Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[leezer3]

I'm trying to fix a skin I built a while back (MC13).
This uses pretty basic images as a backdrop for each button, and the picture section looks like this:

Code: [Select]

  <PICTURE>
   
    <Item Bitmap="Background.png" Location="***" Rect="window\0,0,100,100" Alpha="95" Background="1" />
    <Item Name="Image" Base="ViewBackground" Placement="Right" Size="100%" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Audio.png" Location="Audio" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Images.png" Location="Images" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="..\Shared\Pictures\Video.png" Location="Video" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Television.png" Location="Television" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\LE.jpg" Location="Anime" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\TVS.png" Location="TV Series" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\DVD.png" Location="DVD" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Weather.png" Location="Weather" Rect="40,25,80,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\News.png" Location="News" Rect="40,25,80,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Search.png" Location="Search" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Connected.png" Location="Connected" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Info.png" Location="Info" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="..\Shared\Pictures\Playing Now.png" Location="Playing Now" Rect="40,25,80,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Playlist.png" Location="Playlists" Rect="40,25,80,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
    <Item Bitmap="Pictures\Exit.png" Location="Exit" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
  </PICTURE>
This only now works with button based skins (Base 1.xml).
You've stated in the past that these are no longer supported, and this is fair enough.

From what I can see though, and this is only an educated guess, the location data isn't being nicely passed by the roller, and this seems to be rooted somewhere in the Base 2.xml & Base 3.xml files.
Changing to use Base 1.xml makes the images work as expected. (I'd also note that this change fixes the spinning cube in Glass etc.)
Oddly, the images appear when drilling down into the category, which is where they aren't supposed to.

-Leezer-

[raym]

+1

I was reminded of this problem yesterday when I was trying to use an image on the main menu to reflect the root menu selection.   

[raym]

Changing to use Base 1.xml makes the images work as expected. (I'd also note that this change fixes the spinning cube in Glass etc.)
Oddly, the images appear when drilling down into the category, which is where they aren't supposed to.

I hadn't realised this but you're right, the Base 1.xml does indeed show the pictures just not on the home screen, which is where I'd like them too I hope this isn't a big deal to fix sometime soon. It's obviously not a serious bug but it is one of the few nice things about the older style Theater View skins.

I'll throw this out there too while we're on the subject.... How difficult would it be to allow us to show the date on the home screen like we can currently for time?

Cheers.

[leezer3]

End of June, so bump

-Leezer-

[Matt]

So to make sure I understand, you want the roller selection to be part of the 'Location' like the button selection was part of the location in the past?

[leezer3]

So to make sure I understand, you want the roller selection to be part of the 'Location' like the button selection was part of the location in the past?

I think so  ?
Basically, I want the pictures to appear on the theatre view main menu 
From my quick bashing, this seemed to be the issue, but I'm by no means certain where your code is getting the location for the picture from.
eg. If I've got a theatre view menu item named "Video", with button based skins this makes the image appear:

Code: [Select]

<Item Bitmap="..\Shared\Pictures\Video.png" Location="Video" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
Thanks

-Leezer-

[Matt]

Would you mind emailing me a copy of the skin that should work but doesn't?  I'm matt at jriver dot com.

Hopefully we can get it going.

Thanks.

[raym]

So to make sure I understand, you want the roller selection to be part of the 'Location' like the button selection was part of the location in the past?

Yes. On the main menu of the old skins like Noire, each button corresponded to a location and picture and was configurable too. I'm personally not too interested in showing these images beyond the home screen but I think the older skins allowed this also. 

What i'd also like to see is support for nested menus (again just on the main menu/home screen). For example, if the video menu item is selected, you could show video.png and when you nav to a movies item under this, mc shows movies.png. Know what I mean? 

[Matt]

Coming in build 69:
Changed: The Theater View location string includes the root roller selection when at the root (used by skins).

The means Root > Audio will have a location of "Audio" and inside Audio will also have a location of "Audio".  I don't see a good way around this.

[leezer3]

A lot better than it was, but I think we really need an option to only show the images on the root roller
Since you've updated the skin format, perhaps consider adding an option to the picture? Something like this:

1. Root roller only:
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Audio.png" Location="Audio" Placement="Root" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
2. Inside Selected item:
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Audio.png" Location="Audio" Placement="Inside" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />
3. All:
<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Audio.png" Location="Audio" Placement="All" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />

A skin option to show location images only at the root level would also work, but be somewhat more of a blunt instrument
Trouble is that I only really want to use the images for visual navigation at the root level, and the size & opacity options that make them look good there really don't lend themselves to being in the background of a filelist.

-Leezer-

[raym]

Matt, would it be possible please to implement what leezer3 has proposed? Like him, I need a way to display text and images ONLY ON THE HOME SCREEN. Prior to these changes, this used to be possible like this:

  <Item Bitmap="Pictures\1.png" Location="" Rect="25,40,60,50" Alpha="100"/>

Now this no longer works 

Thanks.

[Matt]

Matt, would it be possible please to implement what leezer3 has proposed? Like him, I need a way to display text and images ONLY ON THE HOME SCREEN. Prior to these changes, this used to be possible like this:

  <Item Bitmap="Pictures\1.png" Location="" Rect="25,40,60,50" Alpha="100"/>

Now this no longer works 

Thanks.

Here's an explanation of wildcards you can use in locations:

Code: [Select]

The location in Theater View (Playing Now, Media Library, etc.) where something will be shown
Special modifiers:
* = any text at a given level
\** = any children of this item
\*** = this item and any children
Example Locations:
Location="***" (visible everywhere)
Location="Media Library" (will be visible when the "Media Library" menu item is selected - not visible anywhere else)
Location="*" (will be visible at any root item)
Location="Media Library\**" (will be visible for the children of "Media Library")
Location="Media Library\***" (will be visible at "Media Library" and anywhere underneath)
Location="*\*" (will be visible at any second level items)

So try:
Location="*"

[leezer3]

I'm confused now  
I thought that your changes had removed these special modifiers, as you're now passing the data whenever.

If I create an image using solely the root modifier, like this:

Code: [Select]

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Exit.png" Location="*" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />This shows up on the main screen & every subscreen, except the ?special? ones (Playing Now basically).

On the other hand, a picture like this:

Code: [Select]

<Item Bitmap="Pictures\Audio.png" Location="Audio" Rect="40,25,70,65" Alpha="70" Alignment="3" />This shows up on the main screen when Audio is slected & every subscreen for the audio viewscheme, but nowhere else. It doesn't matter whether I've got audio selected on the roller or not.

Like I say, I'm after the ability for visual navigation on the main screen

Bug in the works somewhere?

-Leezer-

[raym]

Thanks for the reply Matt but the following makes images apper everywhere, not just on the home screen:

Location="*"

Also, all my root menus are categories, with menu items beneath them. Perhaps this is causing some confusion also.

[Matt]

This got confusing when we tried to hook roller selection to the location.

Does "Audio" mean at the root with the Audio selected, or does it mean inside "Audio" view?

I'm not sure the right way to handle this.  Any advice?

[raym]

As Leezer states above, I think we need a way to describe placement using either an additional tag like "Placement" or simply introducing new "Location" descriptors. Something like the following examples perhaps:

Location="*" (means home screen only and irrespective of the current menu selection)
Location="*Audio" (means home screen only and only when the Audio menu item is selected)
Location="Audio*" (means home screen when Audio menu item is selected and inside all Audio views)

The second and third definitions would need to apply to home menu roller categories too. For instance, I have a "Television" category on my home screen with the following buttons underneath it:

Television
  |--Live TV
  |--Recorded TV
  |--Guide

So, using the above method, to allow me to show a different picture on the home screen ONLY when either "Television" or "Live TV" is selected, I would achived this with: "Location=*Television" and "Location=*Live TV" respectively.

Thanks.

[leezer3]

This got confusing when we tried to hook roller selection to the location.

Is "Audio" mean at the root with the Audio selected, or does it mean inside "Audio" view?

I'm not sure the right way to handle this.  Any advice?

I'd put it back the way it used to work pre-roller
Thus:

Code: [Select]

Location="Audio"Selected at the root.

Code: [Select]

Location="Audio\**"Inside the audio viewscheme

Code: [Select]

Location="Audio\***With audio selected at the root, and also inside audio.

-Leezer-

[raym]

And Location="*" should mean JUST THE HOME SCREEN & REGARDLESS OF MENU SELECTION so static images and text can be placed on the main screen independent of anything else.

[raym]

Matt, does this all work for you? I'm really missing not being able to show static text and pictures just on the home screen anymore (ie, irrespective of menu selection)

[Matt]

Thanks for the reply Matt but the following makes images apper everywhere, not just on the home screen:

Location="*"

That's the location we use for the clock text with the default skins, and it only shows at the root for me.

Is this still the main problem?  Does the clock text work for you with the default skin?

[leezer3]

That's the location we use for the clock text with the default skins, and it only shows at the root for me.

Is this still the main problem?  Does the clock text work for you with the default skin?

The clock text works with the default skins, seems to be because it's placed within the RootText\
Shifting it out of this makes it appear on every page.

Further, to that, declaring images in the skin file, using this makes them work as I want:

Code: [Select]

Rect="RootTextBackground\Anything wrong with doing this?

raym- I'd assume this'll work for you too.

-Leezer-

[Matt]

Next build:
Changed: Theater View location text used in skinning no longer includes roller selection.

If the roller selection is necessary, I think we'll have to find a different way to expose it.  For now, we're just going to revert to the old system of not including the selection in the location.

[leezer3]

Fair enough
IMHO I think it's necessary (I would wouldn't I  : ), and there are definitely others who think so too.
I presume you've seen the threads like this one for example:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=58532.0

You also saw the incomplete example I mailed to you, and I seriously think it's something that should be explored more thoroughly.
The online slideshow is a neat little trick, but I personally don't think it's a real replacement for a properly co-ordinated and designed skin.

-Leezer-

[gappie]

Next build:
Changed: Theater View location text used in skinning no longer includes roller selection.

If the roller selection is necessary, I think we'll have to find a different way to expose it.  For now, we're just going to revert to the old system of not including the selection in the location.

i got lost in this thread, as in, i dont understand.

so this mean that i dont have to define
Location="Playing Now\***"
Location="*\Playing Now\***"
Location="*\*\Playing Now\***"
etc
for both the skin and the themes.

so that playing now etc is just one place, as it used to be?

 
gab

[raym]

Next build:
Changed: Theater View location text used in skinning no longer includes roller selection.

If the roller selection is necessary, I think we'll have to find a different way to expose it.  For now, we're just going to revert to the old system of not including the selection in the location.

So we've come full cirlce?  I honestly didn't expect this to be so hard.

The online slideshow is a neat little trick, but I personally don't think it's a real replacement for a properly co-ordinated and designed skin.

Agree. Just a little more flexibility and "co-ordination" would encourage far more skin designers for Theater View. There's a lot of demand for this...

[gappie]

i got lost in this thread, as in, i dont understand.

so this mean that i dont have to define
Location="Playing Now\***"
Location="*\Playing Now\***"
Location="*\*\Playing Now\***"
etc
for both the skin and the themes.

so that playing now etc is just one place, as it used to be?

 
gab

apparently the answer is no. a well.

 
gab

[Matt]

In a coming build:
Changed: Reworked how Theater View positions are reported so that it's easier to make skins with context sensitive images.

The location string will always contain the path to the current view followed by the name of the selection.

So a location of "Audio" means at the root with the audio button selected.  "Audio\[some other text]" means inside the audio view.

These rules should still be true:

Code: [Select]


The location in Theater View (Playing Now, Media Library, etc.) where something will be shown
Special modifiers:
* = any text at a given level
\** = any children of this item
\*** = this item and any children
Example Locations:
Location="***" (visible everywhere)
Location="Media Library" (will be visible when the "Media Library" menu item is selected - not visible anywhere else)
Location="*" (will be visible at any root item)
Location="Media Library\**" (will be visible for the children of "Media Library")
Location="Media Library\***" (will be visible at "Media Library" and anywhere underneath)
Location="*\*" (will be visible at any second level items)


[raym]

Nice! Thanks.

[leezer3]

Brilliant, cheers

-Leezer-