What to learn to make a new skin (1 Viewer)

[spongedoor]

I am being quite frustrated with the skin designs I am finding. They are all really nice but there are a few things I would change. So I decided I will try and find out how to make my own lol.. I laugh as I have no experience in programming.

Please can I have advise on what software I need or tutorials on how to design a skin

I read a help page on forum and I feel it is aimed at people that already know how to program and it just shows how to skin with that knowledge.. where do i get this knowledge? is it c++ or visual basic or other? please help me.. if I can learn I will be bringing out a skin unlike no other.. I really only want to know how to change layout of skin and use my own graphics/images... (thats what a skin is :sorry

 

[ryan20021982]

Well if all you want to do really is change graphics and layout then you just need to edit the skin .xml's

Just use some xml editor or just notepad to edit them, all the locations of things are defined there and links to the images.

You can also edit the images in the media folder to your liking. I know there are different variables for animations and such which are limited by the skin engine in MP but I am not sure what they are but you can kinda piece a skin together using different settings and options from existing skins.

What were your ideas on a skin btw? Color or a certain theme?

 

[revs]

As mentioned above, no programming skills are needed for creating/modifying a skin - they are simply XML files (text files).

In the Skin folder take a look at one of the Skin .xml files - what you will see is an XML "tag" for each item on screen, and with each tag, an X/Y co-ordinate and a width/height etc.

 

[spongedoor]

I havent started the design yet but I'm thinking something like xface where its quite eye friendly n glossy.

I heard you can edit xml files but i dont know what anything means when i open it up. Is it possible to say 'I want this information <movie info> to be placed here (wherever i want, top left or bottom or middle) at this size (maunually chosen) and the movie picture at this size and location with these buttons' do you follow what i mean?

I have so many ideas for layouts n such that I think i would like to write a plugin like moving pictures.. its just that moving pictures doesnt group films such as 007 into a folder like the normal videos does (shares) but shares dont use fanart.. I also want to do something with actors where it will grab all the films they starred in and highlight ones available to watch.. also with the character name.. so i can see in the rocky info that sly stallone is also in rambo (for instance) but i do not have rambo as its not highlighted but he is in the highlighted cobra.. this will be in the sly stallone page that has been generated along with his downloaded biog (imdb) then i can rate him so when i look at actors by rating he is toward top.. it downloads so many actors that i wouldnt look for.. especially japanese films lol...

so what are plugins written in? I think i will dive right into that idea I just said using current skins and edit them for layouts later.. i know it sounds brave but this needs to be done!

I found this

I looked in xml for basic home.. i dont understand what id is etc.. i get the x,y height width but thats all.. and the image file used.. just a few things i need to lookup.. but hopefully a new plugin will be started soon!!

 

[explodedk]

spongedoor - start by googling for tutorial xml and learn a bit about xml coding, .. cause you will not get any where without knowledge of the basic xml commands... second, for the moving pictures / videos - i think you are in over your head... better request it as a feature for moving pictures... its no easy thing to just learn to code... start by learning some basic xml coding for the skin files, and then go ahead there...


just my 5 cents

 

[ryan20021982]

I looked in xml for basic home.. i dont understand what id is etc.. i get the x,y height width but thats all.. and the image file used.. just a few things i need to lookup.. but hopefully a new plugin will be started soon!!

The ID is for a button it is the ID of the plugin or section it links to. So lets say you have a button for movingpictures then you need the ID from the movingpictures.xml and enter it in the basichome .xml for the proper button.

ID's are just links.

 

[Spragleknas]

This might be useful: MediaPortal1_Development/SkinArchitecture - MediaPortal Manual Documentation

 

[joz]

I'm agreeing with explodedk. Take small steps.
The plugin idea you got might sound interesting but it will take you ages to get everyhting implemented right. Especially when you still need to learn C# (the most comnmonly used plugin programming language but I think stuff like VB.NET is supported too?).
You'd better start at the frontend (the skin) and work your way towards the back. As explodedk said you're in way over your head with your current ideas and plans.

Besides that why create a plugin from scratch just to have some more functionality. You'd better start off with the moving pictures source code then.

And about the IDs, ryan20021982 is right but I'd like to add that IDs in MP are really confusing and in my opinion not implemented right. IDs should be unique which they are not within the current MP skins / plugins.