[DEV] SkinPlugin

[Fatman_do]

Speaking of baseskin.xml, now that I am on the subject

To cut down on the number of them for minor tweaks, such as text colors, we should look at working those elements into the theme.xml file.

Code:

<ThemeItem id="NamedColor" type="xml" source="Normal" color="White"/>
    <ThemeItem id="NamedColor" type="xml" source="Selected" color="Yellow"/>
    <ThemeItem id="NamedColor" type="xml" source="SelectedInactive" color="Orange"/>
    <ThemeItem id="NamedColor" type="xml" source="General" color="White"/>
    <ThemeItem id="NamedColor" type="xml" source="Header" color="White"/>
    <ThemeItem id="NamedColor" type="xml" source="ScreenName" color="White"/>
    <ThemeItem id="TextStyle" name="DefaultTextStyle" color="General" typeFace="Arial" size="14" style="bold"/>

Just by adding those items, we can cut down the number of baseskins dramatically.

The skinplugin would have to be able to modify basekskin.xml in both folders. I don't know if that is "asking too much".

[McBainUK]

A bonus of that would be less XML files to maintain!

Don't see a problem with making those editable via the SkinPlugin, would require some minor code changes tho.

[Hairy]

I don't mean to cross pollinate threads here, but a few random splatter gun thoughts :

It would be great if the plugin was altered to enable layout selection for the 3 main plugins (vid,pic,music)

By this I mean a selection in the plugin (formatting section?) to select a skin.xml layout and list-background.png (where appropriate) for each the Video Library, Music Library and Picture Library. After tinkering with what was introduce with the last release I think I would be cool if the user could select different layouts for each of the main default plugins.

The inclusion of TextBackground_small and TextBackgrounds_large graphics in the TextBackgrounds section of the plugin. These are the graphics asked to scale the most by the formatting of the CS and including those 2 would reduce the scaling need in certain circumstances.

Edit: Nads forgot: The addition of a screen_header graphic. I'm using one in CS Blue now and I can see the potential for future themes

For the font colours perhaps just the 3 primary and 3 neutral colours with alpha levels for each (100%, 75%, 50% and 25%)? So something like:

Red:

• ff0000
  
• #Bfff0000
  
• #7fff0000
  
• #3fff0000
  

Green
Blue
Black
White
Yellow

More musings

[McBainUK]

OK with the TextBackground, ScreenHeader and colours. Will need a full list of colours tho as #7fff0000 is "code monkey" stuff to me. I assume there will be alpha levels for the other colours you've listed - so with 4 for each colour name will make a nice range, yes?

[Hairy]

Will need a full list of colours tho as #7fff0000 is "code monkey" stuff to me

I think it's something like this:

Red:

100% FF0000
75% #BFFF0000
50% #7FFF0000
25% #3FFF0000

Green:

100% 00FF00
75% #BF00FF00
50% #7F00FF00
25% #3F00FF00

Blue:

100% 0000FF
75% #BF0000FF
50% #7F0000FF
25% #3F0000FF

Black:

100% 000000
75% #BF000000
50% #7F000000
25% #3F000000

White:

100% FFFFFF
75% #BFFFFFFF
50% #7FFFFFFF
25% #3FFFFFFF

Yellow:

100% FFFF00
75% #BFFFFF00
50% #7FFFFF00
25% #3FFFFF00

so with 4 for each colour name will make a nice range, yes?

The theory would be that the user mixes the alpha level colour of the text with the background colour it's displayed on. But it's only a theory

[Hairy]

My apologies for the lack of appropriate vocabulary here.

How about a "macro" feature, something just like the xml file used to load the themes but smaller. It could help with graphics+xml dependencies. For example it could load the mainmenu layout and the corresponding background mask graphic, or say you want to load the slick view for the 3 main plugins or change glossy elements to matte elements. Rather than the user changing each element they just load the "macro".

Does that make sense?

[McBainUK]

Sounds like a good idea. Not sure about the name tho - mayb "Package" or ...?

Easy to implement, as it's just a theme with a different name.

[Hairy]

How about "mini theme make edit do....NOW!"

It's catchy

[Hairy]

Or maybe something more sensible like "Auto", "Automate" or "Auto Select" ...?...

[Hairy]

I was wondering if the structure in the resource folder is still at a mulluable state, because I was thinking. Would it make sense to consolidate some folders:

Like merge the "MoreItemsButtons" and the "UpDownButtons" folders into a "NavigationIndicators or Indicators " folder with (more?) up/down/left/right graphics and let the plugin copy/duplicate/rename the relevant graphics needed to maintain compatibility with sub'd Blue.

"HotspotHome + Close" into Hotspot folder

"File icons/foldericons/mediafoldericons/no cover art" merged into Icons or folders (I'll be honest I still don't know exactly how each of these are used through out the skin)

I was also wondering if expanding the "Controlicons" folder out to include the same naming scheme as sub'd Blue OSD control icons and have the plugin edit them in the OSD folder. We'd have to alter any reference if used elsewhere (other than the OSD). I make this suggestion because I've made up a set of control icons in photoshop and it's now easy to create 4/5 colour variations, for variety.

Also perhaps a renaming of the list background folder (it gets renamed to listview.png when loaded into the _CoreImages folder). The trick is that the new slick views in the main plugins can use a list-background.png and it would be really useful if that graphic was dynamically loadable from the skin plugin.

Although I haven't gotten around to messing with the slick main menu view yet, I know it does use 2 extra graphics "background_overlay + menu_backdrop", so again it'd be useful if the plugin could dynamically alter these as well (this is kind of where the macro idea stems from, these graphics are only used when the slick main menu option is loaded so it might be helpful to automate some of those dependencies)