[DiMag]

the issue at first start up (no menubar etc on homescreen) - can be rectified if you go back to using the old code - fixes the issue

What chunk exactly in the new code causes the issue? Specifically, to not load the "desktop" unless an additional addon (resource.images.skinbackgrounds.xonfluence) is installed?

I should think that the best remedy is to excise this problematic part, and otherwise keep the updated code.

I have long marveled at the amount of dead wood (e.g., radio strm files) and pure bloat Xonfluence carries. Why has Xonfluence such a large footprint (37.6M), when ACZ and Unity, which are different concepts of an updated Confluence and not even appreciably faster, and OSMC skin, which is a modern reconception of Confluence with all bells and whistles the new update to Xonfluence is announced to bring, are happy with a 4-9M footprint? Presumably because of a lot of bloat in the /media (xbt) folder. And if Xonfluence is already bloated media-wise, what is the wisdom of adding an additional 14.8M of the aforementioned  resource.images.skinbackgrounds.xonfluence addon to the bloat? Once upon a time it was enough to just put a humble backdrop file in /backgrounds.

And if you want my personal opinion, it is best to just put a pitch black backdrop in the ~kodi/media folder and let each and every skin use it, the way it is done with extra fonts.

[udangaribaldi]

xonfluence does most of everything itself - a lot of skins are smaller cos of the dependencies they use (add size of dependencies to your formula - then compare)  
obviously some parts need updating or booting entirely.  
  
if you look at 'Startup.xml' - you need to revert back to the uncommented out code(go back through 'commits' to find older xml).  

  
as for stuff you think is un-necessary or unwanted - you can take control of the skin yourself, remove and/or tinker it any way you want it.  
xonfluence skin is one of the best skin's to tinker with - to me,  it's a blank canvas, which i paint my works of art.  
you should see what ive done with it.  
you seem to want all skins to follow the same format/structure i.e. the black background image.  
but kodi is all about the unique-ness of the skin's to offer the users different experiences - or you might as well have only one skin available - cos all would be the same with a different face.

[udangaribaldi]

as per your request  
you need to uncomment out this line of code from the Home.xml  
<onload condition="String.IsEmpty(Skin.String(SkinFanart.Name)) + String.IsEmpty(Skin.String(AlternativeBackgroundPath)) + !Skin.HasSetting(DontAskBackgroundFanart) + Window.Previous(startup.xml)">ActivateWindow(1194)</onload>

[DiMag]

@udangaribaldi 
 

1. Thanks for helping getting rid of the dependency on the resources addon.
   
2. I am a great believer in ergonomics as science. Ergonomically speaking, there is only one good skin, one good font, one good screen layout. People have differing personalities, but their ergonomic needs do not vary with them.
   
3. A pitch black backdrop may not be beautiful. But it saves a plasma screen (if you have one like I do) from burnout. And in keeping electricity consumption low, it helps save the planet. 
   

[udangaribaldi]

xonfluence has a setting, 'enable single global background' which is enabled by default, disabling it results in a global black background - you could tinker so the black is the default  
(added) - i prefer the black background also  
p.p.s. - i must be your opposite i believe in having the choice, having options, have it this way or that way - even ergonomics is specific to the user -(i.e. multiple ways/preferences there too - one size fits all is not ergonomics, that's economics lol),

[DiMag]

Speaking of a solid black background, I wonder. Is it possible to define a global background as a hex color value in the controlling xml file? It is noted early on in the skinning manual, but without further details as to what file to modify; and no skin I know of implements it. This would be more elegant than loading a pre-made solid black wallpaper 1920x1080; and much much faster, however tiny the wallpaper file.

[udangaribaldi]

added:-  rename or remove the SkinDefault.jpg - this will result in no image but black background  
  
tinker with line 144 in the IncludesBackgroundBuilding.xml  
what you could do - change SKINDEFAULT.jpg to SKINDEFAULT.png  (saveit)  
then in the media folder, backgrounds folder, add the smallest colour png image as skindefault.png  
see if helpful

[udangaribaldi]

the 5 settings.  
Item border size - add or replace tags in the control/s  
Background transparency - add an animation on to any control/s   
Dialog look and feel - change skin image/s  
Select main font colour - change colour of anything  
Power floorbutton - create a button with multiple onclicks  
  
Tinker with those 5 settings and you can tinker the look of the xonfluence skin pretty much anyway you want to.

[dullard]

Apologies in advance, I did some searches and couldn't find what I needed. 
Is there a way to set a submenu item to link to a source?

[DiMag]

ActivateWindow(Videos,sources://video/,return). 
You can hardly miss it, there is not one skin that doesn't include it as the default option (one of the three or six offered).

[dullard]

Thanks!

[jdig4240]

Hey Bart, I know your taking a break, or busy with life, but maybe you could point me in the right direction. Using Xonfluence on Nexus. Everything works fine, just one small thing. In settings/Player/Language/Subtitles seems its missing the ability to change the subtitles color. I poked around in the xml, but couldnt find much. Any pointers?

[VonMagnum]

Hey Bart, I know your taking a break, or busy with life, but maybe you could point me in the right direction. Using Xonfluence on Nexus. Everything works fine, just one small thing. In settings/Player/Language/Subtitles seems its missing the ability to change the subtitles color. I poked around in the xml, but couldnt find much. Any pointers?

I'm not at home at the moment so I can't look, but I know I played with it before at some point. The problem is it doesn't change colors for certain types of subtitles file formats including the ones on most discs as 8 recall so it didn't do me any real good to change the color or style.

[jdig4240]

Hey Bart, I know your taking a break, or busy with life, but maybe you could point me in the right direction. Using Xonfluence on Nexus. Everything works fine, just one small thing. In settings/Player/Language/Subtitles seems its missing the ability to change the subtitles color. I poked around in the xml, but couldnt find much. Any pointers?

I'm not at home at the moment so I can't look, but I know I played with it before at some point. The problem is it doesn't change colors for certain types of subtitles file formats including the ones on most discs as 8 recall so it didn't do me any real good to change the color or style.

The issue Im referring to is the fact that it does not show the option at all in Kodi settings. If you switch skin to Estuary it shows all the options. I just dont know where in the skin xml to find the code for that section. I have looked all over in the xml, but it seems it just should pull the settings options from Kodi and not the actual skin, so thats where im confused.

[rafi1]

Hi,
I have upgraded from Kodi 18.9 to 19.5 both with Xconfluence. On 18.9 I could select under tv shows and Movies Views - View = "Media info"  and "Media Info 2" . I cannot see these options in Kodi 19.5 skin.
I am not sure if this is something I added myself, or this was already available on Xconfluence.

Can someone help me out on how to add these two views also to Movies/TV-shows list-views?

Thanks

Edit:
Sorry, my mistake, Media info-s are still there, I need to port my changes/mods correctly from 18.9 (they are for adding IMBD rating, # of votes and  run-time to the lists... ) When I'm done, I can share if someone will be  interested...