Widgets/Main menu

[mistervee]

WIP.

Functional but not polished.

Some labels missing when selecting widget type. Add list widget??

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi

Only one question for now. Are they working?

You should be able to set the widget, choose art type, aspect and label. Everything else i need to tidy up.

I had some skin shortcut errors that i could not explain. Some how they have disappeared.

[mistervee]

@gibxxi @bartolomesoriano

An idea on the home screen.

Is there any reason why the widgets and now playing should be visible at the same time?

Thinking that if they are not visible at the same time, it removes the limitation for widget and now playing dimensions.

Edit: I think it looks cluttered when they are on screen at the same time, being that that the fanart is covered up too much.

[bartolomesoriano]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi

Only one question for now. Are they working?

You should be able to set the widget, choose art type, aspect and label. Everything else i need to tidy up.

I had some skin shortcut errors that i could not explain. Some how they have disappeared.

@mistervee, thank you! Yes, they are working :)

I had to downgrade my shortcuts version to the one in the Kodi repo, becuase with the latest one the menu never built. Once I did that, the widgets worked. I know this is WIP, and I am very happy to have the widgets in their present form. Two things I noticed:

1. If I select a widget for the main menu item "Videos", I always get a shortcuts error (it briefly gets Kodi into debug mode), and the menu doesn't build. This only happens with this main menu item.

2. The "weather" widget does not display anything.

I have a lot of other observations, but I will leave them for when you say we can thoroughly test the widgets. Again, thank you for this version!

[bartolomesoriano]

@gibxxi @bartolomesoriano

An idea on the home screen.

Is there any reason why the widgets and now playing should be visible at the same time?

Thinking that if they are not visible at the same time, it removes the limitation for widget and now playing dimensions.

Edit: I think it looks cluttered when they are on screen at the same time, being that that the fanart is covered up too much.

@mistervee, I don't really mind having them both on screen at the same time, except when you select an item from the widget, in which case the info for the item totally obscures the now playing. I don't know if it would be feasible in that case to stop showing the now playing, or if perhaps we could have a bottom tab or bar (like in old MadNox) with the info for what is playing. What do you think?

[gibxxi]

Personally, I don't use / add Home Screen widgets as I think they're clutter in and of themselves. I al;ready know all I need to know about the media in my collection (prior to playback), and anything I want to know I just google it.

With that in mind, I'm probably not the best person to ask. However, in order to "display" widgets, you have to enable some. If there aren't any enabled / added to home menu items / categories, it's not creating any additional clutter is it?

An option to enable / disable the home screen "now playing" view won't hurt usage, but the end user does need to see something on-screen to clarify music is being played, for sure. Especially since Kodi is only as fast as it's weakest link (networking) and frequently does have periods of inactivity for me due to network congestion (Powerline) which I can do very little to work-around.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano

1. If I select a widget for the main menu item "Videos", I always get a shortcuts error (it briefly gets Kodi into debug mode), and the menu doesn't build. This only happens with this main menu item.
2. The "weather" widget does not display anything.

I have a lot of other observations, but I will leave them for when you say we can thoroughly test the widgets. Again, thank you for this version!

Github widgets is updated. Not sure if it will fix your issue with the videos.

• 1 Can you reset the main menu. Edit main menu>Click on restore menu items>then reset to defaults>then reboot If you still have an issue do the same again. THEN Close kodi and delete both of these!!! script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml in the skin 16x9 folder and; userdata\addon_data\script.skinshortcuts Folder

This will completely clear you main menu to default. I have made many changes so it may be a issue with the property changes.

If you still have issues can you post a copy of your script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml to https://pastebin.com/

I really need to find out what the issue is and fix it!!!

• 2 Not coded yet

• 3 Other observations Still working on it. I will let you people know when everything should be ok.

[mistervee]

@gibxxi

Fair point if you don't use widgets.

@gibxxi @bartolomesoriano

I can add something for a simple now playing on the home screen. An option that will disable what you now see.

Maybe just the text 'now playing' then the title underneath. I have seen the aeon madox alternative now playing (bottom tab), my opinion is it does not fit the skin and definitely wont fit the code or home screen layout. So in time i will come up with something.

[bartolomesoriano]

@mistervee, I followed your instructions and now I have all of the widgets that I tried working fine. Thank you!

Understood about the bottom tab. I am confident you will come up with a better option for the skin.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano Awesome it is working.

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi To let you people know... Next update may be some time. Updating the widgets and reworking many of the home screen elements.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi

Loads of updates to the widgets and home screen in general. Stuff removed and added.

I really like a clean look and don't want to take away from that with clutter. Part of the reason for making the now playing and widgets not visible at the same time. Now playing can be disabled though and basic now playing info can be shown in the system bar (you will see the widgets at all time then).

Some other functions of the main menu have been removed too for the sake of a clean look and simplifying the number of options.

Changes below; -Widget improvements/updates should be 100% functianal -Widgets not visible when now playing music unless now playing is disabled -Option to enable simple now playing info on home screen system bar -Add option Hide widget on focus -Removed centre menu position -Options for main menu position in home media menu - menu/position -Removed option for hiding submenu -Slide Animation changes for menu and widget position -Set home screen disc shortcut to as default value of disabled -Added home screen shortcut option for system and videos -Removed option for disabling left info/weather/date/time -Removed plot in widget info -Removed plot for home/fullscreen music now playing

There are probably more that i forgot.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi

I forgot to mention. Many options have been changed. So if you have any issues you will need to set the skin shortcuts menu to default.

Edit main menu>Click on restore menu items>then reset to defaults

[bartolomesoriano]

@mistervee, thanks for the updates! In general, everything is working well. Thanks for adding the system info and weather widgets, I was missing those. In particular, I really like the option of hiding the widgets, which gives a clean look and also makes them easily accessible. I also really like the now playing in the info bar that lets you see the widgets at the same time as now playing info. These are the issues I have noticed in my testing today:

1. When editing a main menu item, you cannot navigate with the cursor to the right side of the panel to select what widget you want for the menu item. You can only navigate to that with the mouse.

2. I really liked having the plot info on the widgets, but I will get used to not having it. However, there is no fanart for the widget item when you select one or when you move from one widget item to the next. Hopefully you will consider adding this again.

3. I think it makes more sense to have the program name instead of the genre for the TV Channels PVR widget, since you already have the start time and duration showing; this is a more complete set of information, and, in my opinion, more useful.

4. To be functionally complete, in my opinion, we are missing the option to select sorting field and direction for the widgets, as well as being able to select case style and background. Was it a design decision to leave those out, or are the widgets still WIP and those will come later?

5. There is an issue (you had it a while back and fixed, but it is there again now) navigating with the cursor through the options when, while on the main menu, you press M and select Menu, or Now Playing. You cannot navigate down past the 7th option in either case. The only way to get to the options below is with the mouse. Once you are there, you can navigate up with the cursor all the way to the top, but again, not down past the 7th option.

Again, thank you for this update!

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano

1. Fixed

2. I removed the plot for a cleaner look. My line of thinking if you need more info press 'i'. Added fanart for widgets. No options, if fanart is available it will show.

3. Makes sense. Something i missed. Now fixed.

4. Sort options was coded. I decided not to add it as i found it to unreliable. There are so many visibility conditions to account for. Not too sure why this is needed apart from an addon widget. I don't plan on adding any background options to the widgets as i feel it does not fit the clean look or design of the skin. For the case's it is still a WIP. I am in two minds about this. The entire skin will be easier to code with zero case options. If i add case options, all the textures will need to be re-worked. Most of them are not high enough resolution for 4k and are rather blurry, Especially when viewing the full screen info even at 1080p.

5. Fixed

EDIT: So in the back of my mind i am thinking to remove the existing case options. It will slow down the progress of a alpha community release. So i will push something like this into the distant future.

[gibxxi]

@mistervee, @bartolomesoriano:

I agree with mistervee. Less is more when it comes to home screen clutter, hence (one of the) reason(s) I no longer bother with widgets. However, to corroborate Bart's findings and your fixes mistervee, I'll have a go at setting some up over the weekend, and if I notice anything not already mentioned, I'll let you know. An extra pair of eyes won't hurt, after all that's why we're here, isn't it?

:)

Dan / Gib.

EDIT: Weighing in on the "Widgets vs. Now Playing" debate, I would say that having both on screen at the same time is doable, but as suggested, it would look cramped / cluttered. If this ends up being the option of choice, then I would have the widgets always sit directly above the main menu, with the "Now Playing" item above them, regardless of the high/low setting for "Now Playing" elsewhere in the skin.

The alternative is a fade-in / fade-out swap of "Now Playing" for widgets and vice-versa when content is playing or stopped while sat at that item in the main menu. But I would also add, at this point, that "Now Playing" items ought to only be displayed when the cursor is at the menu item for the category of media currently being played IMHO. At any other position on the main menu, the widget(s) for that media category ought to be displayed in preference over "Now Playing", again, IMHO.

[gibxxi]

...scratch that, had a (very quick) look just now, here's what i've noticed right now:

1. In the widget selection panel (i.e: prior to a widget being allocated to a menu item) it simply says "widget" with the area beneath blank. You might want to change the label of the item to "Add Widget" at this point, and revert it to simply "Widget" once one has been selected, to aid clarity as to the item's purpose and / or add the widget display options below, but in a greyed-out / disabled state, so as to clue the end user in to what's required to active widgets here.

Alternatively, have it labelled as "Widget: None" prior to selection, then "Widget: Selected Widget Name" after widget selection has been completed for that menu item.

2. Minor case inconsistency between the "Game" widget items, and all the rest.

https://imgur.com/Iq3FMcI

3. With the "Label" option set to ON, the label is displayed, even if there's no content to display. Would look neater if the label is only displayed when there's widget content present / displayed.

https://imgur.com/AkaMcaL

4. Using a share as a widget for pictures displays top-level folders. As all my pictures are in sub-folders (by category) I'm only seeing the top-level folders. It would be better to have the widget ignore folders and only display the contained images (if possible).

https://imgur.com/1cHiuGl

5. And finally, while not directly related to widgets themselves, it was discovered while setting them up. It seems the in-use font within the skin has a problem with the left & right arrow characters (<, >) in the on-screen keyboard. Also the buttons are double width, which I'm guessing is also unintended.

https://imgur.com/IFqSvbK

That's it for now.

Dan/Gib.

[gibxxi]

I do like the "System Info" and "Weather" widgets though. This gives me an "at-a-glance" view of information i'm unlikely to already be aware of (as a pose to recently added library content, etc). So these may be staying on my setup. If it's useful, it's not clutter, lol.

;)

Dan/Gib.

[bartolomesoriano]

@mistervee, I will test as soon as I get back home from vacation (next Monday). I am fine with no cases and no background options. For sorting, I know I can accomplish that with playlists for music and videos, but not for addons. I will set up all of the widgets I would use and let you know if there is any use case where I would need sorting options. Again, thanks for moving us forward!

@gibxxi, thank you for your detailed testing!

[gibxxi]

@bartolomesoriano: No problem m8. In all honesty, I kind of realised that just by the fact I personally am not using widgets on my "daily driver" installs of Madnox, there's no reason I can't be testing them on the testing machine. And not doing so, was a bit selfish on my part in all honesty.

In order to provide mistervee the best possible feedback so he can make progress, and move this project closer to it's conclusion, those of us who are testing for him, at this point, that's just me and you as far as I can tell, ought to be testing anything we can reasonably test to get him towards that goal, for the good of all, come completion.

Besides that, there's little else for me to test at the moment anyhow, so rather than just sit on my hands, and not be involved, i'd rather be working on "something" rather than "nothing". For me, "Aeon Madnox" is dead in the water now, and I plan on focussing on this project instead, for a number of reasons.

I see little point in submitting bug reports for the old version if it's ultimately going to be replaced with Madnox in the long-term, and dividing my time between the two projects reduces the amount of time spent on either. So while "Aeon Madnox" is currently still my daily driver, I plan on using it as-is, until such times as I can replace it with Madnox, and ultimately put up with it's existing "quirks" in the meantime.

[mistervee]

@gibxxi Cheers for the feedback. Glad you like the weather and system info widgets.

@bartolomesoriano Thanks for the feedback. Happy holidays :smile:

@gibxxi All good. I am not pushing anyone to test what they don't want to, it is really just i just need some sort of contribution no matter how small.

ATM it seems like it just @bartolomesoriano and @gibxxi.

With your recent post on the forums we have one more, @NTVERIC.

Also @Slipass who has been busy with work and being away form home. So i am hoping they can contribute soon.

For Aeon Madnox 1.0, I cant really comment. I am not involved in the maintenance of that. But i am glad you are on board and have the patience to bear with me with 2.0.

Cheers Mr. V

EDIT: being Christmas and the new year i will be slowing down on update for a few weeks. Happy Holidays everyone :smile: looking forward to new updates in the new year!!!!!

[bartolomesoriano]

@mistervee, I was finally able to test, and for my use cases, all of the issues I pointed out before have been addressed. The only addon that I ended up needing a widget for was Netflix, and it works fine. I am fine without sort options, backgrounds (other than fanart) or cases.

Happy Holidays!

[gibxxi]

The only cases I think look well on widgets are (possibly) clear cases (without notches). Having said that, by adding cases to widgets, your likely going to have to lose one item per widget, down to the reduction in available space.

I think they look fine as they are, from my perspective. Might be enhanced with some background shadowing around the borders, if not already present (I didn't notice any), other than that, they look fine IMHO.

[mistervee]

@Slipass Deleted your post and moved it to a new issue so it wont wont get lost in other comments. https://github.com/mistervee/skin.madnox/issues/37

[gibxxi]

Just so you know @Slipass (welcome to GitHub BTW), you ought to be able to generate new "Issues" in GitHub if Mr.V has granted you the same rights as me and Bart. With that and the fact Mr.V is using "issues" like pseudo-categories anyhow for this project, you can create a new category for feature requests should you wish to do so.

Dan / Gib.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi @Slipass Pushed an update.

Removed the cases from the skin. Now playing for videos on home screen is now working.

Note: Most of the options are not coded or broken in the media menu.

[gibxxi]

Cheers Mr.V. Will sync and give it a try a little later.

:)

Dan / Gib.

[bartolomesoriano]

@mistervee, thanks for the update. I tested now playing for videos on home screen, and I like the artwork and info you selected to show for all video types (I tried movies, tv episodes, music videos, live tv and Netflix video addon content). I would change two things:

1. I am more partial, like @slipass, to a preview window for the video instead of having it play in the background. I understand this is a matter of preference, so I am OK if you would rather leave it as you have it now.

2. On the right, where you have the audio codec info, I would get rid of the second line which has bitrate, etc. I don't think these are really relevant when you are playing a video (they are for music). Also, I would eliminate the progress bar (it does not appear for live tv) here, since you already have time elapsed/remaining (for live tv you only show time elapsed), and you also show progress on the left side, on the infoline bar.

Again, thanks for the update!

[meowmoo]

Only skin helper widget work for now?

If I select, widgets - episodes - next, nothing shows up, I'm I right it should show me the next unwatched episode from the show I'm just watching. When I use skin helper widget - episodes - next episodes, it works, and show me the next unwatched episode, but I can only select the show poster or canary and not the episode thumb.

In old madnox there was a "random album" widget, If you set it up only one album cover was shown on the right side, by pressing up it changed to a list of 10 random albums, would be nice if you can bring it back. I hope I don't miss it anyhow, I tried lots of widgets.

[mistervee]

Hi meowmoo

That was a incorrect label on my part. Next should be 'next aired'. (Fixed on git)

For the widget to work you should be using the kodi repo version 6.0.15. If you have the Beta repo for skin helper installed it will use a different version that does not work as expected and you will need to roll back to the kodi repo.

Then make sure you have 'Show all tv shows for home screen enabled' in the addon settings. Then click reset all data and update.

For skin helper widgets, i am generally not providing support in the skin as i find them to slow down the main menu a bit. My preference is to use smart playlists to provide widget info. I did try to add the widget to the code, but noticed instant slow down when navigating to the next menu item. Really don't want to add anything that will impact skin performance. If there is a way to make make a smart playlist function the same i could incorporate that.

I assume you mean the list widget, i may code this in the future. Added to the first post.

[meowmoo]

Ok, thanks for the info.

I will play around with the widget some more and use my smart playlist for "next episode"

[meowmoo]

I played around some with the Widget, and its not possible to get the Episode Thumb to show up, it will always ?fallback? to Fanart oder Tv show Thumb. No need to fix it right away, just wanna point it out.

[mistervee]

@meowmoo

Do you mean the next aired widget or a smart playlist?

[meowmoo]

@mistervee

I tried a few option, "episodes - last added" A simple playlist that shows some random Seinfeld episodes, for example, non of them shows the episode thumb, always the tv show art

[mistervee]

@meowmoo Can you link your playlist so i can have a look? It should work providing the contents of the playlist are episodes and in the kodi database.

[meowmoo]

@mistervee

Sure there is the playlist https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BoolTHPGeYbsCr8zAcJMsp49aovAQKs0/view?usp=drivesdk

My settings https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X2uJJs1e2nk1LMZHNGraNYeKCz_hbPlj/view?usp=drivesdk

What I get https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w4cyRj9mUqs0RnUJN3Jdc661koyZHD2k/view?usp=drivesdk

I think it's the fanart. like I said no big issue, no need to fix it right away.

[mistervee]

@meowmoo

Found a coding mistake in the Thumbnail variable. Should work now when you select thumbnail.

In general though i need to update the conditions for artwork is available for the widgets, to give more choices to the user.

BTW: Your theme and colors could be a bit wonky after this update. I am in middle of reworking the color and themes.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi @meowmoo @Slipass Just pushed a big update

• remove option for main menu position
• added option for hiding submenu
• added case option for widgets
• reworked widget info
• up to 6 widgets can be set
• reworked home sideblade menu
• condensed theme and color options
• added options in skin settings/general to reset theme and added other themes
• script embuary helper now dependancy
• reworked widget selection to inlcude embuary helper and tmdb helper widgets
• Changed default icons for main menu to colored icons
• probably a bunch of other stuff i forgot
• still WIP for widgets and colors/themes/widgets
• more code cleanup required

Renamed the title of this thread to cover main menu and widgets.

Two things before any feedback;

• The main menu will need to be reset. Edit main menu -> scroll down on any item ->click restore menu items -> click RESET to skin defaults.
• Go to skin settings -> general -> themes and colours -> RESET

[bartolomesoriano]

@mistervee , thanks a lot for all of these changes! In particular I like having immediate feedback when changing some of the color/theme options, and the condensed options as well.

A few issues I noticed with the widgets (I know they are still WIP):

1. Fanart does not seem to work as an Artwork choice for widgets. I tried multiple Movie, TV Show and Episode widgets and none of them showed the fanart. And I am sure that the items have fanart, since the fanart is displayed in the background when moving through the widget items. Other artwork is fine.
2. Widget artwork aspect choices should, in my opinion, vary depending on the artwork type selected. For example, you can select Landscape as Artwork and Portrait as aspect, which results in an incorrect looking widget item.
3. There seems to be an issue with on backs when you are configuring the widgets. After you configure a widget, if you press back, you are taken out of the skinshortcuts management dialog completely.

I will continue testing and provide further feedback.

EDIT: I quit Kodi and restarted, and I have not been able to reproduce issue 3. I am not sure what was happening with that.

[meowmoo]

Agree on Nr. 2 :)

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano

1. Fixed

2. Having a hard time trying to figure out how to keep this function and automatically change depending on artwork type. Likely i will have to remove the option to make it auto select the correct container size.

3. I have missed some on back functions in the overrides. Likely that is the issue.

[mistervee]

@bartolomesoriano @gibxxi @meowmoo

In regards to my previous post;

2. Artwork type and aspect are now combined into one option. When adding or editing widget the artwork type is reset to the default type. This can be manually overridden by clicking on the artwork option.
3. Onback actions have been added to the overrides xml. Should no longer be an issue.

On a side note: The music and video info screens are being reworked. No bug reports need on this as you they are not finished. Also reworking the skin settings area. Things will not work as expected. In general i am reshuffling a lot of options and refining the code throughout the skin. Which will break stuff. However the home screen should be working as intended.

I am running around in circles ATM. The code will get better over time. Please bear with me.

[meowmoo]

@mistervee just installed Madnox on my new vero4k.

And found a bug, if you press down on the Homescreen to get to the reboot menu, it did not work if there is no submenu on the focused link.

[mistervee]

@meowmoo Thanks. Fixed with the latest git update.

[gibxxi]

@mistervee

Cheers m8. Have been doing some testing with the developer of the Zuki HDHomeRun DVR addon of late, trying to solve a problem with radio streams and Milkdrop 2, so have to have a look at Kodi over the next few days, testing-wise anyway. Will check out the changes and leave feedback as & when I can.

:)

Dan / Gib.

[mistervee]

@gibxxi

Any chance there is a forum discussion for the radio streams? Would like to check it out to see if there is anything obvious within the skin.

[meowmoo]

@mistervee Not sure if it is on my end, or wip but if I set up a new widget, the setting don't change, if I juse, small for example it still shows big, same for the image, but after creating the widget everything looks like it should.

[gibxxi]

@mistervee

Maybe on the SiliconDust forums, but not on the Kodi forums, AFAIK. It turns out since my last post here, that the developer has found an issue with Kodi visualisations where there is no protection against buffer underruns, so it's not a skin issue. Besides, it was doing the same thing in Estuary as well, so that confirmed it.

For the time-being, he has provided me with a self-compiled 18.5 Kodi.exe with a temporary fix, until such times as something can be PR'd into mainline, so in as far as Madnox is concerned, it's a non-issue.

EDIT: Just to clarify the above - It's not a problem with the DVR addon, the skin, or the visualisations in and of themselves to be fair. It's an issue in Kodi "core" whereby if there's a break in the stream buffer, and as a result Kodi has no audio data to feed to those visualisations, it doesn't attempt to take any corrective action to either stop the visualisation or flag any notifications of the fact, so the visualisation enters an infinite loop requesting audio data it'll never get, causing a freeze and eventual crash. At least - that's how I understand it.

Dan / Gib.

[mistervee]

@gibxxi Thanks for info. Makes sense.

@meowmoo Have you tried to reset the main menu? Some of the old settings are not compatible with the new git update. https://imgur.com/5SXDTK3

[meowmoo]

@mistervee reset fixed it, sorry... since the last updated you cant select the "theme & Colours" option in the main menu sideblade. and for some reason i dont get the 4k logo for 2160p movies, im new to 4k ^^ did i need to name them properly or should kodi check the resolution?

[mistervee]

@meowmoo Navigation issue fixed.

Kodi checks the resolution using ListItem.VideoResolution. It is either a metadata or file issue.

[mistervee]

DONE