2021-05-20, 18:24
Actually the quotes were italics, regular here
Perfect, ... almost ... Now, I'd say you left a space between the first quotation mark and the word Welcome in the first line, right?
But the green "Next: ... " really looks marvellous ... thanks.
Could you please reduce the font size of the bottom "Next" line to about 50 or 60% of the font size of the other three lines?
But the green "Next: ... " really looks marvellous ... thanks.
Could you please reduce the font size of the bottom "Next" line to about 50 or 60% of the font size of the other three lines?
Hi jjd-uk, thanks again for your great help with the modification of the default skin Estuary.
Did you post a message with the instructions today (Thursday) at 6:08 pm (5:08 pm your time)? Why is it not popping up online?
Also, have you already implemented the contents of my last post, see above (i.e. elimination of the space after first quotation mark in the first line, reducing the font size in line 4)?
Could you please give me the go-ahead, once you have done that, and the modified skin is actually in its very final version with all desired alterations. I guess it's best for me to wait for your confirmation in this respect, before I start handling your kind zip file.
Did you post a message with the instructions today (Thursday) at 6:08 pm (5:08 pm your time)? Why is it not popping up online?
Also, have you already implemented the contents of my last post, see above (i.e. elimination of the space after first quotation mark in the first line, reducing the font size in line 4)?
Could you please give me the go-ahead, once you have done that, and the modified skin is actually in its very final version with all desired alterations. I guess it's best for me to wait for your confirmation in this respect, before I start handling your kind zip file.
2021-05-21, 10:52
Yeah I did, then just as I hit post I realised I'd done something stupid, and that's apply the changes on top of Estuary for v20. Just need to apply to Estuary for v19 then I'll repost.
2021-05-21, 16:42
With the Next size reduced.
There is no space between quotation mark and W this is what you with quotation marks in rehular font and text in italic font, in fact where I did have to add a space was before the closing quotation mark as it was messed up without, see below
The only way around this is to have the quotation marks as italic as well.
There is no space between quotation mark and W this is what you with quotation marks in rehular font and text in italic font, in fact where I did have to add a space was before the closing quotation mark as it was messed up without, see below
The only way around this is to have the quotation marks as italic as well.
2021-05-21, 17:01
Changes packaged in a mod of Estuary so it can be installed as an additional skin alongside the original Estuary, thus you'll be able to swap between them.
Download from https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...ry.mod.zip
Ensure Unknown sources is enabled
In the Addon broswer use the Install from zip file option to install the mod from whereever zip was downloaded to. As you have your music on the Lenovo I asssume you ok with the file system locations of downloaded stuff.
When unpacking and installing the mod Kodi will ask if you wish to switch to the skin, so say Yes if you want to immediately start using it.
Download from https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...ry.mod.zip
Ensure Unknown sources is enabled
In the Addon broswer use the Install from zip file option to install the mod from whereever zip was downloaded to. As you have your music on the Lenovo I asssume you ok with the file system locations of downloaded stuff.
When unpacking and installing the mod Kodi will ask if you wish to switch to the skin, so say Yes if you want to immediately start using it.
2021-05-21, 17:16
While I've done the changes for you there's some things I would suggest you familiarise yourself with for the future, as I may not be around to help, so download to you laptop (plus it's good to keep a backup of the zip file).
First of all when each new version of Kodi is released, the Skin API is changed. Therefore when v20 eventually comes this Mod will be reported as incompatible, however to get it working again a simple change is all that is required, in the addon.xml this line
https://i.imgur.com/yzwNzxm.png
For v19 this is
then v20 will be
v21
etc..etc..
Regarding the changes, 2 files have changes font.xml and MusicVisualisation.xml
In font.xml the addition of font18 for the Next labels at https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...ml#L30-L34
Then in MusicVisualisation.xml this section https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...l#L69-L109
You need to be familair with this because when v20 comes, although you can get the Mod working again easily with the addon.xml version adjustment, then mod obviously won't include anything new from the default Estuary skin that have been made for v20, or it might not support new things added in v20. You will therefore need to take the font.xml and MusicVisualisation.xml files from v20 Estuary and modify them with the changes.
First of all when each new version of Kodi is released, the Skin API is changed. Therefore when v20 eventually comes this Mod will be reported as incompatible, however to get it working again a simple change is all that is required, in the addon.xml this line
https://i.imgur.com/yzwNzxm.png
For v19 this is
xml:<import addon="xbmc.gui" version="5.15.0"/>
then v20 will be
xml:<import addon="xbmc.gui" version="5.16.0"/>
v21
xml:<import addon="xbmc.gui" version="5.17.0"/>
etc..etc..
Regarding the changes, 2 files have changes font.xml and MusicVisualisation.xml
In font.xml the addition of font18 for the Next labels at https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...ml#L30-L34
Then in MusicVisualisation.xml this section https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...l#L69-L109
You need to be familair with this because when v20 comes, although you can get the Mod working again easily with the addon.xml version adjustment, then mod obviously won't include anything new from the default Estuary skin that have been made for v20, or it might not support new things added in v20. You will therefore need to take the font.xml and MusicVisualisation.xml files from v20 Estuary and modify them with the changes.
2021-05-21, 19:09
Hi jjd-uk, thanks for all your fantastic help with this modified Estuary skin. I will try to follow your instructions later on this evening and will report how I was getting on, but I think it is (at least for now) "manageable", even for dinosaurs like me ...
Of course you're right that I need to familiarise myself with the above, but from what I've seen so far I guess it's pretty time consuming to really get to know even the oldest Kodi tricks ... but I'll give it a try.
Finally, could I please ask you for a very last piece of advice: where would you start looking for the file paths and file locations of the aforementioned files - addon.xml, font.xml and MusicVisualisation.xml .......?
Also: Do you think it looks better to use Italics for both quotation marks in the first line (without the inserted space)?
And if you agree, would you be willing to implement this ultimate tiny alteration?
Of course you're right that I need to familiarise myself with the above, but from what I've seen so far I guess it's pretty time consuming to really get to know even the oldest Kodi tricks ... but I'll give it a try.
Finally, could I please ask you for a very last piece of advice: where would you start looking for the file paths and file locations of the aforementioned files - addon.xml, font.xml and MusicVisualisation.xml .......?
Also: Do you think it looks better to use Italics for both quotation marks in the first line (without the inserted space)?
And if you agree, would you be willing to implement this ultimate tiny alteration?
Hi again, jjd-uk, that was simple, even I managed to start using the modified skin within 1-2 minutes. Thanks so much for your "consumer adequate" instructions (I'm sure you find another word for the quote unquote phrase ...).
Clearly, I've already found the three aforementioned files in the zip folder that you have prepared (skin.estuary.mod). But so far I've failed to locate the respective files for the original default skin (skin.estuary). Could you please give me some valuable hints helping me locate those as well?
Clearly, I've already found the three aforementioned files in the zip folder that you have prepared (skin.estuary.mod). But so far I've failed to locate the respective files for the original default skin (skin.estuary). Could you please give me some valuable hints helping me locate those as well?
2021-05-22, 14:08
(2021-05-22, 00:17)PeterD. Wrote: But so far I've failed to locate the respective files for the original default skin (skin.estuary). Could you please give me some valuable hints helping me locate those as well?There is 2 addons folder for Kodi.
The addons that come bundled with Kodi will be in the Kodi location where the app is installed, not always the easiest place to find on Android and can vary from device to device.
The addons installed by a user from either a repo or via the install from zip folder go into Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons
As skin.estuary is a bundled addon it goes into the Kodi install folder. If you don't know where this is for your Lenovo then the easiest option is using Kodi own File Manager as that allows for the use of special paths (see https://kodi.wiki/view/Special_protocol for more detail).
In File Manager add a Source for the install by using path special://xbmc/addons
Then add as a Source the location you wish to copy to e.g. SD card. Select it on the right hand side of File Manager and navigate where you want to copy the Estuary skin to, then on left hand side select the skin.estuary folder, press on it to open Context menu and select Copy
So folder get copied from location on left to location on right.
THe alternative if that all sounds like too much hassle is download from Github on your laptop.
From https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc towards top on left you should see Master 23 branches 174 tags so select Master to reveal a drop down, select the version you want, so for v19 select Matrix
Matrix now should show where Master was before. Select green Code button then select Download zip. This downloads the complete source code as unfortunately no way to download indivual folders.
Once downloaded you'll need to unzip and navigate to the addons folder to find skin.estuary
2021-05-22, 14:43
As for changes.
is used for bold and italics this is similar to html and code for used most forum software for formattting posts.
The default colour of labels is white so you only need to specifiy a colour where you want something different. There 2 ways to do this:
1. Use a colour already defined by the skin or Kodi itself for example [COLOR green]text[/COLOR]
2. Specifiy your colours [COLOR FF00FF00]text[/COLOR] where FF00FF00 can be any colour hex code in the form AARRGGBB so 2 char hex for alpha, red, blue, green. For alpha FF is solid and 00 is transparent. I use https://htmlcolorcodes.com/ to help with hex codes.
When using these in combination with Kodi infolabels (what Kodi uses to return values from the DB like Title) then there's 2 options. Using Year as an example, if you want this format
[2001]
then you could use the simple
[$INFO[MusicPlayer.Year]]
but this has a downside, if the the year infolabel does not return anything because no year is available you will still get the brackets so the skin will show []
The alternative is the slightly more complicated and pehaps initially less intuative
$INFO[MusicPlayer.Year,[,]]
Think of [2001] as 3 elements where the before element = X and after element= Y then the Infolabel element itself in the middle, so XInfolabelY
So what that codes represents is
$INFO[Infolabel,X,Y]
where X = [
Y = ]
Infolabel = MusicPlayer.Year = 2001
What this does is make the X and Y elements additions to the infolabel, so if year infolbael does not return anything then the brackets won't be displayed either.
Might sound complicated, but if you can play around on your laptop it should quickly become obvious.
is used for bold and italics this is similar to html and code for used most forum software for formattting posts.
The default colour of labels is white so you only need to specifiy a colour where you want something different. There 2 ways to do this:
1. Use a colour already defined by the skin or Kodi itself for example [COLOR green]text[/COLOR]
2. Specifiy your colours [COLOR FF00FF00]text[/COLOR] where FF00FF00 can be any colour hex code in the form AARRGGBB so 2 char hex for alpha, red, blue, green. For alpha FF is solid and 00 is transparent. I use https://htmlcolorcodes.com/ to help with hex codes.
When using these in combination with Kodi infolabels (what Kodi uses to return values from the DB like Title) then there's 2 options. Using Year as an example, if you want this format
[2001]
then you could use the simple
[$INFO[MusicPlayer.Year]]
but this has a downside, if the the year infolabel does not return anything because no year is available you will still get the brackets so the skin will show []
The alternative is the slightly more complicated and pehaps initially less intuative
$INFO[MusicPlayer.Year,[,]]
Think of [2001] as 3 elements where the before element = X and after element= Y then the Infolabel element itself in the middle, so XInfolabelY
So what that codes represents is
$INFO[Infolabel,X,Y]
where X = [
Y = ]
Infolabel = MusicPlayer.Year = 2001
What this does is make the X and Y elements additions to the infolabel, so if year infolbael does not return anything then the brackets won't be displayed either.
Might sound complicated, but if you can play around on your laptop it should quickly become obvious.
2021-05-22, 15:01
Returning to the Track title
https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...on.xml#L74
So for the track title part that breaks down as
Player.Title = track title
After 1st comma is the X before element, so this is space " start italics note - the space is to ensure a gap between track number result and the track title
After 2nd comma is the Y after element, so this end italics "
So potentially your first test is to change that so the " " are italics as well.
https://github.com/jjd-uk/Estuary-Mods/b...on.xml#L74
So for the track title part that breaks down as
Player.Title = track title
After 1st comma is the X before element, so this is space " start italics note - the space is to ensure a gap between track number result and the track title
After 2nd comma is the Y after element, so this end italics "
So potentially your first test is to change that so the " " are italics as well.
2021-05-22, 15:06
That's all probably a big info dump, so take your time to understand and come back to me with any questions.
Although perhaps intially confusing, a lot of this basic skin stuff is not that complicated, so most people should be able to eventually get the hang of it.
Although perhaps intially confusing, a lot of this basic skin stuff is not that complicated, so most people should be able to eventually get the hang of it.
2021-05-22, 15:51
Thanks for all your extremely kind posts over the last few hours or so.
As you say, that's quite a lot of information, and I will have to work my way through it, starting from now ...
As you suspect I will start with modifying away what I've already located on my device > skin.estuary.mod; of course only after storing your original zip file somewhere safe ...
I'm confident that I will manage to format colours and font style and tiny alterations re the layout. Thanks to your great help I don't have any need to swap blocks (i.e. lines) as you have already created the four lines pattern as desired.
But one quick questions pops up instantly (your reply would open up one more dimension for me): how do you know what's hidden (i.e. what set of formats) behind the label "font12" or "font18" (I mean without "trial and error")? Is there a sort of table for that to look it up?
As you say, that's quite a lot of information, and I will have to work my way through it, starting from now ...
As you suspect I will start with modifying away what I've already located on my device > skin.estuary.mod; of course only after storing your original zip file somewhere safe ...
I'm confident that I will manage to format colours and font style and tiny alterations re the layout. Thanks to your great help I don't have any need to swap blocks (i.e. lines) as you have already created the four lines pattern as desired.
But one quick questions pops up instantly (your reply would open up one more dimension for me): how do you know what's hidden (i.e. what set of formats) behind the label "font12" or "font18" (I mean without "trial and error")? Is there a sort of table for that to look it up?
2021-05-22, 16:54
(2021-05-22, 15:51)PeterD. Wrote: how do you know what's hidden (i.e. what set of formats) behind the label "font12" or "font18" (I mean without "trial and error")? Is there a sort of table for that to look it up?
Nope, but there is a file! Look in the
Font.xml file *it's in with all the other skin files in the xml directory for your skin. It contains all the font definitions, point size, which font, bold, lighten etc etc
