So I read the wiki and still have no idea how to edit a skin for skinning Confluence?
#1
Hello I read the xbmc wiki and I don't think anything in there is relevant to Confluence skinning (for instance, where is skin.xml). Is there a more appropriate tutorial that would be helpful? I missed it if there is one.

I am inefficiently reverse-engineering confluence right now, I don't understand how some of you are able to make such intricate mods! Right now I am just trying to make a new home-menu button (a completely new section), and I am not sure how everything is connected.

I think I just figured out the Window ID thing, but a real tutorial would be helpful.

Thank you
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#2
cloudjacker Wrote:Hello I read the xbmc wiki and I don't think anything in there is relevant to Confluence skinning
i beg to differ ;-)

cloudjacker Wrote:(for instance, where is skin.xml).

skin.xml is not used anymore, it's been replaced by addon.xml.
i've just updated the wiki with this info.

cloudjacker Wrote:Is there a more appropriate tutorial that would be helpful? I missed it if there is one.

the skinning manual is a great reference guide if you're interested in skinning xbmc.


a how-to guide for customizing the home menu is available here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=89678

and if you search this forum, you should find these:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=65964

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=86950

and probably many more.
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#3
Also:

Custom Home Items the easy way
Image

Check out The Carmichael - A Skin For XBMC

Check out Night - A Skin For XBMC

Check out Unfinished - A Skin For XBMC
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#4
Its really tough to get your head around at first. Just keep tinkering with Confluence and learn as you go, then look up certain things in the wiki, trial and error, plus asking on the forums and you'll get there.

A lot of the pro skinners on here don't seem to think there's any difficulty in learning from the wiki but it all honesty its pretty difficult and there is a lot of guess work.

There is no wonderful tutorial or guide or thread that will teach you how to do it. You just need to find pieces of information yourself and try to put them together.
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#5
Yup, the best way to learn this stuff is as you have done to use Confluence skin as a base, then edit that in small steps. JezzX which has coded Confluence is a very skilled skinner so you can also be sure that his code is pretty clean and in line with "best practice" and optimized.

But Don't change to much stuff at the same time, this will most likely get you more confused. Focus on one simple task and do that properly and learn it well - also the reason and logic behind it.

Bit by bit you will start to grasp the big picture of things. I bellive this is the way all of us at some time has learned the skinning engine.

When you edit confluence skin some good advices:

1.
Dont permanently delete org code lines in the xml, comment them out first. This way you can always revert to org states. At the same time you keep good example code intact to learn from.

2.
Always comment in the xml files the stuff you create/add. This way you can keep track of the changes you have made.

3.
A good and free xml editor is Notepad++ / this editor gives you xml markup and also checks your code for missing/wrong coding.

4.
It's very easy to forget some brackets/coding stuff in xml files. So if something doesent work, try and load the XML file in a browser - The browser will tell you if any lines in the xml has wrong syntaxes.

5.
Learn how to not HARDCODE stuff in your code. This goes for colors, font type, sizes etc. You can reference all of this to xml template files that contain different color/font configs. So if you decide that you need a bigger font some places you can just change this from one xml and all the other code reads from that location. If not you will end up editing many xml lines and files to change stuff like that.

6.
Reuse code ! If you find yourself reusing some code trough many xml files or in the same xml file - you can create one "master" code in a template. Then you can just reference to that location troughout your coding. Again you just have to edit the referenced codelines to change them all.

LEARN HOW TO USE Includes.xml :

Code:
The other special (and arguably the most important skinning file of all) is includes.xml.
This is, as its title suggests, a place from which you can define the default look, size,
and positioning of controls, to save you replicating many of the control's attributes
throughout the window .xml files. For instance, you can setup the size, and textures
used for a button control, thus allowing you to leave those details out in the rest of
the skin files, unless ofcourse you want to override the default look or size etc.
in a particular window.

Code:
[b]<includes>[/b]
    [b]<include[/b] [color=#000066]name[/color]=[color=#ff0000]"whitetext"[/color][b]>[/b]
      [b]<textcolor>[/b]ffffffff[b]</textcolor>[/b]
    [b]</include>[/b]
    [b]<include[/b] [color=#000066]file[/color]=[color=#ff0000]"listdefaults.xml"[/color] [b]/>[/b]
    [b]<default[/b] [color=#000066]type[/color]=[color=#ff0000]"button"[/color][b]>[/b]
      [b]<include>[/b]whitetext[b]</include>[/b]
    [b]</default>[/b]
    [b]<constant[/b] [color=#000066]name[/color]=[color=#ff0000]"leftedge"[/color][b]>[/b]50[b]</constant>[/b]
  [b]</includes>[/b]


So to sum it up: Learn how to code "smart" before you do to much code.
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#6
Thanks, I basically am doing the trial and error thing but I would like to optimize my time. Thanks for the links and such
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#7
Also very useful are hot keys. I use this kepmap.xml when I'm skinning -

PHP Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<keymap>
    <global>
        <keyboard>
            <F5>XBMC.ReloadSkin()</F5>
            <F4>Skin.ToggleSetting(DebugGrid)</F4>
            <F6>Notification(Testing 123,Hello world)</F6>
        </keyboard>
    </global>
</keymap> 

F5 reloads the skin so I can see changes quickly
F4 followed by F5 displays the debug grid texture (needs skin support)
F6 shows the DialogKaiToast notification (thanks to Jezz for that tip)
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#8
im starting to like this thread, thanks hitcher for that usefull info !
Lets keep posting skinning tips and tricks !
PointOfView Nvidia ION Atom 330 - TRANSCEND 2GB DDR2 DIMM 800MHz - G.SKILL 64GB SSD 2.5
Open Elec Beta4 1.95.4
XBMC Online Manual - HOW-TO post about a problem in a useful manner - Create/View Bug Report
Setup/Fix correct resolution on XBMC/Ubuntu - Usefull linux terminal commands
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#9
Hitcher Wrote:Also very useful are hot keys. I use this kepmap.xml when I'm skinning...

Many thanks!
My skins:

Amber
Quartz

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So I read the wiki and still have no idea how to edit a skin for skinning Confluence?0