Start skinning

[Sphero]

Hello,

I want to start skinning myself, but I am having some problemens getting it right.

AEON is a nice skin but I want to make a new My TvSeries. I want to start from scratch, but I dont know really where to begin.

For example; which part of the XML code wil display the main screen of the series. I guess it has something the do with the control ID's, but I can't find any reference. The AEON Tvseries.xml has a lot of code showing on differerent sections

Can somebody help me making a start?

thanks

[jburnette]

I'm certainly no skinning guru, but I can give you a bit of guidance. First of all you'll probably want the attached process plugin. Just drop it in your process plugin folder and it will allow you to hit F5 and refresh the skin in MediaPortal (so no closing mediaportal, making a change, opening it back up again).

I believe that the part of TV-Series you're looking to edit should be the control with the description:

<description>Graphical Thumbpanel (Series and Seasons if set)</description>

It's near the bottom. You can play with the banner sizes, etc with that specific control. It's probably going to be a lot of trial and error, but I think that's how most people have learned.

[Sphero]

Thanks for your reply.

The MyRefresh plgin is very nicve. Hate it when I have to restart MP every time you make a change.

Played for a few minutes and this is what I have made:

[Sphero]

I have another question.

The Season list screen shows a list of seasons available. The seasons appear in a vertical list. Is it possible to show them horizontal?
Here is the XML part:

<control>
<description>Text List</description>
<type>listcontrol</type>
<id>50</id>
<posX>50</posX>
<posY>78</posY>
<spinPosX>1030</spinPosX>
<spinPosY>467</spinPosY>
<width>150</width>
<height>150</height>
<textXOff>-20</textXOff>
<textXOff2>568</textXOff2>

<textureFocus>tvseries_info_list_sub_focus.png</textureFocus>
<textureNoFocus>tvseries_info_list_sub_nofocus.png </textureNoFocus>
<!-- Text -->
<downloadColor>ffffffff</downloadColor>
<!-- not watched color (normal) -->
<remoteColor>ffa0d0ff</remoteColor>
<!-- watched color -->
<textcolor>fff8bc70</textcolor>
<!-- local file not present color -->
<textcolor2>fff8bc70</textcolor2>
<!-- local file not present colorcolumn 2-->
<textcolor3>fff8bc70</textcolor3>
<!-- local file not present color column 3-->
</control>

[jburnette]

Looking good so far. The seasons are put into a listview which, as far as I know, is by design a vertical list. Allowing a horizontal listview would require changes to the listview in MediaPortal itself. So no, I don't think that's possible. I may be wrong on that, though.

[Sphero]

To bad,

I have 3 more questions ... sorry

1) Is it possible to convert the titles to uppercase?
2) Is it possible to add a non scrolling text field? Discriptions can be very long. I just want to let them stop after 3 rows without scrolling
3) When entering a TvSerie and get the season list can print the #TVSeries.Title variable. The variable containt the entire path (breadcrumb). Is it possible to display the serie title and season title seperate?

[jburnette]

1. Pretty sure that's not possible via the skin. That's something the plugin itself would have to set.

2. No, that control is a textboxscrollup and will always be one (unless Inker changes it in the plugin). If you were to change it to a regular textbox then the skin would no longer work because the control types would not match each other.

3. Not sure on that one.

[Inker]

Originally Posted by jburnette

1. Pretty sure that's not possible via the skin. That's something the plugin itself would have to set.

-> You can fake it by using some uppercase only Font though...but think about if you really wanna do this

2. No, that control is a textboxscrollup and will always be one (unless Inker changes it in the plugin). If you were to change it to a regular textbox then the skin would no longer work because the control types would not match each other.

-> Not true, hasn't been this way for a long time. #TVSeries.Description works with any control

3. Not sure on that one.

-> Yes, you can subscribe to any Field on it's own. Not sure what you mean with Season Title though, perhaps you mean Episode Title or Season number. May I refer you to the skinning docu txt file in the release version rar file. Basically it works like this:
#TVSeries.Episode.FieldYouWant
Same for Series/Seasons