[PizzaPino]

It would be nice if in the home menu the labels wouldn't move at all when you move left and right to another label (movies, shows, music, add-ons, etc.)

[jurialmunkey]

v0.9.29 - Experimental New Feature - Custom Search Lists

With the latest version (0.9.29), I've added a new feature where custom add-on search paths can be added to the search window.
The process is quite advanced, but it is really rewarding if you use a lot of add-ons.

Requirements:
A video add-on that saves searches as items. For instance, in the Twitch addon (which I will use as an example here), once you enter a search term it is saved in its search history list as an item you can re-click on.

Step 1 - Adding Search History
Goto the add-on and create a new search so that it gets saved in the add-on's search history

Step 2 - Adding a Custom Search List
Goto Skin Settings > Miscellaneous > Choose Search Lists
Scroll down to the bottom of the dialog and choose "Edit custom search lists".



Choose "Action".
Navigate to your add-on.
Locate the saved search term created in step 1 and open it.
(e.g. Add-ons > Video Add-ons > Twitch > Search > Streams > mario)
Wait for the search to load and then choose "Create menu item here"



Now we have the search path as an action. However, it is not ready yet.
In the next step we will transform the action into a plugin path which the search window is able to pass the search argument to.

Step 3 - Creating the plugin path
Reselect "Action" and select "Custom Item > " at the bottom of the dialog.

A keyboard will pop-up with the path.
You need to edit all the extra stuff out so that you only have the plugin path *without* the search term.
The search query argument needs to be at the end of the path so that the skin can add it to the path.
Doing so might require some reorganising of the path.
For instance, I used "mario" as my search term and have an action:
ActivateWindow(Videos,"plugin://plugin.video.twitch/?content=streams&query=mario&mode=search_results&index=0",return)

What I want to be left with is:
plugin://plugin.video.twitch/?content=streams&mode=search_results&index=0&query=





Step 4 - Give it a name
Choose "Label" and give your search a name.
Also make sure you have the correct content type set (in this case it is videos because we are using a video add-on).

Now press back to close the dialog. Return to the home screen and wait for skinshortcuts to finish building. You should now be able to use the search function from the top menu in the library and your custom search will be added to the top.



Final Notes
You can add as many search functions as you would like just like how you would add additional widgets (up to 50).
If you already know the plugin search path then you can skip steps 1 & 2 and simply enter it in step 3 using the "Custom Item > " function.

I've added an ISSUES page on github where I encourage everyone to submit the search paths that they have found
https://github.com/jurialmunkey/skin.arc.../issues/36

[jurialmunkey]

It would be nice if in the home menu the labels wouldn't move at all when you move left and right to another label (movies, shows, music, add-ons, etc.)

Yeah I know. I haven't found a solution for this yet that incorporates auto-sizing of label width.

[User 426612]

One more suggestion:
Could you please skip the whole icon placeholder for codec information instead of leaving it blank?



Where do you get the „source“ information and what for kinds of sources do you have an icon?
I got many movies with „.BluRay.“ in the parent folder in my Library but only some of them are detected with the icon.

[NotYourAverageAl]

@jurialmunkey couple of questions/suggestion for u

1.Liking the new genres and languages furniture option. However for some movies all the info overlaps the codec stuff. Suggestion is to split the option to genre and language. I noticed the furniture section is looking crowded though. If wanted to play around, would just editing Includes_Object.xml do?
 
2.When when playing a song the play/pause controls dont show up until you press home. The default is bitrate info. can this be changed around?

3. Unfocused menu items are hard to read/make out. I had a look through the code and cant figure out where to change this. When an menu item is focused does it call a different bold font type or does it bold the existing font?

4. Are you bringing back clearlogos for poster/banner wall views etc?

1. Yeah I was concerned about overlaps. Still needs a lot more tweaking - think of it as an experimental feature for the time being. I will probably eventually have a pop-up dialog where the user can choose what info to put there from a radiobutton list.

2. Keymap issue, not a skin issue.

3. It is a different font definition. Menu still needs some tweaks. I'm avoiding discussion of user modifications until the skin is out of alpha. The point of releasing an Alpha is to work on fixing bugs, adding desired features, and fixing usability issues. Users are free to modify the skin on their own of course! I just want to avoid the thread being derailed by discussing mods (plus I would rather spend my time working on the skin than walking people through making bespoke tweaks).

4. What do you mean by bringing back clearlogos? Are you talking about in the center header position? If so
, I'm undecided at the moment - not a big fan of how it looks really though. 

understood. and 
4. Yep, I meant the clearlogos in the center header. Could be an option. They were great in AZ1, but for me it was because the poster wall didn't have movie titles in AZ1. I'll have another look at AZ1, does feel like there's less space on the header in AZ2.

[jurialmunkey]

@jurialmunkey couple of questions/suggestion for u

1.Liking the new genres and languages furniture option. However for some movies all the info overlaps the codec stuff. Suggestion is to split the option to genre and language. I noticed the furniture section is looking crowded though. If wanted to play around, would just editing Includes_Object.xml do?
 
2.When when playing a song the play/pause controls dont show up until you press home. The default is bitrate info. can this be changed around?

3. Unfocused menu items are hard to read/make out. I had a look through the code and cant figure out where to change this. When an menu item is focused does it call a different bold font type or does it bold the existing font?

4. Are you bringing back clearlogos for poster/banner wall views etc?

1. Yeah I was concerned about overlaps. Still needs a lot more tweaking - think of it as an experimental feature for the time being. I will probably eventually have a pop-up dialog where the user can choose what info to put there from a radiobutton list.

2. Keymap issue, not a skin issue.

3. It is a different font definition. Menu still needs some tweaks. I'm avoiding discussion of user modifications until the skin is out of alpha. The point of releasing an Alpha is to work on fixing bugs, adding desired features, and fixing usability issues. Users are free to modify the skin on their own of course! I just want to avoid the thread being derailed by discussing mods (plus I would rather spend my time working on the skin than walking people through making bespoke tweaks).

4. What do you mean by bringing back clearlogos? Are you talking about in the center header position? If so
, I'm undecided at the moment - not a big fan of how it looks really though. 

understood. and 
4. Yep, I meant the clearlogos in the center header. Could be an option. They were great in AZ1, but for me it was because the poster wall didn't have movie titles in AZ1. I'll have another look at AZ1, does feel like there's less space on the header in AZ2.

You know what, I decided to add it. I think enough people want it and it is pretty simple to add. On latest release

[jurialmunkey]

One more suggestion:
Could you please skip the whole icon placeholder for codec information instead of leaving it blank?

Where do you get the „source“ information and what for kinds of sources do you have an icon?
I got many movies with „.BluRay.“ in the parent folder in my Library but only some of them are detected with the icon.

Rather - can you tell me what codec is missing so that I can add it? You should be able to determine what it is by temporarily disabling codecs in furniture and then opening the video info dialog - the codec name will be shown on the same line as the languages/subs.

It's quite difficult to skip blank images in the skinning engine. It can be done, but it is costly in terms of cpu. The better option is to add the missing codec images.

Source is based upon filename and path.
If ListItem.FileNameAndPath contains one of the following, it will show the relevant flag (higher positions override lower ones)
[4k bluray] > 2160p | UHD | UltraHD | Ultra-HD | 4K
[blu-ray] > blu-ray | bluray | bdrip | bd25 | bd50
[hddvd] > hddvd | hd-dvd
[dvd] > dvd
[hdtv] > hdtv | pdtv | dsr
[sdtv] > sdtv
[web-dl] > web-dl | webdl | WEBRip

You can check what filename and path kodi is reporting by opening videoinfo and highlight the "refresh" button (filename shows bottom left).

[User 431881]

One more suggestion:
Could you please skip the whole icon placeholder for codec information instead of leaving it blank?

Where do you get the „source“ information and what for kinds of sources do you have an icon?
I got many movies with „.BluRay.“ in the parent folder in my Library but only some of them are detected with the icon.

Rather - can you tell me what codec is missing so that I can add it? You should be able to determine what it is by temporarily disabling codecs in furniture and then opening the video info dialog - the codec name will be shown on the same line as the languages/subs.

It's quite difficult to skip blank images in the skinning engine. It can be done, but it is costly in terms of cpu. The better option is to add the missing codec images.

Source is based upon filename and path.
If ListItem.FileNameAndPath contains one of the following, it will show the relevant flag (higher positions override lower ones)
[4k bluray] > 2160p | UHD | UltraHD | Ultra-HD | 4K
[blu-ray] > blu-ray | bluray | bdrip | bd25 | bd50
[hddvd] > hddvd | hd-dvd
[dvd] > dvd
[hdtv] > hdtv | pdtv | dsr
[sdtv] > sdtv
[web-dl] > web-dl | webdl | WEBRip

You can check what filename and path kodi is reporting by opening videoinfo and highlight the "refresh" button (filename shows bottom left). 

Thanks for jogging my memory, I was meaning to ask. Some of my files have LPCM as the audio codec, as opposed to DTS or TrueHD. Is there an icon already included for LPCM, or is it some kind of detection issue?

[User 426612]

One more suggestion:
Could you please skip the whole icon placeholder for codec information instead of leaving it blank?

Where do you get the „source“ information and what for kinds of sources do you have an icon?
I got many movies with „.BluRay.“ in the parent folder in my Library but only some of them are detected with the icon.

Rather - can you tell me what codec is missing so that I can add it? You should be able to determine what it is by temporarily disabling codecs in furniture and then opening the video info dialog - the codec name will be shown on the same line as the languages/subs.

It's quite difficult to skip blank images in the skinning engine. It can be done, but it is costly in terms of cpu. The better option is to add the missing codec images.

Source is based upon filename and path.
If ListItem.FileNameAndPath contains one of the following, it will show the relevant flag (higher positions override lower ones)
[4k bluray] > 2160p | UHD | UltraHD | Ultra-HD | 4K
[blu-ray] > blu-ray | bluray | bdrip | bd25 | bd50
[hddvd] > hddvd | hd-dvd
[dvd] > dvd
[hdtv] > hdtv | pdtv | dsr
[sdtv] > sdtv
[web-dl] > web-dl | webdl | WEBRip

You can check what filename and path kodi is reporting by opening videoinfo and highlight the "refresh" button (filename shows bottom left).

Sorry for this missunderstanding.
It‘s not a codec image what is missing, just the source stuff I was talking about.
Hopefully your source matching you mentioned is regex and case insesitiv? So that e.g. „BluRay“ would match to?

I found out, that using addon path due to Emby for Kodi doesn’t provide parent folders name where the information is.
No issue to your skin. Sorry!

But maybe you could add source images for „AmazonHD“ and „ITunesHD“ which I got often.
Otherwise you may add them to another icons pattern.

[jurialmunkey]

One more suggestion:
Could you please skip the whole icon placeholder for codec information instead of leaving it blank?

Where do you get the „source“ information and what for kinds of sources do you have an icon?
I got many movies with „.BluRay.“ in the parent folder in my Library but only some of them are detected with the icon.

Rather - can you tell me what codec is missing so that I can add it? You should be able to determine what it is by temporarily disabling codecs in furniture and then opening the video info dialog - the codec name will be shown on the same line as the languages/subs.

It's quite difficult to skip blank images in the skinning engine. It can be done, but it is costly in terms of cpu. The better option is to add the missing codec images.

Source is based upon filename and path.
If ListItem.FileNameAndPath contains one of the following, it will show the relevant flag (higher positions override lower ones)
[4k bluray] > 2160p | UHD | UltraHD | Ultra-HD | 4K
[blu-ray] > blu-ray | bluray | bdrip | bd25 | bd50
[hddvd] > hddvd | hd-dvd
[dvd] > dvd
[hdtv] > hdtv | pdtv | dsr
[sdtv] > sdtv
[web-dl] > web-dl | webdl | WEBRip

You can check what filename and path kodi is reporting by opening videoinfo and highlight the "refresh" button (filename shows bottom left). 

Thanks for jogging my memory, I was meaning to ask. Some of my files have LPCM as the audio codec, as opposed to DTS or TrueHD. Is there an icon already included for LPCM, or is it some kind of detection issue?

No there isn't an icon for LPCM. I can't find a specific icon for that codec. Since it is a form of PCM, would it be okay to use the PCM icon? Or do you know of a skin that has a LPCM icon?

[jurialmunkey]

One more suggestion:
Could you please skip the whole icon placeholder for codec information instead of leaving it blank?

Where do you get the „source“ information and what for kinds of sources do you have an icon?
I got many movies with „.BluRay.“ in the parent folder in my Library but only some of them are detected with the icon.

Rather - can you tell me what codec is missing so that I can add it? You should be able to determine what it is by temporarily disabling codecs in furniture and then opening the video info dialog - the codec name will be shown on the same line as the languages/subs.

It's quite difficult to skip blank images in the skinning engine. It can be done, but it is costly in terms of cpu. The better option is to add the missing codec images.

Source is based upon filename and path.
If ListItem.FileNameAndPath contains one of the following, it will show the relevant flag (higher positions override lower ones)
[4k bluray] > 2160p | UHD | UltraHD | Ultra-HD | 4K
[blu-ray] > blu-ray | bluray | bdrip | bd25 | bd50
[hddvd] > hddvd | hd-dvd
[dvd] > dvd
[hdtv] > hdtv | pdtv | dsr
[sdtv] > sdtv
[web-dl] > web-dl | webdl | WEBRip

You can check what filename and path kodi is reporting by opening videoinfo and highlight the "refresh" button (filename shows bottom left).

Sorry for this missunderstanding.
It‘s not a codec image what is missing, just the source stuff I was talking about.
Hopefully your source matching you mentioned is regex and case insesitiv? So that e.g. „BluRay“ would match to?

I found out, that using addon path due to Emby for Kodi doesn’t provide parent folders name where the information is.
No issue to your skin. Sorry!

But maybe you could add source images for „AmazonHD“ and „ITunesHD“ which I got often.
Otherwise you may add them to another icons pattern.

No worries. Yeah, the skinning engine isn't case sensitive for these types of things.

I would imagine AmazonHD and ITunesHD would be covered by the web-dl flag. Unless there is a specific reason to identify them?

[User 431881]

Rather - can you tell me what codec is missing so that I can add it? You should be able to determine what it is by temporarily disabling codecs in furniture and then opening the video info dialog - the codec name will be shown on the same line as the languages/subs.

It's quite difficult to skip blank images in the skinning engine. It can be done, but it is costly in terms of cpu. The better option is to add the missing codec images.

Source is based upon filename and path.
If ListItem.FileNameAndPath contains one of the following, it will show the relevant flag (higher positions override lower ones)
[4k bluray] > 2160p | UHD | UltraHD | Ultra-HD | 4K
[blu-ray] > blu-ray | bluray | bdrip | bd25 | bd50
[hddvd] > hddvd | hd-dvd
[dvd] > dvd
[hdtv] > hdtv | pdtv | dsr
[sdtv] > sdtv
[web-dl] > web-dl | webdl | WEBRip

You can check what filename and path kodi is reporting by opening videoinfo and highlight the "refresh" button (filename shows bottom left). 

Thanks for jogging my memory, I was meaning to ask. Some of my files have LPCM as the audio codec, as opposed to DTS or TrueHD. Is there an icon already included for LPCM, or is it some kind of detection issue? 

No there isn't an icon for LPCM. I can't find a specific icon for that codec. Since it is a form of PCM, would it be okay to use the PCM icon? Or do you know of a skin that has a LPCM icon? 

It is a form of PCM yes, let me run through a few previous skins I have used and come back to you. I seem to recall at least one of them having an icon, but there is a very good chance it was the PCM one you mentioned.

[User 431881]

Thanks for jogging my memory, I was meaning to ask. Some of my files have LPCM as the audio codec, as opposed to DTS or TrueHD. Is there an icon already included for LPCM, or is it some kind of detection issue? 

No there isn't an icon for LPCM. I can't find a specific icon for that codec. Since it is a form of PCM, would it be okay to use the PCM icon? Or do you know of a skin that has a LPCM icon?  

It is a form of PCM yes, let me run through a few previous skins I have used and come back to you. I seem to recall at least one of them having an icon, but there is a very good chance it was the PCM one you mentioned. 

Mkay I had limited success: tried Aura, BOX, Quartz and Estuary and all showed the same behaviour. Interestingly though, on Estuary if I went into extended info, it showed the PCM icon instead of Dolby Digital.

Basically what is happening is the disc has multiple audio tracks - the main track is LPCM, and the others are Dolby Digital. Hence, I am not sure if it is a icon issue or a detection issue with Kodi.

Hope that information helps a bit.

[jurialmunkey]

No there isn't an icon for LPCM. I can't find a specific icon for that codec. Since it is a form of PCM, would it be okay to use the PCM icon? Or do you know of a skin that has a LPCM icon?  

It is a form of PCM yes, let me run through a few previous skins I have used and come back to you. I seem to recall at least one of them having an icon, but there is a very good chance it was the PCM one you mentioned. 

Mkay I had limited success: tried Aura, BOX, Quartz and Estuary and all showed the same behaviour. Interestingly though, on Estuary if I went into extended info, it showed the PCM icon instead of Dolby Digital.

Basically what is happening is the disc has multiple audio tracks - the main track is LPCM, and the others are Dolby Digital. Hence, I am not sure if it is a icon issue or a detection issue with Kodi.

Hope that information helps a bit.

If you turn off codecs in "Skin Settings > Furniture", then you will be able to see the text string the codec is reported as in the video info dialog (where subs/languages) are. All the skin does is use that text string to match against a png with that filename. I just need to know what the string is so that I can make a file with that name.

[holydhaliwal]

Would an option be possible to choose our default rating provider? I use Plex + PKC with Plex set up to pull rotten tomatoes ratings instead of IMDB (with further modification to PKC to use top critics instead of audience rating, though I'm not sure if a logo for that exists)