xlobby plug-in api?

[wmandra]

greetings,
This is my first post to the forums and I just had a quick question. I recently downloaded xlobby and I am very impressed with it. But I was wondering if there is any kind of plug-in api for xlobby. I know that xlobby can run external programs, but I would like something a little more seamless. For example, I would like to create a tv plugin that will work with my ATI AIW and support watching live tv, pausing / recording live tv, and EPG.
Thanks in advance,
Bill

[stevenhanna6]

there is no plugin support at this time, what are you using right now to do this? myhtpc?

[wmandra]

I was using myHTPC, but their plugin support is horrible (unless you are a delphi programmer). I think Xlobby is alot more powerfull, so I will be giving up on myHTPC and switching over. Now that I have almost finished my WMP9player "plugin" for Xlobby, I am going to move on to an FM tuner plugin, then a TV plugin (live TV, timeshifting, recording, EPG). I know that there are other programs out there that do this, but unfortunately they don't share the same user interface as Xlobby, so I figure I will just do these next to using the same sendmessage style API that I used for WMP9player. BTW, both the FM and TV plugins will be based on the ATI AIW cards.

[stevenhanna6]

sounds like your know what you are doing....I think once I get the next release out I should look into adding some type of plugin support.....not sure how I will go about adding it....any suggestions? I assume you made some type of exe plugin.......my ir usbuirt plugin is actually an exe plugin that has 2 way communication with xlobby it has uses a protocol I made up......basiclly I talk to it and it talks to me.....I wonder if an exe plugin architecture built on launching a hidden exe and communicating with it would be enough....of course the communication protocol would have to be desided on...and what plugin people want it to do...but it would extremly flexible and easy to manage.

I think DLL is another approach....but I know very little about DLLs and how it would work.

[munderhill]

Steven,

The dll approach is much cleaner than the exe. The application (xlobby) and the dll are more tightly coupled and therefore provide a smoother user experience. See this article on MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/defau ... mework.asp

I hope this helps...

[wmandra]

steven,
I think that the .exe plugin approach is a good start, but like munderhill said a dll approach would allow for much tighter integration. The only ways that I can think of to really implement an API based on exe's is through sendmessage and possibly some sort of shared memory map, maybe through the win32 mapviewoffile api??
As far as a dll approach, I think the most important thing is defining the exported function names that the Xlobby API would require. I have seen people make poor choices before, like Next() or GetLastError(). The problem with these two names is that Next is a reserved word in Visual Basic and GetLastError is part of the win32 API. So in the case of these functions a plugin developer would not be able to use either VB or C. Actually, VB doesn't have the ability to directly export dll functions out of the box, but there is an add-in called vbAdvance that makes it possible.

BTW, I am finishing up all the code for my WMP9 and TV plugins this week. I have already integrated both of them into my skin, all that is left is the program guide stuff and some XMLTV conversion and scheduling. If you want when I get the skin and the plugins finished I can send them to you if you want to add them to the downloads section. Let me know.....

Also, if there is anything else that you need help with just send me a message. I am currently taking some extended time off from work so I can work on some fun projects like this.

Bill

[noviceboy]

Bill,

have you finished yet?. I would love to have a look at these