1.x plugin development

[sub]

It really looks like menuButtons is null.

To help track it down, I'd log info about that variable being created and needsRendering() being called.

[ubu]

It really looks like menuButtons is null.

To help track it down, I'd log info about that variable being created and needsRendering() being called.

Yes, well, if I had a 1.0.08 development environment, I'd definitely do that. Sadly, since my "test" box is too puny to run 1.0.08 and my dev and production boxes seem to have gone on strike in solidarity......

Has anything changed in this respect? If menuButtons is null, then it would also have been null when run from gbpvr.exe in previous versions, yet this problem didn't appear. Does PVRX2 call needsRendering() before calling Activate(), whereas gbpvr.exe didn't?

[idkpmiller]

Its recommended to have a keymappings file for anything but the basic keystrokes (up/down/left/right/ok etc), but lack of that shouldnt be the cause here. If you reproduce the problem and attach the logs I'll take a look.

Hi Sub, found the issue with GameZone not working, I was using the pluginhelper to disable the screen saver as it had caused problems for playing games and the screen saver cutting in. that was bombing gamezone out. removed the enable/disable screensaver feature, and it now seems to work.

Is PVRx2 supposed to support the disablescreensaver?

Cheers

[sub]

Hi Sub, found the issue with GameZone not working, I was using the pluginhelper to disable the screen saver as it had caused problems for playing games and the screen saver cutting in. that was bombing gamezone out. removed the enable/disable screensaver feature, and it now seems to work.

Is PVRx2 supposed to support the disablescreensaver?

There is no built in screen saver yet, so these functions may return an a error if you call them. I now have the screen saver implemented for the next release (probably only a week or so away).

[ubu]

It really looks like menuButtons is null.

To help track it down, I'd log info about that variable being created and needsRendering() being called.

Getting a bit further. I got somebody to try a version with extra logging for me. Looks like Activate() doesn't get called before the first invocation of needsRendering(). Should be easy to fix. So now another problem:

I notice that, for some reason, PVRX2 seems to be looking for skin files in gbpvr\skins before it looks in gbpvr\skin\Blue. ie:

2007-07-17 06:52:38.390 VERBOSE [1] Skin file not found: C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\skin\UbuStream\skin.xml
2007-07-17 06:52:38.390 VERBOSE [1] ...about to check default skin
2007-07-17 06:52:38.390 VERBOSE [1] Initializing skin helper for: C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\skin\blue\UbuStream\skin.xml

but then, when it looks for a composite image, this happens:

2007-07-17 06:52:38.811 VERBOSE [1] System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\skin\_CoreImages\ListIcon_Folder.png'.

I have the following in the skin file.

<CompositeImage name="FolderIcon" size="16,16">
<DrawImage filename="../_CoreImages/ListIcon_Folder.png" loc="0,0" size="16,16"/>
</CompositeImage>

With previous versions of GB-PVR this would cause it to look in gbpvr\skin\Blue\_CoreImages but now it seems to be looking for _CoreImages in gbpvr\skin.

In my plugin's getSkinSubdirectory() method, I return "UbuStream", which used to allow my skin files to be in gbpvr\skin\Blue\UbuStream (or in gbpvr\skin\any skin\UbuStream).

I'm unclear why this is working differently with PVRX2 . Have I missed a key post/thread somewhere? What is the correct approach to have skins work with both 1.0.08 and with earlier GB-PVR versions? (I'm just trying to get my current code working with both before I attempt to re-write it for the new plugin architecture and skin2 skins).

[sub]

Getting a bit further. I got somebody to try a version with extra logging for me. Looks like Activate() doesn't get called before the first invocation of needsRendering(). Should be easy to fix. So now another problem:

I notice that, for some reason, PVRX2 seems to be looking for skin files in gbpvr\skins before it looks in gbpvr\skin\Blue. ie:
but then, when it looks for a composite image, this happens:
I have the following in the skin file.
With previous versions of GB-PVR this would cause it to look in gbpvr\skin\Blue\_CoreImages but now it seems to be looking for _CoreImages in gbpvr\skin.

In my plugin's getSkinSubdirectory() method, I return "UbuStream", which used to allow my skin files to be in gbpvr\skin\Blue\UbuStream (or in gbpvr\skin\any skin\UbuStream).

How did you create your skin helper object? Are you using one of the supplied base classes that does it automatically, or creating it yourself? If you're creating it yourself, this is the way I do it for 1.x plugins:

skinHelper = new SkinHelper2(getSkinSubdirectory() + "\\skin.xml");

Note, the use of "SkinHelper2" rather than "SkinHelper", and the constructor takes the relative path (skin subdirectory and file name) as the argument. for example "TV Guide\\skin.xml".

I'm unclear why this is working differently with PVRX2 . Have I missed a key post/thread somewhere?

I'm not sure why this is happening, but I'm guessing its something to do with how your creating the SkinHelper object?

What is the correct approach to have skins work with both 1.0.08 and with earlier GB-PVR versions? (I'm just trying to get my current code working with both before I attempt to re-write it for the new plugin architecture and skin2 skins).

To be honest, I'm not bothering with any backward compatibility in the new screens I'm creating. Too much hassle. All my screens and plugins are 1.x only, so I dont have to worry about any compatibility with older versions of GB-PVR. (would mean having both SkinHelper and SkinHelper2 objects, and two different sets of rendering logic, and would rule out the use of the new base classes etc)

Like me, you may find its best to just leave the current version of your plugin as-is for users of older versions of GB-PVR, then create an UbuStream2 or something similar for 1.x.

[ubu]

How did you create your skin helper object? Are you using one of the supplied base classes that does it automatically, or creating it yourself? If you're creating it yourself, this is the way I do it for 1.x plugins:

skinHelper = newSkinHelper2(getSkinSubdirectory() + "\\skin.xml");

Note, the use of "SkinHelper2" rather than "SkinHelper", and the constructor takes the relative path (skin subdirectory and file name) as the argument. for example "TV Guide\\skin.xml".

You're right. I'm using

Code:

skinHelper = new SkinHelper(MyPlugInSkinSubDirectoryName, "skin.xml", "2.2");

where MyPlugInSkinSubDirectoryName is a constant that I also use as the return value for getSkinSubdirectory(). Since I'm not using SkinHelper2 and don't have "\\" before the skin file name, I'm surprised it's getting as far as is doing with PVRX2. :confused:

To be honest, I'm not bothering with any backward compatibility in the new screens I'm creating. Too much hassle. All my screens and plugins are 1.x only, so I dont have to worry about any compatibility with older versions of GB-PVR. (would mean having both SkinHelper and SkinHelper2 objects, and two different sets of rendering logic, and would rule out the use of the new base classes etc)

I suppose something like:

Code:

try
{
   skinHelper = new SkinHelper2(MyPlugInSkinSubDirectoryName, "skin.xml", "2.2");
}
catch
{
   skinHelper = new SkinHelper(MyPlugInSkinSubDirectoryName, "skin.xml", "2.2");
}

might work.

Like me, you may find its best to just leave the current version of your plugin as-is for users of older versions of GB-PVR, then create an UbuStream2 or something similar for 1.x.

Sounds like sound advice. Haven't quite given up yet but I'm getting very close to bailing and starting work on UbuStream2 instead.

[ubu]

So I finally seem to have got UbuStream running in "compatible" mode with PVRX2. (Turns out most of my problems were caused by using UNIX-style "/" path delimiters instead of "\" in my skin file. It seems that while gbpvr.exe is kind enough to interpret them, pvrx2.exe is not so forgiving).

There does seem to be a problem with the intended backward compatibility of mouse handling. The old-style OnClick() method seems to work fine with PVRX2 whereas the OnDoubleClick() method does not. In the DVDRipper sample plugin it states:

"The method or operation is not implemented. Not required with IUiTask plugins, but left for compatibility."

for both methods, which suggests they should both function OK in "compatibility" mode. But when my OnDoubleClick() is called, I get:

2007-07-21 03:20:03.156 VERBOSE [1] System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'UbuStreamPlugin.UbuStreamPluginTask' to type 'GBPVRX2.IUiTask'.
at GBPVRX2.MenuTask.x0be92cb4e3ac1817.OnUiDoubleClick(PointF location)
at GBPVRX2.x0061b801bdf12d35.xc3b72bade4bef6d8(Object xdf2e3583f942db7b, MouseEventArgs xc4f45905cb1fc7ba)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnMouseDoubleClick(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at GBPVRX2.x0061b801bdf12d35.WndProc(Message& m)

I also notice that using the right mouse button will always exit the plugin immediately. Not sure if this is intentional. None of this is really a show-stopper, IMHO. (Surely GB-PVR users navigate with a remote control and only developers need to use a mouse.)

Another minor niggle is that the DisableScreenSaver() and EnableScreenSaver() methods of the pluginHelper no longer seem to be supported.

[sub]

There does seem to be a problem with the intended backward compatibility of mouse handling. The old-style OnClick() method seems to work fine with PVRX2 whereas the OnDoubleClick() method does not. In the DVDRipper sample plugin it states:

for both methods, which suggests they should both function OK in "compatibility" mode. But when my OnDoubleClick() is called, I get:

Ok, this is fixed for the next release.

I also notice that using the right mouse button will always exit the plugin immediately. Not sure if this is intentional. None of this is really a show-stopper, IMHO. (Surely GB-PVR users navigate with a remote control and only developers need to use a mouse.)

The right mouse button sends the escape key. This was the case with GBPVR.exe in the past also.

Another minor niggle is that the DisableScreenSaver() and EnableScreenSaver() methods of the pluginHelper no longer seem to be supported.

These methods work in the next release.

[ubu]

Excellent! Thanks sub.