Enhanced basic homescreen possible? (2 Viewers)

[Bosso]

Hi all!

I want to improve the basic homescreen to get faster navigation to the most used functions of MP. I want to be able to go straigt from the basic home screen to recorded tv shows, to the tv guide etc.

I want to add a sub menu to each item in the basic homescreen, so if TV is selected, a submenu appears on the same screen with the most used functions for TV, such as for example


Example, when TV is selected a drop down style sum menu appears on the same screen.

Radio [TV] Videos Plugins
Recorded TV
Record now
Program guide

I haven't done any skinning yet, so before I give it a go, I want to ask if this is possible to do with only skinning, or is the basic homescreen kind of hardcoded?

/Bosso

 

[rsparey]

this should be possible using the visability control... you could make your sub menu's only visable when the relevant main icon is selected....

regards

Rich

 

[VdR]

I'm trying to do exactly that for my MP Gold skin alternative BasicHome screen.

The problem I have is how to define what appears in the submenus. I'm not sure this can be done without coding.

VdR

 

[Boilermaker]

this should be possible using the visability control... you could make your sub menu's only visable when the relevant main icon is selected....

The code below was part of a myvideo.xml screen i was tinkering with a while back. The idea was for the buttons on the left to use a tree-like structure, similar to the start menu in windows. If the Playlist button is highlighted (the first control), two more buttons to the right will appear (Current and My Playlists). as long as any of these three buttons are selected then the two child buttons are visible and selectable.

<!--  Parent Button  -->
<control>  
     <description>Playlist button</description>  
     <type>button</type>  
     <id>120</id>  
     <label>136</label>  
     <onright>20</onright>  
     <animation effect="slide" time="500" start="0,-128">WindowOpen</animation>  
</control>
<!--  Child Buttons -->
<control>  
     <description>Current Playlist button</description>  
     <type>button</type>  
     <posX>400</posX>  
     <posY>253</posY>  
     <id>20</id>  
     <label>Current</label>  
     <action>33</action>  
     <onleft>120</onleft>  
     <ondown>9</ondown>
     <visible>Control.HasFocus(120)|Control.HasFocus(20)|Control.HasFocus(9)</visible> 
</control>  
<control>  
     <description>My Playlists</description>  
     <type>button</type>  
     <posX>400</posX>  
     <posY>295</posY>  
     <id>9</id>  
     <label>Saved</label>  
     <onleft>120</onleft> 
     <onup>20</onup>
     <visible>Control.HasFocus(120)|Control.HasFocus(20)|Control.HasFocus(9)</visible> 
 </control>

 

[VdR]

That should do it. Individual buttons with an action or (for what Bosso wants to do) a hyperlink.

I was trying to do this for a menu to show the plug-ins. The menu list then depends on the plug ins that are installed as on the 'myhomeplugins' screen. Maybe I can borrow the xml from there ...

VdR

 

[Bosso]

OK so it can be done. Nice to hear that you have the same thoughts about navigation VdR. As said before, I'm new to skinning. Can this be done using the skinning tool, or is it more straightforward just to get into xml hacking?

 

[rsparey]

The skinning tool is out of date, and does not support many of the newer skinning features... you are best off editing the xml files direct in notepad or another editor...

 

[Bosso]

OK. The xml was fairly easy to understand, so I gave it a go and got almost what I wanted by adding some code in the basichome.xml in the bluetwo skin.
I did not get the visability tag to work though. I could not find it in the wiki documentation either. Is this a new feature? I'm on stable version 0.2.0.10.
I got some help from the dimColor function to make my buttons invisible, but they are a bit too secret doing that. Only if one know they're there one can find them.

This is my edited code for adding three shortcuts under the TV selection in case someone want to know...

<control>
<description>home BM FFS [TV]</description>
<type>button</type>
<id>4</id>
<posX>262</posX>
<posY>85</posY>
<width>162</width>
<height>225</height>
<textureFocus>TV.png</textureFocus>
<textureNoFocus>hover_my tv.png</textureNoFocus>
<hyperlink>1</hyperlink>
<hover>-</hover>
<hoverX>265</hoverX>
<hoverY>270</hoverY>
<hoverWidth>204</hoverWidth>
<hoverHeight>230</hoverHeight>
<label>605</label>
<textcolor>00ffffff</textcolor>
<onleft>3</onleft>
<onright>5</onright>
<onup>21</onup>
<!--edited below-->
<ondown>441</ondown>
</control>
<!--added below-->
<control>
<type>group</type>
<layout>StackLayout</layout>
<description>group element</description>
<posX>265</posX>
<posY>250</posY>

<visible>Control.HasFocus(4)|Control.HasFocus(441)|Control.HasFocus(442)|Control.HasFocus(443)</visible>
<dimColor>00FFFFFF</dimColor>
<control>
<description>TV submenu [TV guide]</description>
<type>button</type>
<id>441</id>
<label>600</label>
<hyperlink>600</hyperlink>
<onleft>3</onleft>
<onright>5</onright>
<onup>4</onup>
<ondown>442</ondown>
</control>
<control>
<description>TV submenu [Recorded TV]</description>
<type>button</type>
<id>442</id>
<label>604</label>
<hyperlink>603</hyperlink>
<onleft>3</onleft>
<onright>5</onright>
<onup>441</onup>
<ondown>443</ondown>
</control>
<control>
<description>TV submenu [Scheduled Recordings]</description>
<type>button</type>
<id>443</id>
<label>603</label>
<hyperlink>601</hyperlink>
<onleft>3</onleft>
<onright>5</onright>
<onup>442</onup>
<ondown>443</ondown>
</control>
</control>

 

[Forgotten Illustrator]

Heres a link on how to use the visable change
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/SkinArchitecture/skin_conditional_visibility

You still need to add this line in the control grounp.
<animation effect="fade" time="250">visiblechange</animation>

And yes you need the lastest Stable release which is 0.2.2.0 or SVN

I've done what your trying to do already but i'm at work so i dont have access to my code.
so some time over the weekend i post it for you.

 

[Bosso]

OK great. thanks for the info link and animation line.
I have to try that when I get home from work.
Is this function implemented in any skin already?
Or are we all making our own personal enhancements?

Maybe it is possible to make a customizeable home screen wich is set up via mediaportal setup. One can select what shortcuts one want under each category, and the setup edits the xml file for the home screen...
Too complicated maybe, just a thought...

/Bosso