Advanced Emulator Launcher metadata and artwork data model

Look in Pydocs_setInfo for valid setInfo() infoLabels.
Look in Pydocs_setArt for valid setArt() infoLabels.
Look in Pydocs_setProperty for valid setProperty() infoLabels.
Look in Kodi_wiki_artwork for supported Kodi artwork.

List of Virtual Categories

ROM Collections
Browse by ...
Browse AEL Offline Scraper
Browse LaunchBox Offline Scraper
Inside Browse by ..., Browse ROMs by Title, Browse ROMs by Year, ...

List of Virtual Launchers

Favourites
Recently played ROMs
Most played ROMs
Inside ROM Collections, every collection is a Virtual Launcher.
Inside Browse AEL Offline Scraper, every platform name is a Virtual Launcher.
Inside Browse LaunchBox Offline Scraper, every platform name is a Virtual Launcher.
Inside Browse ROMs by Title, Browse ROMs by Year, etc., every category is a Virtual Launcher.

Category metadata infolabels

Infolabels set by AEL when a Category or Virtual Category is selected.
setInfo() first argument is video.

Metadata name	AEL name	`setInfo()`	Infolabel	Type
Title	m_name	title	`$INFO[ListItem.Label]`	string
Genre	m_genre	genre	`$INFO[ListItem.Genre]`	string
Plot	m_plot	plot	`$INFO[ListItem.Plot]`	string
Rating	m_rating	rating		string from 0 to 10

Categories asset infolabels

Infolabels set by AEL when a Category or Virtual Category is selected.
thumb = DefaultFolder.png is the default for categories.
Trailer is an asset, however label is set with setInfo() instead of setArt().

Asset name	AEL name	`setArt()`	`setInfo()`	Infolabel
Icon	s_icon	icon		`$INFO[ListItem.Icon]`
Fanart	s_fanart	fanart		`$INFO[ListItem.Fanart]`
Banner	s_banner	banner		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(banner)]`
Flyer	s_flyer	poster		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(poster)]`
Clearlogo	s_clearlogo	clearlogo		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(clearlogo)]`
Trailer	s_trailer		trailer	`$INFO[ListItem.trailer]`
Extrafanart	extrafanart	extrafanart1		`Not implemented yet`
Extrafanart	extrafanart	extrafanart2		`Not implemented yet`

Launcher metadata infolabels

Properties set by AEL when a Launcher or Virtual Launcher is selected.
setInfo() first argument is video.
AEL platform uses an internal official list for the scrapers to work properly. Platform is never read from NFO files. Also, AEL platform is a Launcher property, not a ROM property.
Year and Rating are integers according to Kodi Pydocs. However, they are stored as string. If Year and Rating are not set they are the empty strings, which is different from integer 0. Kodi seems to handle this behaviour well.

Metadata name	AEL name	`setInfo()`	`setProperty()`	Infolabel	Type
Title	m_name	title		`$INFO[ListItem.Label]`	string
Year	m_year	year		`$INFO[ListItem.Year]`	string
Genre	m_genre	genre		`$INFO[ListItem.Genre]`	string
Plot	m_plot	plot		`$INFO[ListItem.Plot]`	string
Studio	m_studio	studio		`$INFO[ListItem.Studio]`	string
Rating	m_rating	rating		`$INFO[ListItem.Rating]`	string range 0 to 10
Platform	platform		platform	`$INFO[ListItem.Property(platform)]`	string
		overlay			int range 0 to 8

Launchers asset infolabels

icon label is set to DefaultProgram.png or DefaultFolder.png.
Trailer is an asset, however label is set with setInfo() instead of setArt().
extrafanart is a Python list.

Asset name	AEL name	`setArt()`	`setInfo()`	Infolabel
Icon	s_icon	icon		`$INFO[ListItem.Icon]`
Fanart	s_fanart	fanart		`$INFO[ListItem.Fanart]`
Banner	s_banner	banner		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(banner)]`
Flyer	s_flyer	poster		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(poster)]`
Clearlogo	s_clearlogo	clearlogo		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(clearlogo)]`
Controller	s_controller	controller		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(controller)]`
Trailer	s_trailer		trailer	`$INFO[ListItem.trailer]`
Extrafanart	extrafanart	---		`Not implemented yet`
Extrafanart	extrafanart	---		`Not implemented yet`

ROMs metadata infolabels

setInfo first argument is video.
Platform is a Launcher property, not a ROM property. Also, setProperty() is used to set the platform and not setInfo().
Year and Rating are integers according to Kodi Pydocs. However, they are stored as string. If Year and Rating are not set they are the empty strings, which is different from integer 0. Kodi seems to handle this behaviour well.

Metadata name	AEL name	`setInfo()`	`setProperty()`	Infolabel	Type
Title	m_name	title		`$INFO[ListItem.Label]`	string
Year	m_year	year		`$INFO[ListItem.Year]`	string
Genre	m_genre	genre		`$INFO[ListItem.Genre]`	string
Plot	m_plot	plot		`$INFO[ListItem.Plot]`	string
Studio	m_studio	studio		`$INFO[ListItem.Studio]`	string
Rating	m_rating	rating		`$INFO[ListItem.Rating]`	string range 0 to 10
NPlayers	m_nplayers	---		`$INFO[ListItem.Property(nplayers)]`
ESRB	m_esrb	---		`$INFO[ListItem.Property(esrb)]`
Platform	platform		platform	`$INFO[ListItem.Property(platform)]`	string
		overlay			int range 0 to 8

ROMs asset infolabels

icon label is set to DefaultProgram.png.
For Confluence/Estuary, user will be able to configure what artwork will be set as icon and fanart.
Trailer is an asset, however label is set with setInfo() instead of setArt()
extrafanart is a Python list.

Asset name	AEL name	`setArt()`	`setInfo()`	Infolabel	MAME mapping
Icon	(1)	icon		`$INFO[ListItem.Icon]`
Title	s_title	title		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(title)]`	title
Snap	s_snap	snap		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(snap)]`	snap
Fanart	s_fanart	fanart			fanart
Banner	s_banner	banner		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(banner)]`	marquee
Clearlogo	s_clearlogo	clearlogo		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(clearlogo)]`	clearlogo
Boxfront	s_boxfront	boxfront		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(boxfront)]`	cabinet
Boxback	s_boxback	boxback		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(boxback)]`	cpanel
Cartridge	s_cartridge	cartridge		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(cartridge)]`	pcb
Flyer	s_flyer	poster		`$INFO[ListItem.Art(poster)]`	flyer
Map	s_map	map
Manual	s_manual				manual
Trailer	s_trailer		trailer	`$INFO[ListItem.trailer]`	trailer
Extrafanart	extrafanart	extrafanart1		`Not implemented yet`
Extrafanart	extrafanart	extrafanart2		`Not implemented yet`

(1) Kodi standard field mapped.

Launchers/Categories artwork supported by Kodi plugins

Plugin	Thumb	Fanart	Banner	Poster	Trailer
AL	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO
AEL	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
HL	YES	YES	YES	YES	???
IARL	???	???	???	???	???

Console ROMs asset availability

Banner is a horizontal image with name of ROM/system. It is called Wheel in Hyperspin and Logo in HL.

Also, HL has both Logo/Wheel and Banner in separated directories. I do not know the difference between them.

No idea about what is HL Clearart.
Flyer is a vertical image. It is called Poster in HL.
EmuMovies/HyperSpin Media provide 2D and 3D version of Boxfront and Cartridges.
<1> In the HyperSpin forum you can find per-game/per-system themes that have Fanart and Banner. However, in many cases assets are inside SWF files and difficult to use outside HyperSpin.
<2> TheGamesDB/GameFAQs/MobyGames do not differentiate between Title/Snap. They just have screenshots.
GameFAQs have gamebox Spine, which can be considered a kind of Banner.
<3> GiantBomb has quite a lot of artwork. However, everything is mixed (Title, Snaps, Fanart, all showing on the same page) and makes it difficult to scrape. Boxfront is easy to scrape from GiantBomb.
RetroPie and Emulation Station users have nice No-Intro artwork collections including Title, Snap and Boxfront.

Artwork site	Title	Snap	Fanart	Banner	Boxfront	Boxback	Cartridge	Flyer	Map	Manual	Trailer
EmuMovies	YES	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
HyperSpin Media	NO	NO	<1>	YES	YES	NO	YES	<1>	<1>	NO	NO
No-Intro	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	YES	NO
Retroarch	YES	YES	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
TheGamesDB	<2>	<2>	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YouTube
GameFAQs	<2>	<2>	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
MobyGames	<2>	<2>	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO
GiantBomb	<3>	<3>	<3>	<3>	YES	<3>	<3>	NO	NO	NO	YouTube

AEL artwork policy

One artwork directory will be required for every ROM launcher. User will be asked for one Artwork directory and AEL will create subdirectories inside automatically.
To deal with Confluence (default) skin, user will be able to choose which artwork to display as thumb/fanart. For example: thumb -> Boxfront, fanart -> Fanart.
No more separated thumb/fanart scrapers. Thumb/fanart scrapers will be unified into artwork scrapers. Artwork scrapers will download all possible Artwork depending on site availabililty.

ROM artwork storage

Asset directory may be the same as the ROMs directory.

ROMs directory         ~/ROMs/SNES/Super Mario World (Europe).zip
Artwork directory      ~/Artwork/SNES/
Created automatically  ~/Artwork/SNES/titles/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/snaps/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/fanarts/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/banners/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/boxfronts/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/boxbacks/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/cartridges/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/flyers/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/maps/Super Mario World (Europe).png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/manuals/Super Mario World (Europe).pdf
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/trailers/Super Mario World (Europe).mpeg
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/extrafanart/Super Mario World (Europe)/fanart1.png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/extrafanart/Super Mario World (Europe)/fanart2.png
                       ~/Artwork/SNES/extrafanart/Super Mario World (Europe)/fanart3.png

Launcher/Category artwork storage

Category name SEGA. Each category will have a subdirectory with same name to store extrafanart.
Launcher name SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced). Each launcher will have a subdirectory to store extrafanart.

Artwork directory  ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/SEGA/fanart1.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/SEGA/fanart2.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-categories/SEGA/fanart3.png

Artwork directory  ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced)/fanart1.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced)/fanart2.png
                   ADDON_DATA_DIR/asset-launchers/SNES (Retroarch bsnes balanced)/fanart3.png

Importing AL stuff into AEL

AL thumb will be imported as title.
AL fanart will be imported as fanart.
User will have to reorganise artwork directories to take full advantage of AEL capabilities after importing AL launchers.xml.
Importing AL launchers.xml is deprecated and will be removed soon. AEL and AL have diverged a lot and the importing is difficult. It is better to rebuild the setup.

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SKINNING.md

SKINNING.md

Advanced Emulator Launcher metadata and artwork data model

List of Virtual Categories

List of Virtual Launchers

Category metadata infolabels

Categories asset infolabels

Launcher metadata infolabels

Launchers asset infolabels

ROMs metadata infolabels

ROMs asset infolabels

Launchers/Categories artwork supported by Kodi plugins

Console ROMs asset availability

AEL artwork policy

ROM artwork storage

Launcher/Category artwork storage

Importing AL stuff into AEL

Files

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Latest commit

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SKINNING.md

File metadata and controls

Advanced Emulator Launcher metadata and artwork data model

List of Virtual Categories

List of Virtual Launchers

Category metadata infolabels

Categories asset infolabels

Launcher metadata infolabels

Launchers asset infolabels

ROMs metadata infolabels

ROMs asset infolabels

Launchers/Categories artwork supported by Kodi plugins

Console ROMs asset availability

AEL artwork policy

ROM artwork storage

Launcher/Category artwork storage

Importing AL stuff into AEL