Normal
Initial plugin developer guide and advanced plugin development pages are actually quite good enough to have you start developing a new plugin.But let me give you an example, there is a control named GUITumbnailControl, help page for the control only provides list of attributes that you can enter on a skin file. No information about why the control is there (OK, it is obvious that the control is there to display images and directory structure, but is it automaticaly filling content if I point it to a directory? Does it handle user interaction automaticaly? Where do I set to which directory it should start fetching the content from? etc. etc.)I can start testing by trial and error with small test projects, but it is the least efficient way of handling things, especially knowing that there is at least someone having the knowledge that can fill the help page.Help page can be structured something like this:Description:2-3 sentences describing the reason of having the control, what it is there for.Attributes:The list that is already provided on the pages, a single sentence fragment describing not easy to understand methods (OK to leave width field description empty, but what exactly is colordiffuse property is there for? Is it for thumbnail panel background and window background that the control is in, or generated buttons and control background? etc etc.)Small example to use:Very simple implementation on how to instantiate the control and have items in it.If such pages are provided as documentation, I can easily imagine that there will be more plugins implemented for MediaPortal as the process will be much more clear to create a new plugin.PS: I'll create an account and provide more information about the improvements I found about alreayd provided information, but there are tons more I need to learn by checking the source code under svn I guess.
Initial plugin developer guide and advanced plugin development pages are actually quite good enough to have you start developing a new plugin.
But let me give you an example, there is a control named GUITumbnailControl, help page for the control only provides list of attributes that you can enter on a skin file. No information about why the control is there (OK, it is obvious that the control is there to display images and directory structure, but is it automaticaly filling content if I point it to a directory? Does it handle user interaction automaticaly? Where do I set to which directory it should start fetching the content from? etc. etc.)
I can start testing by trial and error with small test projects, but it is the least efficient way of handling things, especially knowing that there is at least someone having the knowledge that can fill the help page.
Help page can be structured something like this:
Description:
2-3 sentences describing the reason of having the control, what it is there for.
Attributes:
The list that is already provided on the pages, a single sentence fragment describing not easy to understand methods (OK to leave width field description empty, but what exactly is colordiffuse property is there for? Is it for thumbnail panel background and window background that the control is in, or generated buttons and control background? etc etc.)
Small example to use:
Very simple implementation on how to instantiate the control and have items in it.
If such pages are provided as documentation, I can easily imagine that there will be more plugins implemented for MediaPortal as the process will be much more clear to create a new plugin.
PS: I'll create an account and provide more information about the improvements I found about alreayd provided information, but there are tons more I need to learn by checking the source code under svn I guess.
