How to increase sub-menu width?
#1
I'm hacking the skin to replace the usual sub-menu items in the home Video menu into links that will randomly play from smart playlists of TV shows. Some of the names go too long for the current width, though.

Image

How would I edit the skin to increase the width as shown above? Would it be as simple as just changing something in home.xml like I am assuming? Do I have to get dirty and change images?

Or is there already a skin mod I can download that either fixes this issue, or uses a different home design where this is never a problem to begin with?

Edit: cptspiff in IRC pointed me to this:

Code:
<include name="ButtonHomeSubCommonValues">
        <height>40</height>
        <width>221</width>
        <textoffsetx>20</textoffsetx>
        <textwidth>195</textwidth>
        <aligny>center</aligny>
        <font>font12_title</font>
        <texturefocus border="5">button-focus.png</texturefocus>
        <texturenofocus border="5">button-nofocus.png</texturenofocus>
        <pulseonselect>false</pulseonselect>
    </include>

Changing 'width' and 'textwidth' only seems to be half of the solution, though. Even when I increase the numbers by, like, 400 pixels, it only gets a little larger. It's as if the rest of the increase is being cut off by something else I need to change. The items that go long and end in ... no longer scroll, so as far as ButtonHomeSubCommonValues is concerned, the names are no longer too long... but something is still holding me back.
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#2
oh boy this is going to be complicated to explain but here is a summary
for starters ButtonHomeSubCommonValues does need changing but your going to have change the <width> and <textwidth> values to make the actual buttons bigger

Then your going to need to open up home.xml and change lots of nasty stuff to make sure the background changes its width as well starting @ line 376 Smile
your going to need to change the Dimensions and animations of the HomeBladeSub_Part1.png and HomeBladeSub_Part2.png texures to accommodated the new width you made.
Then you need to find all the <control type="grouplist" bits below it and change the <width> tag of them to also fit the new button width you made

That should get you started Smile
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#3
Maybe simple solution would be to lower the font for the TV submenu.

Duplicate that ButtonHomeSubCommonValues <include>, then change font and rename ButtonHomeSubCommonValues_TV?

Or couldn't you just rename the selctions:
Cartoon Network instead of Cartoon Network Channel, etc....
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Check out Unfinished - A Skin For XBMC
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#4
Yeah, I ended up figuring it out thanks to IRC help.. but when I saw I'd have to edit texture dimensions, I decided it wasn't worth all the trouble, and shortened the names.

Now I have a new problem. When I add a seventh sub-menu item under TV Shows, the skin breaks. When I load the home menu, the screen goes black. Upon reloading XBMC, I'm back on the base Confluence skin.

What does it take to get to 7 items and beyond?

edit: False alarm, I didn't close a control tag correctly.

edit2: Done.

Image
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#5
The only thing you also have to worry about with more than 6 is when the bottom ones (main menu not sub menu) are selected the submenu will probably go off screen so you will need to adjust the sliding animations for the group so it slides less or not at all and stays centered
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#6
Jezz_X Wrote:The only thing you also have to worry about with more than 6 is when the bottom ones (main menu not sub menu) are selected the submenu will probably go off screen so you will need to adjust the sliding animations for the group so it slides less or not at all and stays centered

Yeah, I had to position the submenu a little big higher so that it would center properly.
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#7
Hi

I followed your other thread to add a random channel of kid's shows and it works great. What I'd like to do now is have a separate TV Shows item on the main menu like yours. I think you're running Dharma, while I'm using Camelot, maybe that's the difference? If not, how would I add TV Shows to the main menu?

Thanks!
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#8
jcato Wrote:Hi

I followed your other thread to add a random channel of kid's shows and it works great. What I'd like to do now is have a separate TV Shows item on the main menu like yours. I think you're running Dharma, while I'm using Camelot, maybe that's the difference? If not, how would I add TV Shows to the main menu?

Thanks!

You're talking about this thread, right? Because that's exactly what I did there.

And you do know that 'TV Shows' main menu is turned on in Confluence itself, right? I didn't create that; I just changed its submenu options.

Also, only two out of the eight channels I made are 'kid's shows'. Sad And I'd hardly consider Looney Tunes for kids anymore.
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How to increase sub-menu width?0