Changing skin font or colour

[mvallevand]

Jaggy, that's what I want to do, I the code I would do

args["@Color"] = "ConflictListing"

and it would override the colour in this fairly typical row

<Text text="@Title" visible="@isFolder" location="11,0" size="60,100" font="DefaultReverse" align="Left" valign="Left"/>

Martin

[whurlston]

Isn't the title text always going to be visible? Just have all the titles <Text> elements line up and then set visible="@isFolder" on the folder <Image>.

Code:

<Image src="..\FolderImage.jpg" visible="@isFolder" location="1,0" size="9,100">
<Text text="@Title" visible="@isSports" location="11,0" size="60,100" font="DefaultReverseR" align="Left" valign="Left"/>
<Text text="@Title" visible="@isMovie" location="11,0" size="60,100" font="DefaultReverseY" align="Left" valign="Left"/>
<Text text="@Title" visible="@isShow" location="11,0" size="60,100" font="DefaultReverseG" align="Left" valign="Left"/>
<Text text="@Title" visible="@isEpi" location="11,0" size="60,100" font="DefaultReverse" align="Left" valign="Left"/>

[mvallevand]

In this specif usage I want the folder and the items both to have "genre" colouring, so no.

Martin

[whurlston]

You could set the image as a variable (src="@folderImage") and then set @folderImage to the appropriate image for that item.

[mvallevand]

whurlston It sounds like you really don't think this a good idea or worth sub's effort and I am not still not sure why. I can certainly code and skin around this specific problem I thought a generic solution was better, but if I'm the only one who cares I can wait until sub has time. I think the icon approach means each skinners (and I) would need to come up with four specific copyright free thematic icons that look good at SD which I want to avoid. Using colours, I can have this as a configurable, since not everyone will want it.

Martin

[whurlston]

I'm actually over the not thinking it's a good idea and just in workaround mode for you until it's implemented.

Admittedly, it will open up possibilities for developers, I just probably won't use it ('cause I'm lazy and want to avoid as much skin modification as possible).

[mvallevand]

Thanks, I know you are trying to help, it shows how people can look at program logic differently. To me this is much easier to skin and adjust.

Martin

[sub]

I just checked, and found I'd already implemented part of what you wanted. You can do something like this:

<Text text="@subtitle" location="0,13" size="90,10" font="@fontName" align="center"/>

And pass in the "@fontName" in the args:

Code:

args["@fontName"] = "DefaultReverseSmall"
if (failed)
  args["@fontName"] = "DefaultReverseSmallFailed"

Where @fontName is name of a <Font> defined in the skin. It used for typeface/size/color etc.

I probably wont add anything more on this front, as it should be able to do what you want. It'd also be a bit awkward for me to change the existing stuff to specify the color independently of the defined <Font>.

[imilne]

Can I ask kindof the reverse: how do I read a colour from the xml into a plugin (so I can draw something in a colour defined by the skin)?

I've found SkinHelper.GetColor() but I'll be buggered if I can get it to work. Maybe I'm not specifying the colour properly in the skin? I've tried <NamedColor> and <Color> both within <NamedColors> and <Colors> groups. The SkinHelper always returns white, even if I pass it a string that doesn't exist.

Iain

[mvallevand]

I just checked, and found I'd already implemented part of what you wanted. You can do something like this:

...

I probably wont add anything more on this front, as it should be able to do what you want. It'd also be a bit awkward for me to change the existing stuff to specify the color independently of the defined <Font>.

That will work really well thanks.

Martin