Artwork helper

Artwork Helper provides skins with a few options for building a list of images for a multiimage or list control from images available via InfoLabels. This is a small add-on that skins can use as a dependency, only doing what a skin asks it to do.

Current version only works for Kodi 17 and 18, use version 0.7.1 for 15 and 16.

Add-on setting

There is an add-on setting to pull extrafanart and extrathumbs from the filesystem, if there is only a single image in the library. It is off by default, but can be turned on by the end user/viewer. This setting is not needed if Artwork Beef is used to manage artwork. It can be found by navigating to Kodi settings -> System settings -> Add-ons -> Manage dependencies -> Artwork Helper. The Settings level may need to be set to Advanced to see dependencies in “Add-ons”.

Paths built from InfoLabels

These paths use InfoLabels to gather image URLs just like skins do.

ListItem multi image plugin path

The simplest form grabs multiple images for the currently focused ListItem.
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/listitem/?refresh=$INFO[ListItem.Label]

Mostly for fanart (fanart#), but works for any art type that has one or more images. Additional query params are available to modify its behavior, separate them with &&.

  • refresh is required to get Kodi to fire off the plugin when the focused item changes. Set it to something that will change when the fanart should change, like ListItem.Label
  • containerid points to the current ListItem in a specific container; either leave blank for the currently selected container on the Kodi 18 home window, or set to the desired container’s skin ID
  • arttype lets you select different artwork. Defaults to ‘fanart’.
  • allartists includes artwork for all artists of the item, including ‘artist’ and ‘albumartist’ plus ‘artist1’, ‘albumartist1’ for duets or more. For the music library in Kodi 18 and up. Only takes effect when arttype is “artist.[arttype]” or “albumartist.[arttype]".

With the full complement of options:
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/listitem/?refresh=$INFO[Container.ListItem.Label]&&containerid=&&arttype=artist.fanart&&allartists=true

Container multi image plugin path

This grabs multiple images for the current skin Container.
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/container/?refresh=$INFO[Container.FolderName]

Additional query params are available to modify its behavior, separate them with &&.

  • refresh is required to get Kodi to fire off the plugin when the focused item changes. Set it to something that will change when the fanart should change, like Container.FolderName
  • arttype lets you select different artwork. Defaults to ‘tvshow.fanart’.
  • allartists includes artwork for all artists. Only takes effect when arttype is “artist.[arttype]” or “albumartist.[arttype]".

With some options:
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/container/?refresh=$INFO[ListItem.Label]&&arttype=set.fanart

Player multi image plugin path

This grabs multiple images for the currently playing media.
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/player/?refresh=$INFO[Player.Title]

Additional query params are available to modify its behavior, separate them with &&.

  • refresh is required to get Kodi to fire off the plugin when the focused item changes. Set it to something that will change when the fanart should change, like Player.Title
  • arttype lets you select different artwork. Defaults to ‘artist.fanart’.
  • allartists includes artwork for all artists. Defaults to ‘true’ when arttype is “artist.[arttype]” or “albumartist.[arttype]", no effect otherwise.

With the full complement of options:
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/player/?refresh=$INFO[Player.Title]&&arttype=artist.fanart&&allartists=false

Smart series multi image plugin path

This grabs multiple images for the current series, keeping the path the same through series-season-episode lists so that the fanart display stays smooth (only on the video library window). plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/smartseries/?title=$INFO[ListItem.Title]

Additional query params are available to modify its behavior, separate them with &&.

  • title is required to get Kodi to fire off the plugin when the focused item changes, like ‘refresh’ in ListItem/Container paths. Set it to ListItem.Title if Container.Content is tvshows and Container.TVShowTitle if seasons/episodes.
  • arttype lets you select different artwork. Defaults to ‘fanart’. Use only the base art type like ‘fanart’, the plugin will decide if tvshow.* is needed.

With the full complement of options:
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/smartseries/?title=$INFO[ListItem.Title]&&arttype=fanart
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/smartseries/?title=$INFO[Container.TVShowTitle]&&arttype=fanart

Arbitrary images plugin path

This format lets you stitch any images together into a list by specifying their paths.
plugin://script.artwork.helper/multiimage/?image=<image_path>&amp;&amp;image=<image_path>&amp;&amp;image=<image_path>&amp;&amp;image=<image_path>&amp;&amp;image=<image_path>&amp;&amp;image=<image_path>

When the ListItem options above doesn’t work for you, this is your very wordy friend. Repeat the image block for as many images as you like, and it will ignore empty ones. The double ampersand &amp;&amp; separator between images is required.

This path doesn’t read any InfoLabels like the others, just returning the images you gave it into a format that multiimage or list controls can use. You can of course pass in the image paths from the InfoLabels yourself.