SubMenu - A main menu replacement supporting sub menus

[imilne]

I've uploaded a new version to the wiki that should avoid this problem in the future. I believe it was caused by having SubMenu installed (and activated), and then upgrading NPVR itself. The upgrade would have replaced the files SubMenu renamed, leaving everything in an inconsistent state. You'll have to remember to always re-activate SubMenu after an upgrade, but there's nothing I can do about that.

http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...in.SubMenu

Iain

[Sykor]

Ok, a lot has changed in the latest version of NPVR, so it's going to take a bit of time to make SubMenu properly compatible with it again.

In the meantime, you can trick it into working by doing the following:

- rename Skin\Default\Menu\Horizontal.xml to Menu.xml
- rename Skin\Default\Menu\Vertical.xml to Vertical.xml.backup

I've also no idea how it'll behave with skins other than the default.

Iain

I know this post is several months old, but since I didn't find another post regarding the its use with other skins...

Just tried Submenu with NextBlue, and got it to work. I guess the procedure is the similar for all other skins. You have to:

- copy your Skin\Default\SubMenu subdir to the desired skin directory;
- activate Submenu via Settings\Plugins menu;
- at this point submenu should be functional, ugly but functional. You need to edit the horizontal.xml in the Submenu dir (under the "new" skin obviously) and replace it's contents with those of horizontal.submenu for that skin (found in the "Menu" subdir). You should however preserve the "<Element name="PluginBackground"..." section as this is what enables the background changes. This should give you the skin's menu look, and the submenu's backgrounds.

In NextBlue's case I also removed the npvr logo codeline under the CutAway element section. That logo wouldn't look all that great with changing backgrounds.

@imilne
Some questions/suggestions:

- Is it possible for SubMenu's subdir to be where it can be accessed by all skins without us having to copy it? No biggie, but a nice change in terms of user friendliness. Or having a "master setup dir", and whenever we activate submenu for a skin, if SubMenu dir didn't exist in the skin's directory, it's contents would copied to it. Perhaps preferable (by copying only when not found, one could have different backgrounds for every skin). As it stands, activating for a skin, without having submenu dir contents in it, npvr starts throwing erros all around. Terminate task (via Task Manager) is the only option after that.

- When activated instead of creating the default horizontal xml, it copies the skin's horizontal.xml contents, and adds the pluginbackground section. Not foulproof, but should work most of the time. And I guess from the post I quoted that's it's already on your TODO list.

<OffTopic>
A big thanks, for all your work.
AudioAdjust is an essential plugin if you have different speaker options.
AutoRefresh stopped my longtime quest for the best compromise in refreshrate vs. framerate. I just don't have to (compromise) anymore.
</OffTopic>

[Jaggy]

I know this post is several months old, but since I didn't find another post regarding the its use with other skins...

Just tried Submenu with NextBlue, and got it to work. I guess the procedure is the similar for all other skins. You have to:

- copy your Skin\Default\SubMenu subdir to the desired skin directory;
- activate Submenu via Settings\Plugins menu;
- at this point submenu should be functional, ugly but functional. You need to edit the horizontal.xml in the Submenu dir (under the "new" skin obviously) and replace it's contents with those of horizontal.submenu for that skin (found in the "Menu" subdir). You should however preserve the "<Element name="PluginBackground"..." section as this is what enables the background changes. This should give you the skin's menu look, and the submenu's backgrounds.

While this "may" work with my BlueRetroVE+ skin (& I do say "may" as the horizontal menu is pretty horrible in it) it won't work with my new Just:Retro skin as all the horizontal menu in it does is display a message saying something like "if you want to see Just:Retro in action go into setting & select the Vertical menu style". Both my skins are really Vertical Main Menu skins & imilne has never done a vertical menu style update.

[Sykor]

While this "may" work with my BlueRetroVE+ skin (& I do say "may" as the horizontal menu is pretty horrible in it) it won't work with my new Just:Retro skin as all the horizontal menu in it does is display a message saying something like "if you want to see Just:Retro in action go into setting & select the Vertical menu style". Both my skins are really Vertical Main Menu skins & imilne has never done a vertical menu style update.

I stand corrected Thanks for the warning

[imilne]

SubMenu still needs a lot of work, and I do hope to get back to it one day, but it's not high on my list of priorities at the moment. I'm afraid I've simply been too busy to devote much time to NPVR (much as I'd like to).

I think the original mechanism for activating third-party menus was easier, but sub changed it for whatever reasons and now it's obviously a bit more fiddly. I'm not sure if it's possible to provide a one-size-fits-all-skins solution for it, because it really needs per-skin edits to work properly. Unfortunately, as Jaggy mentions, I never got around to making the vertical version of it, so it's probably not been much use outside of the default skin. I do have sample code from sub for doing a vertical version, it's just finding the time...

Thanks for the off-topic comments though. Always appreciated

Iain

[Mattyb3806]

Hi all,

I looked around for some backgrounds to use with SubMenu and didn't find much i liked so I made these. Some are kind of rough around the edges. I'm not much of a photo editor but they turned out better then I expected. I got the idea from a set of mediaportal backgrounds. I am posting a link to the 1920 x 1080 .jpg here. http://www.mediafire.com/?dnf0d5rwz4u6pcy

Live Tv.jpg

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

Recordings.jpg

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

DVD.jpg

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

Universe.jpg

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

Music.jpg

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

Also included: Pictures.jpg, Tv Guide.jpg, Videos.jpg, Weather.jpg, exit.jpg, system.jpg, and a background.jpg

[imilne]

Nice work. I can add the zip file to the wiki page for SubMenu if you'd like?

Edit: You've got a white pixel border down the left-hand edge of the system.jpg file too btw.

Iain

[Mattyb3806]

Nice work. I can add the zip file to the wiki page for SubMenu if you'd like?

Edit: You've got a white pixel border down the left-hand edge of the system.jpg file too btw.

Iain

I would be ok with you adding the zip to the wiki. I attached the fixed system.jpg the edge of the picture must be just off my tv screen. I also updated the zip http://www.mediafire.com/?dnf0d5rwz4u6pcy

Thanks

[edit] The system.jpg still isn't right. I will fix it and post again later. Thanks for noticing

[edit][edit] Ok I think it looks right now :p