Skins. Grrr. Argh.

[Northpole]

This also works but it doesn't have that cool sliding action between video files.

Code:

<VideosPlus type="Icon" name="Movie Details View"/>

  <Element name="IconView" location="0,0" size="1,1" alpha="255" rows="1" columns="1"/>

  <Element name="IconItem" location="0,0" size="100,100" alpha="255" alphaFade="true">

    <Image source="@previewImage" location="0,0" size="38.3,100" fixedAspectRatio="true" />
        <Rect location="38.3,0" size="61.7,100" fillColor="DimGray"/>

        <RoundedRect location="38.3,10" size="61.7,20" fillColor="Transparent" borderColor="White" radius="0.1" borderWidth="2px"/>
    <Text text="MetaData Here blah blah" location="38.3,10" size="61.7,20" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>

        <RoundedRect location="38.3,30" size="61.7,30" fillColor="Transparent" borderColor="White" radius="0.1" borderWidth="2px"/>
    <Text text="MetaData Here Again blah blah" location="38.3,30" size="61.7,30" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>

        <RoundedRect location="38.3,60" size="61.7,40" fillColor="Transparent" borderColor="White" radius="0.1" borderWidth="2px"/>
    <Text text="More MetaData Here blah blah" location="38.3,60" size="61.7,40" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>
  </Element>

  <Element name="IconSelectionMetaData" location="0,87.44" size="100,4.64" alpha="255" alphaFade="true">
    <Rect location="-2,0" size="104,100" fillColor="BaseColor2"/>
    <Text text="@name" location="0,0" size="100,100" font="Title1" align="Center" valign="Center"/>
    <Text text="File:" location="85.36,0" size="10,100" font="Title2Small" align="Left" valign="Center"/>
    <Text text="@positionInfo" location="0,0" size="95.36,100" font="Title3Minimum" align="Right" valign="Center"/>
  </Element>

[imilne]

I'm glad at least one of us is having fun with these

I wasn't sure at first if you could put metadata into the other elements (rather than just IconSelectionMetaData) but it all seems to get picked up ok (with an @name test). I haven't really been concentrating on this stuff yet (still flighting with mounting ISOs), but I'll try to get it reading more of the metadata so that we can see what it might actually look like.

Regarding the images, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to have the plugin scale, or stretch-to-fit them, or whatever.

One other thing; at the moment, the fanart element is defined globally rather than in each view, however there are some views where it doesn't really look so good (too messy). I'm not sure if I should therefore make it a per-view setting, a per-folder setting (eg, view and fanart on/off), or something else entirely?

Iain

[imilne]

Here's some more nice examples of layout styles, all of which should be possible with the list types we have: http://code.google.com/p/moving-pictures/

Iain

[Northpole]

Here's some more nice examples of layout styles, all of which should be possible with the list types we have: http://code.google.com/p/moving-pictures/

Iain

Thanks, I'm always looking for new ideas.

[imilne]

I'll throw this question in here as it's another skin one...

If I want to define a new font, but use it in multiple places - for example my main screen, and in a popup - is there a way to do that without having to redefine the font in each xml file? NPVR itself seems to use Globals.xml for this sort of stuff, but is there a way to get a plugin to do something similar?

Iain

[sub]

Unfortunately no, I dont think so.

[smajor]

Just gonna toss this out, and maybe you've already thought of it...

If the plugin is used for TV series, and one has metadata from a source like http://thetvdb.com/ the images for each episodes aren't "covers" but screen caps from the particular episode. There are two sizes there too, HD and Standard aspect ratios.

I hope to use this plugin someday so, thought I'd mention that.

[imilne]

Unfortunately no, I dont think so.

Ok, not to worry.

I'll try to roll my own solution by merging anything found in a global.xml with the actual skin requested, and then dump it all into a single SkinHelper object.

Iain

[imilne]

Just gonna toss this out, and maybe you've already thought of it...

If the plugin is used for TV series, and one has metadata from a source like http://thetvdb.com/ the images for each episodes aren't "covers" but screen caps from the particular episode. There are two sizes there too, HD and Standard aspect ratios.

I hope to use this plugin someday so, thought I'd mention that.

I do plan to support TV, yes, but I've not looked into it in much detail yet, other than being aware that the landscape shaped banners seem to be used rather than portrait posters. I wasn't aware of the HD/SD screen caps though; I guess because the few shows I'd looked at were all recent and in HD. Time to break out my old boxsets of The A-Team and Knight Rider

Each folder will be able to have a different view. So if you're using the normal list to browse through a bunch of stuff, and then you get to a folder full of TV shows, you can change its view to one more appropriate (eg, one designed to cope with banners and screen caps). When you go into a sub folder from there (that you've never visited before), it'll inherit the view of its parent (the TV view in this case) unless you override it again. Then as you go back up the levels you'll find yourself back at the original list view. I preferred this method to having to explicitly define - in advance - what each folder contained.

Designing the views is a nightmare though (for me). It took ages last night to do the following, and it's just a basic mirror of the default list with the elements shifted downwards a little. It's not that I don't know what I want, I just can't work out the positioning and coordinates in my head very well. Once the plugin is a bit more solid, I'll open it up to others to chip in if they'd like.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]31351[/ATTACH]

So many of the "description" elements are really long too, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with ones that extend off the screen vs the really short ones that barely use any space.

Iain

[Northpole]

Time to break out my old boxsets of The A-Team and Knight Rider

Now thats some quality content!


BTW, just wondering where you're getting your fanart from?