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Scripts
Finally, we’ll get to the really meaty part of
XBMC customization: scripts. Scripts are add-
ons that add new functionality to XBMC in a
more dramatic way than plugins. There are a
lot of scripts available, and some require a bit
more setting up than the plugins we’ve seen
so far. Here are two of our favorites:
ROM Collection Browser Besides tons
of media, a common thing to fi nd on a nerd’s
NAS box is a classic game emulator and tons
of ROMs. As with media, there are front ends
that allow you to organize all your emula-
tors and ROMs, but then you have to run two
separate front ends on your HTPC. Fortu-
nately, there’s a script available for XBMC
called ROM Collection Browser that adds a
full-featured ROM browser and launcher to
XBMC, allowing you to surf through and
enjoy your games the same way you do
movies and music (image J).
To install it, hit the project’s home page at
http://bit.ly/9M0R9i and download the script
fi les. Unzip them into a folder in XBMC’s
scripts directory, just like with skins and
plugins. Unlike a plugin, the ROM Collection
Browser script needs some confi guration to
work, and it’s not exactly user-friendly.
Confi guring ROM Collection Browser is
done by editing the confi g.xml fi le located
in the plugin’s resources/databases folder
(image K). The confi g.xml fi le describes
what your ROM library looks like to the
script, allowing it to optimally catalogue
your games. Fully describing the custom-
ization process would be a whole article of
its own, but here’s the gist:
The fi rst half of the confi g fi le describes
general options for the script. For the most
part, these can be left alone. In the second
part of the fi le, each emulator you want to use
is fully described, including information such
as where the emulator is located, where the
ROMs are located, and what informationshould be displayed while browsing the
ROMs. It’s a bit daunting to look at at fi rst,
but every XML fi eld is documented in the
comments (the lines in the fi le preceded by
a “<! –”), so if you read them carefully and
pay close attention to the example emulator
setups, you should be all right.
For more information on confi guring this
script (and a functioning test setup) see the of-
fi cial documentation at http://bit.ly/ayHdUK. Grooveshark Another excellent example
of what a script can do for XBMC is the
Grooveshark add-on. This script allows you
to access and surf the massive music library
of the Grooveshark service (How is it so
massive? Are they going to get sued? Nobody
knows!) from within XBMC (image L). And
unlike a simple plugin, the Grooveshark
script allows you to log in with your Groove-
shark username and password, so you can
access and make changes to your playlists
and favorites from within XBMC.
Unlike ROM Collection Browser, Groove-
shark is pretty easy to get up and running.
Just install the script (either through the
package manager, or by downloading it from
http://bit.ly/bSP9Mp), and run it in XBMC in
the scripts menu. You’ll be asked for
your login information, and then
you’re good to go!
In this article we’ve only barely
touched on all of the diff erent ways
you can customize and extend
XBMC. If you want to fi nd out more
about all the options available, check
out the offi cial community forums at
http://forum.xbmc.org.