Interface BaseButtonListUiTask, but more...

[whurlston]

Just to add further info, I use a differnet approach to solving the problem whurlston describes. Instead of downloading the images from the external site while constructing the list I set the image parameter to "this" and implement the UiList.GetImage() call back. This method is then called to delay loaded these images. They only requested when they're made visible for the first time.

Good to know. I was building separate array lists so that I could keep the new releases and top 100 and not have to reload the images. I will definitely look into UiList.GetImage()

There are probably a lot of changes like this that I could make to my code.

[sjbirk]

setPopup()

whurlston, i used your setPopup() suggestion and i am having an issue; the spawn the thread to build the list after setting the popup value. the issue occurs when the thread is complete, it does not kill the popup window on its own even though i have setPopup(null); at the end of the method called within the thread. i have to press a key and the popup window clears, and my new list appears. have you ever encountered this?

[JavaWiz]

setPopup()

whurlston, i used your setPopup() suggestion and i am having an issue; the spawn the thread to build the list after setting the popup value. the issue occurs when the thread is complete, it does not kill the popup window on its own even though i have setPopup(null); at the end of the method called within the thread. i have to press a key and the popup window clears, and my new list appears. have you ever encountered this?

You probably need to tell the main thread to render.

[whurlston]

I haven't seen that issue yet but I have not tested it quite thoroughly yet.

[sjbirk]

You probably need to tell the main thread to render.

what is the best way to have the main thread re-render?

[sub]

If you plugin is active, then needsRendering() will be called regularly from the main thread. If you return true, then main thread will then call GetRenderList().

[McBainUK]

Is your problem because you're loading images from disk for putting in the list? If so, you can look into the UiList.GetImage() call back which allows these images to be delay loaded until they actually need to be displayed on the screen.

Can anyone post a code example of how to use this from a BaseButtonListUiTask based plugin? I can't even find the GetImage callback anywhere!

[sub]

I dont have a sample for you, but the basic idea is that your class needs to implement the "SkinHelper2.GetImageCallback" interface:

Code:

public class VideoLibraryTask : BaseButtonListUiTask, SkinHelper2.GetImageCallback
{
...

  public Image GetImage(Hashtable parameters, string name, int width, int height)
  {
...
  }
}

Then when you're adding your items to the list, you can add a parameter that is used for the callback:

Code:

UiList.Item item = new UiList.Item();
                    item.AddProperty("@name", readableName);
                    item.AddProperty("@fileName", readableName);
                    item.AddProperty("@path", currentDirectory + "\\" + readableName);
                    item.AddProperty("@thumbnail", this); // callback to get thumbnail image

In the skin files, if you tell it to draw "@thumbnail" it'll then call the GetImage() method on your class, passing in the hashmap of parameters it was associated with. In the GetImage() method you could then do stuff like get the "@path" variable from the parameters, load an image file, resize it etc, then return your image. You can also do more sophisticated stuff in that callback, like correcting the aspect ratio, or dynamically generating a graphic etc.

[McBainUK]

Thanks sub. No example needed, that's more than enough info to go on.

Are the any docs/forum posts/general guidance on the ISettings interface?

[sub]

Are the any docs/forum posts/general guidance on the ISettings interface?

Its not really used at this stage, so not worth implementing it in a plugin.