[dadoftwo]

Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS, XBMC 12.1, fusion installer.

My first post here, pretty much a noob with XBMC so proceed with caution!

Goal was to add custom genre icon with fanart background support to stock Confluence skin thats ships with XBMC 12.1 .
Succeeded and thought I would share for a review and critique the results of my first foray under the hood of XBMC.





This information has been assembled and compilied from many sources including forum posts by madmax and artwork from Xzener’s MediaBrowser Icons and numerous others now only remembered by my browser history.

Todo: add support for seperate music genres per a post of madmax.
add graphic for empty/unknown genre name.
eliminate requirement to relabel images to JPG extension.

download the two graphic packs and/or XML files from:

Google drive - files for genre icons:

note: all below assumes Linux, sorry Microsoft fans - u gotta find where to put what

extract the graphics packs to /path to confluence skin/720p/media/
this will create two new subdirectories:
/usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/media/moviegenres/
/usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/media/moviegenrefanart/

edit skin files to enable genre icon view - two methods:

method one - see note 1 below, download the two (2) XML files below, save to /path to confluence skin/720p/, overwrite existing files if prompted.
this will overwrite two files:
/usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/720p/ViewFilesMode.xml/
/usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/720p/IncludesBackgroundBuilding.xml/


method two - see note 1 below, edit existing files to include new controls for genre icons with fanart background.

edit file: /usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/720p/ViewsFileMode.xml/

at or about line 253 edit: (first itemlayout in <include name="ThumbnailView">)

<code>
from: <visible>!Container.Content(Episodes)</visible>
to: <visible>!Container.Content(Episodes)+!Container.Content(Genres)</visible>
</code>

at or about line 266 addbelow Container.Content(Episodes) image control)

<code>
<control type="image">
<description>Genre Thumbnail View</description>
<posx>1</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>214</width>
<height>160</height>
<aspectratio>keep</aspectratio>
<bordertexture border="5">button-nofocus.png</bordertexture>
<bordersize>5</bordersize>
<texture background="true">moviegenres/$INFO[ListItem.Label].jpg</texture>
<visible>Container.Content(Genres)</visible>
</control>
</code>

at or about line 310 editfirst focusedlayout in <include name="ThumbnailView">)

<code>
from: <visible>!Container.Content(Episodes)</visible>
to: <visible>!Container.Content(Episodes)+!Container.Content(Genres)</visible>
</code>

at or about line 324 addbelow Container.Content(Episodes) image control)


<control type="image">
<description>Genre Thumbnail View</description>
<posx>1</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>214</width>
<height>160</height>
<aspectratio>keep</aspectratio>
<bordertexture border="5">folder-focus.png</bordertexture>
<bordersize>5</bordersize>
<texture background="true">moviegenres/$INFO[ListItem.Label].jpg</texture>
<visible>Container.Content(Genres)</visible>
</control>
</code>

save and close file



edit file: /usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/720p/IncludesBackgroundBuilding.xml/

at or about line 38 add: (new control below fanart control)

<code>
<control type="image">
<description>Genre Thumbnail View Fanart Background</description>
<posx>0</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>1280</width>
<height>720</height>
<aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
<texture background="true">moviegenrefanart/$INFO[ListItem.Label].jpg</texture>
<include>backgroundfade</include>
<fadetime>500</fadetime>
<visible> Container.Content(Genres) + Control.IsVisible(500)</visible>
<include>Window_OpenClose_Animation</include>
<visible>![Player.HasVideo + !Skin.HasSetting(ShowBackgroundVideo)]</visible>
</control>
</code>

save and close file



note:
1. prior to overwriting files or editing existing files backup your existing ViewsFileMode.xml and IncludesBackgroundBuilding.xml .
2. Graphics files names for both icon and background must match genre label used/displayed by XBMC, Linux is case sensitive.
3. Graphic files are in PNG format but have been renamed with the JPG extension to work with XBMC.


Good Luck!

I look forward to hearing comments, I'll try answer questions, please remember my noob status,

[rave42037]

Great instructions! I have done all that you said on a Windows machine and on a Raspberry Pi and both worked brilliantly. The link to a Google Drive for the files returned a "Server error-500", but it was easy to work around this. I would say that I am certainly more of a noob than you, but I found it all pretty straightforward. The icon for the parent directory ".." is non-existant, which is a bit confusing as you cannot see that it is selected when navigating.

On the Windows machine, the file locations are here: C:\Program Files\XBMC\addons\skin.confluence

On the Pi running Raspbmc, they are here: /opt/xbmc-bcm/xbmc-bin/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence

My only thought about your approach is to wonder how maintainable it is...once new versions of XBMC are rolled out, will the XML files change and then require re-editting?

Thanks for a really useful post!

[Hairy Hippy]

Great work dadoftwo! The only thing that you need to add is an adult fanart.jpg

Seriously - Many thanks

This only seems to work in Thumbnail view as it seems that something like Fanart view is not available under the genre sub menu of Confluence.

[Hairy Hippy]

@rave42037

I'm trying to do this also on the Raspberry Pi. Folder seems to be /usr/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence on mine. However when I SSH in using WinSCP and try to copy the icons and fanart folders across from my Windows machine, I get an error creating the folders. Any ideas? How did you achieve this?

edit: I'm using openELEC

[Hairy Hippy]

Solved my issue - one has to copy the skin addon and copy it to the storage section of openELEC and make the changes there including upping the version number of the skin in the addon.xml.

[dadoftwo]

Glad to hear someone other than myself got some use out of this.

Rave: I don't really know how upgradable this will be, was more of an exercise than anything else.
But there is not a lot of code, and few if any dependencies - so it may just role into XBMC 13.


BTW, in the icon pack there is a PSD file for role your own genre icons, I'm happy to post what everyone comes up with on Google drive.

Hairy Hippy: I'm jealous of you guys running Pi's and Android set tops, I cant wait to join the crowd.