[ronie]

Below you'll find an up-to-date list of all changes made to the skinning engine since the release of Kodi Matrix.


SettingsScreenCalibration.xml

• Improvements to screen calibration window (details)
  

new window

• favouritesbrowser (details)
  

changed controls

• mover and resize (details)
  

NOTE: This will break your skin's SettingsScreenCalibration.xml unless you add movingspeed to your controls.
Estuary example here.

new features

• fadediffuse (details)
  
• skin timers (details)
  

removed boolean

• Player.DisplayAfterSeek (details)
  

new boolean

• System.Setting(hideunwatchedepisodethumbs) (details)
  
• Player.HasPerformedSeek(interval) (details)
  

new infolabels

• ListItem.Property(WatchedEpisodePercent) (details)
  
• VideoPlayer.Art(type) (details)
  
• Addon.SettingStr, Addon.SettingBool and Addon.SettingInt (details)
  
• Integer.ValueOf (details)
  
• Listitem.HdrType and VideoPlayer.HdrType (details)
  
• Skin.Numeric(setting) (details)
  

new path

• addons://default_binary_addons_source/ (details)
  

changed infolabels

• Integer.* (details)
  
• bordertexture (details)
  
• ListItem.DateAdded (details)
  
• Player.Editlist was introduced to remove old Player.Cutlist (details)
  
• Added Player.Cuts (details)
  
• Added Player.Process(videoscantype) (details)
  
• Added Player.HasSceneMarkers infobool and Player.SceneMarkers infolabel (details)
  

DialogKeyboard.xml

• add button id="310" (details)
  

new dialog

• DialogColorPicker.xml (details)
  

new controls

• Control.SetVisible() and Control.SetHidden() (details)
  
• colorbutton (details)
  

new builtin

• Skin.SetColor() (details)
  

Containers

• infoupdate attribute for itemlayout / focusedlayout (details)
  

Windows/Dialogs

•  Allow skinners to define custom dialogs with modal type modality (details)
  

New game dialogs

• In-game port setup dialog (20505 (PR))
  
• In-game and out-of-game savestate dialog (20913 (PR))
  

addon.xml

• xbmc.gui bump to 5.16.0 (details)
  

Please keep this thread clean. It should be an easy overview for skinners who are updating their skin for Kodi.
For discussions / feature requests / bug reports, please find (or create) the appropriate thread in the skin development forum.

[ronie]

changes for older kodi versions can be found here:
 

• Changes to the skinning engine for Kodi Matrix
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for Kodi Leia
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for Kodi Krypton
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for Kodi Jarvis
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for Kodi Isengard
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for Kodi Helix
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for XBMC Gotham
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for XBMC Frodo
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for XBMC Eden
  
• Changes to the skinning engine for XBMC Dharma
  

[ronie]

2021-07-05 new addon:// path

on some platforms, binary addons can be installed from our addon repository.
on other platforms, binary addons come preinstalled with kodi.

to make it easy for skinners to create a shortcut to the right location (either 'my add-ons' or 'install from repository')
we've created a shortcut path that will take you there:

• addons://default_binary_addons_source/
  

example usage:

xml:
ActivateWindow(addonbrowser,addons://default_binary_addons_source/kodi.pvrclient,return)

pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/19928
commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/99f8...667e390154

[ronie]

2021-08-01 DialogKeyboard.xml - new button

Add a button (id="310") to DialogKeyboard.xml which allows the user to show/hide a password.

pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20000
commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/5f72...5b7f778f56

[ronie]

2021-08-07 Changed infolabel
 

• ListItem.DateAdded
  

it was previously only available for videos, but now also works for music albums & songs.

pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20018
commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/7d6c...7a787aa7a6

[ronie]

2021-11-27 New attribute for itemlayout / focusedlayout
 

• infoupdate
  

specifies the interval in milliseconds for an autoupdate of the layout

this is useful for PVR related content, where a progress control used inside a container wouldn't update.

example:
<focusedlayout width="310" height="500" infoupdate="5000">

pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20597
commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/4cae...759f42ada3

[ronie]

2021-10-16 New dialog / New control
 

• DialogColorPicker.xml
  
• colorbutton
  
• xbmc.gui bump to 5.16.0
  

the colorbutton control is now used in the Kodi settings section (SettingsCategory.xml) and addon settings (DialogAddonSettings.xml) to open the DialogColorPicker (DialogColorPicker.xml / id=12008)
it's currently used to allow users to select subtitle colors.

Estuary example of this dialog:
https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master...Picker.xml

pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20169
commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/c090...904873fd7c

[sarbes]

2021-12-31 New texture attribute "infill"

The new texture attribute infill is available if the border attribute is set. It is a hint for the GUI engine to avoid drawing the center portion of a texture with a border. This is especially useful for bordertexture elements which are completely transparent in the center. The default behavior is the same as before. Only if infill="false" is set, the inner portion will be skipped. See the PR below for additional information.

Example:
<bordertexture border="21" infill="false">overlays/shadow.png</bordertexture>

If used correctly, this might give a performance boost on low powered devices by avoiding overdraw. In static analysis, the default skin Estuary renders up to 15% faster.

Pull-Request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20754

[enen92]

2022-01-02 - Added Player.Editlist infolabel to replace old Player.Cutlist

Player.Cutlist not only had a confusing name (it returns all edl edits and not just cuts) but also had a few issues:
- It didn't include EDL mutes
- It incorrectly included EDL cuts (which are not part of the playable timeline)
- If the file had EDL cuts all the other EDL edits were placed in the wrong location on the seekbar.

Player.Editlist was introduced to fix the aforementioned problems. For v20, Player.Cutlist will still be available and will return the exact same values as Player.Editlist. However, we plan to remove Player.Cutlist in v21.

Pull Request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20768

Please change your Player.Cutlist usage to Player.Editlist.

[enen92]

2022-01-04 - Added Player.Cuts infolabel

Since Player.Cutlist (now deprecated) and Player.Editlist no longer present cuts on the ranges control, Player.Cuts was introduced as an alternative. Cuts (in estuary and estouchy) are displayed like chapters with small red marks (as the range is effectively removed from the video timeline).

Pull request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20783

[enen92]

2022-01-06 - Add Player.Process(videoscantype) infolabel

Returns the scan type identifier of the currently playing video p (for progressive) or i (for interlaced).

Used in Estuary in the VideoProcessInfo window to show the scantype of the video (note the p and i in the below screenshots)





Pull request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20800

[enen92]

2022-01-06 - Added Player.HasSceneMarkers infobool and Player.SceneMarkers infolabel

SceneMarkers are EDL edits that behave similar to chapters - as they identify a specific position on video timeline. Users can skip to next scenes using NextScene and PrevScene builtin actions. More generically, PlayerControl(Previous) and PlayerControl(Next) already jump to the next (or previous) points of interest on a timeline, being them chapters or scenemarkers.

In estuary Player.SceneMarkers is being used to display small white boxes on the seekbar using the ranges control identifying the position of scene markers (identical to what already happened before for chapters). Player.HasSceneMarkers is being used to control the visibility of the Next and Previous OSD buttons if the file has scenemarkers (used to be hidden before).



Pull Request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20799

[black_eagle]

2022-01-08 - Added Listitem.HdrType infolabel and VideoPlayer.HdrType infolabel

Kodi can now auto-detect the type of HDR in a file and these two infolabels can be used to display the correct flag.  Current possible values are hdr10, dolbyvision and hlg. SDR content returns an empty string.

Pull request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/19983
Commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/63c8...5213265d76

[enen92]

2022-01-30 - Allow skinners to define custom dialogs with modal type modality

Before v20 any custom dialog defined within a skin which the visibility depended on visible conditions was automatically set as Modeless. If a dialog is modeless it can't catch input as the keystrokes/actions were sent to the underlying window. In v20 skinners now have a way to override this behaviour by setting `modality=modal` in the xml window/dialog definition. If the attribute is not provided or the value is different from "modal" the dialog continues to be modeless as before.

Example:

The following example ilustrates the need, it displays a button whenever a file is playing. Without modality="modal" you can't hit the button of this window

xml:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<window type="dialog" id="1114" modality="modal">

  <visible>Window.IsActive(fullscreenvideo) + Player.Playing + !Window.IsActive(1109) + !Window.IsActive(videoosd) + !Integer.IsEqual(Window(home).Property(hitclicked),1)</visible>

  <include>Animation_BottomSlide</include>

  <depth>DepthMax</depth>

  <zorder>0</zorder>

  <defaultcontrol always="true">1</defaultcontrol>

  <controls>

     <control type="group">

        <animation effect="fade" start="0" end="100" time="300">VisibleChange</animation>

        <control type="button" id="1">

            <description>Hit me if you can!</description>

            <width>auto</width>

            <bottom>150</bottom>

            <left>200</left>

            <height>110</height>

            <label>Hit me if you can!</label>

            <textoffsetx>40</textoffsetx>

            <onclick>Notification(Ouch, Ouch!)</onclick>

            <onclick>SetProperty(hitclicked,1,home)</onclick>

            <align>center</align>

            <texturefocus border="23" colordiffuse="button_focus">buttons/dialogbutton-fo.png</texturefocus>

            <texturenofocus border="40">buttons/dialogbutton-nofo.png</texturenofocus>

        </control>

     </control>

   </controls>

</window>

Pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20927

[ronie]

2022-02-12 New builtin function
 

• Skin.Setcolor()
  

this will allow skins to use the builtin color picker functionality of Kodi

the builtin takes 2 to 4 arguments:

• setting = Name of skin setting.
  
• header = Dialog header text.
  
• color = Hex value of the preselected color (optional).
  
• colormap = XML file containing color definitions (optional).
  

example: Skin.Setcolor(bgcolor, 31234, FF00AB0C, special://skin/extras/prettycolors.xml)

pull-request: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/20916
commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/a5f1...d762fa628f