Special elements

[bgowland]

Could somebody explain how the <SpecialElements> part of the skin.xml file works?

I've worked out things like the <TextStyle> and <CompositeImage> nodes and the SkinHelper has methods to pull these in but there's nothing that looks like it handles special elements. Am I right in thinking this is a generic section for defining anything which isn't covered by the standard skin.xml elements?

Cheers,
Brian

[sub]

They're basically just a hack to store some information that didnt really fit anywhere else in the skin file. There is no set list of attributes.

[reven]

yeah its generic i guess, theres no requirement for you to use them at all, its more like the "other" section.

[bgowland]

So, in other words, I can make up my own?

As long as my plugin knows what to do with a special element called 'Wibble' then I don't have to follow conventions other than, perhaps, "loc=", "size=" etc. and I can but my own attribute names in?

[reven]

yup, just dont make it confusing for skin developers.

[bgowland]

yup, just dont make it confusing for skin developers.

No - that's why I mentioned the loc and size attributes as examples - I figured some conventions should be stuck to. I have a couple of ideas that I can't work out how to put in the standard skin format so this may help. Cheers.

[KingArgyle]

The SpecialElement is something that is both an advantage and disadvantage. Mainly because each plugin has it's own set of specialelements. Ideally in a 2.0 version of GBPVR (if there is such a thing), the skinnig would address this particular issue and try to come up with a greater range of standard components and what they mean. I'm sure that many plugins use SpecialElements for the same type of functions, but there was no other way to implement the functionality but to create the SpecialElement and implement it themselves.