[advocate99]

To enable full functionality of the WMC add-on in XBMC, you have to add two XML files to the XBMC Confluence skin.

For OpenElec XBMC installs, those files are found in:

/storage/.xbmc/addons/pvr.wmc/resources/skins/skin.confluence/720p

You have to copy them to:

/usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/720p

But, for OpenElec the /usr/share/xbmc is read only. So, instead, you have to create a duplicate confluence file with a slightly different name, add the XML files to the copy, and then select the copy as your default skin.

Enable SSH:

Settings/OpenELEC/Services/SSH/Disable SSH Password: Un-Checked

Login to the server via SSH using Putty or another SSH Client.

Copy the default confluence file to a new folder that is not read only.

cp -r /usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence /storage/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.wmc

Then you need to edit the addon ID so it looks different then the original confluence, do this by opening the addon.xml and adjusting the value.

nano /storage/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.wmc/addon.xml

you will see something like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<addon
id="skin.confluence"
version="2.1.0"
name="Confluence"

change "skin.confluence" to whatever you name the containing folder as (you may also want to edit the name value as well so it shows up different from within the XBMC GUI). In our case I would use.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<addon
id="skin.confluence.wmc"
version="2.1.0"
name="Confluence (WMC)"

Save and exit by pressing CTRl-X, Y.

Then copy the XML files from the Add-On folder to the new one, reboot, and select the edited skin:

cp /storage/.xbmc/addons/pvr.wmc/resources/skins/skin.confluence/720p/* /storage/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.wmc/720p/

reboot

In XBMC, go to

Settings/Appearance/Skin

and select the new "Confluence (WMC)"

[krustyreturns]

@advocate99, thanks for posting this very clear and complete workaround. Sorry it was a hassle for you, but its great that you took the time to make it easier for others.

[advocate99]

Krusty,

Thanks for responding. I'm very appreciative of what you've done with this, and I'm glad to be able to contribute. It wasn't a hassle for me at all.

I hope that you'll consider adding this information to the Wiki/Install pages/etc. so that others can benefit from my experience.

Thank you again for everything!

[Dilligaf]

This makes me ask that since pvr.wmc is now official will the series recording files automatically be included in Confluence or should someone that knows how make a pull request to have them included?

[scarecrow420]

I was thinking the same thing dilligaf, but I checked on the nightly Gotham build from 5th January (on windows) and the custom record dialogs are showing up OK for me... Perhaps it's specific thing to openElec?

I thought krusty did something so that the custom dialogs could be found, despite them not living in the confluence skin directory and are in our addon directory. Since a few releases now, we havent had to copy them into the confluence folder manually anymore but they've still worked.

[advocate99]

For what it's worth- OpenElec uses Frodo.

[krustyreturns]

I was thinking the same thing dilligaf, but I checked on the nightly Gotham build from 5th January (on windows) and the custom record dialogs are showing up OK for me... Perhaps it's specific thing to openElec?

I thought krusty did something so that the custom dialogs could be found, despite them not living in the confluence skin directory and are in our addon directory. Since a few releases now, we havent had to copy them into the confluence folder manually anymore but they've still worked.

I think what dilligaf is saying is, why aren't our custom xml files part of the skin proper (i.e. not custom) now that we are official. Problem is the pvr solutions are implementing the equivalent of these dialogs differently, at least I know margro's is different then ours. I think to get this done, we'd need xbmc to officially support series timers and their own standard setup dialogs - which I for one would love to see.

Techlife, when you have time please consider adding advocate's instructions to the wiki. thanks.

[Dilligaf]

My thoughts are that if it were included in the default skin then skinners would automatically include it in their skin. I may be totally wrong but don't you start with the default skin and then modify from there to make a custom skin?

Do other pvr use the same names for these dialogs? Should they be named something skin specific such as DeleteTimer_wmc.xml RecordPrefs_wmc.xml so that multiple pvr client files can live together in the skin?

[krustyreturns]

I started with a default skin - for a totally different function - and then created a new skin file for series recording dialogs. So there is no standard equivalent of these skin files.

I only know that margro has his own version of these skin files and they have different names. Which makes sense, the names I chose were not good, they should start with the word 'Dialog' (that's what you get for not thinking stuff through: names written in stone). I imagine the xbmc team would be reluctant to do what you are suggesting since all the skin developers would need to make these xmls but they would only apply to one pvr solution. If xbmc could standardize on series timer support though, everybody would benefit. If there is a pvr addon that doesn't support series timers, they could just opt out using the 'capabilities' flags that already exist.

[scarecrow420]

Sounds good but since gotham is in feature freeze it won't be any time soon so in the meantime we will probably just have to stick to the current way

So krusty, can you confirm the 2 files don't go in the confluence directory anymore and you did some magic so they can be found in our addon directory? What was the magic?

[krustyreturns]

Sounds good but since gotham is in feature freeze it won't be any time soon so in the meantime we will probably just have to stick to the current way

So krusty, can you confirm the 2 files don't go in the confluence directory anymore and you did some magic so they can be found in our addon directory? What was the magic?

I can confirm that it works, at least in windows and linux. The magic was undoing a mistake I made (one of the few spells I know). In the method to load an xml file, the loader first looks in the current skin directory, if it can't find it there i twill look in the resources directory of the addon. But it needs to see the exact same skin directory structure there to find the file requested, and I had misnamed the skin folder as 'confluence' instead of 'skin.confluence'. I never noticed I named it wrong until margro pointed it out to me.

[scarecrow420]

Cool, well there should be no reason why this just doesnt work on openElec then really... Advocate can you check whether the skin.confluence directory exists in the addons resources directory on your openelec build?

[TechLife]

Techlife, when you have time please consider adding advocate's instructions to the wiki. thanks.

Done. I just copied it over for the moment. I'll get it formatted properly in the next day or two. (Pending the outcome of scarecrow's question.)

[scarecrow420]

yeah for my 2c so far this seems to be an openelec issue which should be able to be fixed (by them?). There should be no need for these skin files to live in the actual confluence skin directory anymore. If anything, the wiki should just have a quick mention and link to this thread, rather than having the full gory details (since its openelec only)?

[TechLife]

I like that idea. Consider it done. We'll include fully if necessary pending further research.

Has anyone asked the OpenElec guys to look at this? I do not have a OE box setup for testing or I would. Maybe I'll throw it on a Pi in the next week or so I have a test bed and start asking questions...