LinksBoks (Links2Browser Web-Browser) integration into XBMC

[los93sol]

alright, i would like to start by saying i am not a programmer, credit for the work leading to the following screenshot should be given to ysbox! *it should also be known that this is still in very early stages. *the browser will start up, no input support yet, and it leaks about 1mb each time you start it. *ysbox is trying to clear this issue up currently. *he has also said:

<ysbox> and i could use some support to keep the motivation up
<ysbox> if you find someone to work on the xbmc part while i'm on the links part
<ysbox> it should be ok

the reason i am posting is because of ysbox request that i help him find someone to work on the xbmc side of things while he works on linksboks. *i have asked that he put together a todo list of what needs to be done, he is considering this and if he does it, i will post it here as soon as i get it.

when he originally tried linking the libs, it produced 3 errors. *the screenshot you see was accomplished with a quick and dirty fix by editing the header files to make it work, for the integration we really want it to be done the clean way. *here is what ysbox said about what needs to happen with xbmc:

<ysbox> there's work on xbmc to integrate it better
<ysbox> what i made is just a quick test
<ysbox> but if we want things to get done the "clean" way we have to make it "control" in their gui lib
<ysbox> +a
<ysbox> that is, like a textbox, button or file list control
<ysbox> then we could include it in every single window we want, just be filling some values in the skin's xml

if that means anything to you and you are able to help out, we have an irc channel setup at irc.rizon.net #xbmcmeetslinks *ysbox is *usually* in the channel around 2:00pm est, if you catch him there, he will be able to tell you more specifically what he needs at this time.

that said, it is realized that this is not a heavily supported task we are trying to accomplish, this is not meant to be pushed on anyone in any way, it is a test, ysbox had said to me already that he is doing this because he wants to prove to himself that his library idea is good and will work. *we are hoping this evolves, but currently the goal is to get it stable and work from there. *he has also said he does not want to work against the official developers so if you guys are opposed, this will not be submitted as a patch. *the only thing i ask is that you give us a chance to make this work and see what comes out of it. *you can see we are not begging anyone to do all of the work, we are doing our best to get as much done as we can and as you all know, it takes time. *also, i realize that the developers have other priorities and other things on their list, if you can/want to help out in any way though, please get in touch either through a reply here, pm, visit to the channel, however you want, we would welcome any help.

http://img210.echo.cx/img210/4425/pwnage7co.jpg

[los93sol]

alright, more progress today thanks to ysbox and his dedication. *britneyspairs threw some quick skin work together as well so we have a way to get into the browser without hacking through weather like we had been doing previously. *mind you this is still proof of concept, ysbox wants to hear feedback about his work. *he has taken care of the major memory leaks, it still leaks about a dozen kb, but it is stable for the most part now. *he has posted the source as well as a todo list on his wiki here:

ysbox wiki (http://ysbox.online.fr/?pagename=linksboks.linksboksinxbmc)

he has also posted a video of it in action and working. *the video is before the skin work so the browser is still entered through the weather button. *check the video out here:

watch it in action! (http://ysbox.online.fr/_xbmc/linksboks_in_xbmc.avi)

a few last words for the evening from ysbox in our irc channel:

<ysbox> i don't code further into xbmc, because i'm not a xbmc coder
<ysbox> and i want to have the feedback of the team now to see if it'll have its chances to get in it before we go on
<ysbox> so we should get in touch with them asap
<ysbox> make them into the page, let them see the video and make their minds
<ysbox> anyway, its 4am here so we'll sort that out tomorrow
<ysbox> gnight

if you are going to put it together yourself to start helping out and testing, you can get the skin mod from:

bp's internet mod (http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/picnet.rar)

and a few more screenshots for those of you who are interested in seeing it, but are not able to put it together.

homepage #1 (http://img259.echo.cx/my.php?image=screenshot0019ru.png)
homepage #2 (http://img259.echo.cx/my.php?image=screenshot0027ap.png)
browsing (http://img259.echo.cx/my.php?image=screenshot0049aq.png)

please post your feedback, comments, etc. *we need help from somebody who is familiar with xbmc source to go further with the project. *we do not want to see any unofficial builds going around with this code so please refrain from redistributing any builds! *this is all being posted to get this done properly. *remember, please stop by our irc channel to see what is going on with the project as well. *the irc channel is at:

irc.rizon.net
#xbmcmeetslinks

thank you for your time and consideration.

regards,
los93sol

[wabidwoveren]

we do not want to see any unofficial builds going around with this code so please refrain from redistributing any builds!

there is no such thing as an official build period. every build is done by somone on the side.

[vnm]

i know only devs are supposed to reply in this subforum, but i just had to express my deepest gratitude for this initiative. i relly hope ysbox get the help he deserves from the xbmc devs.

keep it up! this rocks!

[Loto_Bak]

looks wonderful,
the white background behind the mem usage makes it impossible to see. what sort of usage do you see? memory is a major issue, and if a video was playing i doubt there would be enough left for the web browser (which could be a problem if it were to be intigrated into skins.)

i am most impressed though, dont be discouraged if you dont get a xbmc dev right away. i'm sure someone will take a look when they have time

[Livin]

i also put my $0.02 in... i hope a coder can help out. i'd love to see this work even if it is not officially supported.

[BritneysPAIRS]

cheers for clearing that up wabidwoveren :tear:

[DarkVamp]

hi,

:bowdown: great work :bowdown:

go on ! :kickass:

[jaga]

looking good to me.

[los93sol]

confirmed, all memory leaks are now cleared up 100% thanks to ysbox.

gui controls are under way thanks to our mystery programmer ;)

hopefully more updates tonight. we decided to move the irc channel to efnet so it is now located at:

efnet
#xbmcmeetslinks

we could always use some extra help because there is still quite a bit to do so if you are interested and are able to write code please drop by the channel, if nobody is active just leave a post and one of us will get back with you when we see it.

regards,
los93sol

[los93sol]

firstly, i would like to announce to everyone following that the mystery programmer mentioned earlier in this thread would now like to be revealed ::::drum roll::::

geminiserver

he has been working on the gui/xbmc side of things while ysbox has been polishing the linksboks libs a bit. *britneyspairs has been helping out as well providing some images and a bit of skinwork, at this point he is still very limited to what he can do, but it is coming.

more updates today, i will let the images speak for themselves. *a picture is worth a thousand words!

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/6900/screenshot0198xc.jpg
http://img255.echo.cx/img255/4778/screenshot0202mu.jpg

that's all for tonight, more tomorrow!

regards,
los93sol

[gonella]

great!!!!! thank you so much!!!!!

[vnm]

:bowdown:

[VelcroFly]

yummy!!! :thumbsup:

[sonic]

wow this is cool. i wish u guys good luck with this project *:thumbsup:

[Livin]

los93sol,
can you ask ysbox if he plans to add support for css and iframes?

thanks for working on this project... it will benefit us all!

[los93sol]

some more cool stuff for today. the browser controls are now a little more usable, and can now be switched between window/full screen mode and the functions have been remapped to different keys. sorry no screenshots for todays progress, but don't worry, we will have more for you this week! ;) the irc channel has been getting quite popular recently, thank you to everyone for your support.

more tomorrow,
los93sol

[los93sol]

ysbox was hard at work today getting guicontrol stuff ready and cleaning up some other things. *there was some interesting chat today in irc with someone very important as well, but we can't give away too much information about that ;p

...and another screenshot for your viewing pleasure!

http://ysbox.online.fr/_xbmc/screenshot004.jpg

regards,
los93sol

[sCAPe]

looks great with the pm iii style !! :o

keep up the good work! :cool:

scape

[BritneysPAIRS]

http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/1.jpg

http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/2.jpg

http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/3.jpg

some skinning elements added

[jaga]

this is looking great! how is it in terms of memory usage? can you play music while you are on the web?

[gonella]

when??? when could we use it???!!! i love you!!!!!

[BritneysPAIRS]

memory useage is all good now thanks to gemiserver, no problems playing movie or music while surfing. its looking close to usable now the devopers need to talk abit more to each other, but close to all coming together.

[Livin]

again... very sweet and thanks so much to the people working on the project!

anyonw know if linksboks will support css anytime soon?

[BritneysPAIRS]

serously affini im just teasing with photos you know me.
go along to irc and ask dev tommorrow they pretty friendly.

[incognegro]

why would the devs be against this!? this is the most exciting thing to happen to xbmc (with all due respect to the devs). i'm thoroughly impressed. this is what linksboks should have been in the first place, a feature in the dash. xbmc should have had this a long time ago, then it truly would be a real media center complete with a window (internet) to all the media you could ask for built in. the best thing to happen (or might happen) to the xbox scene in a long time.

[Nickman]

if this gets integrated it could spawn alot of linksboks/xbmc optimized webpages.

i't looks great by the way.

[los93sol]

hey guys, we are still here, a few issues lately trying to come to a decision how everything should be laid out, how the controls should work, what features should be included, etc. there are so many different aspects to consider with this project so it has taken us some time to discuss how everything should be done. i am hoping we can get some real work done over the course of this weekend, but only time will tell.

regards,
los93sol

[incognegro]

wow! im so excited about this, you wouldnt believe!

[fiendish]

looks like more great work by great people. look forward to the expanded potential this could mean for xbmc. not only an *007cient way of livelink soon to be existent. many more nights for one day the light. :idea: *:idea: *:idea: *:idea:

[ceomr]

i tried the following...and added to my skin [konsolenumbau.at (http://www.konsolenumbau.at/forum/viewtopic.php?t=176)]

http://www.konsolenumbau.at/ceomr/skin/web_video.jpg http://www.konsolenumbau.at/ceomr/skin/web_audio.jpg

http://www.konsolenumbau.at/ceomr/skin/web_browser.gif

[incognegro]

this is gonna be great for my xbmc usb keyboard........i wonder if this means that i might have to go out and get a usb mouse and usb hub? :thumbsup:

[BaRTiMuS]

hey guys, i love what you guys have done so far, i wanted to throw my 2 cents about layout in if you dont mind....

i think due to the fact that most of us are not using hdtv's, the webpage window needs to be as close to full screen as possible.
i think it should look like lets say firefox maximized on your computer screen.. but the skin of the browser should be pm3 style and the top right section where the google search bar would be should be just big enough to display movie or music info. im not talking about tabbed browsing or anything cause i dont know if you guys can do something like that.

[sijones]

not sure if linksboks could handle this, but could a stream be launched from a web page using this?

so you click on a mms:// stream and it opens using xbmc..

just wondering..

[pre1014]

niiiiiiiiiiiiice ceomr! :thumbsup:

btw, thanks for putting out both the normal and help versions of your skin

[incognegro]

hey los93sol if you don't mind me asking, what is the general response from the xbmc devs since you guys got so far? yay, nay or undecided?

[los93sol]

i prefer not to comment on the general response from the dev's as i do not know the general consensus, the only thing i can tell you is we have spoken to at least two official dev's who are open-minded to the idea. it should be noted that this project is by no means complete, it is functional, but there is still quite a bit of work to do before it will be submitted as a patch. if you are can program and have knowledge of xbmc code please drop by our irc channel to chat with some of the people involved in the project, we are going to need more help soon so if you have the time to put into it and the skills, we welcome you to help out.

the irc channel is at efnet #xbmcmeetslinks

sorry i haven't posted any new screenshots recently, we have been focusing on establishing a rock solid core for the browser. i can tell you that over the weekend ysbox implemented a very nice emergency memory recovery feature so when memory is getting low, the browser will clear it so it should theoretically never run out of memory. we will be doing more work this week to try to implement some form of history keeping. other development props go out to geminiserver for his work recently establish settings for the browser (this will allow you to set your homepage and other preferences for the browser from the settings menu).

there is still much more to come in the future, we will not be adding anymore major features until we have a 100% stable core. i am very pleased that so many of you are looking forward to our progress with the effort, keep the support coming, we love to read it! also please realize these guys are working very hard to make this a reality, it is a rather large task to convert everything and properly integrate it into xbmc, so if you have the skills and are time to help, please, i am asking again for your help.

regards,
los93sol

[Nickman]

thanks for a great status update. keep em comming. and good luck.

[BritneysPAIRS]

ummm that skin is wrong sorry guys the whole way the broswer works is way diff now once new feature installed ill reskin id say in weekend then maybe it will be ready to look at

[vnm]

you guys are just awesome! when i tell people that use xbmc that it's probably gonna get a web browser, they are all like: :o wooooooooot! :kickass:

[incognegro]

i am very pleased that so many of you are looking forward to our progress with the effort, keep the support coming, we love to read it!

ofcourse we will, just as long as you keep the updates coming! :) i dunno about anybody else but i hate to be in the dark when im looking forward to something.

[HarshReality]

nevermind lol

[incognegro]

hmmmmm its been almost a week..........is it weird that im counting the days!? :joker:

[vnm]

is it weird that im counting the days!?
you're not alone :lol:

[los93sol]

...all good things are worth waiting for ;)

[incognegro]

...all good things are worth waiting for ;)
that better be true! :p .........im kidding, any updates on the status? warn me when im bugging you :hmm:

[rinocom]

*poke*
*poke*
*poke*

:d

[BritneysPAIRS]

we all like a good poke now and again :thumbsup:

[Gamester17]

how is the memory-leak status comming along?, say for example if i boot xbmc (and maybe do some other stuff first before), start linksboks-module and surf a bit (etc.) then exit linksboks, do i get all memory back?

[los93sol]

yup

[Gamester17]

k, ...and does it increase the inictial memory uptake of xbmc at bootup?, and/or xbmc's default.xbe file?, if so how much exacly? (ei. is everything or most code in the module/dll?)

[incognegro]

last time you said theyre working on making it use less ram; hows that going?

[los93sol]

gamester17, it is all subject to change very soon ;) but currently the code is not even allocated until you go into the browser and when you exit it is completely deallocated from mem so memory usage isn't effected at bootup at all, and it does not have any impact on the rest of xbmc. ysbox working on some things like history keeping and forwarding media files to their appropriate player. depending on how this is accomplished, it may require the code to be loaded into a section, but this has been discussed with some of the official dev's so it will be done the best way possible :)

as far as effecting the .xbe size goes, yes it does increase the size quite considerably actually, currently our .xbe with latest xbmc cvs is right around 10.8mb, to me this is unacceptable. there are some things we can do to improve this though, linksboks is still using it's own fonts which is about 3mb of the extra size added to the .xbe, if we go ahead and rewrite it to use xbmc fonts, we will be around 7.8mb, which is acceptable in my book because it isn't that much larger than xbmc current .xbe without the links code :)

ahh, one more thing, everything is still in library format, darkie mentioned converting the libs to dll's in the very beginning, he said he had posted about doing it somewhere, but i couldn't find the information anywhere. if you can find it or give some information about how to do this, it would be greatly appreciated.

regards,
los93sol

[Nickman]

gamester17, it is all subject to change very soon ;) but currently the code is not even allocated until you go into the browser and when you exit it is completely deallocated from mem so memory usage isn't effected at bootup at all, and it does not have any impact on the rest of xbmc. *ysbox working on some things like history keeping and forwarding media files to their appropriate player. *depending on how this is accomplished, it may require the code to be loaded into a section, but this has been discussed with some of the official dev's so it will be done the best way possible :)

as far as effecting the .xbe size goes, yes it does increase the size quite considerably actually, currently our .xbe with latest xbmc cvs is right around 10.8mb, to me this is unacceptable. *there are some things we can do to improve this though, linksboks is still using it's own fonts which is about 3mb of the extra size added to the .xbe, if we go ahead and rewrite it to use xbmc fonts, we will be around 7.8mb, which is acceptable in my book because it isn't that much larger than xbmc current .xbe without the links code :)

ahh, one more thing, everything is still in library format, darkie mentioned converting the libs to dll's in the very beginning, he said he had posted about doing it somewhere, but i couldn't find the information anywhere. *if you can find it or give some information about how to do this, it would be greatly appreciated.

regards,
los93sol
would it be possible to get a beta of the source so i can do a private build ?

[los93sol]

no, please stop asking! like i said already, all good things are worth waiting for ;) that said, the only way to see it before it is ready is if you are a developer or very talented programmer :) remember we need extra help so come by the channel for a quick interview :p

[Nickman]

no, please stop asking! *like i said already, all good things are worth waiting for ;) *that said, the only way to see it before it is ready is if you are a developer or very talented programmer :) remember we need extra help so come by the channel for a quick interview :p
heh sorry had to ask *;)

as for being very talented programmer is an overstatement. a smalltime hobby developer i can go with. but i highly doubt i can contribute with anything.

i'll wait for it to be publiched. as i've said before things are looking realy nice.

hmm just looked at http://ysbox.online.fr/?pagename=linksboks.linksboksinxbmc

is that source old ? or is it up to date ?

[Kain]

wow i cant believe i missed this thread for so long. everything looks like it is coming along great. cant wait for a release :kickass:

[los93sol]

yes that source is from the 2nd or 3rd day working on the project, very dated :p

[rinocom]

los,
you rock :kickass:
my old lady has a webpage that archived radio programs that she loves... they're all in .ram, so i'm beggin' for this module... :thumbsup:
keep up the good work.... i always thought that xbmc was worth payin money for, but when/if you get this workin, you'll have to set up a paypal donation page :d

cheers! :lol:

[los93sol]

rino, thanks for the support, im not programming this, the thanks for that goes to ysbox and gemini. once they get the gui stuff done and ready to be skinned, britneyspairs will be skinning it :)

[Gamester17]

as far as effecting the .xbe size goes, yes it does increase the size quite considerably actually, currently our .xbe with latest xbmc cvs is right around 10.8mb, to me this is unacceptableyes that sounds way to much, our devs are continuously doing everything they can to make xbmc more memory efficiant (thus the .xbe smaller in size + making other things modular, eg dll's)*

one more thing, everything is still in library format, darkie mentioned converting the libs to dll's in the very beginning... linkboks devs might want to have a look at xbmc's cdda-player and/orpython, also the visualization and screensavers are all dll-based (ex. see here (link) (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=5;t=159) and here (link) (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=5;t=8165) for some technical-info.

ps! off-topic and kind-of a request; ysbox should maybe also start to look into tying/linking linkboks somehow into python because python-devs/scripts will probebely have most use of it? ???

[Nickman]

rino, thanks for the support, im not programming this, the thanks for that goes to ysbox and gemini. *once they get the gui stuff done and ready to be skinned, britneyspairs will be skinning it :)
not be rude to britneyspairs or anything but if it gets put into the cvs tree why doesn't chokemaniac do the skinning bit ? after all he would be the best candidate as he made the default skin right ?

[BritneysPAIRS]

he probably will id say but no one was helping at start so i did. i think i will opt out soon adding any help here is impossible. ive allready helped in many ways that most people will be unable to know. anyway i hope he does come on board and skin it that would be great and i could start work on other stuff :)

ps i was asked and others that were didnt respond, also pm3 is pretty easy to skin will only take an hour or so to do skin when all gui is in, and of coarse he can reskin it if it gets into cvs, also if you or someone else would like to help come to channel cause stuff like this will make it take longer to get to cvs not quicker.

[BritneysPAIRS]

gamester17 nice to see you here you should come on to irc channel sometime with a bit of help from proper developers this could be a great feature its nearly there and surfs the net nicely (not as good as pc but pretty well). you can see gemi and ys on irc and talk to them and if directed from you it could be designed for gui and interface properly from start. and stop all manner of problems with direction and lock project to what it should be.

this will be added to tommorrow its just a photoshop mockup of full screenbrowser. it has video overlay on and context selected but both can set off. remember its a mock up
----redone down page---

[Gamester17]

gamester17 nice to see you here you should come on to irc channel sometime...i would but i 'just' moved back to my native country 2-months ago, the move and new job is quite hectic so barely got time to stop by here in the forums, (after 6-years in scotland i moved back to sweden), ...got all my stuff (and gf) this weekend, plus i don't even have internet at home yet.

anyway, back on topic, i have to admit i'm personaly againts implementing anything nativly into xbmc if it is not directly audio/video-media related, (you can read most arguments againts here (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=13;t=12234)), because xbmc is not an operating-system (nor software that should be runned as separate applications under an operating-system) and i don't think we should ever aim to be/become one either, ...however a webbrowser could be a nice feature in xbmc if tied into audio/video-multimedia (at least then it's indirectly audio/video-media related) but it should and will only be implemented into xbmc if its code is not intrusive (or buggy) in any way nor should it restrict the true purpose of xbmc by hogging resourses (foremost random access memory), the true purpose again being playing audio and video files (ie, music and movies), rant over and out.

[BritneysPAIRS]

cheers i agree and we dont want it to look like its an add on to xbmc but intergrated into it. or eles id say it wasnt worth doing as well. ill read your rants and raves id say we all agree with you xbmc is so good at media cheers for the effort.

[Nickman]

this will be added to tommorrow its just a photoshop mockup of full screenbrowser. it has video overlay on and context selected but both can set off. remember its a mock up
http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/x.jpg

it looks nice britneyspairs. the only thing that looks a bit wierd is the top browser buttons with the grayblue colored url field. the buttons look like they are floating abowe the skin. imho it would look better if they are together.

looking forward to the final version.

[Nickman]

he probably will id say but no one was helping at start so i did. i think i will opt out soon adding any help here is impossible. ive allready helped in many ways that most people will be unable to know. anyway i hope he does come on board and skin it that would be great and i could start work on other stuff :)

ps i was asked and others that were didnt respond, also pm3 is pretty easy to skin will only take an hour or so to do skin when all gui is in, and of coarse he can reskin it if it gets into cvs, also if you or someone else would like to help come to channel cause stuff like this will make it take longer to get to cvs not quicker.
as i said i didn't mean to discredit your work in anyway. just thought that maybe it wouldn't look like it was made by the same person. and as it's the default skin maybe original author (choke) should do the skinning.

i like your mockup btw. so if it's not included in the cvs tree your version will not bring any shame to the patch :d

[los93sol]

just to clear things up, we contacted choke for his opinions and to see about helping us with the skinning portion of the project along with britneyspairs, but he is too busy. we have been going through versions of the mock ups left and right trying to get it right, we finally have the layout nailed so we can go ahead with the gui portion of the code, it's all skinning from that point. please keep in mind the last pic posted by britneyspairs is only a mock-up, it is not a final design, the layout will stay the same, but the rest of the page is subject to changes. i personally like the context menu the way it is and the videoplayer window, i think the browser function buttons can use a little tweaking, but overall, i think we are almost there with the overall layout, look, and feel of the project.

gamester, no worries, your concerns are being addressed, we spoke with several official dev's in the beginning who all had the same issues and concerns as you, we will continue to do everything we can to make sure these issues are addressed and dealt with as effectively as possible.

regards,
los93sol

[Livin]

will there be an option for a true full screen mode? basically only a bar at the top (or bottom) for the browser buttons and address bar? this would maximize screen real estate.

[ysbox]

i don't like full screen because of overscan; it varies depending on your tv set and you can't calibrate the gui size.

i did a quick memory check:
- 40026112 free bytes on main screen right after boot with the browser compiled in (release mode)
- 40763392 without the browser compiled in

that's 700k but it includes 2 additional xbmc "windows" and some code that can't be sectioned. it currently crashes when the http server starts unless i don't suppress the preloading of one of the sections. hope to fix that soon, runs fine without the http server though.

the browser virtually doesn't leak memory.

the fonts are currently in the .xbe as a section -it's quite convenient- but can probably be loaded from an external file without a lot of work. however, getting rid of those fonts and rewriting the fonts system from scratch *is* a lot of work (if even possible) and is not on my short term todo list... i don't have much free time these days anyway.

the biggest issue is when we switch windows (that includes the screensaver), everything is unloaded so we lose the page we're on when we get back. i'm still thinking of a elegant solution for this.

the linksboks api already provides the framework to make xbmc handle certain file types or protocols. we should be careful with the memory though, probably free all caches before launching a video, because we're quite tight on memory with both linksboks and mplayer running...

for the record, everything browser related is enclosed with "#ifdef with_links_browser ... #endif" so if you don't want it in your build, you simply don't "#define with_links_browser".

that's it for the news on my part. i did some gui and skinning ( http://ysbox.online.fr/_xbmc/osd.jpg ) but others will be taking care of that now.

[BritneysPAIRS]

http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/xx.jpg

that ones a bit better

[rinocom]

do you think that you guys could add a screenshot of the browser opening a media (video, mpg or avi) from a page and executing it? everything up until now looks like you're watching a dvd while surfing. the best functionality imo would be to navigate to a page with, say .ram links, click on one and it come up in a (resize optional) window.

how close am i to what you guys have as a product? or am i way off?

[Gamester17]

the fonts are currently in the .xbe as a section -it's quite convenient- but can probably be loaded from an external file without a lot of work. however, getting rid of those fonts and rewriting the fonts system from scratch *is* a lot of work (if even possible)what about using/linking xbmc's existing ttf font loader and using those (with anti-alising) as a shared library instead?, would that not take up less memory? ???

[Nickman]

http://www.thraxen.com/britneyspairs/xx.jpg

that ones a bit better
yep that looks much better.

[BritneysPAIRS]

said id fix up tommorrow, couldnt wait to comment :) oh well hope it looks ok for mockup of full screen browser

[Asteron]

ps! off-topic and kind-of a request; ysbox should maybe also start to look into tying/linking linkboks somehow into python because python-devs/scripts will probebely have most use of it? ???
the easiest way to do this is to use the xbmc builtin commands. this would allow it to be used in python, the web server, and keymap.xml (like you can have a key that opens cnn).

if it's programmed as a standard window you should be able to show/hide it from python as is. other than that you want all those good commands (goto, back, forward, reload, stop, etc...) to be builtin too.

a script i could think of for this feature would be to show a slideshow of web pages.... or maybe have a feature of a script that launches a help website for that script...

[mau108]

hey guys,

i got visual studio 2003 .net and xdk 5933 installed. i followed the instructions on how to compile linksboks but it doesnt work, i build solution and then compile it, where the hell is the .xbe file?

[Nuka1195]

look for a folder called release, unless you did a debug build.

[mau108]

ye, it came with a .lib extension, i renamed it .xbe and upped it (6mb), ran it and it just reboot into xbmc :s

[los93sol]

update: ysbox started sectioning links, everything is extremely memory friendly, a few bugs to work out, but this should increase free mem when links is unloaded and should allow us to use fonts from a file instead of including them in the .xbe so we can also decrease the size of the .xbe file now :)
regards,
los93sol

[mau108]

i cant get it work?
is it suppose to be 6mb and .lib, do i jsut rename it to .xbe ???

thanks

[incognegro]

update: ysbox started sectioning links, everything is extremely memory friendly, a few bugs to work out, but this should increase free mem when links is unloaded and should allow us to use fonts from a file instead of including them in the .xbe so we can also decrease the size of the .xbe file now


beautiful :o , great to hear.

[los93sol]

mau108: first of all, you don't just rename files, you compile them. *second of all, what instructions are you following, the ones from ysbox site? *if you followed those instructions and used the stuff on his site you are waaaay out of date and it most likely won't compile with current xbmc cvs. *just wait, we aren't spending time helping people get something that isn't even done yet, working. *when we officially go public with it you will be able to add it in easily but as of now, there is not a 'simple' patch.

other news, the browser is now just under 300k when unloaded, seems very acceptable to me, but ysbox wants to get it under 20k when unloaded :) *hopefully the final numbers will be more than pleasing to everyone ;)

for now, ysbox has decided to leave the fonts in the .xbe, they may go to a file later. *(hoping so because i know the .xbe size is one of the things some of the official dev's have on their list of concerns)

i will keep you posted as things progress!

regards,
los93sol

p.s. *it was asked if we could post a screenie of the browser playing a stream from the internet...that part is not done yet so no. *it is a planned feature though so keep your fingers crossed and the support coming! :d

[rinocom]

thanks, i'm looking forward to the functionality.
you guys should set up a paypal support link. i'll through some money at you for the project.

[ysbox]

here's my latest memory bench:
* release configuration, launched out of the xdk (normal x2 bios)
* xbmc launched in "debug mode" (x+y at startup)
* free memory once in the main screen right after startup:
* -41082880 without the browser compiled in
* -40968192 with the browser
that's 120k actually, couldn't reduce it further without ending up with weird pagefaults in mplayer... ???
i still consider it quite stable as it is now.

now the engine remains loaded until you explicitely press "back" to return to the main screen, even when you're in another window (full screen video/visualization, screensaver, system info...); in that case, it enters a special "sleeping" mode which takes up a limited amount of memory (doesn't disturb video playing for instance), and when you're back you're getting back the browsing session you had before leaving.

additionally, the browser now forwards media files to xbmc, as an example i went to shoutcast.com and clicked on a link and the radio started playing, pretty sweet ;) it works on ebaumsworld.com too.
however, links behaves the "classical" way and downloads files to a temporary location and makes xbmc play the local copy, that means no direct streaming of files unless the file is a small playlist file containing the url of the stream (most sites do that way). i'm perfectly ok with that behavior and i probably won't agree to make ugly hacks to change it.

if you wanna check it out, here's the url of our subversion repository for anonymous checkout: http://opensvn.csie.org/links2xbmc
if you just want to browse code, go to https://opensvn.csie.org/viewcvs.cgi/?root=links2xbmc
use tortoisesvn ( http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/ ) to check out over an existing xbmc cvs from today (05/16)
if you're confused, sorry i don't have time to do support, you figure it out... or maybe you'll find some people in #xbmcmeetslinks, efnet to help you out.
i'll commit my changes later tonight.

and thanks to anyone who wants to donate, i'll think about it because i'm cupid :p

[mau108]

mau108: first of all, you don't just rename files, you compile them. second of all, what instructions are you following, the ones from ysbox site? if you followed those instructions and used the stuff on his site you are waaaay out of date and it most likely won't compile with current xbmc cvs. just wait, we aren't spending time helping people get something that isn't even done yet, working. when we officially go public with it you will be able to add it in easily but as of now, there is not a 'simple' patch.

other news, the browser is now just under 300k when unloaded, seems very acceptable to me, but ysbox wants to get it under 20k when unloaded :) hopefully the final numbers will be more than pleasing to everyone ;)

for now, ysbox has decided to leave the fonts in the .xbe, they may go to a file later. (hoping so because i know the .xbe size is one of the things some of the official dev's have on their list of concerns)

i will keep you posted as things progress!

regards,
los93sol

p.s. it was asked if we could post a screenie of the browser playing a stream from the internet...that part is not done yet so no. it is a planned feature though so keep your fingers crossed and the support coming! :d
i did compiled the .sln file and it brought up a 6mb .lib file.

i tried a compiled version out and its an awesome browser, but would like to try the latest version out ;).

i dont mind screwing up my xbox, i like beta testing, but if only i could :(

[Gamester17]

now the engine remains loaded until you explicitely press "back" to return to the main screen, even when you're in another window (full screen video/visualization, screensaver, system info...); in that case, it enters a special "sleeping" mode which takes up a limited amount of memory (doesn't disturb video playing for instance), and when you're back you're getting back the browsing session you had before leaving.what about closing/exiting the browser completly without rebooting?, so going back to normal xbmc (and of course thus loosing that linksboks session), does "back" do that?


for now, ysbox has decided to leave the fonts in the .xbe, they may go to a file later.three letters; ttf (true type fonts) :saint: *...using the existing library (ie. not duplicating the ttf loader)the fonts are currently in the .xbe as a section -it's quite convenient- but can probably be loaded from an external file without a lot of work. however, getting rid of those fonts and rewriting the fonts system from scratch *is* a lot of work (if even possible)what about using/linking xbmc's existing ttf font loader and using those (with anti-alising) as a shared library instead?, would that not take up less memory? ???

[ysbox]

now the engine remains loaded until you explicitely press "back" to return to the main screen, even when you're in another window (full screen video/visualization, screensaver, system info...); in that case, it enters a special "sleeping" mode which takes up a limited amount of memory (doesn't disturb video playing for instance), and when you're back you're getting back the browsing session you had before leaving.what about closing/exiting the browser completly without rebooting?, so going back to normal xbmc (and of course thus loosing that linksboks session), does "back" do that?


yes.
when you're done browsing you lose your session and get all your memory back.



for now, ysbox has decided to leave the fonts in the .xbe, they may go to a file later.three letters; ttf (true type fonts) :saint: *...using the existing library (ie. not duplicating the ttf loader)the fonts are currently in the .xbe as a section -it's quite convenient- but can probably be loaded from an external file without a lot of work. however, getting rid of those fonts and rewriting the fonts system from scratch *is* a lot of work (if even possible)what about using/linking xbmc's existing ttf font loader and using those (with anti-alising) as a shared library instead?, would that not take up less memory? ???


it may not be that simple, because 1. links currently needs its builtin fonts to work, removing them could be painful; 2. i believe making a library depend on the main app is an architectural mistake -we have to come up with a well-thought api to let the main app (xbmc) provide its custom font engine.

however i agree it would be a plus visually, i only think it's too early to break things and start doing that at this point, given it's not technically critical (these builtin fonts take up 0 bytes of memory when unloaded, and don't slow down xbmc's booting or running). for now i'll move those fonts out of their xbe section to a separate file, granted having the xbe size back to normal would help making people feel more comfortable.

a nice little feature to implement also is adding a xbmc builtin command like "xbmc.browseurl(http://www.imdb.com/whatever)", i suppose these builtin commands are callable from python scripts too?

thanks

[evilnick]

this sounds fantastic, am downloading and compiling right now to test.

[incognegro]

will the browser fully support keyboard and mouse since xbmc does already?

anybody testing it can give a report on the functionality plz? :thumbsup:

[los93sol]

incognegro: yup, works a treat

[Freddo]

will this support 720p/1080i resolutions?

[Asteron]

builtin commands are callable from python, the keymap.xml, and the webserver.

the keymap sounds pretty cool as you can assign a button to show a website like slashdot or something.

[Ph03n1x]

i think the all important question is... can you browse the forums? :lol:

[los93sol]

yes hi-def works fine, yes you can browse the forums as long as they dont require https login, in which case the libs are not in with our current source as they are not actually encrypted (if i recall correctly).
you guys shouldn't worry about the basic functionality and compatibility stuff, it is all either already or will be handled eventually. *remember, we want to see this in cvs eventually and we are combating the many arguments which have been raised about whether or not it belongs in xbmc and whether or not it would even work. *so far we are doing even better than expected at coming through and exhibiting that many of the things first thought to be problems are actually not an issue at all. *we have come up on a few unexpected things in the process, but it will all be sorted, no worries!

edit: decided to edit for affinis next comment rather than making a new post. thank you for the home automation comment, it is refreshing to see that people are starting to see the bigger picture of how useful this can potentially be. i played around with mediaportal and the webserver plug-in, works a treat for scheduling recording/viewing the guide :) let's see what other creative uses you guys can come up with for it :p

[Livin]

los93sol,
thank you, ysbox, and anyone else working on this!

i'd love to see this up and running as it should enable me to run my home automation web site from xbmc!!!

[incognegro]

if it does make it to the cvs, the homepage should be the online manual imo. im sick of having to go to my comp when i have a problem with xbmc

[dcy]

who does decide when/what comes in the cvs..?

[pike]

that would be a group deciscion by us, team xbmc

[XBoxgeek]

good work guys this is looking great.

i know you are not taking bug reports at the mo, but i did want to point one out that stops the pm3 skin loading in 16x9.

in skin\project mayhem iii\pal16x9\home.xml you are missing a close </control> tag at line 355 (the line above </controlgroup>).
also line 329 <onright>99</onright> needs to change to <onright>17</onright> so you can nav from my files > internet.

once again guys good job. hope you succeed in getting this in the cvs.

cheers
xboxgeek

[Djsnake]

that would be a group deciscion by us, team xbmc
get this integrated in the cvs please :)

keep up the good work! :thumbsup:

[DonJ]

yep, definetley one feature xbmc was/is missing. with this feature i finally won't need linux on my xbox anymore :)

keep up the great work.

[JustinT9669]

i can't find

above: // update display of the dialog if

in application.cpp

help!

[los93sol]

i can't find

above: // update display of the dialog if

in application.cpp

help!
this is not a support thread, it is a development thread!

[los93sol]

it has come to our attention someone has been distributing a compiled version of xbmc with linksboks. *we do not provide support and xbmc does not officially support linksboks either so stop asking support related questions and do not go to other boards with support questions either!!! you must understand this is to avoid conflict and keep things trouble free. *if you want to check it out, that is perfectly fine, that is why we allowed anon checkout to the svn, but if this bullshit does not stop, i will close it back to developers only! *thank you for understanding our position.

[los93sol]

things are still moving along, just no official updates for awhile so i haven't been posting. if the current stuff being worked on pans out, there should be some pretty impressive updates coming so stay tuned. by the way, sorry to anyone who thought the last comment was directed to them, we became flooded with support related incidents and do not want team xbmc to have to deal with that kind of thing going on for something that is not officially supported. the user who posted the build goes by ekb (i remember him coming to the channel, if he comes back again he can expect a perm ban, he is no longer welcome in #xbmcmeetslinks) anyways, just wanted to let everyone know their cooperation throughout that slight ordeal was greatly appreciated and that things are still coming together for this effort.
regards,
los93sol

[BritneysPAIRS]

ekb build is buggy in a few areas......not only in links stuff :)

[kimgitz]

minor slacks are part of the whole development experience. thanks for the great work your doing. greatly appreciated :kickass:

[HarshReality]

i know the "ready when its ready" game but based on progress thus far is there any kind of prediction on when a working beta will be availible.. i just wanna play with the thing.

[nevercares]

ekb build is buggy in a few areas......not only in links stuff :)
i disagree with you britneypairs...i have been downloading ekb builds for a while now, nothing was buggy until the links2 builds. besides the source was out there what's the big deal about putting it in a build? isn't this project designed to be used? how can this become better without having a good solid beta test..besides you need to read the .nfo file of his very thankful that you guys are doing this. after all you guys released it..
just my 2 cents

[los93sol]

i am not going to get into a discussion about this but i have a few things to say and i will not come back to this subject again. the problem is it is not beta yet, links in xbmc is still alpha and in early development. there are bugs in the ekb build, try using smb, there is a conflict that causes it to not work for *most* people, and smb *could* crash at any time even if it is working. aside from bugs there are some things that don't work yet because they have not been worked on yet. i would also like to make it very clear that we didn't "release" this, we made anonymous checkout possible for interested dev's and advanced users, not so the end-user could start testing and tell us all about all the problems we already know about and start asking for support. furthermore, it doesn't matter how glad he is, we appreciate support, but releasing this to anyone who knows how to use a newsgroup is a bit negative since it is not ready. that would be like someone activating the dvd code in a build and putting it out to everyone. the official dev's are very strict about who knows how to activate it for a reason, the code is not activated by default for a reason, we have not made links into a patch yet for a reason!

anyways, enough with my rant, harshreality asked about an expected timeframe...sorry to say there isn't. things are really starting to come together now, but there is still quite a bit of work to do and it comes down to how much free time the dev's working on the project have and are willing to put into it.

regards,
los93sol

[Bigtop242]

i too have been downloading the ekb builds and have not have any issues with his builds. he is one of the few who continue to add enhancements and works to make xbmc better. hdy was on the screen for a while and posting builds almost daily but now ekb is doing this for the comunity. also how does a product get any better if it is not tested? we are all a community here trying to improve xbmc so why shoot ekb? i am confused as the why you release the source code and then get mad because it shows up in a build???

is this not testing to verify that your code works? does it work across all versions of xboxes? the peeps that are always updating xbmc knows (or should) that this is always a work in progress. i'm sure rather than trying to "shut out" ekb it would benefit all parties involved to work together to make xbmc better. why be so bitter because he added the links to his builds. i do not know ekb but he does acknowledge and thank everyone in his nfo file. i'm should he would add a line not to bug you with questions since it is still under development in his nfo file.

lets all just work together!!!!

:thumbsup:

[los93sol]

no more of this nonsense please, if you want to post non development related shit, take it to a board other than the development board, i am growing very irritated with this. :veryangry:

[Bigtop242]

enough said. we all can see who has the atitude issue now.


:rolleyes:

[nevercares]

how can releasing this be negative? los93sol and britneypairs still don't see what the big deal is. you all knew that this was gonna be huge. you shouldn't have been releasing screenshots and code if you didn't want this to happen.
fyi: my smb is working correctly with ekb's build. so quit ranting, raving, and bashing people los93sol and britneypairs.
i like what you guys are doing, but your attitude sucks.

[los93sol]

...anyways, closing anonymous checkout now, you can all thank these two for it. please do not bother to post or pm me about it, this is the bullshit i was talking about. so rather than sit here and discuss it, i will just solve it, closed to developers only until it is ready for everyone else to see and play with. you obviously didn't read any of my posts so don't bother retaliating. goodbye and have a nice day! ;)

[Bigtop242]

what a winer.

[Bigtop242]

what a winer. we are just trying to have a discussion here but all we seem to get in this "better than thou" atitude.

[nevercares]

fucking crybaby! close it i don't know how to do builds anyways.

[rinocom]

ok... everybody calm down.

guys, you have to understand that the devs are getting frustrated at being asked about issues that they have already been aware of and are working on. this is not a production ready build, so don't expect it to be supported... they've said this time and time again.

devs, please take a moment to realize that there is alot of exitement about your project. the activity in this forum is just a reflection of that. it should make you exited. if someone asks an ignorant question... just don't feel obligated to reply to it. keep focused on the code. the rest of us who understand the developement process will keep the forum balanced out.

"can't we all just get along?" -rodney king

[nevercares]

i think it is funny as hell that this los93sol guy is so pissed over nothing. if you don't want questions about what you are developing then don't release screen shots and source code until you are ready and then cry about it when it hits. that is all i am saying.

[Bigtop242]

i know it is underdevelopement and my point was that if they just asked ekb to add in his nfo "not" to bother the devs i'm sure he would.

you are right. we are all excited about this but i feel that los93sol is not willing to understand this and is missing the bigger picture.

i do not understand why los93sol want to "blame" me as i am just trying to see the bigger picture here. if anyone wants to get mad at anyone for not being able to download the code then be mad at los93sol. he is not a good "front" man for the community.

[Nickman]

...anyways, closing anonymous checkout now, you can all thank these two for it. *please do not bother to post or pm me about it, this is the bullshit i was talking about. *so rather than sit here and discuss it, i will just solve it, closed to developers only until it is ready for everyone else to see and play with. *you obviously didn't read any of my posts so don't bother retaliating. *goodbye and have a nice day! *;)
good. :nod:

enough is enough. keep the good work up.

//nick

[nevercares]

you shouldn't be developing anything if you don't want to support it.

[cryptkeeper]

you shouldn't be developing anything if you don't want to support it.
where do they say they are not going to support it? they have released an alpha build, and the only people who should be using alpha builds are developers. i think it's a smart move on their part, since it only seems to anger newbies :nuts:

[goin3d]

the only person i see as angry los93sol. please read the threads before posting. these other people are just stating their opinions not anger.

[rinocom]

you know, if i remember my history correctly, people were amped about this project and were begging for info. so the devs released screenshots and stuff, and rightfully so, as they are proud of their work. eventually, source was put out to aid developement, under the understanding that it was still a "work in progress" ("work in progress" is used time, and time again in the forums) they were stressing that it wasn't going to work in some areas, even if at all. all bets were off. now everyone is crying because the devs are reacting to being inindated with questions inappropriate for this forum.

guys, just stop trying to get your "last word in" and let things get back on track. i find it hard to believe that this is a forum of professionals. if you want to resort to personal attacks against the devs, or just outright complain... go join some teenage yahoo newsgroup about britney spears new cd, or something. if your not part of the solution, your part of the problem.

[goin3d]

you need to read the threads. the personal attack was on ekb by los93sol.

[SuReSHoT]

god damn you two ignorant fools. you ever stop to think that people who can help now dont hve the opportunity to help due to you guys just running you mouths?? what part of start another topic did you not catch? can you not read the forums subject? does it not say development? now since you ignorant fools want to disregard the forum rules, and just blab on about something you dont really have a part of, others like myself can not help anymore. :veryangry:

i mean, is it really that hard to listen to what you're asked? i feel like i'm in damn public school again, one kid does something stupid, so the whole class gets punished. :stare:

so, thanks again to the retards that can't take a hint, mind you read, and thanks for causing this project to be locked up. i'm sure many will appreciate your pathetic asses for it.

well, my apologies go out to los, it's a shame that these two fools had to ruin such an awesome project. :sniffle:

hopefully after this situation settles down, we, the respectable public, will have access again to contribute what we can. again, it's a shame that the devs are forced to treat us like public schoolers, but with the situation at hand, can you blame them?

good luck with the rest of the project, i'll be keeping my eye on this topic for when you have something for us to try. just a suggestion but, instead of locking those who want to help out, why not just kick these idiots off the forums instead, it's not like they regard rules at all, and isnt that grounds for a ban? ;)

[Bigtop242]

blah blah blah...

:sleep: :sleep:


you have been warned by a staff member. your warning level has been increased, and this will be viewable to all members. once you have reached the maximum warning level, your posting permissions will be revoked.
you have been warned from the following post: http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin....ry71267 (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=5;t=12315#entry71267)

i dunno what you are trying to proove here, but...


i would like everyone to know that i am being treated now as an out cast for this when i was trying to unite everyone here with ekb. that is all.

now someone wants to blame me.

[rinocom]

you need to read the threads. the personal attack was on ekb by los93sol.
hhmmmm... let's go through a couple here....


bigtop242 - posted: may 25 2005,16:27
"enough said. we all can see who has the atitude issue now."

nevercares - posted: may 25 2005,16:27
"fyi: my smb is working correctly with ekb's build. so quit ranting, raving, and bashing people los93sol and britneypairs.
i like what you guys are doing, but your attitude sucks."

bigtop242 - posted: may 25 2005,16:37
"what a winer."

bigtop242 - posted: may 25 2005,16:39
"what a winer. we are just trying to have a discussion here but all we seem to get in this "better than thou" atitude."

nevercares - posted: may 25 2005,16:43
"fucking crybaby! close it i don't know how to do builds anyways."


history lesson over

[Bigtop242]

blah blah blah...


:sleep: :sleep: :sleep:

[SuReSHoT]

blah blah blah...


:sleep: :sleep: :sleep:
boring isn't it? falling asleep on us now? well, hopefully you'll sleep by the request to have you kicked from the forums. there is no room for incompetent jerks like yourself. hopefully a dev will read this topic and take care of the rats that like to ruin everything for everyone else..

[Bigtop242]

again..

blah blah blah.. no one here wants to listen so. blah blah blah.

oh and btw kick me who the @#^% cares!!!!??

:bomb:

[Hullebulle]

every post beneath this one that is not related to the development of linksbox will be deleted

feature suggestions, bugreports and offers to help are still welcome but no support requests and attitude discussions. :)

ps: and depending on the content i will send a warning.

[BritneysPAIRS]

final words for this from me, just saying its buggy no question about it. dont know about any other builds but that one is buggy as. play as much as you want just no bug reports please.

cheers also looks like a few other people have started to pick this project up a bit, a few people that can really help and finish this properly. cheers to you guys if you need skinning elements gemi can supply psds to help with look from ftp.

[jiz_king]

not sure why i'm asking this, but will it be possible to control xbmc from within linksbox using the http interface??

*groan*

sorry, just curious, like running a speccy emulator on an amiga emulator on the xbox.

keep it up please :)

[Asteron]

not sure why i'm asking this, but will it be possible to control xbmc from within linksbox using the http interface??

*groan*

sorry, just curious, like running a speccy emulator on an amiga emulator on the xbox.

keep it up please :)
wow that is an interesting idea.. it hadnt occurred to me that this feature would enable control of one xbmc from another...
although you can already do some of this control from python...

this sort of ties into the home automation idea in that lots of devices have web interfaces.

[los93sol]

haven't tested from one xbox to another, but yes it does connect to webservers, i briefly tested it earlier in the thread and it worked quite nicely. https login is a problem still, but as long as it is anonymous login it worked for me. as things unfold, this will probably be expanded on, but we have to concentrate on direct functionality issues first. when i first read your post i was a little lost on what you were asking, but that is a very good thought. there are a lot of uses for this, just use your imagination. i am interested to see what you come up with. a note for any dev's, when i tried to hit a loopback at 127.0.0.1, i get a socket error. i have the webserver running, but couldn't get to it, tried accessing it by the actual ip as well, same result. any ideas why that might happen?

[nomaanc]

can u guys plz give us a guestimate on when the final version will be released to the public???? :thumbsup:

[deltop]

can u guys plz give us a guestimate on when the final version will be released to the public???? :thumbsup:
1. it's already been stated that no they can't give us an estimate. go back and read the entire thread pease.

2. it's also been stated that it's really only in an alpha state nevermind a beta one so any guestimate would most likely be out by a very wide margin.

3. your (and my post) will most likely get deleted soon (refer to hullebulle's post above).

;)

[los93sol]

3. your (and my post) will most likely get delected soon (refer to hullebulle's post above).
lol! i had to laugh when i read that line...nah your posts should be alright. things have settled back down again. sorry those of you not directly involved in all of the drama had to sit through everything that was going on. all is well, and development has been continuing.

someone else has joined up with us, i am not sure if he wants to be named though, so i am going to keep it private until i chat with him to find out for sure.

...and now for the updates!!! links is now a dll, uses 0kb when unloaded, xbe size is now reasonable (i believe it can still be reduced even more). there have also been a few other nice updates that are not confirmed and tested yet so they won't be officially announced yet. a lot of changes have been made and a few bugs have been solved. stay tuned for more....

regards,
los93sol

[incognegro]

:thumbsup:

[los93sol]

more updates....

-with changing links to a dll, links no longer holds our history or forwards media files, that will have to be redone. the trade-off was worth the sacrifice though :)

-now for the good news, the xbe is 8.77megs, should be more acceptable for the dev's.

-the virtual keyboard now works for text field input support.

-more intelligent navigation through links within a webpage, you can now skip around links on a page with up/down/left/right on the d-pad. much faster than the previous way and is much less painless! (should still be tweaked slightly to optimize it even more.)

-drop-down menu support, links is now able to handle drop down menus.

-the gui is undergoing changes and is devloping nicely. more details on this as it unfolds.

-several bugfixes!

that's all for now, hopefully there will be even more to announce soon.

regards,
los93sol

[Kain]

wow guys this thing is really coming along nicely. keep up the great work, it really is appreciated :kickass:

[John Hoek]

perfect!

keep going on! ;)

[los93sol]

updates from ysbox last night:

-history keeping is back and working great!
-more export functions
-a few gui fixes

that's all for now.

regards,
los93sol

[kimgitz]

well done guyz

[Kick In Da Door]

will my mother be able to play yahoo & msn games, which are all i believe flashed based games

[los93sol]

will my mother be able to play yahoo & msn games, which are all i believe flashed based games
not anytime soon

[incognegro]

will i be able to use e-messenger?

[John Hoek]

we have kai for that kind of stuff already?! ;)

let's keep first the browser good (and reliable working) integrated in xbmc. after this things could be expanded with other stuff.

when is the first (unofficial) release expected? :?

[incognegro]

e-messenger is a website dude, no extra software or anything. it allows you to sign into msn through their website and send messeges through it too. i got an old linkboks version working with it once but not anymore. now it just crashes.

[HarshReality]

since there are all the colorful "when" questions i'll throw one in...


will it be done before longhorn is released?



(j/k)

[waxie]

not to take anything away from this project but i personally dont think you can beat the x-dsl linux distro ( http://www.x-dsl.org) that includes firefox and also comes with vnc by default. it is the fastest xbox linux distro out there, and very light weight (coming in at around 40 meg) and is dead easy to install with just having to copy over a handful of files..

i tried playing around with linksboks and found it to be a bit clunky. using firefox via linux i found the better option.

that being said though, im looking forward to checking this out new feature in xbmc, and it looks like its shaping up nicely. keep up the good work boyz :thumbsup:

[ysbox]

not to take anything away from this project but i personally dont think you can beat the x-dsl linux distro ( http://www.x-dsl.org) that includes firefox and also comes with vnc by default. *it is the fastest xbox linux distro out there, and very light weight (coming in at around 40 meg) and is dead easy to install with just having to copy over a handful of files..

i tried playing around with linksboks and found it to be a bit clunky. using firefox via linux i found the better option.

that being said though, im looking forward to checking this out new feature in xbmc, and it looks like its shaping up nicely. *keep up the good work boyz *:thumbsup:
i'm doing it for the fun, not to compete with firefox.
that being said, you're right, x-dsl is pretty sweet. but can you download videos or music and forward them to your mplayer with it? :p


will it be done before longhorn is released?


;)
it'll be done "when it's done" :)
or at least when it becomes useable enough to make people complaints bearable.

[Livin]

ysbox... well said!

i'm glad you are taking the comments (and annoyances) in stride.

some of use are very happy you are working on this and though we'd all like to see available 'this very instant' most of us understand these things take time and just appreciate that you are trying your best.

thank you!

[los93sol]

!!!!!for developers only!!!!!

sorry no real updates since the last time. *development has slowed way down, the dev's need some motivation and time. *we need to rally more developers, if you are interested, please drop by our irc channel efnet #xbmcmeetslinks and tell us a little about your skills. *i have also decided to re-open anonymous checkout to support the callout to interested dev's. *please realize the media forwarding code that was recently added causes crashes, so this is not completely stable. *it is also under development, that in mind, we do not want this to be released to anyone who can use a computer so please use your head and don't start passing out builds to everyone you know. *that said, i hope you guys will be able to help us with development now since you will be able to play with it again!

!!!anon checkout here!!! (http://opensvn.csie.org/links2xbmc)

regards,
los93sol

!!!!!for developers only!!!!!

[John Hoek]

what is the status at this project for the moment?

:nuts:

[los93sol]

nothing new, ysbox is going to try to get something done this weekend, but everyone is very busy these days, hence why i keep asking to get some more dev's to look at the source and see if they are interested enough to put some work into it.
regards,
los93sol

[aNtiBiOteK]

it's too bad this project is at a stand still. looked very promising from what i saw. since it would make most python plugins absolete (if you can have bookmarks and just go to those sites).. this is something that if it is done right will bring xbmc to a whole new level. since we'll be able to integrate a lot of things into the web that will integrate into xbmc.

[jiz_king]

^^ this.

any news los?

[incognegro]

sup los?

[los93sol]

still here, its updated to xbmc cvs as of 6-14-05, but nothing new as of yet, ysbox did a little debugging earlier this morning, he thinks he found the source of some of the crashes when downloading so he is going to check that out later. a few people have contacted me about working on the project, exchaged messages and emails a few times, and never showed up. remember, if you want this, we need your support...help with the code is the best way to help the project, donations are always welcome as well, contact me if you want to help.
regards,
los93sol

[los93sol]

update: ysbox has fixed the bug which was causing downloads to crash. he hasn't submitted it yet, but it is fixed :d

[aNtiBiOteK]

awsome!
thats great news, now we can finally have it integrated in to the cvs and it will take off from here

[pike]

:rolleyes:

[los93sol]

@antibiotek
not so fast...there are still quite a few other things that have to be done before the team will consider it for cvs. it still needs a download manager and a bookmark manager, it should use xbmc's fonts, etc. the enthusiasm is great though, the work on the integration is going from user support :d

regards,
los93sol

[aNtiBiOteK]

from what i saw few weeks ago, it looked very promissing. perhaps a lot of people just dont realize the potential for this addon if it is implemented; since media is a huge part of the web now.

it would get rid of the need for web tv, and all those other web services. would get rid of the need for a new python plugin every time a site changes a bit of their code. would bring pr0n and other goodies to the big screen :) etc... if flash is added, then well.. you know the deal.

this is really the future of entertainment. intergrating the internet with just about everything in your home. at this point, i just think about how wired my house is. i got the xbox as a front for my living room. 2 routers, one for voice over ip, one for wifi, voip phone line, about 4 functioning computers in the house, a computer under my xbox to serve as a dump / xlink server and comming soon a centralized server, with an xbox w/xbmc in every room linking to it. ok, i just went off on a tangent.

i would say that font support should not be on top of the priority list just yet. agreed, it is very important to have bookmark support; where you can just edit all your bookmarks in an xml file or something similar and upload it to your xbox. download manager is not that important, whats important is to be able to temporarily download files for the purpose of streaming. like atomfilm, yahoo's launch, etc...

my 2 cents,
antibiotek

[jiz_king]

isn't it really nice to have something to look forward to again?

just like the old days

*fetches slippers and pipe*

i remember.. back in 01.........

[vnm]

perhaps a lot of people just dont realize the potential for this addon if it is implemented; since media is a huge part of the web now.even some of the devs seems to miss that point... i really hope this makes it into the cvs.

[DonJ]

@los93sol are there any news?

thx

[los93sol]

the project is still alive and going. more dev help is still needed so if you can help please get in contact with me as soon as possible.

regards,
los93sol

[incognegro]

gr8 to see progress :) i hope this gets included in the cvs round the time i get broadband. so my comp can take an overdue rest

[HarshReality]

los, have you guys updated your anon cvs lately? went to see what i could see today and guicontrol is waaaay different than the current cvs for xbmc. as i normally use a file compare program to intigrate the alterations, there is no way as its a complete change from the current for xbmc.

90% change + blind overwrite == boom

[chilin_dude]

keep up the good work guys, can't wait for this!

[kimgitz]

hi guyz just thought u guyz rock, and want to say i for one cant wait to use it. just wanted to show my continued support to see this project brought to complition and hope this inspires you guyz to keep on the good work. :thumbsup:

[HarshReality]

kinda like christmas aint it... your the first one up, but you still have to ait for mom and dad before you can tear into things.

anticipation is going to be the death of me.

[incognegro]

:thumbsup: yea

[nomaanc]

:( any progress????? seems dead

[los93sol]

there is progress, i assure you, it just takes time.

[incognegro]

:bowdown: :bowdown: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[ysbox]

i just made an update, those interested should update now that our sources are still in sync with the current cvs ;)

it contains the new shiny xfont backend to display ttf fonts, but the font to use has still to be enabled manually, here's how:

edit: made another update, just get the latest svn version, be sure to upload every file especially in the skin and xbmc\linksbrowser folders, and the arial ttf font should be the default

[incognegro]

finally got my broadband!!! all i need now is linxbox in xbmc and im set....... :kickass: :kickass: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Livin]

any word on progress?

what about releasing a beta?

[los93sol]

things are progressing very nicely with links. i'll post more about what's been done since my last post when i have more time. i can say that we have picked up a few new dev's, and ysbox has continued working with links core and has done an excellent job stabilizing the code. still a few things in progress, but look for more updates from this project soon.

regards,
los93sol

[incognegro]

still waiting on the update ???

[ysbox]

https://opensvn.csie.org/traccgi/links2xbmc

in the "timeline" section
the info in the "wiki" is outdated.

if you get an error message, just click on "create new session (no login required)"

[los93sol]

ysbox made a few cool commits today. the links svn is now synced with xbmc cvs as of august 22, and has a cool new feature is testing phases. note that this new feature is only a draft at the moment, but it is very cool indeed, click the left thumbstick to find out what it is. also note we are aware this overides screenshots, it's the first commit of this new feature so tweaks are bound to happen and user feedback is always appreciated on these types of things. everyone keeping up to date with this give a big thanks to ysbox and the others who have jumped in to lend a hand with the project as well! :)

regards,
los93sol

[los93sol]

detailed instructions for compiling can now be found here: https://opensvn.csie.org/traccgi/links2xbmc

i am also going to post them here to try to eliminate some of the confusion...

this project is not officially supported by team xbmc. *please do not submit bug reports to them or their forums. *if you need to submit a bug report, feature suggestion, etc. please join our irc channel on efnet #xbmcmeetslinks *alternatively you can post in the thread on the xbox-scene forums found here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=396230&st=0


how to compile


note: this guide is detailed, but assumes you already have the xdk and vs.net installed. *those programs are required. *i am going to assume that if you want to compile links with xbmc that you have already completed a successful compile of xbmc by itself. *best to put your pants on one leg at a time. *;)


getting the links svn

-download and install tortoisesvn from: http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/download.html
-create a new directory and name it: "links"
-right click that directory and select: "svn checkout"
-enter the following for the url of the repository: https://opensvn.csie.org/links2xbmc
-press "ok"


checking for changes

-now you need to visit: https://opensvn.csie.org/traccgi/links2xbmc
-click: "create new session (no login required)"
-click on the "timeline" tab at the top. *you need to look through the list of changes for the last date it was "synced to cvs month/day". *it will not always say that exactly, but it gives you a good idea what you are looking for. *this is the date you need to grab xbmc cvs for.


getting the right xbmc cvs (with tortoisecvs)

-this is not a tutorial on how to compile step by step so i will not go through in explicit detail and explain this, but i will explain how to grab a specific cvs date with tortoisecvs.
-download and install tortoisecvs from: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tortoisecvs/tortoisecvs-1.8.18.exe
-create a new directory and name it: "xbmc"
-right click that directory and select: "cvs checkout"
-enter the following for the cvsroot field: ":pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xbmc"
-enter the following for the module field: "xbmc"
-in the "revision" tab click "files at certain time" and pick up the sync date you found before
-press "ok"


placing the files properly and compiling

-create a new directory and name it: "xbmclinks:
-copy all of the files from your "xbmc" directory and paste them into your "xbmclinks" directory you just created.
-copy all of the files from your "links" directory and paste them into your "xbmclinks" directory. *you will be notified that some files already exist, click "yes to all" to overwrite the existing files.
-go to "xbmclinks/xbmc/build.bat if you followed this tutorial exactly and read everything correctly your compile should go just fine.
-ftp the build to your xbox and enjoy! * * :)

hope this helps some people.

regards,
los93sol

[incognegro]

its too bad i cant compile a build............ :(

couldnt somebody put a compiled build on "the usual places" (you know where im talking about), then rename it to the "linksboks version" so no one would get confused. also, they can change the splash screen to a disclaimer of sorts that explain the cause of the build (for testing purposes only......blah blah blah).

i wanna help the project out in anyway, but testing for bugs is the only help i could probably be.

[los93sol]

do not ask for compiled builds!!! this has been stated over and over! :bomb:

[incognegro]

ok.......sorry, i get it....... :(

[Rand Al Thor]

anyone else getting errors when grabbing the svn?
im getting a message saying:

report request failed on '/links2xbmc/!svn/vcc/default'
report of '/links2xbmc/!svn/vcc/default': could not read response body: secure connection truncated (https://opensvn.csie.org)

basically it is grabbing everything i need except the default.xbe which is kind of important ;) i do like tortoisecvs better for grabbing xbmc than the one i was using before. keep up the great work guys, it is appreciated :kickass:

[los93sol]

no issues here and you are confused. there is no default.xbe in our svn, it is source code not a compiled binary. if you read my tutorial on compiling it you will understand how to get it working.

[Rand Al Thor]

hehe sorry m8 i dont think i made my self clear. i know there is no compiled binaries just source code, this aint my first rodeo ;) ive been compiling my own xbmc builds for a while now. i must just not have explained myself properly so sorry about that one. no worries though. anyway im still getting that error. not sure why. it comes right at the end. i tried reinstalling tortoisesvn and grabbed svn again this morning and still getting the error. oh well ill keep messing with it and see if i cant figure out what the deal is. thanks again :kickass:

[los93sol]

alright, sorry bout that then...make sure you have the proper date of xbmc cvs, if it is too new or too old there can be conflicts and it may or may not compile properly.

regards,
los93sol

[Djsnake]

will this feature ever be in the official cvs?
just curious (yes, i already know the it isn't official at the moment..)

[los93sol]

big update:
ysbox has been hard at it again! the gui is being overhauled and it is really coming along nicely. the update still needs to be re-skinned properly, but that will come as well. as for now you will be able to see the direction things are taking. the goal here is to maximize screen space by giving a complete full screen (this is still being tested to see if full screen is best or if a small border is better), moved the older "control panel" into an osd like the rest of xbmc, got rid of the original linksboks header and footer and added the information to infobars (also like the rest of xbmc). the most important factor to realize with these updates is that it adds a level of skinability to the browser that wasn't available before.

also in the updates this time around, the browser is now synced with xbmc cvs as of 9-11-05, and there are a few prototype style models available to demonstrate how the bookmark manager and history windows will look/work.

please don't forget this project is still a work in progress, but i think you will be impressed to see how things are maturing and how well the project is shaping up.

regards,
los93sol

ps the build.bat has also been updated to include all the new skin files so you don't have to manually transfer anything to your xbox.

[contrast]

i would like to say that ysbox has done a great thing for the xbox community !!

[lolol]

yeah!

full ack! make a video of the browsing.

that would be great!

[los93sol]

a few updates went up yesterday, nothing major, just fixing up the skin a bit from all the recent changes...things are shaping up very nicely with the new gui changes.

note: 16x9 skin is not currently working, would be but i do not have a tv for it so if any skinners out there would like to help out, you could do a 16x9 version of the current skin for us. :)

regards,
los93sol

edit: *alright, here are some screenshots of the current state of the browser. *note that this is not the final skin, but is the concept, also please note in the video thumbnail pictures, the black rectangle is not our fault, that is actually a bug with xbmc's gui calibration. *on with the screenies! :d

here you can see we have placed the link to start the web browser in the submenu:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/1820/home0ud.jpg

browser running full screen, nothing special here:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/1876/fullscreen2kt.jpg

here you can see the infobar across the top of the page. *this can be toggled on/off by pressing black. *the top line displays the title of the current web page, the second line displays first the url of the current page, then the status of the browser:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/5031/infobar1tk.jpg

another screenshot of the infobar to show how effective it is:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/1528/infobar20th.jpg

next up is the osd for the browser, this is really just the same osd from videos and music with some tweaked graphics. *it has proven to be an effective design yet again:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/3092/osd9gu.jpg

we also have a music thumbnail, this will display automatically whenever the player has audio, we opted to leave out the cover image because it wasn't really necessary and we decided to maximize the screen space. *this thumbnail can be toggled on/off with the white button:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/415/musicthumb0hk.jpg

we also have a video thumbnail, this one will display whenever the player has video. *as you can see it is slightly different than the music thumbnail, obviously the video preview window was necessary so we redesigned it a bit from the music thumbnail. *this thumbnail can also be toggled on/off with the white button. *ignore the offset black rectangle behind the video preview window, it is not our fault, it is actually a bug with xbmc's gui calibration:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/3241/videothumb4vn.jpg

next up we have the bookmark window, this part of the browser is not currently functional, the windows are created already as a concept of the design. *in this screenshot you can also see that with everything on the screen nothing is overlapping:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/2680/videoinfobookmarks0wx.jpg

finally you can see the history window, same thing applies here, this part is not currently functional and is being shown only as a concept of the design at this point. *you can see it follows the same rule as the bookmarks window with nothing overlapping:
http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/9379/videoinfohistory3nx.jpg

[bobrooney_78]

wow! looks awesome!

great work! :o

[Solo0815]

wow! looks awesome!

great work! :o
^^ word!
i hope it´s finished soon ... ;)

[mikenewf]

k i downloaded the new media center "xbmc-2005-09-13-pimped" with linksbok integrated , very nice work :beer: but i found some bugs, when i watch a .wmv video file the video goes faster then the audio its like the video is ffw but the audio isn't. its real bad and its not the movie ether the clip is 51mins and it ends at 13mins into the clip cuz the video plays that much faster than the audio........ also after i play some music mp3 and wmv,, stop them , watch a music video or listen to some web radio. i go back to listen to some wmv files from my ms dash and they don't work, they wouldn't play!!! mp3 still work but no wmv, everything works again after i reboot !!!!!! get work i'm just letting u know the bugs....... any what would be the problem??? could i just take the file that i need fixed out of another build ???

[mikenewf]

also it freezes up sometimes when i use the autoexec.py script to launch my playlist.... again i'm loving it very nice , now i need to get a keyboard and mouse

[los93sol]

um...those aren't bugs those are the results of downloading a crapass build which we do not support :no: thanks for the support though.

regards,
los93sol

[C-Quel]

wow!

awesome work! works a treat here :)

[gerner]

coming along very nice indeed. good work fellas :thumbsup:

[mikenewf]

um...those aren't bugs those are the results of downloading a crapass build which we do not support :no: thanks for the support though.

any idea what would be the problem??? could i just take the file i need fixed out of another build??? what do u think is the problem could be i just take the system\players\dvd player out of another build to fix it????

[los93sol]

any idea what would be the problem??? could i just take the file i need fixed out of another build??? what do u think is the problem could be i just take the system\players\dvd player out of another build to fix it?

k, my patience with you are gone...the problems you are having are not because of links or any of links code the problem is that you are using a leaked build which we do not support because of things like this happening, stop asking...we will gladly accept bug reports from people who compiled on their own and are reporting bugs actually related to links.

regards,
los93sol

[mikenewf]

o ok sorry

[mikenewf]

i also get the same problem with this build xbmc-cvs_2005-09-12-t3ch the move ""alex jones-martial law" every one should check this clip out its about how the cia attacked the world trade center on 9/11

[los93sol]

dude...that build doesn't have links in it and you have that problem...my point proved it's not caused by links so stop posting about it here, this thread is for links!

[taskrok]

awesome work guys, quick question

i edited my keymap.xml and webbrowserosd.xml so that the gamepad back button would open and close the osd menu (same as start button) (because i would always be pushing back to exit a menu and would close the browser losing my location and history), and then i used the 'un used' settings button on the webbroswer osd to activate the xbmc homewindow..

the results were the web browser would not close, i could return to xbmc and watch videos, and when i went back to the internet it was right where i left, with my history still intact.
i like it and i prefer it like this, but i am curious as to if it is safe for my ram or anything else?

[ysbox]

awesome work guys, quick question

i edited my keymap.xml and webbrowserosd.xml so that the gamepad back button would open and close the osd menu (same as start button) (because i would always be pushing back to exit a menu and would close the browser losing my location and history), *and then i used the 'un used' settings button on the webbroswer osd to activate the xbmc homewindow..

the results were the web browser would not close, i could return to xbmc and watch videos, and when i went back to the internet it was right where i left, with my history still intact.
i like it and i prefer it like this, but i am curious as to if it is safe for my ram or anything else?
we try to avoid letting links loaded into memory when it's not needed, that's why when you leave the browser to the "previous window" (usually the home window) the dll gets unloaded and you lose your session.

you found a way to make the dll stay in memory, that will take from less than 1mb up to several mb of memory, depending on the size of the page you're on and various other things. for basic use you should have enough memory left but i can't say it will let you do everything with python, dvdplayer, 1080i and so on. just set the "showfreemem" option to "true" in xboxmediacenter.xml and take a look by yourself (then report back! ;))...

[taskrok]

bad results... about 50% of my resets and boots would lead to a black and unfunctional home.xml

i reinstalled my build and everything is back to normal..
it may have been something else i tweaked with, but i am pretty sure it was the browser.

i wouldnt reccomend keeping the browser open anyway since just the home page of xbmc takes up half of the boxes memory.

[xboxSlayer]

i am new to compiling xbmc and i'm interested in checking out links. what i've noticed is that the releases are "synced" with the xbmc cvs releases. when compiling do i have to use the date that is synced with xbmc or can i use the latest build? if not, when is it going to be synced again? it's just that there have been quite a few bug fixes in xbmc and i want to compile an updated version.

like i said i'm still new but i like the idea of a web browser in xbmc and i want to test it out and see if i can help. thanks.

[HarshReality]

there is a link somewhere here to the links cvs, in the cvs there are detailedd instructions for compiling for a sync'd cvs build.

[mrw]

hi to all, it's my first post !!!!!


i know the devs are upset about compiles, etc but - i am desperate about trying the links integration and don't want to mess up my existing installation...can someone recommend an image which i can burn straight onto an xdfs or udf cd-r which will allow me to test links functionality right away?



i don't care if any other stuff doesn't work...or paths are messed up or whatever...and i promise i won't complain about anything!!!!!!



sorry for the intrusion, i know this post doesn't really belong here...

[los93sol]

not only does your post not belong here but it violates forum rules by asking for a compiled binary. also, if you know the dev's are already upset about distributed releases, why would you bother asking for someone to distribute a release to you? have you done something to contribute that the rules should be changed just for you? are you a developer? (i'd have a very hard time believing a developer wouldn't just compile their own release since there is a tutorial for compiling xbmc with links available with more than enough detail than any developer or even novice compiler should need to get it built and running). anyways, enough with my rant.....

expect some silence from this project for awhile...ysbox will be working on some major changes to the code, it will be awhile before any news comes from this project, but rest assured it will be well worth it in the end.

regards,
los93sol

[Rand Al Thor]

hey los could we possibly get a sync to cvs before you go silent :thumbsup: please oh please oh please :kickass:
if not, we will all be anxiously awaiting any new progress. keep up the great work :bowdown:

[xboxSlayer]

i figured how to compile using the synced cvs release. trying to compile with the lasted cvs doesn't work. but links works great, i'm very pleased with it's functionality. now i find myself checking 2-3 times a day for the latest synced version. if nothing is going to happen for a while then i'll wait patiently and i'll keep my links version as an app and use the latest cvs for my main player. thanks, keep up the good work.

[incognegro]

is this anywere near release in cvs in beta form like the dvd player?

[HarshReality]

unlikely.. as a point is been some time since cvs for links was sync'd which would indicate its still being tweaked.

**update: i mispoke myself, was sync'd to todays cvs (10-12-05)

[Rand Al Thor]

ace ;) thanks for the sync :kickass:

[splurt]

hey, great job on all the hard work ysbox. *i'm using the oct. 12th sync and got it running almost flawlessly. *i run it at 720p in xbmc.

just wanted to post the problems i've had so everyone's aware. *one of the things i've noticed is that the browser window doesn't like to come up sometimes when the "cookies" file in the linksbrowser directory is present. *to fix this i just made a script to launch the browser that will delete this file if present. *just make a python file with the following code and use it to launch the browser window:

import os, xbmc
if os.path.isfile("q:\\system\\linksbrowser\\cookies"):
* * * os.remove("q:\\system\\linksbrowser\\cookies")
xbmc.executebuiltin('xbmc.activatewindow(2800)') *

actually, the window doesn't like to load if an "options" file is present either, but since there isn't one present unless you press save options it isn't much of a problem except for the fact that the browser always loads with the defaults.

another suggestion is to move <leftthumbbutton>pointernavigation</leftthumbbutton> out of <global> and into <webbrowser> in the keymap.xml file. *this works great, i actually remapped it to rightthumbbutton so screenshots can still be taken in the browser window.

the widescreen skin file webbrowser.xml was not very functional in this sync, so i completely updated it so all the buttons work and the status is shown on the bar on the top and the video overlay is shown on the bottom right (toggled using the white button) etc. *i prefer this "windowed" skin at 720p since most websites aren't wider than 1024 pixels anyway. *let me know if you want me to upload this somewhere.

the last and biggest problem is cache control. *i played around with this a lot and the same problem exists with the 0.99 standalone release. *the cache sizes specified in the options menu are not respected at all and the cached data keeps growing. *this becomes a big problem since only ~20mb of ram is available to the browser window. *it only takes a visit to about 4 or 5 pages to fill this up and freeze xbmc. *however, the "flush all caches" option in the file menu clears it up and allows you to keep surfing without freezes. * so is there any way to modify the code to monitor the resource info and simply flush the cache (memory, image, and font) when it has reached a certain amount? * better yet, flush it when a minimum amount of ram is available, leaving some for xbmc to play mp3s, etc.

just thought i'd post my experiences/suggestions here..anyway, this is looking really promising and is an extremely useful addition to xbmc imho. *thanks and keep up the good work.

[ysbox]

i know about those freezes that happen sometimes, it seems it's related to the fread() or fopen() functions but i still haven't tried to debug that problem yet. hopefully it's not that hard.

about the memory issue, i figured that out too and haven't had the opportunity to dig into that one as well (i usually can browse more than 4 or 5 pages though...). changing the cache sizes in the options is useless because they're overriden with hardcoded values in the xbmc code for now.
still, the caches are automatically flushed when the memory gets below 3mb or when launching a media file, or even activating another window... i can browse for, say, an hour without any freeze, but i don't know about hdtv.. i guess ymmv.

again: we all know it's alpha, we all know it's not stable, we all know it's gonna crash until we say it's not anymore. :)


thanks for the skin update, los93sol said to me he will take care of putting it into the svn repository. we welcome any productive help we can get.

[chilin_dude]

hey guys, wondering if we're any closer to a release?
this will make xbmc complete imho and i can't take it anymore :d
thanks

[incognegro]

is anybody gonna answer the question?

[Lowen SoDium]

closer to release? that is a bit bold.

the devs have said many times that it will be a while if linkbox intergration is (if it ever is) made a part of the main cvs.

that said, i am currious as to the current state of this project. i has been a while sence there have been any updates. i hope that it is still coming along nicely. and i hope that those pimped edition s.o.b.s didn't cause too many negitive feelings for the whole project.

[Livin]

the fact that there has been no update in a month worries me.

[los93sol]

hehe, glad to see people are still anticipating the project, thought everyone had forgotten about it. :p i posted an update for the 16:9 skin a few days ago. ysbox is still around, and the project is still alive, just somewhat dormant for now. no worries though, more will come as time and motivation permits. posts like these are refreshing to see that people are still looking forward to its release and definitely help get the motivation up. :)

regards,
los93sol

[Lowen SoDium]

gald to hear it.

i am greatly looking forward to the next update! :thumbsup:

[Solo0815]

*push* motivation! ;)

i´m looking forward to the release ...

[quadraspeed]

would also love to see this happen for the public to enjoy. integration of linksboks right in xbmc is sweet!

:bowdown: keep up the good work! :bowdown:

[vnm]

hehe, glad to see people are still anticipating the project, thought everyone had forgotten about it. *:p
definitively not!

[jiz_king]

seeing ysbox working on other projects worries me. only bacause i am selfish. i wanty this particular project to end in a cvs commit so we can all appreciate the work that has gone into it so far. i think i speak for many when i say.. we appreciate your unpaid time! there are many of us watching this long neglected thread!

throw us a bone.

jk

[HarshReality]

this is a double edged sword.... inquire too often your an annoyance... too little and the project stops due to lack of interest.

from an objective standpoint however, a project can only evolve so far. while the cvs evolves links is a contstant dev. seperately. before it can truely work with xbmc it needs to goto cvs so their collective issues can be worked out together and at once. while y's has done a marvelous job so far (with some additional support) i truely think this project will only come to pass and complete when the entire xbmc dev body takes part in it.

[incognegro]

from an objective standpoint however, a project can only evolve so far. while the cvs evolves links is a contstant dev. seperately. before it can truely work with xbmc it needs to goto cvs so their collective issues can be worked out together and at once. while y's has done a marvelous job so far (with some additional support) i truely think this project will only come to pass and complete when the entire xbmc dev body takes part in it.

good point............i have couple questions to ask about the project though.

will it read html files for bookmarks?

will i be able to use the browser to open certain offline (local) files like a user created page or text files?

i think the last one would solve the constant feature requests for a text reader in xbmc.

kill two birds with one stone...... :thumbsup:

[HarshReality]

i dont see why it wouldn't read a txt file.. but to do that would depend more on xbmc's fileserver and the paths it uses. i mean it would have to have port 80 open to the directory...

i am still poking around for an editor... the notepad script was ok (still dont know how to use it) but one intigrated would be super.

[Lowen SoDium]

i dont see why it wouldn't read a txt file.. but to do that would depend more on xbmc's fileserver and the paths it uses. i mean it would have to have port 80 open to the directory...
that is only if linksbox doesn't support (or couldn't be made to support) reading local files as local files.

if if does, it wouldn't even need to worry about ports or network addresses when reading files from the local harddrive.

if it does, you could still do it all through 127.0.0.1 and not have share the file or dirrectory to the rest of your network.

[incognegro]

127.0.0.1? wouldnt that open the web server of xbmc if you put that in the browser? it wouldnt allow you to open any files......

[HarshReality]

127.0.0.1? wouldnt that open the web server of xbmc if you put that in the browser? it wouldnt allow you to open any files......
;) and if you opened the webserver, you get the interface (if active).

[Lowen SoDium]

127.0.0.1? wouldnt that open the web server of xbmc if you put that in the browser? it wouldnt allow you to open any files......
only if it were trying to read http://127.0.0.1/

but, if it where trying to read a local .txt file (say it was f:\readme.txt ) that xbmc made avalible, but only on the 127.0.0.1 address, it could be found at http://127.0.0.1/f/readme.txt

this is just an example how it could be done, and there are probably better ways to do it.

[HarshReality]

and in all this i restate my original point....

if its hitting a local loopback, and then a text file its still going through the webbrowser built into xbmc, and it reading that file will depend on permissions. also, would have to start a new string in the xml i think and do a bit of tweaking in application.cpp.... web with extensions like http, htp, xml, asp, php, txt, etc. to pump it straight through the web browser. then it should know to open it up... but again you run into the method your going to access them and currently with the rest of xbmc its either a direct hit, or the file manager. other links (video, programs etc. would not display those extensions in their lists.

[edraws]

this is wicked!!!

i never saw this post until today when i was searching for another solution non-related and still haven't found an answer....

however this is an awesome project and will make xbmc even better!

i played around with the standalone browser a little.

i hope you guys don't get discouraged and hope you get approved for the cvs.

good luck and looking forward to the finished project!

[ysbox]

just a little post to say i'm idle but not dead...

next on my todo list is making bookmarks and history work but the work involved is boring and doesn't motivate me atm... but i'll probably do it in one shot some time so we can move on. there's also an options window to make in the process.

while we're at it, as i see some activity here, let's gather opinions:
- what do you think of the current osd style windows? would you prefer "regular" screens for options, history and bookmarks (with buttons on the left and list on the right), and browser options in the "weather" settings category -renamed to 'internet'.
- are you ok with the full screen browser? did you prefer the previous layout with a border? maybe make a combination of the two (keep the navigation panel and the border, with hideable or permanent titlebar/urlbar/statusbar)

i also synced the svn, next update will have working bookmarks and history :)

[los93sol]

i already talked to you in the irc channel about my idea for full screen, but thought i would post it here so other people following the project can see as well.

i prefer the osd style navigation currently in use, for me it is by far the most efficient method as far as screen real estate, usability, and consistency (with the rest of xbmc).

that said, i am also a fan of the full screen view with no borders, especially for those people with plasmas where burn-in is a concern. there are a few issues with overscan. it seems like we need some form of browser calibration where you would be able to set the screen edges for links, osd position, and video/music thumbnail window position. think about the video calibration window and how you can configure it to compensate and fix many of the same issues we face with running links in full screen to get a better idea what i am talking about.

as far as the settings screens, for now, i would be perfectly happy having them linked to the osd, but feel it would be nice to have the settings also accessible from the normal settings screen at some point as development progresses.

a few other things i have found while using the browser is that when you download and put the download in the background you are left wondering how much of your download is left and when your video or music will start to play, sometimes the downloads fail and do not start and you have no idea what happened. it might be a good idea if the download percent could be added as an xbmc control so that when a download is put in the background it would toggle the url/status infobar and display the download percentage or maybe even a small progressbar in the infobar to show the user their download status.

just my opinions and some feedback from me, can't wait to see what others come up with and how others feel about it.

regards,
los93sol