[User 436809]

4. Preparing the skin, Transpancy!!
Again: From now on, things talk about the “Transparancy!” skin. This will be different depending on what skin you use!

In XBMC, go to Settings -> Skin settings -> Menu. You get a whole list of what items XBMC should or should not show. I only wanted the default “Pictures”, “Music” and “Settings” displayed. For all other categories I would create my own customized menu’s or simply not use them at all (for example, I never play any dvd’s or cd’s).

5. Editing the skin, Transparancy!
The file we’ll be editing is called “Includes_Home.xml”, and is located in “~/.xbmc/addons/skin.transparency/720p/” on my XBMC Live installation. The file location could be different on your system however. As things will be getting tricky from now on, making mistakes is possible. So it’s best to create a backup of your file first. Make a copy, give it a meaningful name like “Includes_Home.bak”, and then open the “Includes_Home.xml” file in a text editor.

Find the line with the following text:

Code:

<include name="HorizontalMenu">

or

Code:

<include name="VerticalMenu">

depending on what menu you prefer. For your information, choosing between horizontal or vertical is done in Settings->Skin settings->Home Window->Horizontal home menu.

After you found the line, scroll down until you see the lines:

Code:

</content>
</control>

Above </content> you should see something similar to

Code:

<item id="16">
<label>$INFO[Skin.String(Menu_Custom3_Label)]</label>
<onclick>$INFO[Skin.String(Menu_Custom3_Path)]</onclick>
<icon>special://skin/backgrounds/settings.jpg</icon>
<thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Custom3_Folder)]</thumb>
<visible>Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Custom3)</visible>
</item>

Let’s start with creating our custom menu entry’s. They speak for themselves, so I won’t be explain this in detail:
Between </item> and </content>, add the following, and pay attention to the “item id”, always incrementing by 1:

Code:

<item id="17">
<label>Anime</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/Anime.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/Anime/</icon>
</item>
<item id="18">
<label>Anime Movies</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/Anime Movies.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/Anime Movies/</icon>
</item>
<item id="19">
<label>Comedy</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/Comedy.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/Comedy/</icon>
</item>
<item id="20">
<label>Documentaries</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/Documentaries.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/Documentaries/</icon>
</item>
<item id="21">
<label>Movies</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/Movies.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/Movies/</icon>
</item>
<item id="22">
<label>TV Shows</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/TV Shows.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/TV Shows/</icon>
</item>
<item id="23">
<label>Other</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/Other.xsp", return)</onclick>
<icon>/share/backdrops/Other/</icon>
</item>

Now we’ve created our custom menu items and linked them to our smartlists. If you reload the skin (in skin settings, or by rebooting) you should be able to see and use them. If not, you probably made a mistake somewhere.

But we’re not done yet. I dislike the order they are in. As we are using the standard “Music”, “Pictures” and “Settings” , they will be displayed first. I want them alphabetically, with the exception of “Others” and “Settings”, I want those in the back.

Scroll up some and cut the following code (pay attention, 2 times item id 6):

Code:

<item id="6">
<label>2</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(MusicLibrary)</onclick>
<include condition="!Skin.HasSetting(Home_Music_Fanart_Background)">home-music-background</include>
<include condition="Skin.HasSetting(Home_Music_Fanart_Background)">home-music-background-fanart</include>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Music) + Library.HasContent(Music)</visible>
</item>
<item id="6">
<label>2</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(MusicFiles)</onclick>
<include condition="!Skin.HasSetting(Home_Music_Fanart_Background)">home-music-background</include>
<include condition="Skin.HasSetting(Home_Music_Fanart_Background)">home-music-background-fanart</include>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Music) + !Library.HasContent(Music)</visible>
</item>
<item id="7">
<label>1</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(Pictures)</onclick>
<icon>special://skin/backgrounds/pictures.jpg</icon>
<thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Pictures_Folder)]</thumb>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Pictures)</visible>
</item>

And paste it in between item 21 and 22.

Next, scroll up again, and cut the code for the settings:

Code:

<item id="12">
<label>5</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(Settings)</onclick>
<icon>special://skin/backgrounds/settings.jpg</icon>
<thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_Settings_Folder)]</thumb>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Settings)</visible>
</item>

And paste it at the end, behind our “other” group.
Again, reload the skin or reboot, to check on our changes.

We’re almost there, but I’m still not happy yet. By disabling the default “movies” menu item, I lost access to the sub menu of “files”. And that item is important to manually update the library or add sources. What I choose to do was to add 2 items to my “settings” sub menu, for both the music and video files.

Scroll down until you see the following code:

Code:

<control type="fixedlist" id="8001">
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Settings_Sub) + Container(5040).HasFocus(12)</visible>
<include condition="Skin.HasSetting(HorizontalHomeMenu)">HorizontalSubMenuLayout</include>
<include condition="!Skin.HasSetting(HorizontalHomeMenu)">VerticalSubMenuLayout</include>
<content>

Below the <content> line, add the following:

Code:

<item id="8118">
<description>Menu Video Sub Files</description>
<label>Video Files</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles)</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8119">
<description>Menu Music Sub Files</description>
<label>Music Files</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(MusicFiles)</onclick>
</item>

And now we’re finally done. A home menu exactly the way I wanted it!

Finale
I hope this guide was helpful. It would’ve saved me some time. Should you have any questions or find any mistakes, do tell. And if you found this information useful, leave a thank you message. It might make me write more how-to’s!

EDIT: 24/04/2011: more info on how to create your own sub menu found here : http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=7...post782129 

Thank You, so much. This helped me a lot.