[drinfernoo]

Skins don't control when widgets reload. Kodi always reloads widget containers after you watch something - you probably just didn't notice it reloading in other skins.

Have you noticed widgets in the fullscreen showcase "disappearing" when they reload?

Yes I think this is the same thing I was referring to! When this happens you can still see the contents of the selected item in the widget on the top showcase part of the screen but the bottom part of the screen shows the loading animation but you can still scroll through the list and select items you just can't see the posters in the widget.

If the showcase section is not there e.g. you have two widgets in one section this doesn't happen

I can post a video of that helps but is this what you a refering to?

@jurialmunkey, have you seen this at all?

[jurialmunkey]

Have you noticed widgets in the fullscreen showcase "disappearing" when they reload?

Yes I think this is the same thing I was referring to! When this happens you can still see the contents of the selected item in the widget on the top showcase part of the screen but the bottom part of the screen shows the loading animation but you can still scroll through the list and select items you just can't see the posters in the widget.

If the showcase section is not there e.g. you have two widgets in one section this doesn't happen

I can post a video of that helps but is this what you a refering to?

Yes a video might help - I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding what you mean. Are you talking about the "Recommendations" that are based on the showcase background widget? If so, it is important to be aware that for when a widget container updates, Kodi leaves the old items there until the new items load.

So skins broadly have two main options while widgets update - either (1) make the items transparent and display a busy spinner; OR (2) keep the old items visible.

For home screen widgets, I use the second approach since many widgets might not change all that much (or at all) after an update.

However, for the showcase hub, since the default hub widget displays recommendations based on the current item, it makes no sense to display the old items whilst updating so I use the first approach there instead. If you change the hub widget so that it isn't just blank then it won't continually load (because it won't be a widget of recommendations based on the changing background widget anymore).

I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about though?

[drinfernoo]

Have you noticed widgets in the fullscreen showcase "disappearing" when they reload?

Yes I think this is the same thing I was referring to! When this happens you can still see the contents of the selected item in the widget on the top showcase part of the screen but the bottom part of the screen shows the loading animation but you can still scroll through the list and select items you just can't see the posters in the widget.

If the showcase section is not there e.g. you have two widgets in one section this doesn't happen

I can post a video of that helps but is this what you a refering to?

Yes a video might help - I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding what you mean. Are you talking about the "Recommendations" that are based on the showcase background widget? If so, it is important to be aware that for when a widget container updates, Kodi leaves the old items there until the new items load.

So skins broadly have two main options while widgets update - either (1) make the items transparent and display a busy spinner; OR (2) keep the old items visible.

For home screen widgets, I use the second approach since many widgets might not change all that much (or at all) after an update.

However, for the showcase hub, since the default hub widget displays recommendations based on the current item, it makes no sense to display the old items whilst updating so I use the first approach there instead. If you change the hub widget so that it isn't just blank then it won't continually load (because it won't be a widget of recommendations based on the changing background widget anymore).

I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about though?

This is when using the showcase as fullscreen widget... I'll try and get a video when I can, but the gist is that if you've set widgets "below" the showcase, then after playback the widget disappears. You can still scroll it and see the metadata above, along with artwork and all, but the actual items in the widget are absent, and it shows a loading spinner.

[jurialmunkey]

Yes I think this is the same thing I was referring to! When this happens you can still see the contents of the selected item in the widget on the top showcase part of the screen but the bottom part of the screen shows the loading animation but you can still scroll through the list and select items you just can't see the posters in the widget.

If the showcase section is not there e.g. you have two widgets in one section this doesn't happen

I can post a video of that helps but is this what you a refering to?

Yes a video might help - I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding what you mean. Are you talking about the "Recommendations" that are based on the showcase background widget? If so, it is important to be aware that for when a widget container updates, Kodi leaves the old items there until the new items load.

So skins broadly have two main options while widgets update - either (1) make the items transparent and display a busy spinner; OR (2) keep the old items visible.

For home screen widgets, I use the second approach since many widgets might not change all that much (or at all) after an update.

However, for the showcase hub, since the default hub widget displays recommendations based on the current item, it makes no sense to display the old items whilst updating so I use the first approach there instead. If you change the hub widget so that it isn't just blank then it won't continually load (because it won't be a widget of recommendations based on the changing background widget anymore).

I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about though?

This is when using the showcase as fullscreen widget... I'll try and get a video when I can, but the gist is that if you've set widgets "below" the showcase, then after playback the widget disappears. You can still scroll it and see the metadata above, along with artwork and all, but the actual items in the widget are absent, and it shows a loading spinner.

That's because Kodi updates widgets after you watch something and for the showcase hub widgets I use the "make transparent and show busy spinner" when updating approach (whereas for normal widgets I do nothing when updating). I might have to switch to the other approach.

EDIT: I've switched to the other approach (show old items whilst loading), which should essentially fix this issue (you'll just have the widget randomly change once it updates without warning I guess!).

[drinfernoo]

Yes a video might help - I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding what you mean. Are you talking about the "Recommendations" that are based on the showcase background widget? If so, it is important to be aware that for when a widget container updates, Kodi leaves the old items there until the new items load.

So skins broadly have two main options while widgets update - either (1) make the items transparent and display a busy spinner; OR (2) keep the old items visible.

For home screen widgets, I use the second approach since many widgets might not change all that much (or at all) after an update.

However, for the showcase hub, since the default hub widget displays recommendations based on the current item, it makes no sense to display the old items whilst updating so I use the first approach there instead. If you change the hub widget so that it isn't just blank then it won't continually load (because it won't be a widget of recommendations based on the changing background widget anymore).

I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about though?

This is when using the showcase as fullscreen widget... I'll try and get a video when I can, but the gist is that if you've set widgets "below" the showcase, then after playback the widget disappears. You can still scroll it and see the metadata above, along with artwork and all, but the actual items in the widget are absent, and it shows a loading spinner.

That's because Kodi updates widgets after you watch something and for the showcase hub widgets I use the "make transparent and show busy spinner" when updating approach (whereas for normal widgets I do nothing when updating). I might have to switch to the other approach.

It's your skin obviously, but that particular behavior is very annoying, and a bit jarring... It's even a little disorienting when the metadata shows up top, but with an empty widget below.

[Edworld]

If I move down from movie to alphabet strip and back up it trigger the filter screen. Is this by design?

Would you consider adding the total movies in your collection similar to what you have in Aura? You move down once it triggers totals, move down again alphabet strip

[randylegal]

Yes a video might help - I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding what you mean. Are you talking about the "Recommendations" that are based on the showcase background widget? If so, it is important to be aware that for when a widget container updates, Kodi leaves the old items there until the new items load.

So skins broadly have two main options while widgets update - either (1) make the items transparent and display a busy spinner; OR (2) keep the old items visible.

For home screen widgets, I use the second approach since many widgets might not change all that much (or at all) after an update.

However, for the showcase hub, since the default hub widget displays recommendations based on the current item, it makes no sense to display the old items whilst updating so I use the first approach there instead. If you change the hub widget so that it isn't just blank then it won't continually load (because it won't be a widget of recommendations based on the changing background widget anymore).

I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about though?

This is when using the showcase as fullscreen widget... I'll try and get a video when I can, but the gist is that if you've set widgets "below" the showcase, then after playback the widget disappears. You can still scroll it and see the metadata above, along with artwork and all, but the actual items in the widget are absent, and it shows a loading spinner.

That's because Kodi updates widgets after you watch something and for the showcase hub widgets I use the "make transparent and show busy spinner" when updating approach (whereas for normal widgets I do nothing when updating). I might have to switch to the other approach.

EDIT: I've switched to the other approach (show old items whilst loading), which should essentially fix this issue (you'll just have the widget randomly change once it updates without warning I guess!).

Many thanks this sorted it and now at least in my house the skin now girlfriend certified!! For feedback, it was particularly jarring when watching a single episode of something and then trying to watch something else in say a watchlist or next up trakt list.. The list will update but you can still browse while its thinking about it!

[FXB78]

When using PVR sometimes the lookup seems to fail & leaves a blank poster to the left, I would normally see the channel logo here if there is no data instead of this blank poster view. Is this a bug or is there a setting I need to change somewhere?

[jurialmunkey]

This is when using the showcase as fullscreen widget... I'll try and get a video when I can, but the gist is that if you've set widgets "below" the showcase, then after playback the widget disappears. You can still scroll it and see the metadata above, along with artwork and all, but the actual items in the widget are absent, and it shows a loading spinner.

That's because Kodi updates widgets after you watch something and for the showcase hub widgets I use the "make transparent and show busy spinner" when updating approach (whereas for normal widgets I do nothing when updating). I might have to switch to the other approach.

EDIT: I've switched to the other approach (show old items whilst loading), which should essentially fix this issue (you'll just have the widget randomly change once it updates without warning I guess!).

Many thanks this sorted it and now at least in my house the skin now girlfriend certified!! For feedback, it was particularly jarring when watching a single episode of something and then trying to watch something else in say a watchlist or next up trakt list.. The list will update but you can still browse while its thinking about it!

Yeah, it makes much more sense this way - I just never picked up on the issue because I was using library widgets in the showcase, and those load practically instantly.

[jurialmunkey]

When using PVR sometimes the lookup seems to fail & leaves a blank poster to the left, I would normally see the channel logo here if there is no data instead of this blank poster view. Is this a bug or is there a setting I need to change somewhere?

The poster only displays if TMDbHelper service returns an image URL. The issue is that it's up to Kodi to retrieve the actual image from the URL when it is referenced in the skin (once the image loads, Kodi caches it in the texture cache so it doesn't have to look it up from the URL again).

A few things can cause this issue:
1. Kodi simply hasn't retrieved and loaded the image into the texture cache yet due to a backlog in the background image loader (most likely).
2. TMDb/FanartTV image server is down/slow (or internet connection is down/slow) (also possible).
3. Malformed or incorrect URL (unlikely)

There's no much that can be done from the skin side. The skin can't check if the image exists, it can only check that a URL was specified by checking if this condition is true or false: String.IsEmpty(Window(Home).Property(TMDbHelper.ListItem.Poster))

[tripkip]

The movie wall feature which appears when pressing down is very clever and I really, really like it. I think it would be a little more intuitive if pressing 'OK' brings you back to the default view type (poster in my case).
I know that you need to press 'return' to go back to the poster view, but that is counter intuitive IMO. I see at the moment that when pressin 'OK' from movie wall will very briefly show the default view type and then immediately start playing the movie (almost feels like a UI glitch).

PS. Is there any way I can get the genre icons to work for my NL scraped genres?

[jurialmunkey]

If I move down from movie to alphabet strip and back up it trigger the filter screen. Is this by design?

Definitely not intentional. What view is this happening in? Are you sure you aren't pressing down twice?

Would you consider adding the total movies in your collection similar to what you have in Aura? You move down once it triggers totals, move down again alphabet strip

Add item count when scrollbar/alphabet is focused in latest git version.

[jurialmunkey]

The movie wall feature which appears when pressing down is very clever and I really, really like it. I think it would be a little more intuitive if pressing 'OK' brings you back to the default view type (poster in my case).
I know that you need to press 'return' to go back to the poster view, but that is counter intuitive IMO. I see at the moment that when pressin 'OK' from movie wall will very briefly show the default view type and then immediately start playing the movie (almost feels like a UI glitch).

PS. Is there any way I can get the genre icons to work for my NL scraped genres?

Pressing OK to return was actually the old behaviour for the wall. There was a discussion about it where other users said that was counterintuitive and it should play the item directly...

I'm not sure what you mean by "NL scraped genres"?

[tripkip]

The movie wall feature which appears when pressing down is very clever and I really, really like it. I think it would be a little more intuitive if pressing 'OK' brings you back to the default view type (poster in my case).
I know that you need to press 'return' to go back to the poster view, but that is counter intuitive IMO. I see at the moment that when pressin 'OK' from movie wall will very briefly show the default view type and then immediately start playing the movie (almost feels like a UI glitch).

PS. Is there any way I can get the genre icons to work for my NL scraped genres?

Pressing OK to return was actually the old behaviour for the wall. There was a discussion about it where other users said that was counterintuitive and it should play the item directly...

I'm not sure what you mean by "NL scraped genres"?

Ah ok, that's surprising. I can live with the way it works. [emoji6]

My scraper (TMDB) is set to NL (Dutch). As a result the genre for the movies are imported localized. So 'Animation' becomes 'Animatie'. This in turn causes the genre icon not to show.

[jurialmunkey]

The movie wall feature which appears when pressing down is very clever and I really, really like it. I think it would be a little more intuitive if pressing 'OK' brings you back to the default view type (poster in my case).
I know that you need to press 'return' to go back to the poster view, but that is counter intuitive IMO. I see at the moment that when pressin 'OK' from movie wall will very briefly show the default view type and then immediately start playing the movie (almost feels like a UI glitch).

PS. Is there any way I can get the genre icons to work for my NL scraped genres?

Pressing OK to return was actually the old behaviour for the wall. There was a discussion about it where other users said that was counterintuitive and it should play the item directly...

I'm not sure what you mean by "NL scraped genres"?

Ah ok, that's surprising. I can live with the way it works. [emoji6]

My scraper (TMDB) is set to NL (Dutch). As a result the genre for the movies are imported localized. So 'Animation' becomes 'Animatie'. This in turn causes the genre icon not to show.

I think it is one of those things where what is/isn't intuitive depends on what purpose you're using the wall for. I find if I'm looking for something specific, then I'll expect OK to play immediately from the wall; whereas if I'm just browsing, I expect the opposite. Ultimately I think OK playing directly makes slightly more sense because you still have back to close, whereas if OK closes then there's no button to play directly.

For genres in a different language, you would need to edit the genre image resource addon and change the image filenames to match the Dutch names. The skin just adds ".png" to the genre label to display the genre icon.