Community Skin 3.0 Open development thread.

[Fatman_do]

Beta for 3.0 is out. Any users/developers that use it and understand xml skinning, I invite to take a look at the baseskin.xml in the skin2\community folder and the plugins skinned therein.

What looks like it needs to be added, removed, improved upon?

I have implemented aspect ratio "locking" for the BlueMCE menu task images and all default library thumbnails. How are the results?

Things needed to be considered with the skinplugin to be updated is that there will be different menu folders, image destinations, and baseskin.xml folders.

Anyone who wishes to help out in any way is welcome to do so, lets keep the community spirit alive.

[McBainUK]

Running into problems updating the SkinPlugin for use with PVRX2. The way the previews work doesn't seem to be working very well with the PVRX2 skin2 and its fall-back mechanism.

My thoughts are that it maybe time to move on and work on a PVRX2 version of the SkinPlugin... :eek:

Jumbled thoughts of what might be required and assorted ideas:
* The SkinPlugin folder with all the images in it should be moved to the plugin's directory and possibly name changed to Resources, as we have skin and skin2 it no longer makes sense to have it in a skin directory.
* I would like to make the themes 'saveable' as at the moment there is no way to have a couple of theme setups you like and then switch between them. I think this will be a killer feature but will have to have a think about how it will work.

SkinMods
* TVGuide - will the new SkinPugin need to offer TVGuide customization as before, has the tvguide skin changed much?
* Panels are not currently in PVRX2 but will be soon, will have to be ready for this.
* HiVis / Standard - is this still required with the new PVRX2? Are the high-vis version themes simply a different baseskin? If this is the case the themes could be made hierical eg start with a theme and then override it with a sub theme-just a new baseskin for example. (just a wild thought)

Legacy plugins
* Are the current baseskin.xmls used by old and new style plugins? Is there a need for a baseskin2 folder or would it best to have one baseskin.xml folder which works for both gbpvr.exe and pvrx2.exe (even if this means dropping some themes for the time-being).
* Is the mainmenu the same as above?
* Are there any other items which are shared between old and new style plugins (apart from the images ofcourse)

* Widescreen - how does the PVRX2 changes effect this?

Any changes and redesign of the plug-in will take a few weeks, but I think it will be better in the long run and enable the CommunitySkin, in the words of Kevin Myers, to take next step.

[McBainUK]

I've attached an updated SkinPlugin helper exe (the program that applies the skin changes).

After applying the changes and copying the new files to the CommonImages folder it then copies all files to skin2's CommonImages folder. This means that the new images will be used in PVRX2's plug-ins. Note that mainmenu and baseskin changes WILL NOT be applied to the new plug-ins.

[Jeff]

Since the community skin needs to change for pvrx2 anyways, how about changing the location of images from CommonImages to _CoreImages. Also, at the same time I think the CommunitySkin should use as many of the naming conventions from the new Blue skin as possible. By doing so some simple skins made for the new blue skin should become CommunitySkin compatible automatically. This would also make the CommunitySkin more compatible with the skins made by MixMan.

Jeff

[Fatman_do]

Since the community skin needs to change for pvrx2 anyways, how about changing the location of images from CommonImages to _CoreImages.

No objections to that.

Also, at the same time I think the CommunitySkin should use as many of the naming conventions from the new Blue skin as possible.

No objections to that.

Really, under PVRX2, the only real changes from blue are textstyles and additional CommonImage definitions (maybe sub will add those in the future?)

That and there is more data in the baseskin.xml files in the CommunitySkin.

By using the CommonImages definitions in blue's baseskin.xml, it really doesn't matter what the image names are as long as the baseskin.xml points to the correct file. You can drag and drop any PVRX2 plugin skin folder from blue and it will work 100% with the CommunitySkin provided there are no hard coded paths for images in those plugin files.

[Graham]

The ..\OSD\skin.xml contains:

<!-- with channel icon available...
-->
<DrawImage visible="@hasChannelIcon" filename="@channelIcon" loc="3,33" size="12,55" />
<DrawText visible="@hasChannelIcon" text="@description" loc="17,35" size="80,75" textStyle="OsdTextStyle" align="Left" />
- <!-- with no channel icon available...
-->
<DrawText visible="@hasNoChannelIcon" text="@description" loc="5,35" size="90,75" textStyle="OsdTextStyle" align="Left" />

and the ..\TV Guide\skin.xml contains this:

</CompositeImage>
- <CompositeImage name="ChannelHeaderItem" size="20.5,9.0">
<DrawRect loc="0,5" size="99,92" fillColor="Black" />
- <!-- icon and name
-->
<DrawImage filename="@channelIcon" visible="@showIconAndName" loc="5,5" size="30,90" />
<DrawText text="@channelName" visible="@showIconAndName" loc="36,5" size="62,90" textStyle="ListingStyle" align="Left" valign="center" />
- <!-- number and name
-->
<DrawText text="@channelNumber" visible="@showNumberAndName" loc="5,5" size="34,90" textStyle="ListingStyle" align="Left" valign="center" />
<DrawText text="@channelName" visible="@showNumberAndName" loc="36,5" size="62,90" textStyle="ListingStyle" align="Left" valign="center" />
- <!-- only name
-->
<DrawText text="@channelName" visible="@showOnlyName" loc="5,5" size="95,90" textStyle="ListingStyle" align="Left" valign="center" />
</CompositeImage>


It may be that Sub can be persuaded to extend this conditional processing.

It may be that the skin2 root folder could hold a vars.xml file. This might contain, for example, GuideLines=5 or GuideLines=7. The ..\TV Guide\skin.xml could contain conditional code to dynamically decide whether to display a five line guide or a seven line guide.

It may be that the skinplugin program could be an "editor" for the vars.xml file and the copying of files to and fro could be much reduced.

Graham

[McBainUK]

It may be that the skinplugin program could be an "editor" for the vars.xml file and the copying of files to and fro could be much reduced.

Yes, I've never liked the copying to-and-fro. If the vars.xml file is not taken up my idea for the next version of the SkinPlugin was to simply edit the (for example) tvguide.xml and change lines to suit:

Code:

<Placement name="ChannelNames" loc="3,15" size="20.5,63" <Placement name="Listings" loc="25,15" size="70,63" rows="7" brightenCurrentShowsPercent="16" /> />
<Placement name="Listings" loc="25,15" size="70,63" [B]rows="7"[/B] brightenCurrentShowsPercent="16" />

[Fatman_do]

* The SkinPlugin folder with all the images in it should be moved to the plugin's directory and possibly name changed to Resources, as we have skin and skin2 it no longer makes sense to have it in a skin directory.

Makes sense under subs new guidelines.

SkinMods
* TVGuide - will the new SkinPugin need to offer TVGuide customization as before, has the tvguide skin changed much?

I would say yes, because there are new options for showing Icons, No Icons, Icons with Names, Icons with Names and Numbers.

* HiVis / Standard - is this still required with the new PVRX2?

There hasn't been any real feedback on anyone using HiVis themes, I provided them due to sometimes there being a request for them. By having as much text as possible driven by the baseskin.xml file, it could always be noted that one could manually edit those baseskin files.

Are the high-vis version themes simply a different baseskin?

No, I also for some plugins had custom plugin xml's to better handle the larger texts (better spacing to avoid cropping, ect.). The My Series by Reven was one example.

I would call this one a "maybe", but not likely a high priority effort.

If this is the case the themes could be made hierical eg start with a theme and then override it with a sub theme-just a new baseskin for example. (just a wild thought)

Not sure that is any better than a one click solution like it is now?

Legacy plugins
* Are the current baseskin.xmls used by old and new style plugins? Is there a need for a baseskin2 folder or would it best to have one baseskin.xml folder which works for both gbpvr.exe and pvrx2.exe (even if this means dropping some themes for the time-being).

I haven't really tested this, I might give it a try. My initial guess is that skin and skin2 baseskin.xmls are not cross-compatible. I may give a try to add new PVRX2 stuff into legacy xmls. I need to spend some time here to answer this half way intelligent.

* Is the mainmenu the same as above?

Yep.

* Are there any other items which are shared between old and new style plugins (apart from the images ofcourse)

I am keeping Named Colors and Textstyles consistent between both as well. I for now dropped "BackgroundText" and am just using "ScreenText" as a catch-all.

* Widescreen - how does the PVRX2 changes effect this?

There will be little or no need for 4:3 vs 16:9 xmls. Only on extreme cases would there really need to be dedicated xmls for the differences. I don't really anticipate any at this time.

This is just for PVRX2. Now for legacy plugins, I copy the exact pvrx2 Community skin to a different folder (Community-WS) that way the fallback mechanism looks in that proper legacy folder.

I have some stuff to chew on and get some definite answers for you.

[Graham]

As I understand it (i.e. not a lot), the skin display reverts to blue for some of the items that cannot be found in the current skin.

For example, I use MySkin and MyPlugin and the MySkin folder does not contain a MyPlugin folder. The blue skin folder will be searched for a MyPlugin folder.

It may be that Sub can be persuaded to extend this functionality.

It may be that there could be default search paths. For xml items such as:

<TextStyle name="OsdTextStyle" color="White" size="13" />

the search path could be -- This skin file, baseskin.xml in this skin folder, baseskin.xml in a base skin folder.

For .png files, the search path could be -- this folder (i.e. the folder containing this xml file), the _commonimages/_coreimages folder in this skin folder, the _commonimages/_coreimages folder in a base skin folder.

The base skin folder could be an empty folder in the original GBPVR distribution.

I could create twenty skins/themes. I could create two sets of task image .png files that might include LittleBlueManGuide.png and GreenOrbGuide.png. I would store the .png files in ..\skin2\base\_commonimages.

Any of the twenty skins/themes could be altered to use either LittleBlueMen or GreenOrbs by using the skinplugin program to alter the content of the skin xml files. No copying of png files would be required.

Having a base skin folder may be preferable to using the blue skin folder as the base. This would ensure that the blue skin folder did not get "cluttered up" with all the marvellous inventions of our many skilled skinners.

Graham

[Fatman_do]

As I understand it (i.e. not a lot), the skin display reverts to blue for some of the items that cannot be found in the current skin.

For example, I use MySkin and MyPlugin and the MySkin folder does not contain a MyPlugin folder. The blue skin folder will be searched for a MyPlugin folder.

Correct.

It may be that Sub can be persuaded to extend this functionality.

It may be that there could be default search paths. For xml items such as:

<TextStyle name="OsdTextStyle" color="White" size="13" />

the search path could be -- This skin file, baseskin.xml in this skin folder, baseskin.xml in a base skin folder.

Long winded response:

It currently does something very similar, but the final step may be a bit much.
Right now, it looks in This skin file, This baseskin.xml file, Blue baseskin.xml file. Having xml item lookups beyond that may be overkill and un-needed complexity. The current baseskin.xml file in blue is greater order of magnitude higher over the old version for adding future proof xml's for plugin portability.

A classic example of the easiest skin change would be to use all the xml's in the blue skin folder. "My Skin" can then contain only a "My Skin\_CoreImages" and "My Skin\Menu" folder, and a "My Skin" baseskin.xml file.

You can copy "gbpvr\skin2\Community" as "gbpvr\skin2\My Skin".
Delete all but those two folders and baseskin.xml file.
Set your skin to My Skin and it should work straight away.

For .png files, the search path could be -- this folder (i.e. the folder containing this xml file), the _commonimages/_coreimages folder in this skin folder, the _commonimages/_coreimages folder in a base skin folder.

The base skin folder could be an empty folder in the original GBPVR distribution.

I could create twenty skins/themes. I could create two sets of task image .png files that might include LittleBlueManGuide.png and GreenOrbGuide.png. I would store the .png files in ..\skin2\base\_commonimages.

Any of the twenty skins/themes could be altered to use either LittleBlueMen or GreenOrbs by using the skinplugin program to alter the content of the skin xml files. No copying of png files would be required.

For that to work there would need to be some serious changes to how task images are used by plugins. Right now, gbpvr just displays whatever is task.png in the skin folder. Under that example, it would have to know to look for ????????Guide.png, or maybe better yet, *_Guide.png

That is something that probably isn't likely to happen given the simplicity of the current method.

Having a base skin folder may be preferable to using the blue skin folder as the base. This would ensure that the blue skin folder did not get "cluttered up" with all the marvellous inventions of our many skilled skinners.

Graham

There could be some potential with that idea.