Note
The purpose of xbmcswift2 is to have the ability to run the addon on the command line as well as in XBMC. This means that we will have to install xbmcswift2 twice, once for the command line and once as an XBMC addon.
The XBMC version of xbmcswift2 is a specially packaged version of the main release. It excludes some CLI code and tests. It also contains XBMC required files like addon.xml.
The easiest way to get the most recent version of xbmcswift2 for XBMC is to install an addon that requires xbmcswift2. You can find a list of such addons on the Addons Powered by xbmcswift2 page. The other options is download the current XBMC distribution from https://github.com/jbeluch/xbmcswift2-xbmc-dist/tags and unpack it into your addons folder.
Now, on to installing xbmcswift2 for use on the command line.
Virtualenv is an awesome tool that enables clean installation and removal of python libraries into a sequestered environment. Using a virtual environment means that when you install a library, it doesn’t pollute your system-wide python installation. This makes it possible to install different versions of a library in different environments and they will never conflict. It’s a good habit to get into when doing python development. So, first we’re going to install virtualenv.
If you already have pip installed, you can simply:
$ sudo pip install virtualenv
or if you only have easy_install:
$ sudo easy_install virtualenv
I also like to use some helpful virtualenv scripts, so install virtualenv-wrapper as well:
$ sudo pip install virtualenv-wrapper
Now we can create our virtualenv:
$ mkvirtualenv xbmcswift2
When this completes, your prompt should now be prefixed by (xbmcswift2). The new prompt signals that we are now working within our virtualenv. Any libraries that we install via pip will only be available in this environment. Now we’ll install xbmcswift2:
$ pip install xbmcswift2
Everything should be good to go. When you would like to work on your project in the future, issue the following command to start your virtual env:
$ workon xbmcswift2
and to deactive the virtualenv:
$ deactivate
You should check out the Running xbmcswift2 on the Command Line page next.