A python script to complement the functionality of Google Drive AddOn for Kodi.

While the add-on claims to be "extremely fast", I found this claim to be dubious. Based on my usage so far, the addon was slow, unreliable, crashed frequently, and often got stuck. Eventually, frustration drove me to write a simple python script to generate strm files for the add-on, post which all the add-on had to do was simply play them! Over time, the small script grew into this project.

To reiterate, the sole purpose of this project is to create strm files for media file(s) present in a directory on Google Drive — and achieve this more reliably than the than the existing Kodi add-on.

No ill-will is intended towards Carlos (the creator of the Google Drive add-on), I am extremely thankful for all the work that went into making the add-on — kodi-strm is in no way meant to be a replacement for the Google Drive add-on.

In simple terms, strm files refer to files having an extension of .strm. They are created by multimedia applications (Kodi and Plex being the main examples) and, primarily contain a URL pointing to the media file(s) stored in a remote server/cloud,

These files are then parsed by the application, post which the URL is used to stream the actual media file.

• Python 3.9 or above — get it from here

1. Clone this project
2. Create a Google Project and enable Google Drive API
3. Setup credentials to use this API
4. Download these credentials as a JSON file, rename this file to be credentials.json
5. Move credentials.json into this project directory
6. Install the project dependencies.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Alternatively, for the last step, you can directly use the setup.sh or setup.bat scripts and have them create an efficient setup for you.

The setup script will;

• Update pip
• Install virtualenv
• Create a virtual environment named venv
• Activate this environment
• Install required dependencies into this virtual environment

While anyone is free to use the direct setup scripts, do note that they are primarily for my use (to quickly setup a system for testing/debugging) - and aren't guaranteed to work in your system.

Once you're done with setting up a working enviroment, simply run the script

python strm-generator.py

OR

python -m kodi_strm

For the first run, the script will ask you to login to a Google account. While not necessary, it is recommended to use the same Google account for this script, and the Google Drive Add-On.

P.S. Make sure to install the Google Drive add-on in your Kodi installation.

Running the script without any arguments will fetch a list of all teamdrives to which the account has access, allowing you to select a teamdrive from this list. The selected teamdrive will then be treated as the source directory for the script.

Alternatively, you can use custom arguments to modify the source directory, destination, or more!

Once the script finishes generating strm files after a scan, add the resulting directory as a source in your Kodi installation. From there on, the Google Drive AddOn will treat these .strm files as actual media files and will be able to scan/play them normally.

Note:

If you are unable to play the media files with Kodi, make sure that you have installed the Kodi AddOn for Google Drive and have logged into the add-on with the same Google Account that you are using for this script.

Once you're comfortable with the usage of this script, you might want to take a look at the advanced setup section for some ideas :)

By default, the strm files generated after a scan are stored in the working directory. Use pwd in Unix-based systems, or cd in Windows get the location of current working directory.

Note: Take a look at the flag for custom destination directory and to modify this behaviour.

Custom arguments passed when executing the script from the terminal allow you to modify the behaviour of the script!

python strm-generator.py [OPTIONS]

OR

python -m kodi_strm [OPTIONS]

Flag: --source=<folder-id>
Shorthand: NA
Value Expected: ID of a folder/teamdrive on Google Drive

This flag allows you to scan the contents of a folder/teamdrive from Google Drive, i.e. with the help of this flag instead of scanning a complete teamdrive (or the main drive), an individual folder can be selectively scanned using its ID.

A source directory is a folder/teamdrive in Google Drive that is used as the source to generate strm files by kodi-strm

If source directory is not specified, the script will ask you to select a teamdrive as the source - the selected teamdrive will be scanned by the script.

Note: Check Getting Folder IDs section to learn how to get the ID of a folder/teamdrive from Google Drive.

Flag: --destination="</path/to/destination>"
Shorthand: --dest
Expected Value: Path to an existing directory.

This flag is used to decide the destination directory in which the root directory (containing the strm files) will be placed. Should be a path to an existing directory!

>> Resource: Destination Directory vs Root Directory

P.S. If the path contains spaces, wrap it in double quotes.

Flag: --no-updates
Shorthand: NA
Expected Value: NA

Obviously enough, using this flag disables any updates from kodi-strm (expect for the final completion message).

By default, kodi-strm prints realtime updates on the terminal - this includes info on the directory and file(s) being scanned, and more!

Having realtime updates might not always be desirable (especially if run in background). Using this flag will run the script in silent mode - the only console message will be to completion.

Flag: --rootname=<root-directory>
Shorthand: --root
Expected Value: Name for the root directory

Optional flag to modify the name of root directory. By default, the name of the teamdrive/folder being scanned will be used as the name of the root directory.

>> Resource: Destination Directory vs Root Directory

Important: If a directory with the same name as the root directory already exists inside destination directory, the script will ask you for confirmation before proceeding to wipe the existing path.

Flag: --force
Shorthand: -f
Expected Value: NA

With the force flag enabled, if there is a collision when creating the root directory, the existing path will be wiped completely - without any confirmation!

By default, in case of a path collision, kodi-strm will ask you for confirmation before deleting the existing path. However, this may not always be desired - especially if you already plan to overwrite the existing directory.

For such specific scenarios, enabling the force flag ensures kodi-strm will directly proceed by wiping the existing path (without asking for a confirmation).

Flag: --version
Shorthand: -v
Expected Value: NA

Prints info related to the operating system, and the current version of kodi-strm, following which the script directly terminates

Flag: --help
Shorthand: NA
Expected Value: NA

Prints a list of all flags available, and a brief description regarding them

You can get the id for a particular folder from the url to the directory.

For example, in the URL https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PTA, the folder-id is 0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PTA.

This method can also be used to get the ID of a particular TeamDrive and use it as a custom argument to directly scan the teamdrive.

In simplifed terms, destination directory is "destination" directory, which will contain the root directory. When run, kodi-strm will create a root directory in the destination directory - this root directory will contain the contents of scanned Google Drive folder.

The root directory will be the directory/teamdrive that is being scanned from Google Drive. As an example, if you scan a Google Drive folder Movies with folder ID 0TRC6NXsE2KJMUkasdA and want to store the generated strm files in ~/Downloads;

• The directory ~/Downloads will be the destination directory
• Inside ~/Downloads, kodi-strm will create a directory named "Movies". This is the root directory - that is placed inside the destination directory.

You can modify destination path (the destination directory) with the--destination flag, at the same time, you can modify the name of the created directory ("Movies") to be, say "Drive Movies" with the --rootname flag!

The following command will use ~/home as the destination directory - i.e. strm files will be placed at this location, and "output files" as the name of source root directory that will contain the actual strm files

python strm-generator.py --source=0TRC6NXsE2KJMUkasdA --destination="~/home" --rootname="output files"

From the example above, the folder 0TRC6NXsE2KJMUkasdA is named "Movies" on Google Drive, but running the above command will rename the root folder to be "output files" in the destination directory.

P.S. The destination path should point to an existing directory, while the rootname will be a folder that is created by the script in destination directory, and should not exist.

Simply scan a Google drive folder with the ID 0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA and place the root directory at the destination /home/kodi library

python -m kodi_strm --source=0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA --destination="/home/kodi library"

Note the additional destination flag in the command, instead of placing the results in the working directory, the script will now place them inside /home/kodi library.

Also, since the destination path contains a space, it needs to be wrapped in quotes. It is recommended to wrap paths in double quotes regardless of whether it contains spaces.

Running the following command will rename the root directory to be new root directory

python strm-generator.py --source=0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA --dest="/home/kodi library" --rootname="new root directory"

The strm files will inside a directory named new root directory (the root directory). The root directory by itself will be present in "/home/kodi library" (the destination directory).

• Scanning a particular folder on drive, with custom destination and root directories, plus no updates to the console (using all the flags at once).

python -m kodi_strm --source=0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA --dest="/home/kodi libraries" --rootname="Staging; Media" --no-updates

• Scanning a folder with no updates

python strm-generator.py --source=0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA --no-updates

• Scanning a folder selectively with custom root directory

python strm-generator.py --source=0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA --rootname="Media"

• Scanning a folder with custom destination directory and no updates on console

python strm-generator.py --source=0AOC6NXsE2KJMUk9PVA --dest="/home/Videos" --no-updates

This section contains ideas and suggestions to how you can use this script to get a seamless experience with you Kodi setup.

With a little help of custom arguments supported by the script, you can set up the script to be run on fixed intervals (with pre-fixed parameters).

For example, I'm on Linux, I've setup a systemd.service to run this script once every couple of days. At every run, the script scans a folder from Google Drive, and places it inside an existing Kodi library.

Whenever I open up Kodi, it automatically scrapes the new files, and adds them to my library. And so, my system automatically fetches any updates on Google Drive, syncs them, and adds them to Kodi without requiring any input from me.

If needed, the systemd service can be modified to run the script multiple times, scanning different sources each time to be able to scale my current setup to span across multiple teamdrives/folders, all this without requiring any sort of input.

Windows users can achieve the same functionality as systemd.service using Windows Task Scheduler. In case someone wants to replicate a similar setup as mine, here are some useful links to help you get started.

• Creating a systemd.service
• Using Windows Task Scheduler
• Setting up Kodi for auto-scan

P.S. If you're setting up a service for automated runs, you might want to add the --force flag to your command (docs) - especially for setups similar to mine! The flag ensures kodi-strm will wipe the existing directory instead of (permanently) waiting for a confirmation in the background.

The main aim for this project isn't to replace the exising Google Drive AddOn, but to build upon it and fix the flaws. As such, a large part of what I found missing in the add-on has already been fixed -- namely, speed and reliablitly.

Based on the tests I've run, this script is ~20% faster than the Google Drive Add-On, and is a lot more reliable (no crashes so far).

For the curious, yes, I ran the test on the exact same source without any modifications. The results are as accurate as possible.

• Display live progress when the script runs added in #1
• Multithreading (still not sure on this one) - despite GIL, the execution speed can be improved to some extent

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions made are extremely appreciated.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/new-feature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing new features')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/new-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE. for more information.

• Img Shields
• Google API Python Client
• Coloroma
• Reprint

kodi-strm was made possible with the support of the following organization(s):