Kodi Game Controller Add-ons

Kodi has controller profiles for each systems it supports. Add-ons consist of several files:

1. addon.xml - the add-on fluff

2. layout.png - the picture shown in the configuration GUI

3. mask.png - optional, the button mask of layout.png

4. icon.png - the thumbnail used in the GUI

5. layout.xml - the button layout

6. strings.po - The names of the buttons

addon.xml

This schema is described by Kodi's add-on system. It includes:

1. Controller ID (identical to add-on ID)
2. Metadata version
3. Controller name
4. Internationalized controller name
5. Internationalized 2-3 sentence description including release year
6. Path to icon.png
7. Path to layout.xml
8. Image credit

Metadata version uses semantic versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH). Increment the:

1. MAJOR version when you make incompatible schema changes
2. MINOR version when you make schema changes in a backwards-compatible manner, and
3. PATCH version when you make data changes.

layout.png

Transparent image of the controller. Recommended size 1024x1024.

mask.png

Unused currently. Same dimensions as layout.png.

Possible use of this is to generate a costmap for automatic line placement.

icon.png

Opaque image of the controller. This should be the transparent image against background.png in the textures folder. Recommended size 512x512 as per Kodi add-on rules.

layout.xml

This file describes the button layout. The root <layout> tag contains the following attributes:

1. Path to layout.png
2. Path to mask.png

Button layout

The button layout is given by <category> tags. Categories are groups for buttons shown in the controller mapping window. Categories have the following attributes defined in categories.po:

1. Category name
2. Internationalized name
3. Category description
4. Kodi string ID

Categories contain a list of features. Each feature has the following attributes:

1. Feature name
2. Internationalized name
3. Feature type
4. Input type (analog or digital, defaults to analog)

The following feature types are available:

• button
• analogstick
• accelerometer
• motor
• relpointer
• abspointer
• wheel
• throttle
• key

Buttons

Buttons must provide a type attribute to specify analog or digital input.

Keys

Keys must provide a symbol attribute to facilitate keyboard mapping. Symbols are hardware-independent virtual key representations. The following symbols are used:

ASCII keys

Symbol	Character	ASCII value
backspace		8
tab		9
clear		12
return		13
pause		19
escape		27
space		32
exclaim	!	33
doublequote	"	34
hash	#	35
dollar	$	36
ampersand	&	38
quote	'	39
leftparen	(	40
rightparen	)	41
asterisk	*	42
plus	+	43
comma	,	44
minus	-	45
period	.	46
slash	/	47
0	0	48
1	1	49
2	2	50
3	3	51
4	4	52
5	5	53
6	6	54
7	7	55
8	8	56
9	9	57
colon	:	58
semicolon	;	59
less	<	60
equals	=	61
greater	>	62
question	?	63
at	@	64
leftbracket	[	91
backslash	\	92
rightbracket	]	93
caret	^	94
underscore	_	95
grave	`	96
a	a	97
b	b	98
c	c	99
d	d	100
e	e	101
f	f	102
g	g	103
h	h	104
i	i	105
j	j	106
k	k	107
l	l	108
m	m	109
n	n	110
o	o	111
p	p	112
q	q	113
r	r	114
s	s	115
t	t	116
u	u	117
v	v	118
w	w	119
x	x	120
y	y	121
z	z	122
leftbrace	[	123
bar	|	124
rightbrace	]	125
tilde	~	126
delete		127

Symbols without ASCII characters

Symbol	Comment
kp0	Numpad 0
kp1	Numpad 1
kp2	Numpad 2
kp3	Numpad 3
kp4	Numpad 4
kp5	Numpad 5
kp6	Numpad 6
kp7	Numpad 7
kp8	Numpad 8
kp9	Numpad 9
kpperiod	Numpad .
kpdivide	Numpad /
kpmultiply	Numpad *
kpminus	Numpad -
kpplus	Numpad +
kpenter	Numpad Enter
kpequals	Numpad =
up
down
right
left
insert
home
end
pageup
pagedown
f1
f2
f3
f4
f5
f6
f7
f8
f9
f10
f11
f12
f13
f14
f15
numlock
capslock
scrollock
leftshift
rightshift
leftctrl
rightctrl
leftalt
rightalt
leftmeta
rightmeta
leftsuper	Left "Windows" key
rightsuper	Right "Windows" key
mode	"Alt Gr" key
compose	Multi-key compose key
help
print
sysreq
break
menu
power	Power Macintosh power key
euro	Some European keyboards
undo	Atari keyboard has Undo

strings.po

This file contains the internationalized versions of the translatable strings above. Its format is described by Kodi's translation system.