Kodi Community Forum

Hi!

I'm experimenting with modifying the Confluence skin and have two questions.

- After editing an XML file, do you have to reload Kodi in order for it to recognize your changes? Is there a reload button that can be pressed that will just reload the skin...to speed things up?

- Is there some sort of program out there that you can draw boxes over the background images so you know what numbers to plug into the xml file to locate dialogs? Do you just guesstimate where to put the 'left, right, top, width, height' and then nudge it around....then reload Kodi?

Thanks!

I have alt-g on my keyboard mapped to reload the skin (in keyboard.xml).

I believe some skinners use a grid overlay to help line everything up. I've never used one though.

(2015-02-28, 16:59)bryanbrazil Wrote: [ -> ]I have alt-g on my keyboard mapped to reload the skin (in keyboard.xml).

I believe some skinners use a grid overlay to help line everything up. I've never used one though.

+1

I do use a grid, but double check pixel by pixel with screenshots in Photoshop

Thanks all for the responses. It sounds like it takes a very long time to develop a skin, but that there's also a lot of flexibility.

Yep takes a lot of time, but there is heaps of flexibility.

I don't use a grid. Planning is key - I try to figure out some basic padding guidelines etc and then figure out coords using some basic maths. Sometimes I get lazy and just nudge things around, but it usually hurts in the long run. The best thing with the left/right/top/bottom etc. system that was introduced is that you can use multiple nested group controls to create a sort of table of coordinates.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=94438
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=129094

Thanks for the responses. From what I've read, it is possible to do this.....but....I'll be honest and say I'm too lazy to do it. If there was an add-on or a menu option that allows you to choose how many channels and hours you display, that would be awesome. Unfortunately, I just haven't seen this and like I said before, I'm lazy to actually mess with the epg xml file to figure out the channels and time slots.

Also, from what I remember too, the epg xml file isn't well documented. You could probably figure it out, but I just remember trying to figure out what all the tags did and just making it a trial and error type thing.