skinhelper

[idkpmiller]

Hi,

I see looking back through the forum pages that the skinhelper is supposed to default back to the blue skin if a a plugin does not have a skin defined for the currently selected theme. hmm that sounds confusing I hope it makes sense...

The issue is I have the skinhelper working and have tried testing by changing the theme where my plugin does not have a skin defined, it does not seem to even attempt to try the blu theme skin just errors and spits its dummy.

is there a "how this should" be done thread I have missed? if not could someone explain it to me, Thanks

[ubu]

Hi,

I see looking back through the forum pages that the skinhelper is supposed to default back to the blue skin if a a plugin does not have a skin defined for the currently selected theme. hmm that sounds confusing I hope it makes sense...

The issue is I have the skinhelper working and have tried testing by changing the theme where my plugin does not have a skin defined, it does not seem to even attempt to try the blu theme skin just errors and spits its dummy.

is there a "how this should" be done thread I have missed? if not could someone explain it to me, Thanks

I just went through this with my plugin. Good advice in this thread, which pointed me, in turn, to this thread (read the first post). The bottom line seems to be if you use the right skinhelper constructor the fallback to the blue skin version will work as you describe. (I haven't tested this too deeply yet, but it seems to work). Now I'm trying to get the skin versioning feature working. (It doesn't seem to break anything but, on the other hand, I don't get an error if I change the version to a non-existant one. :confused: )

[idkpmiller]

cheers ubu, for the links. the second one showed the same sort of errors that I see.

so I had another look through and found the error I had used the path in the xml document load statement :-(

Well I now have to move the icons I am using from the skin/plugin directory as well as otherwise it looks in the wrong directory for them. it makes more sense for common items such as images that I put them in a different directory so I will go down that path.

Thanks for your advice and help
Cheers

[Fatman_do]

I just went through this with my plugin. Good advice in this thread, which pointed me, in turn, to this thread (read the first post). The bottom line seems to be if you use the right skinhelper constructor the fallback to the blue skin version will work as you describe. (I haven't tested this too deeply yet, but it seems to work). Now I'm trying to get the skin versioning feature working. (It doesn't seem to break anything but, on the other hand, I don't get an error if I change the version to a non-existant one. :confused: )

Here is a micro-skin (smallest possible full skin for standard gb-pvr).
If your fixes for versioning work, the ubustream plugin should look fine by picking up the correct version from "Blue". The UbuStream skin.xml file in this "Green" skin is from the CommunitySkin so there is built in incompatibilities.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[ubu]

Here is a micro-skin (smallest possible full skin for standard gb-pvr).
If your fixes for versioning work, the ubustream plugin should look fine by picking up the correct version from "Bue". The UbuStream skin.xml file in this "Green" skin is from the CommunitySkin so there is built in incompatibilities.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

Probably being a bit thick, but what exactly do you mean by "built in incompatibilities". And also.....

I notice you have the version in a comment line: <!-- Rev 2.00--> whereas I've been using: <Version>2.0</Version> as per the original thread on the subject. Which is correct?

This is how I'm assuming that this works: If my skin helper constructor uses 2.0 and my Blue skin file has a 2.0 tag but my (say) Green skin file has a 1.5 tag, the Blue skin file would be used. If, on the other hand, the Blue skin file has a 1.5 tag as well, I'd expect an error from GB-PVR (which I'm not getting when I test it). Perhaps I have seriously misunderstood something.

[Fatman_do]

Probably being a bit thick, but what exactly do you mean by "built in incompatibilities".

It will not look "right". You will see red X's all over the place because it is looking for images that it cannot find.

And also.....

I notice you have the version in a comment line: <!-- Rev 2.00--> whereas I've been using: <Version>2.0</Version> as per the original thread on the subject. Which is correct?

Ignore the <!-- Rev 2.00--> line, it is my internal rev system for the Community skin and has no impact on xml versioning. You need to be looking for <Version>2.0</Version> or equivalent. The xml's in the green are just merely to represent an obviously invalid (ie. obsolete) skin file.

This is how I'm assuming that this works: If my skin helper constructor uses 2.0 and my Blue skin file has a 2.0 tag but my (say) Green skin file has a 1.5 tag, the Blue skin file would be used.

That is how I understand it to be used.

If, on the other hand, the Blue skin file has a 1.5 tag as well, I'd expect an error from GB-PVR (which I'm not getting when I test it). Perhaps I have seriously misunderstood something.

Don't know anything about that. When you use the Green skin, does the Ubu screen look correct? You would notice right away if the Green skin is being displayed.

[ubu]

This is all very cool, once you get the hang of it. Testing with the "bad" Green skin, I've found that the versioning feature does work fine. If I use the Green skin as you supplied it (with no version line in the skin.xml file) GB-PVR reports:

Plugin required skin version '2.0'. Actual skin version is unknown. No match... using standard skin instead.

and uses the Blue skin version. If I add a version line to the Green skin.xml file but with the wrong version, I get:

Plugin required skin version '2.0'. Actual skin version is '1.0'. No match... using standard skin instead.

and the Blue skin gets used. If I change the Green skin version to the "correct" one, GB-PVR tries to use it but........

It will not look "right". You will see red X's all over the place because it is looking for images that it cannot find.

Well, in my case, it actually produces a "hard error" because I'm referring to the MoreUp and MoreDown images in the "standard" GB-PVR Blue\main menu directory which doesn't exist in your Green skin. These seem like good candidates for addition to the BaseSkin (I notice they already exist in _Theme.Blue\main menu but I'm not sure how to use them without them being explicitly in BaseSkin.xml).

When you use the Green skin, does the Ubu screen look correct? You would notice right away if the Green skin is being displayed.

The really cool "value add" of pointing to the BaseSkin background and button images is that, even when it falls back to using my Blue skin.xml file, the buttons and background are rendered in green so it "appears" consistent with the Green skin look and feel. If (when?) List component images get added to BaseSkin, a separate (non-Blue) skin file (for my plugin, at least) might not even be neccessary in the other skins.

[Fatman_do]

Well, in my case, it actually produces a "hard error" because I'm referring to the MoreUp and MoreDown images in the "standard" GB-PVR Blue\main menu directory which doesn't exist in your Green skin. These seem like good candidates for addition to the BaseSkin (I notice they already exist in _Theme.Blue\main menu but I'm not sure how to use them without them being explicitly in BaseSkin.xml).

As a stop-gap measure, you can bundle the arrows in your skin folder and point to them there.

The really cool "value add" of pointing to the BaseSkin background and button images is that, even when it falls back to using my Blue skin.xml file, the buttons and background are rendered in green so it "appears" consistent with the Green skin look and feel. If (when?) List component images get added to BaseSkin, a separate (non-Blue) skin file (for my plugin, at least) might not even be neccessary in the other skins.

That is the master plan...

[ubu]

As a stop-gap measure, you can bundle the arrows in your skin folder and point to them there.

I see. That would at least stop the error from happening. It would be nice if "somebody" could put this on the ""to do" list for BaseSkin though. Since we have a consistant look and feel for the button images it would make sense to extend this to the up/down arrows for the scrolling button list as well.

That is the master plan...

Domination of the universe is clearly the objective. AYBABTU

EDIT: Interesting footnote to the above. I implemented your suggestion (copied the images to the Blue/UbuStream skin folder and pointed my skin to the current skin directory). Now, when it can't find the image files in Green/Ubustream GB-PVR looks instead in Green/_CommonImages (which doesn't exist). Is this some "reserved for future use" folder or is it, in fact, intending to look in Green/_CoreImages (which does exist). What it should be doing (IMHO) is looking first in Green/UbuStream, then in Green/_CoreImages and, if all else fails, in Blue/_CoreImages. Then we could just stick the MoreUp/Down image files in Blue/_CoreImages and be done with it.