Community Skin and New Plugin

[Ommina]

So, I wrote a plugin.

OK, fine -- not much of an achievement, but I needed an introduction and "Hello all!" has been done.

After seeing some screenshots of said plugin in Hairy's new theme, I realized that my week, nay, month, would not be complete unless I tried out the new theme as well.

And discovered that, while the plugin looked mostly OK just copying the skin files over from one folder to another, the popup buttons were... in a state of unhappiness.

So I tweaked and moved around and resized a bit until they were happy again, leaving me with a warm feeling of inner peace.

Which takes me to my question. What is appropriate for a plugin author to do with these modified skin files? Distribute with the plugin? Submit them for inclusion with the Community Skin? Both? Neither? Stop fiddling with skins and go work on the wiki page which I really should be doing but isn't nearly as interesting?

Or... what?

OK, so that's more than one question. I got carried away.

Again.

Thanks!

[Hairy]

I think your best bet is to talk to Fatman_do

while the plugin looked mostly OK just copying the skin files over from one folder to another, the popup buttons were... in a state of unhappiness.

So I tweaked and moved around and resized a bit until they were happy again, leaving me with a warm feeling of inner peace.

Having recently dipped my first toe in to these murky waters . I did learn that the formatting needs to be generous enough to cater for everyone's needs, like larger text and different languages.

kaizen mentioned your plugin in another thread, and if I can help graphically in anyway please let me know (like a task image?).

Cheers

[Ommina]

Having recently dipped my first toe in to these murky waters . I did learn that the formatting needs to be generous enough to cater for everyone's needs, like larger text and different languages.

kaizen mentioned your plugin in another thread, and if I can help graphically in anyway please let me know (like a task image?).

You make a good point, which leaves me wondering if I the changes that I made really, hm, qualify for inclusion in the in the CS project.

While the only element that didn't work fine was the popup buttons, I had to resize them vertically back to the default blue skin size. I was able to leave the horizontal size alone by changing their positioning.

Still, I appreciate that even changing the height my go against the spirit of the theme - presumably your goal is to a achieve a uniform look across the whole of the application, and can do without some annoying plugin guy messing up your work.

---

I'd very much like to take you up on the offer of a task image at some point in the future. Right now you seem pretty occupied with the (very attractive!) skin theme, and I've no wish to divert your attention from that project. When you're happy with the theme, though, a task would be very appreciated. I'm so useless at g..ph..cs that I'm not even allowed to type the word.

[Fatman_do]

Ommina, if you have something that is mostly complete, I can add it to the offical install. I can give it a look-over and modify it to fit the scope of the skin in areas by reviewing the xml.

I am out of town this week, but you can post it here or email it to me (check my profile).

Cheers.

p.s.
Any plugin author that wishes to provide a CS skin file is more than welcome (it increases chances it gets included vs. my time to fit it in.)

[Hairy]

While the only element that didn't work fine was the popup buttons, I had to resize them vertically back to the default blue skin size. I was able to leave the horizontal size alone by changing their positioning.

If it's calling the default "ShowDetailsPopup.xml" then I think that's pretty much universal accross GBPVR. Fatman_do has a heap of PM's explaining button sizing to me, and having to accommodate everyone.

I'd very much like to take you up on the offer of a task image at some point in the future.

Thats cool, if you've got any ideas though. I struggle on creating an abstract image to represent something, so if you've got any rough ideas what kind of icon that would be great. If not I'll hit GIS and try and think of something

When you're happy with the theme

I'm happy with it now, doesn't mean I can leave it alone . Poor fatman_do, over the last few weeks I've been working on the theme I've told him not once but twice that I'd finalized the graphics and layout and he'll be delighted to know that I'm still messing with it.........the never ending theme

[Ommina]

If it's calling the default "ShowDetailsPopup.xml" then I think that's pretty much universal accross GBPVR. Fatman_do has a heap of PM's explaining button sizing to me, and having to accommodate everyone.

Use it? I hadn't even heard of it until after I saw your post. :o I wonder what other goodies are out there that I've never heard of...

I spent some time last night working through the skin files, changing them as best I'm able to use the values supplied in baseskin.xml rather than my own, for both the default Blue and Community3. I'm going to send the files to Fatman_do after he's back to get his expert opinion.

If I'm honest with myself, some of the size changes I'm using may make the files inappropriate for inclusion with the Community Skin installer. And I'm comfortable with that. Either way, I'm sure my understanding of the skinning process can only be improved by the experience. (OK OK, given my current understanding, almost anything is an improvement!)

Thats cool, if you've got any ideas though. I struggle on creating an abstract image to represent something, so if you've got any rough ideas what kind of icon that would be great. If not I'll hit GIS and try and think of something

Well, I have an image that I use elsewhere that would be 'kind of nice' to reuse, just for the sake of keeping it consistent throughout. But it isn't as especially high resolution. More than enough for a 16x16 icon, perhaps far too small for a task image.

What size would you suggest? Thanks!

I'm happy with it now, doesn't mean I can leave it alone. Poor fatman_do, over the last few weeks I've been working on the theme I've told him not once but twice that I'd finalized the graphics and layout and he'll be delighted to know that I'm still messing with it.........the never ending theme

I like to think of it as "an evolving work in process"...

[Fatman_do]

Ommina,

Whenever you are ready I can take a look. I must warn you, I probably can't test this plugin out fully, but I can give it a look-see and we may need to do some "back-and-forth".

I have the laptop with me that I do my skinning on, so, I can play around.

[Hairy]

Well, I have an image that I use elsewhere that would be 'kind of nice' to reuse, just for the sake of keeping it consistent throughout. But it isn't as especially high resolution

Post whatever you got , I'm working on the task images at the mo to see if I can expand them out to cover as many plugins as I can.

[Ommina]

Email sent to Fatman_do.

Hairy, I don't have an email address for you. Would you prefer the files as a PM or attached here?

[Fatman_do]

Ok, I'll have a look at it this weekend.

Thanks.