Multiple views for a single list

[imilne]

Help out my clunky brain here... are you talking about doing something that would actually be ideal in my situation, where with the existing code I can define a covers, icon, and list view in a single skin file, but if I wanted a second (different) covers view, I need to split it out into a new skin file? Or are you on about something else entirely

Iain

[sub]

If practical, I'll make it possible to define multiple different list layouts in the same file. ie, various elements prefixed with some plugin supplied name. I'll only do this if it can do it cleanly, and without breaking the existing skins and names. Otherwise you'll just have to stick with multiple skin files like you have to do today.

[imilne]

If it helps Ommina, then great, but don't do anything on my account for this.

I think what I'm planning may actually be better off with multiple skins. I'd have one view per skin, but the skin itself would also define whether that view was covers, icons, or list (in a comment tag or something).

Then my plugin could parse the directory for skin files, and work with new ones that it didn't know about at compile time. Once it knows how my total skins there are, then it'll know which one to load next when the user presses "View" and it has to recreate the UiList to switch to the next view (and set the list's mode).

Iain

[mvallevand]

Yes, you'd need multiple skin files.

You'd do something like:

SkinHelper skinHelper1 = new SkinHelper("myplugin\\skin1.xml");
SkinHelper skinHelper2 = new SkinHelper("myplugin\\skin2.xml");

UIList uiList1 = new UiList(this, "View", "Item", new Hashtable(), skinHelper1, UiList.ViewMode.LIST);
UIList uiList2 = new UiList(this, "View", "Item", new Hashtable(), skinHelper2, UiList.ViewMode.LIST);

In your GetRenderList() method, you can add one or both.

List<UiElement> renderList = new List<UiElement>();
if (showingFirstList)
renderlist.AddRange(uiList1.GetRenderList());
if (showingSecondList)
renderlist.AddRange(uiList2.GetRenderList());
....etc...

Is there a simple way to set focus to one of these other secondary lists or is it all manual monitoring of the keyboard?

Martin

[imilne]

Is there a simple way to set focus to one of these other secondary lists or is it all manual monitoring of the keyboard?

I decided to go with simply recreating the list that is inherited from the base class, rather than making multiple list instances. That way, I can have any number of views for it (with my multiple skins) but sub's code can still take care of most of the hard work for it. I think the only extra I've added is the ability for it to remember what item was selected when you toggle the view.

Iain

[sub]

Is there a simple way to set focus to one of these other secondary lists or is it all manual monitoring of the keyboard?

If you're having multiple lists on the screen at one time, then you probably wouldnt use the provided base clase, and would instead create your own screen which monitors whichever of the exit-left/right/up/down UIList callback events were appropriate for your layout, aswell handling the OnClick event for cases where the user has directly clicked on a list.

[mvallevand]

Well, I guess that is a no to "simple". What I have been doing is setting base.uiList = uiList1; Is that intrinsically a bad idea?

Martin

[imilne]

Well, I guess that is a no to "simple". What I have been doing is setting base.uiList = uiList1; Is that intrinsically a bad idea?

It's what I'm doing. Well, base.uiList = new UiList(...) anyway.

Iain

[sub]

Well, I guess that is a no to "simple". What I have been doing is setting base.uiList = uiList1; Is that intrinsically a bad idea?

Its not something I've explicitly tried. You can probably do it though.