[Abnormal1]

Here is a quick guide on how I got separate Anime, Anime Movies and standup categories onto the Home Page of xbmc

First this is all based on xbmc live with the user set to xbmc using the Confluence skin. However there's no reason why you can not do the same in any version of xbmc with most skins
Also you may want to get all your sources scanned into the xbmc library before you do this.

The first thing I did was generate smart playlists to split the various media up.
You need to create a playlist for each category including the original Movies and TV Shows.

For me I am going to use the path property of smart play lists to identify my media.
NOTE: This works just fine for Movies BUT for it to work with TV Shows you will either have to wait for xbmc 10.05 or compile it yourself with the following patch
http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/8993
I may attach a very quick/simple howto on this thread later.

To create a smart playlist you can either use the built in playlist creator or type the following into a console substituting NAMEOFPLAYLIST for the filename of each playlist.

Code:

nano /home/xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/playlists/NAMEOFPLAYLIST.xsp

This is what each of MY playlists contain, yours may vary:
More info on what each part of the playlist means is here

movies.xsp

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="movies">
    <name>Movies</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="path" operator="doesnotcontain">/Anime/Movies/</rule>
    <rule field="path" operator="doesnotcontain">/Standup/</rule>
</smartplaylist>

tvshows.xsp

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="tvshows">
    <name>TV Shows</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="path" operator="doesnotcontain">/Anime/Shows/</rule>
</smartplaylist>

anime.xsp

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="tvshows">
    <name>Anime</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="path" operator="contains">/Anime/Shows/</rule>
</smartplaylist>

animemovies.xsp

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="movies">
    <name>Anime Movies</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="path" operator="contains">/Anime/Movies/</rule>
</smartplaylist>

standup.xsp

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="movies">
    <name>Standup</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="path" operator="contains">/Standup/</rule>
</smartplaylist>

As you can see as well as the playlists for each new category I also added a reverse rule to Movies and TV Shows

Next thing I did was to duplicate the Confluence skin into the xbmc home folder.

Code:

cp -r /usr/share/xbmc/skin/Confluence/ /home/xbmc/.xbmc/skin/Confluence_modded

then edit Home.xml in Confluence_modded/720p/ using your prefered editor

Code:

nano /home/xbmc/.xbmc/skin/Confluence_modded/720p/Home.xml

Search (ctrl+w in nano) for <visible>Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoTVShowsButton) + Library.HasContent(TVShows)</visible> (Maybe different for alternative skin)
You should find the following

Code:

<item id="10">
  <label>20342</label>
  <onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,MovieTitles,return)</onclick>
  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/videos.jpg</icon>
  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Movies_Folder)]</thumb>
  <visible>Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoMoviesButton) + Library.HasContent(Movies)</visible>
</item>

Change the onclick section to the following

Code:

<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,special://videoplaylists/movies.xsp,return)</onclick>

Repeat this for TV Shows which will be <item id="11"> under the part you have just changed while substituting your tvshows playlist.

You now insert the following after the <item id="11"> blah blah </item>

Code:

<item id="12">
  <label>Anime</label>
  <onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,special://videoplaylists/anime.xsp,return)</onclick>
  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/videos.jpg</icon>  
  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Movies_Folder)]</thumb>
</item>
<item id="13">
  <label>Anime Films</label>
  <onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,special://videoplaylists/animemovies.xsp,return)</onclick>
  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/videos.jpg</icon>
  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Movies_Folder)]</thumb>
</item>
<item id="14">
  <label>Standup</label>
  <onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,special://videoplaylists/standup.xsp,return)</onclick>
  <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/videos.jpg</icon>
  <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Movies_Folder)]</thumb>
</item>

Change the label part to what you want displayed on the home screen and change the onclick playlist name to point to your newly created playlists.
Also notice that thumb section is different for Movies and TV Shows.

Save and then select the new skin in xbmc and there should be extra categories on the home screen with full library view.