Changes to paths: What it means for scripts and plugins

As a follow up to my last post, scripters and plugin writers should be aware of the best practises for accessing files under python:

1. Don’t use the old Q:, P:, T:, U:, Z: paths. Replace these with their special:// counterparts below.

2. Use xbmc.translatePath() to translate any path to it’s true path if/when you need to read or write from the filesystem.

Note that xbmc.translatePath() will take care of number 1 for you in the meantime, but this functionality is not guaranteed to be available forever.

So what should you use?

1. Use special://home/ if you need to read or write to the writeable version of the xbmc install folder.

2. Use special://profile/ if you need to read or write to the current users userdata folder.

3. Use special://temp/ if you need to read or write to a temporary location.

If you absolutely have to, you can also:

4. Use special://xbmc/ to read from the xbmc install folder itself.

5. Use special://masterprofile/ to read from the master users’ userdata folder.

These should not be needed by the majority of scripts, however, so if you find yourself needing to do either of 4 or 5, please contact me so that I know why, and can see whether there’s a better way to do things.