Custom category in home menu
#1
Hello authors of this jewel!

I humbly request some help and guidance..

I would like to create new categories (two) for my anime series and movies.

So the home screen would have
Tv Shows, Movies, Anime Series, Anime Movies

I have 2 ideas how to do that, either add 2 new categories
or replace say music videos and my pictures for the two i'd like

i searched arround, found some info with a similar problem but the step by step guide was based on a different skin, so before i try with that method i thought id ask here for guidance.Wink
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#2
Hello

Sure - it's all about selecting favourites then adding those favourites as shortcuts in the skin options page.

Whether you make a particular folder a favourite item, a library genre or perhaps a video smart playlist as a favourite is your call. From what you've said it sounds like you'll need to make a movie smart playlist for the movie anime and a tv smart playlist for the tv anime.

Once you have made your smart playlists and marked them as favourites then just go to skin options and add them as home shortcuts. you can also disable other menu items you don't want to use eg music videos.

Shout out if you need a hand making your smart playlists.

Cheers
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#3
Since you pushed me in the right direction i will share what i did maybe it will help someone else too

Smart playlists were the answer, and after a few hrs i got it to work the way i like it..

step 1)directory structure and naming
d:\Anime series | d:\Anime movies | e:\Tv shows | f:\Movies

All the files are in there, i named the TV shows as showname.s01e01, Anime series were named as showname 1x01 etc, proper naming will help with show information. If your show, series is not visible in the list just rename the file on your hdd. Example Gits standalone 01.mkv is not visible but Gits standalone01[1x01].mkv will be recognized as episode 01. I used total commander with its multi rename tool but im sure you could find similar tools to do the job.

step 2)anime scrappers
from the addons menu i added the anidb.net, anime news network and best anime add-ons to catch the show information and thumbnails.

step 3)Sources
in the home menu under videos i added sources for my folders in the step 1. So for anime series i put the path,confirmed with ok, and on the next screen i selected that the directory contains TV shows. Under that i had an option for TVDB, Anidb.net, Best anime and Anime news network. You could probably use any of them, i selected anime news network, selected Run automatic scan and after a few moments i had me my first anime show in the library. What show scrapper you use is up to you, anidb is probably no1 but whatever works for you is good. Repeat step 3 to add other folders/categories etc.

The problem when using this is that the anime series get mixed up with the regular shows so our next step is to create smart playlists to divide the two.

step 4) smart playlists
(or playlist filters...) On the home screen, go to Movies, push down on to the "playlists" button and then select it, on the next screen select "new smart playlist"

name - select something you prefer, in my case i placed Anime TV shows
Rule i made was: Match items where PATH and STARTS WITH and then browse to the path with your anime series and confirm by clicking OK
under Type i placed TV shows
Now confirm the filter with ok,then right click on your newly created playlist and select "add to favorites"

you should repeat step 4 to create smart playlists for movies, tv shows, documentaries, cartoons, whatever you want/need

Step 5)Add the New menu item
Go into the settings > skin settings > shortcuts
Shortcut 1
Home label: Anime Series
You enable the menu by select it on the right, the little blue dot makes it active
Selected favourite - will open a menu and after a few seconds you should see your playlist created in step 4 (along with other playlists)
Icon: Path to some icon to explain what the contents are (pure eyecandy)
Wallpaper: Background image when you select the menu (also eyecandy)

now exit to the main menu and look happy Laugh

You should see the newly created menu next to the old ones. Now its just repeating the steps to add the other categories. Once you've done that, go into the settings again, skin settings
under Home turn off:
Movies control visibility
TV shows control visibility

The reason i did that is because Anime will mix with your regular tv shows and make a mess of things. I like my things correctly ordered and numbered.

I thank you for your help Sharpe, for pushing me in the right direction and keep up the good work


some images of how it looks now until i find some better pictures Big Grin
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#4
Nice

Stickied this.
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#5
I will try to keep this up to date and make it a bit more easier on the eyes..

Found one small issue though, not a deal breaker but if it could be mended it would be great..

When you highlight the "regular" tv show you can see the "New episodes" window pop up..
but when you create a new menu item with the smart playlists you dont get the "new episodes" window..
fixable?
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#6
Well you can make it pop up over any entry with a bit of modification however it will show all the recently added TV episodes not just your new playlist items.
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#7
Sharpe Wrote:Well you can make it pop up over any entry with a bit of modification however it will show all the recently added TV episodes not just your new playlist items.

would you mind sharing the xml i need to edit to get that please Nod

also one other thing, since the anime is listed under TV shows not Movies, it uses the TV library setting to render the menus and thumbnails for logos etc.
On series you get nice widescreen logos, but with anime it looks very bad, stretched,squashed, etc since the show logos are akin to movie posters. Can i modify the logo size, and by doing so will it affect the "regular" tv show layout? If you understand what i'm asking...Huh

maybe create a new view?
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#8
darkbettyblue Wrote:would you mind sharing the xml i need to edit to get that please Nod

Sure using the latest version of the skin - edit IncludesRecentItems.xml:

Find line 765 and alter:

Code:
<visible>Container(11).Hasfocus(6)</visible>

To:

Code:
<visible>Container(11).Hasfocus(X)</visible>

Where X =

13 Shortcut 1
14 Shortcut 2
15 Shortcut 3
16 Shortcut 4
17 Shortcut 5
18 Shortcut 6
19 Shortcut 7
20 Shortcut 8

There is a new view in the latest version that might work. Other than that you would need to try and get wide icons for the Anime or set the skin to use posters instead of wide icons in skin option.
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#9
Will do that and report back Smile

thank you
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#10
Well...about the popup box
altering the line did the trick, i copied that part so i have the popup box with the latest additions to the library on both shortcuts..Nod thank you!

now about the other part...
I went into the xml and hacked arround with the sizes and the layout of one of the views.. so after a few hrs i got the hang of it and redesigned the list view.
shortcut 1 is anime, shortcut 2 is tv shows, the plan was that shortcut 1 uses List view, shortcut 2 uses Fanart.. No after i set up the view in shortcut 1 it is automatically applied to shortcut 2..

so both shortcuts use the same view, meaning it is not defined per shortcut rather defined per content type right?

any way arround that?

Sry for being a pain in the ass Rolleyes
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#11
darkbettyblue Wrote:...shortcut 1 is anime, shortcut 2 is tv shows, the plan was that shortcut 1 uses List view, shortcut 2 uses Fanart.. No after i set up the view in shortcut 1 it is automatically applied to shortcut 2..

so both shortcuts use the same view, meaning it is not defined per shortcut rather defined per content type right?

any way arround that?...


I see - no you're right XBMC sees both as TV shows and picks it's cue from there. it doesn't define it's view type via the shortcut.

The only options I can see would be to either:

1) Scrape your anime movies as content type "movies"

2) Go into Back Row's skin options and select use posters instead of banners for tv shows. Then go through your TV shows scraping a poster thumb instead of a banner type thumb.

3) Or manually change your anime shows poster thumbs to banners.
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#12
Thanks darkbettyblue for a great guide.
My only issue is that when I click the newly made category "Cartoon" I dont see a list of all my cartoons but XBMC starts to play the first movie in the playlist Huh
Anything I have missed to do?

Thanks in advanced
Barly
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#13
Hello Barly - It's supposed to show the playlist rather than play it because I made the custom_DialogFavourites.xml deal with playlist favourites this way:
Code:
XBMC.RunScript(script.favourites,playlists=window)
- which is meant to show the playlist

rather than this way:

Code:
XBMC.RunScript(script.favourites,playlists=play)
which played it.

I suspect the favourites script has been mucked around with and this has either been removed or it's hopefully just broken.

I'll look into it.


#Edit - no just checked it's cool it's working - you might need to remove your favourite and then re-add it though.
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#14
Wierd, but my XBMC installation does not include a custom_DialogFavourites.xml file...

Nor does it contain a $HOME/.xbmc/ folder of any kind...

Though I might add I'm abit new to Linux
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#15
Yeah it's only if you are using the Back Row skin - the custom_DialogFavourites.xml is in the Back Row skin's folders
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