However it is best not to do this for skins which have dependacies, for these it's best to stick to the install zip file method so those dependencies get evaluated and loaded. To see what skins have dependencies then check the addon.xml <requires> section, if it has anything in addition to xbmc.gui for example script.sklinshoertcuts then it has dependencies.

[darthgamer64]

Would you happen to know what is the equivalent of AppData on Linux (where local addons are installed by user profile)? I'll be on vacation around christmas & my laptop is Linux

[Fuzzard]

Locations for all platforms can be found on the wiki.

https://kodi.wiki/view/Kodi_data_folder#Location

[the_other_guy]

Could someone assist me in the proper way to test out Kodi Skins??
For the longest time, I made a backup of Estuary and just kept tweaking this (requiring me to run Notepad++ as admin).

I feel like an idiot because I'm only now just figuring out this new method and was wondering if this is the right way or im completely and utterly WRONG!

I copied over the Estuary skin somewhere else on my PC (Documents), edited the "Addon.xml" file to rename it to something else, and renamed the actual project folder as well. Then I zipped it up and opened the zip file from my documents folder and then it asks to install this zip.
SO I'm now working off of the file in my AppData folder, has to be better than running Notepad++ as admin, right? or is there a different way I should be editing this?!

you are better off coping a fresh skin.estuary file to AppData/kodi/addons then changing addon.xml skin.estuary
<addon id="skin.estuaryspve" version="3.0.5" name="EstuarysmallposterVE" provider-name="phil65, Ichabod Fletchman">
what i do is just shortcut mod folder to desktop
running Notepad++ get xml tools plug in

test out Kodi Skins? keymap.xml f5 to reload
AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\keymaps

xml:


<keymap>

   <global>

       <keyboard>

           <F5>ReloadSkin()</F5>

           <F7>Notification(Testing 123,Hello world)</F7>

           <F8>Skin.ToggleDebug()</F8>

       </keyboard>

   </global>

</keymap>