customize pmIII?

[jarod71]

Hey all, I have limited xml coding skills and marginal graphic design skills but I would like to take the original PMIII and add jewel box art to the cd and movie covers as well as movie fanart and bring back the old sidescreen bookmarks. any tips on how to implement this? not looking for a handout, just a guiding hand. thanks all.

[Jezz_X]

look in the CommonViewTypes.xml and CommonViewTypes_Library.xml files they contain pretty much all the views you see in the skin
The old side screen bookmarks you will need to add bits to all the xmls that start with My* I suggest you look at the old version if you want to do that but be warned I removed them for a reason so straight copy/paste will not work

[jarod71]

thanks Jezz_X. I really miss the bookmarks on the side. I could jump to different folders quickly. PMIII is still my favorite skin of all time, I just want to play and see if I can customize it to make my ultimate skin. thanks again.

[jarod71]

Jezz_X,
Thanks for all that you contribute. I have tried all the other skins out there and your update of PMIII is still the best. I only have a 480P tv and although PM3.HD is usable, I still love PMIII the best. I am not a skilled coder by any means, so...

1) can I create a straight button on the left hand side instead of implementing bookmarks again? I know this was possible before the bookmark gui came along.

2) you implemented custom backgrounds for the content panel (Not sure if this is still in PMIII), is it possible to build on this to implement fanart in movie view?

3) is the dvd case overlay on top of the icons easy to implement? otherwise, I plan on making custom icons in photoshop, as I can overlay the dvd case template on top of my icons, but it would be eaiser if this was done by the skin.

4) I am learning as fast as I can, most of these edit's will be for me personally, not sure how they would benefit others, that being said, with the work involving xbmc on xbox coming to somewhat of a halt soon, I just want to finalize/customize the PMIII to my ultimate liking before atlantis gold is released.

thanks for everything and it is a absolute joy using your and all the other developers handwork on a daily basis!

[Jezz_X]

1) Yeah sure you can and its probably the easiest way to do it you just need to make it use things like <onclick>Activate.Window(WindowName,Sharename)</onclick> windowname is things like MyVideoFiles MyPrograms they are all listed in the wiki skinning section

2) sure its possible telling you how to do it is a little harder but what you are looking for is to use this as the texture <texture>$INFO[ListItem.Property(Fanart_Image)]</texture>

3)yeah its way easy you just need to find the bits of code relevent to those views and just add the overlay image to its layout. skins are drawn from the top down so anything lower in the xml file will be drawn on top

4) good for you always nice to see people trying to do it themselves