[DEV] SkinPlugin

[McBainUK]

Will review all of your suggestions but just a quick note to get you thinking.

"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)

If you merge these it means you have to have a full icon set. As in with one choice you have chosen all the folder and file icons - this reduces the opportunity to mix and match.

[McBainUK]

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.

Sounds sensible, will look at the details and decide.

"HotspotHome + Close" into Hotspot folder

Hmm, bit of an oversight by me there - makes perfect sense to have these as one resources folder (but still individualaly changeable by the plug-in).

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.

OSD is "to-do". Is there a list of files that should be part of the the ControlIcons and OSD?

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.

Not sure what you mean here :confused: Rename to what?

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)

Let me know the file names and they can be easily added.

[Hairy]

If you merge these it means you have to have a full icon set. As in with one choice you have chosen all the folder and file icons - this reduces the opportunity to mix and match.

Yeah that suggestion was poorly worded and was more of a question really. I'm not sure how/where each are used and if any over lap occurs. I see reference to "*View - item" and "*View - folder" in the skin.xml's and I'm not sure how each are used. I should really ask fatman_do for a quick over view of how the various media icons/folders are referenced through out the skin.

[Hairy]

OSD is "to-do". Is there a list of files that should be part of the the ControlIcons and OSD?

Attached is a pic of the files used. The OSD_* are the graphics I've created, and the others are the control icon graphics used as named in sub's blue. We could name them something more easily identifiable in the resource folder, like play,stop ffwrd and so on. The benefit being that since I've made up a set in photoshop it's just a matter of changing the base colour. I will say that this is quite low down on the importance ladder.

Not sure what you mean here :confused: Rename to what?

Right now if any theme uses a "views background graphic", it's selected from the listbackground folder in the plugin, it's them loaded and renamed to listview.png (and is referenced as such in the skin.xml). Slick them introduced the list-background.png, which is only really used in the slick view for music and video. I was thinking that it would be good if each of these graphics were selectable from the plugin but a clearer distinction placed between the two.

Let me know the file names and they can be easily added

They're called background_overlay.png and menu_backdrop.png and are only presently used with slick.

[Fatman_do]

"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)

Here is a breakdown of some of the Misc. elements and where used:

• Folder.png, Folder graphic used in listmode or Iconmode, used in most plugins that use folder navigation
  
• Folder-Up.png, Folder graphic used in listmode or Iconmode, used in default library screens mostly (Was FolderParent.png)
  
• Music-Folder.png, A Folder icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_FolderMusic), used in Music Library, and Music, and MusicPlayer
  
• Picture-Folder.png, A Folder icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_FolderPhoto), used in Picture Library
  
• Video-Folder.png, A Folder icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_FolderVideo), used in Video Library
  
• Music-File.png, A music icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_Music), used in Music Library and Music
  
• Video-File.png, A video icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_Video), used in video library
  
• NoCoverArt.png, A graphic where no cover art is present, used in MusicLibrary2, and Musicv(does not need to be editable in my opinion.
  [COLOR="Red"]
• Icon_Pause.png, A graphic to display a pause icon, VA panel, no longer used.
  
• Icon_Play.png, A graphic to display a play icon, used by MusicLibrary2, should drop this as a selectable item.
  
• Icon_Record.png, A graphic to display a record icon, VA panel, no longer used.
  
• Icon_Stop.png , A graphic to display a stop icon, VA panel, no longer used.[/COLOR]
  

Other images that are in CoreImages that do not need to be editable items:
NoGenreArt (Music pluign)
Music-Albums (Music pluign)
Music-Artists (Music pluign)

[McBainUK]

NoCoverArt.png, A graphic where no cover art is present, used in MusicLibrary2, and Musicv(does not need to be editable in my opinion.

I would like to keep this as an editable item as I tend to change this to a transparent image as if there is no cover art I'd rather see nothing then a "CD cover" graphic distracting me. My 2c

[Fatman_do]

Fair enough

[McBainUK]

Right now if any theme uses a "views background graphic", it's selected from the listbackground folder in the plugin, it's them loaded and renamed to listview.png (and is referenced as such in the skin.xml). Slick them introduced the list-background.png, which is only really used in the slick view for music and video. I was thinking that it would be good if each of these graphics were selectable from the plugin but a clearer distinction placed between the two.

So there's an extra list background image that only used for the video and music library "slick view"?

[Hairy]

So there's an extra list background image that only used for the video and music library "slick view"?

Yeah, when the slick view is used in the video or music plugin. Then list-background.png (currently located in the relevant plugin folder) gives the frame and curved line on the screen and it would be quite useful to be able to alter that for different themes.

Where as listview.png, located in the _CoreImages folder and the graphic currently selected from the listbackground folder in the plugin, is used (in some themes) to frame the views (list/detail/icon/filmstrip) on all the default plugins.

[Hairy]

Here is a breakdown of some of the Misc. elements and where used:

• Folder.png, Folder graphic used in listmode or Iconmode, used in most plugins that use folder navigation
  
• Folder-Up.png, Folder graphic used in listmode or Iconmode, used in default library screens mostly (Was FolderParent.png)
  
• Music-Folder.png, A Folder icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_FolderMusic), used in Music Library, and Music, and MusicPlayer
  
• Picture-Folder.png, A Folder icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_FolderPhoto), used in Picture Library
  
• Video-Folder.png, A Folder icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_FolderVideo), used in Video Library
  
• Music-File.png, A music icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_Music), used in Music Library and Music
  
• Video-File.png, A video icon used in Icon list displays (was Icon_Video), used in video library
  
• NoCoverArt.png, A graphic where no cover art is present, used in MusicLibrary2, and Musicv(does not need to be editable in my opinion.
  [COLOR="Red"]
• Icon_Pause.png, A graphic to display a pause icon, VA panel, no longer used.
  
• Icon_Play.png, A graphic to display a play icon, used by MusicLibrary2, should drop this as a selectable item.
  
• Icon_Record.png, A graphic to display a record icon, VA panel, no longer used.
  
• Icon_Stop.png , A graphic to display a stop icon, VA panel, no longer used.[/COLOR]
  

Other images that are in CoreImages that do not need to be editable items:
NoGenreArt (Music pluign)
Music-Albums (Music pluign)
Music-Artists (Music pluign)

Unfortunately I just can't seem to work it out, I think you skin gurus keep some of this stuff hidden in special xmls and you only revel them when I snatch a pebble from you hand or something

I was trying to get the CS layout to operate kind of like Mixman's Mayhem. So media folders that contain other folders show a media folder (with the relevant music/vid/pic folder graphic). Then folders that contain files, show a parent folder and the others have a media icon (again music/vid/pic), this could be formatted so that any file thumbnail is large enough to cover any media icon used.

In this scenario I think we'd only need, (media)icon and (media)folder selections in the plugin (with different styles and the transparent option)

I hope that makes sense.