A couple of thing regarding the included plugins... (1 Viewer)

[Psycho Reptile]

Hi cul8er, a few suggestions regarding the XFactorMenuSelector, XFactorFanartHandler and XFactorMusicInfo plugins.

XFactorFanartHandler

Could you allow the ability to specify a fanart folder, so that any skin can use the fan arts in an xml.
If a predefined set of folders are in a Fan Art folder, these will be used in music/viedeos etc.
Possibilty to disable the subtle zooming...

XFactorMenuSelector

Reload the skin, similar to the MyRefresh plugin that most skinners use, so that selected changes appear straight away.

XFactorMusicInfo
Again, the posibiltiy for others to use this info in their skins.


Would you have any objection to making the source code available, as it's not on Google code.

and keep up the good work.

Psycho

 

[cul8er]

Hi Psycho Reptile,

Thank you for your feedback. I have designed the plugins so that it should be possible to use in any skin. I just want to release next version of the x-factor skin and see that everything works before releasing the plugins as separate plugins in the plugin section (many mentions of plugin in that sentence ).

XFactorFanartHandler
This plugin allready works in any skin (the latest version).It is today only a music fanart plugin but perhaps I will extend it to video as well (but is it usefull in more than the myVideo plugin?). It is not possible to set the fanart folder at the moment so it has to be the following folder structure "Media/FanArt/Music" but if you have that folder structure you can use the plugin in any skin (the skin name is not hardcoded in the plugin, it uses current skin). The zoom animation is not part of the plugin but a x-factor thing.

XFactorMenuSelector
I will see if I can add this. The problem with that kind of reloading is that if you have music playing it will often hang that song and you have to restart MP to get music working again.

XFactorMusicInfo
This plugin is totally independant of the x-factor skin. It will work in any skin as it is. I will provide documentation when I release it as a separate plugin and thats about it.

Best Regards
cul8er

 

[joz]

I have been asking for this since ages, so I'll try again, just a request, see what you do with it;

I would like to be able to use TVSeries backdrops and MovingPictures backdrops in the skins I use. Currently I can hardcode this path to tvseries etc with a multiimage.
The downside is that the folder with the backdrops is just too big to be handled like this with the default multiimage behaviour, eventually it will suck up all allowed memory and make MP crash.
Is there any way this is in the scope of the fanart handler plugin, perhaps, maybe, some day? I think it would be awesome to have the backdrops of your own movies/tvseries/whatever zapping by on the homescreen. Maybe even pictures from the mypictures DB? Now I'm just blurting out ideas; a mozaique like album cover backdrop like last.fm does with many of it's widgets would also be awesome (I put something similair on my own homepage, left hand side). Although this one I most likely be able to handle myself with some PHP, some hardlinking and some windows cronjobbing

If this is totally out of scope or whatever I get that. Just a few requests/ideas.

 

[emphatic]

Ideally, we could use:
Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\Skin\Fan Art

This way, we won't have to worry about copying our fan art when we upgrade skins, and all skins can use the same artwork (no more duplicate data ~ 1GB).
Also, cul8er rules!

Emph

 

[cul8er]

Hi,

joz;
Great suggestions. I will see how much I can include but the more I think of this the more I like the idea of one plugin that handles all fanart (music, tvseries, movies and maby even pictures). The way the fanart plugin pushes images to a "image" and not a "multiimage" is really good from a memory usage view. I will start modelling a bit and see what architecture I will implement. Will keep everyone updated and create a new thread for this in the x-factor forum that we can move to plugins once I get a little further.

emphatic;
Another good idea. But I don't think we can have it in "Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\Skin\Fan Art" because then MP will think it is a skin..I can be wrong but it seams logic.

So where do you want the Fanart folder?
* Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\Fanart
* Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\thumbs\Backdrops (Fanart is allready used in this folder???)
* other suggestion??

cheers
cul8er

 

[emphatic]

So where do you want the Fanart folder?
* Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\Fanart
* Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\thumbs\Skin Fanart (Fanart is allready used in this folder???)

Both of the above are good suggestions. I suggested having it in the Skin root, as it could be easier for users to find it. I think MediaPortal ignores all folders that lacks skin defining (.xml) files inside. I've had folders not show up in the skin selector that only had images or .zip files for example.

Emph

 

[cul8er]

Hi,

I have started a new thread about the fanart plugin;
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/x-factor-316/x-factor-fanart-handler-73219/#post533428

Please see the scope, folder name and so on and let me know what you think. Use that thread to come with suggestions, comments about that plugin so that we all get a good plugin that supports out different skins

cheers
cul8er