Hello,
XBMC Skin Manager is a Windows program that download/update, build and upload automatically skins from XBMC Skinning Project and HTTP links to your xbox.
There is a screenshot:


Using : unzip the archive where you want and run XBMC Skin Manager.exe, fill all config forms, check the skins you want working on, and click start !
(more detailed user guide on website)

Notes :

• it's only tested on XBMC, UnleashX and Avalaunch FTP servers.
• The application can seem frozen while operations, it's normal, don't kill it !

To skins creators : if you want to see your skin on XBMC Skin Manager, please PM me.

Just tried it, and it works brilliantly. Perfect app to tie all the XBMC skins together.

Excellent job! Thanks.

EDIT: Just one thing about its operation. When the program starts to checkout, the program window goes blank (white), and appears as if its not working, though it is working. Can you add some kind of indicator bar so the app shows its progress? Other than that, it worked perfectly.

Awesome

A progress bar would be nice. Windows gave the (not responding) in the title bar for me but I just waited and everything worked fine.

M

It looks nice. I will have to dl it when I get the chance.

Really nice work!!! Thanks to all involved.
bb

Version 0.51 released !
Changelog:

• No more freezes while operations
• Distant resetting XBMC Skin settings (for incompatible skins)
• .BAT files with arguments supported
• Fixed : bug at xml update : the file were downloaded every time
• Fixed : bug at unbuilded skin uploading
• Changed : if the Internet connection test is succeed but not the SVN one, only SVN skins are concerned
• Updated WxPython to 2.8.6.1 Unicode
• Updated PySVN to 1.5.2 (SVN v1.4.5)

Actually, there is a problem with new Basics-101 building system but it will be fixed soon.

Tried your latest version, and it works great. The status screen works and the skin reset function worked great. Thanks for the hard work.

Just a note to those wanting to grab the latest MC360 (skin rev. 1006 or later). If your using an XBMC T3CH build dated November 17th 2007 Svn Rev10770 Build or older, you'll want to hold off updating the MC360 skin until T3CH releases a newer build, or compile your own build of XBMC from the latest SVN, since theres been a change to MC360's string localization, which is the same as XBMC and you will need an XBMC revision 10780 or later for the latest MC360 skin to be compatiable.

This also affects Basic-101 and probably soon Xbox-Classic and Vision (if I get bored enough to do them) soon

Never used this app but maybe if it hasn't allready got one it needs a changelog reader for the SVN

The app have a changelog reader for SVN skins.
Thanks for BAT file updating, Basics-101 building should work now if you have SVN revision 1011+.

great program...Thanks a lot.

Hello,
version 0.6 has been released !
There is the changelog :

• Completely rewritten from scratch (lots of little adds, changes and bugfixes)
• XML compatibiliy with 0.5x is broken
• removed : XML tag langfolder (replaced by choicefolder type 2)
• added : XML tag choicefolder (2 variants), buildfolder
• changed : now real skin directory is auto-detected (even if skin name and directory are named differently). So now [BUILDdir] macro always works.
• Language files use same XML pattern as XBMC (thx to Nuka1195 for parser)
• Anonymous stats are sent about skins downloads (a stats page will appear soon)

As you can see in chagelog, it's a complete code rewriting but there is no big change nor new feature.

I can't seem to select "Download/Update" in the Configuration tab; it is grayed out.

cool i will try it out

Strange... This is grayed when network detection fails. Have you an error message at starting ?
Have you a proxy ? (because it's not handled)

No error message. No proxy. I have a firewall, but the "XBMCSm.exe" is in the "Allow" list, and I know that is working because it is detecting that there are new versions of skins (including the "skin" XBMC Skin Manager), and the FTP transfer to the Xbox is fine.. Firewall is Norton Internet Security, btw (just using it until the free trial runs out, then I'll go get a real program to use). The previous version was working fine. Updated as per instructions, deleting everything but the Skins directory, and extracting to original folder, then updated the firewall to make sure it didn't recognize that XBMCsm.exe had changed.

BTW, I just now disabled the firewall, and same problem.

Just tried your updated Skin Manager and it works great. Transfered 4 skins perfectly. Thanks for the hard work.

In case your wondering, heres some of my config stats: WinXP Pro SP3/XBMC rev. 12263/Comodo Firewall 2.4 (windows firewall off)/Xbox mod - Chipped/Network - ethernet

@JoeUser38, I think your problem lies within your firewall. When I block Xbmc Skin Manager's access to my box with my firewall, the same behavior happens, where the "Download/Update" option becomes grayed out.

Try completely uninstalling your Norton firewall, and ensure Microsoft's built-in firewall is off. I personally use Comodo's free firewall version 2.4. I've tried their latest version, but its a bit obtrusive and bloated, so for now I'm sticking with their 2.4 version. If you want to try it, you can download it here --> LINK

Scroll to the bottom and click the continue button to reveal the link for version 2.4

I'll try uninstalling the firewall later (transferring some torrents right now). I did verify that the Windows Firewall is off, so disabling the Norton firewall SHOULD have let it right through (and like I said, it picked up that new skins existed, so it obviously had access to the internet).

Another possibility I was thinking of is that I am using Windows Vista (Ultimate 64-bit edition, SP1, all updates). Wonder if the new version has problems with Vista? My laptop is using Windows XP Media Center 2005 (SP3, all updates), so I can try it on that when my wife is not using it.

Can anyone verify this working on Vista, to rule that out?

Well I don't know for Vista (I use XP SP3). But if you say that SVN versions are synchronysed, then Internet access works (it's tested by pinging google.com, yahoo.com or microsoft.com). Try to run xbmcsm with "d" (debug) option : execute this

If an error occur, you'll have a "traceback" in log at starting which explain what is wrong.

Hmm, where does it save the log to, under what name? I can't find it.
I noticed it picked up that there is a new version of one of the skins today, btw, but still have the Download/Update grayed out. Still lets me transfer to the Xbox fine, also (had XBMC running, and it gave the standard warning that XBMC was the dash).

In this mode, the log is in standard XBMCSM window in "Operations" tab into text zone. It's something like that

If you want the log in a file (xbmcsm.log in intallation directory), add "l" option :


But I see what's the problem now : on prevois versions, Internet connection was tested with a dummy HTTP request on google.com (provided by a Python standard function) : it's a very heavy method, so I replaced it by a simple ping request which fails for some reason and "Download" checkbox is grayed when ping doesn't work.

BUT this doesn't affect SVN synchro (a little bug, normally it's skipped) that works : so you can see SVN updates but you can't download them....

For your problem, you can download this (replace your library.zip file into your xbmcsm 0.6 installation directory) : this a updated version which doesn't gray download checkbox any more, so you should be able to download SVN skin (I'm not sure about HTTP ones) and tell me if you obtain a traceback, because I don't see why the ping fails

I thought about something else : the ping timeout is a bit short (1 second) try to execute

And see if response time is > 1000ms

I'll try it out tonight (at work now). On the failed ping, I wonder if my router is blocking it (Linksys running DD-WRT v24 firmware).

Well, the new library.zip let me download the SVN skins, but not the HTTP skins, as suspected. Also, I tried it out on the laptop running XP, and it works fine there (original library.zip), so we can rule out the router blocking the ping. It must be related to Vista, or the firewall (unlikely, as it was disabled, but I suppose it's possible it doesn't quite disable itself all the way... I've seen that before).

There must be someone else out there that has tried this with Vista... anyone?
Or, anyone using it with Norton Internet Security (successful or not, we need to rule one of them out).


Ping ranged from 40ms to 44ms, and that was with Second Life running on another computer, and Azureus running on this one. Doesn't look like that's the problem.

Oh, I got NOTHING in the log other than the standard messages, btw. Could you verify that the command-line is "xbmcsm.exe d"?

It would be nice if you could add 'Back-Row' skin to the list. 90% of the time the only one i use myself and my friends

Did you just disable your firewall or uninstall it? I've had problems with firewalls where by disabling it, the firewall still blocked apps. I've had to completely uninstall them to regain full functionality. You might want to uninstall norton firewall, reboot and try the skin manager to confirm.

So far, just disabled; I've been seeding a couple of files non-stop the last few days, don't want to bring it down just yet, so I can't test by uninstalling the firewall just yet. This is why I was asking if anyone has had either success or failure using Vista and/or Norton Internet Security.

Well, actually, Back-Row is already present in list since it's in XBMC skins' SVN. It's even most downloaded skin !

There is the stats since 0.6 was released :


I will do a stats page on XBMCSM's website as soon as I can.

Nice!!! I was just asking based on the picture in the post. Didn't realize it worked off of svn automatically. This is a nice project.

Well, I can confirm now that my problem is not related to the firewall. I completely uninstalled my firewall, and got the same issue. For the test, I made sure the Windows firewall was disabled, also.

It must be related to Vista.

Ok, I'll try to find a computer on Vista for test it. It's very strange because I've looked on ping test request with a packet sniffer and it's a normal ICMP ping request....
XBMCSM is still on Python 2.5.1 (may it's buggy on vista), I'll try to update it to 2.5.2

Aha, getting somewhere now! I went into the Compatibility options, and selected compatibility for Windows XP, and still no go... However, I undid that, and selected "Run as an administrator", ran it, Windows asked for my Administrator password, and it worked (I log in using a standard account, not Administrator).

It would be preferable to not have to run it under an Administrator account, of course, but now at least we know it has something to do with the privileges. Also, at least there is a work-around.

Couldn't edit...

Just thought I'd mention that I don't know if Administrator privileges are needed for XP or not, as on my XP machine I DO log on with an Administrator account. My wife is using that computer right now, so I can't test that out (by logging into a non-Administrator account). Something to look into, it may not be Vista at all, it may just be that you need Administrator privileges period.

Haven't been able to check on my XP machine, but looking at the comments in the code, this seems to be confirmed.

ping.py:

Woops ! I havn't noticed that.... And like lots of XP users, I'm logged as administrator.
Effectively, on linux (where I'm logged as standard user), it fails.
I will try to find another way to test Internet connection (may be revert to dummy HTTP request).

Thank you for traceback !

I've updated XBMC Skin Manager, so now Vista problem should be solved : I've put back dummy HTTP request to test Internet connection.

Go here to download update.

Works like a charm! Thanks!

XBMC Skin Manager is now functional on Linux and support both local and FTP (xbox) installations !


It's only available on SVN at this time, go here for an install guide.

And there is the complete changelog:

• support for local XBMC versions
• Linux XBMCtex support
• Better debug messages
• Changed : build script extension is automatically set depending on current OS
• Support for skins without build script (using svn export function)
• The windows are now vertically scrolled (useful for screens with low vertical resolution screens like 720p/WXGA)
• SVN files operations are logged in verbose mode

Can you add this skin?
http://aeonproject.com

All of the releases are here: http://aeonproject.com/downloads/builds/