[wcndave]

Getting started with skinning appears to be somewhat of a dark art.

The wiki instructions are horribly out of date, most things have different structures, different formats, and different locations now.

For example, the first skin tutorial https://kodi.wiki/view/First_skin_tutorial doesn't actually have any content.
But it links to a discussion with help for beginners, which is a closed thread on a no longer supported skin - closed over 3 years ago.

I looked at https://kodi.wiki/view/Estuary_Modification to get some ideas, but it's also out of date.
So, accepting that it's moved on from <viewtype label="31102">icon</viewtype> to <param name="viewtype_label" value="$LOCALIZE[20445]" />
which must be because it's included from somewhere and passing it values, I continue on the journey, and now want to find which view is the one I want to modify
however, I can't find 20445 anywhere...

It's not in language/resource.language.en_gb/strings.po

And I grepped the entire drive for it, and could only find it being used, never being defined....

Almost everything here: https://kodi.wiki/view/Skinning is out of date and doesn't make sense, or can't be found.

I have 25 years coding experience, as a developer, and I did not expect it to be anywhere close to this hard.

Is there a better resource somewhere that covers this topic?  Or is it only old-timers that do skinning who know it already?

I'd love to understand a little of how it works, however I can't even find the files that contain what I am looking at right now...

[Hitcher]

Unfortunately the wiki requires volunteers to keep it up-to-date.

As for the labels you're after they're in the Kodi install folder but here's the link I use -

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xbmc/x...strings.po

Also note from that file -

cpp:
#empty strings from id 29995 to 33000

#strings 30000 thru 30999 reserved for plug-ins and plug-in settings

#strings 31000 thru 31999 reserved for skins

#strings 32000 thru 32999 reserved for scripts

#strings 33000 thru 33999 reserved for common strings used in Add-ons

which are the strings you'll find in the skin.

[jurialmunkey]

The Skinning Manual is your best bet. It is kept up to date:
https://kodi.wiki/view/Skinning_Manual


Other useful links:

Opening Windows/Dialogs
https://kodi.wiki/view/Opening_Windows_and_Dialogs

List of Built-In Functions
https://kodi.wiki/view/List_of_built-in_functions

Action IDs
https://kodi.wiki/view/Action_IDs

Animations
https://kodi.wiki/view/Animating_your_skin
https://kodi.wiki/view/Tweeners


I also highly recommend using SublimeText3 as an editor with Phil65's KodiDevKit plugin.
Use it in combination with script.toolbox add-on to auto refresh skin after making changes.
Add your skin as a folder in ST3 and save as a project will give a lot of useful functions.


Also, be sure to ask in this forum if you get stuck anywhere. There are plenty of skinners around with lots of experience who are happy to help out newbies. Some aspects of the skinning engine can feel arcane and esoteric at first, but much of it is fairly straightforward once you get past some of the initial humps.

[the_other_guy]

i have some on estuary
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=344593 menu and widget screen are linked
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=344394