Updating XML's

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 0:2

A check list for any updates

• a simple approach is best, a look that we all like with no options presented how the user should see the skin on first installing. Extra options can be added later
• ensure controls are grouped properly so that animation work and there are not unneeded animation
• remove any redundant control i.e. timers, onload and onunload that are not needed
• if you don't know what a control tag is doing remove it then see if it causes any issues. Check the default.xml you could be overriding a tag that is not needed to be changed or check the kodi skinning manual to see what can be used or what kodi already sets to default.
• use new default fonts
• use new color vars
• ensured border size on texture matches the actual .png file
• ensure everything is aligned pixel perfect see this example. http://imgur.com/a/rcuRP and for a detailed approach for dialogs here https://github.com/mistervee/skin.madnox/wiki/Adding-a-dialog
• ensure older control tags like <info> are changed to (does not work for progress control)
• check navigation
• check all localized labels. First is to open kodi addons\resource.language.en_gb\resources\strings.po and search for a suitable label, if there are none use the madnox \language\resource.language.en_gb\strings.po and find a label or adjust where required. Add a reference to what xml it is used. (I will expand on this later estuary is the perfect example). All language tags with out a reference will be deleted some time in the future.

More to add in future.

Copied from original issue: mistervee/skin.madnox.backup#18

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 0:4

@bartolomesoriano @meowmoo @MadMikeDoc Will work on this and add more soon. Need to tidy up all the code and re-establish a direction as we are very close to getting all the basics re-coded.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @MadMikeDoc on May 26, 2017 10:45

@mistervee

not sure i understand this, does this mean all existing options / extras in all existing views will be gone? I've spent a lot of time and work adding all the things into views so just trying to understand exactly what this means?

I see list has lost most of the viewtype options so is that the intention? Just to start with and then add all that work back in?

Losing all the view options is losing a lot of what Madnox is all about.

[bartolomesoriano]

@MadMikeDoc , while @mistervee is best suited to answer, my understanding is that we will get the views working first at their most basic, and then add the options, in the most code efficient way possible. I agree with you that having the view options is a big part of what makes MadNox great.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 13:1

@MadMikeDoc

Currently my thoughts are to tidy up the basics and leave a lot of the options out. The reason is keeping nice and simple at the start and getting all the colors/textures/fonts/animations/language file's slimmed down. There was a lot of repeat texture's and bloat in those area's. I could not see any easy way to trim all bloat in those area's and the code at the same time.

For the views the code has been commented out of the includes. So all the code remains, but font's/textures/colors ect wont match. Add this to the re-code of the mediamenu's and things are not going to work as they once did.

The way i look at it is we are rebuilding the basic framework of the skin, trimming the fat and updating outdated code from nox 4.0. Once basics are complete then adding the options back.

For example you mentioned the list view, the basic functionality is not working 100% for all areas of the skin. When that is complete i will add all the options back. Copying and pasting from your previous work and refining along the way.

So all the work on the views wont be lost. They will be added back and refined. The same can be said about the options they will remain and will be similar. I am all for customization but with such a big rework i think it needs to be kept simple at the start.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 13:3

@bartolomesoriano You just beat me to the answer. You summed it up in a nice simple way.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @MadMikeDoc on May 26, 2017 13:5

@mistervee ,

Thanks, so when doing views, comment out 'features' and re-work for a basic new coded version and then implement the 'extras' when basics are done but again in a new re-coded way.

Yes, I noticed /media is missing a lot of folders and as such textures but I guess it'll all come back piece by piece.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 13:12

@MadMikeDoc Exactly. One small step at a time. Always good for a bit of group feedback too before you delve to deep.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @meowmoo on May 26, 2017 21:38

ensured border size on texture matches the actual .png file

i dont get this, border size overall is a pain for me... videoOSDBookmark as example line 112 is the focus texture with a border set to 10, when i change it to 20 i can only see the diff, if i take a picture and compare it to the border 10 pic, even when i remove the border, it still looks Ok for me. so how should i figure out what is the right border size :)

ensure everything is aligned pixel perfect see this example. how do you check if its of by a few pixel in paint.net i dont find any ruler tool

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 22:10

@meowmoo The border just stops kodi scaling that part of the texture. If you look at https://github.com/mistervee/skin.madnox/blob/leia/media/dialogs/dialog-glow.png Thats a 128x128 texture. Its the glow in all the dialogs. This texture can be any size like 1000x500. If you look at the rouned corner without a border it would not stay rounded on the corner it would be streched.

So to stop kodi from stretching corners we measure to the edge (20px) then add a bit more for the corner (20px). so then we can use a border ="40".

This was part of some of the texture bloat, being larger images and duplicate images to have a nice rounded corner. If you use border you just need one very small texture that will do everything instead of a dozen or more, which what we had previously.

One more thing is you can use border="340,40,40,40". In this case only the left side of the image is preseved at a bigger border. This what i had to use for the settings background. So no matter what size the texture is the dimensions from the edge's will always be the same and it makes skinning co-ordinates easy. I dont need to worry about the resizing the left buttons for a different xml.

If you load up paint net and measure co-ordinates of panels/panel-settings-back.png. You should understand why i picked the border ="340,40,40,40" http://imgur.com/a/7hWqs

[bartolomesoriano]

From @meowmoo on May 26, 2017 22:56

Thanks @mistervee It all makes so much sense now :)

and Since list-select-focus.png dont need any borders, i didnt see any significant change, i tried it with dialog-glow.png, and understand it know.

[bartolomesoriano]

From @mistervee on May 26, 2017 23:6

I think the border of 10 for list-select-focus.png was just a number i picked without thinking. So i suppose i started with 10 and we should probably keep it. It will keep things consistent and if we add things like different themes it will make life a lot easier if the textures are slightly different. (that is something i would really like to do when we are near the finish line)

With the current texture a border of 1 would be enough as there is a 1px line around the png. You should see a difference if it is 0 compared to 1.

It was a good question. Please keep asking. Coding will get more complex as we delve deeper into the re-code.