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Full songlist skinning...

Pirk - 4-21-2004 at 04:32 PM

Could you add the "artistshowarrow", "audio3off" and "star" graphics to the songlist.dis file? That would be handy to have several songlist FULL skins usable at the same time.
I know the skinning feature is planned, but waiting for this...

junk - 4-22-2004 at 03:24 PM

i think i know what you mean, pirk... but i'd much rather have a Winamp style skinning solution, where all the files are named the same, but in seperate dirs which specify the name. Much easier for users and skin creators. And just think how large and messy the graphics dir would be if all files resided in there, with different file names for the same graphics due to all users renaming the files and specifying them in the .dis file...

Pirk - 4-22-2004 at 04:51 PM

Yes, i totally agree! I also hope the definitive solution will devote one "images" sub-directory by skin.

But as until now nothing happens... i've thought that could be a temporary arrangement in order we could try and use, right away, some personnal skins. I mean without to lose the previous one, and above all avoiding many boring file handling... because a few graphics which still remain rooted in the "images" directory! That cool any skinning fervour...

junk - 4-22-2004 at 11:37 PM

Yes, as a temporary solution, that'd be ok. But, on the other hand; i think it'd be almost just as easy for Audiosoft to implement the "scan for folders and let the user choose which skin he/she wants". I hope that it is something thas comes along quite soon, though. I remember them mentioning that this solution is on its way... but that patience is a troublesome issue.

Audiosoft - 4-23-2004 at 12:32 AM

Quote:

And just think how large and messy the graphics dir would be if all files resided in there

Junk is right about that.

To create a new skin you will need to Create a new folder under eJukebox/images and name the folder the name of your skin. Then copy all the files from eJukebox/images/ to the new folder.

eJukebox will look for subfolders in the eJukebox/images/ folder and add them all to the songlist right click menu for easy selection.

That way all the files will have the same file names and you can create normal, large and xtra large songlist.dis files for your skin if you want. If you skin is missing the large or xtra large .dis files it will use your songlist.dis.

We have already setup the menu system for this for the next version. However, the skinning system is not close to being done as we need to work on adding artistlist.dis, playlist.dis, nowplaying.dis as well as add all the other images that the eJukebox interface displays which are not yet pulled from the images folder. But it will work for the current images and .dis file selection in the next version.

Here is a screenshot of how the menu will work (allowing you to select a skin and a size):

Fishy - 4-23-2004 at 12:49 AM

Good things. Creating subdirs for skins and accessing them through the rightmenu seems reasonable.

It's good to hear that you will add the rest of ejukebox elements to the images dir, as well as create dis files for the rest of the components

This looks promising indeed...

Audiosoft - 4-23-2004 at 01:05 AM

For the next version, we also added a eJukebox/Skins/ folder which allows people to save userskinname.zip files to that folder....then if the skin's folder under eJukebox/images does not exist yet - it will automatically extract the zip and setup the skin's eJukebox/images/skinname folder.

This makes it easier for eJukebox users to add a skin without too much hassle. You just need to download the skin zip and save it to eJukebox/Skins/.

To create a distributable skin: compress the files that are in your images/yourskinname/ folder into a zip file. Then rename your zip file to your skin's name. You only need to add files that are different from the default skin to the zip as eJukebox will add the default images for any missing images when it automatically sets up the image folder for the skin. This will keep the zip file size down when all you want to do is create a skin that changes the songlist.dis file.

junk - 4-23-2004 at 06:04 AM

Great news indeed! Love the autoextracting bit, as well as that eJ will use the default files if the alternate files are not included in the skin.

Audiosoft - 4-23-2004 at 06:35 AM

Quote:

as well as that eJ will use the default files if the alternate files are not included in the skin

Yes, this is essential - not only to keep the distributable skin zip file sizes down but - to make sure that the skins you guys create work for future versions of eJukebox when new images and .dis files for artistlist, playlist, etc are added. eJukebox will automatically update the image subfolder for every user skin with the missing images and .dis files the first time you run each new version of eJukebox, in addition to when you first install a skin.

junk - 4-23-2004 at 08:42 AM

Another thing that also would be great, would be to have a way to adress the "now playing" image, and the "opened album" image (when you click on an image in the albumlist). Since you allready have a function for tiling this image as background, how about just implementing a function that copied this image to "openedimage.bmp" in the images dir, and the "nowplaying.bmp" as well, so all skinners can create impressive and powerful designs using these images in whatever way they want.

A quick reference to my (very old) mock-up:
http://www.audiosoft.net/forums/viewthread.php?tid=161

Pirk - 4-23-2004 at 12:17 PM

Ah ah! A lot of good news today.
I'm very happy to hear you will allow skinning from the next version! And what a luxury if eJukebox can manage the graphics files so intelligently! Finally i will stop to lose my old skin each time i work on a new one...

Thank you very much Audiosoft for your great work on the skinning feature.

Quote:

Another thing that also would be great, would be to have a way to adress the "now playing" image, and the "opened album" image (when you click on an image in the albumlist)

Yes indeed, a such function would be great too!

And that could also be good to have an extra mode which could automatically update the songlist with the now playing album...
Another function which could reduce the image contrast before to use it as the songlist background would be also welcome...

Audiosoft - 4-24-2004 at 03:04 AM

We will probably make eJukebox save the album image for the current songlist as currentalbum.jpg in the selected skin's image folder - so that it could be used by your skin in the .dis without needing a file path. The image would be proportionally sized so that it fills the width of the songlist...sizing the image even larger when in EDV.

Good news....we have added EVERY image visible in eJukebox's main interface to the images folder and eJukebox skinning system for the next version....so you will be able to make pretty extensive skins already....the only thing left we need to add are the dis files for playlist, artistlist etc and a way to specify the colors of the non-image based buttons and menus in eJukebox.

junk - 4-24-2004 at 09:05 AM

Great news indeed. l now have that excellent feeling of progress, interactivity and support again! lt's been a long time since I've felt this good about eJ, and now maybe even better than ever!

Pirk - 4-24-2004 at 09:41 AM

Waow, great!

Which image source will you use for the currentalbum.jpg? The one from the id3 tag?
The ideal would be it could be possible eJukebox select first the cover.jpg if it exist or the image from the tag or last the one from the database, because of the decreasing quality of these different sources...
Also, is it possible you add a function able to change the contrast of the currentalbum.jpg when used as songlist background? Although, maybe the current blend function will already do that nicely. It seems it gives a discreet but quite good result with my current skin.

Thank you for your quick add of all the other images in the skinning system!
Have you also added the ones of the now playing panel including the player buttons too? Will you plan to add a .dis file for the player? I hope so!

Audiosoft - 4-24-2004 at 04:05 PM

Quote:

Have you also added the ones of the now playing panel including the player buttons too?

Yes, the images for all the player buttons, the volume slider, and the nowplaying and playlist titlebars, etc are all skinnable with the next version.

Pirk - 4-24-2004 at 05:03 PM

OK, so we will be busy with the skinning feature from the next version... Thanks!

junk - 4-24-2004 at 08:15 PM

.By the way! I just had an idea. How about having a function where you can specify how many images of the "up next" to preload, then we could implement this in the playlist.

l am thinking about my suggestion for a future design; if we had this option, then we could make this playlist style possible.

http://www.audiosoft.net/forums/viewthread.php?tid=633&page=#pid2882

Fishy - 4-24-2004 at 09:04 PM

hmm I would only like this if the playlist is moved from it's current position. There is just not enough room in its current position so cluttering it more up with images would be a bad idea. But if the playlist was situated somewhere else, why not?

Pirk - 4-24-2004 at 09:08 PM

Once more, it's a very good idea junk! I would like very much to see the images of the next albums in the playlist, at least one image like in some past versions...

And yes indeed, now we are very close of your suggestion for a future design. You are a kind of visionary, and a very good designer too! I'm very impatient to enjoy with your skin(s)...
The future of eJukebox is in your hands!! We trust you!

Pirk - 4-24-2004 at 09:30 PM

Also, seeing your mock-up i can say you it will be possible to reproduce the shadowed fonts you have used in your playlist adding a css filter in the future playlist.dis file:

filter: dropshadow (color=#000000, offx=5, offy=5);

As the playlist panel is not too big, i think that will not slow down too much the display...

Audiosoft - 4-25-2004 at 01:56 AM

We have some more good news on the skinning system in the next version...

We have created a way to specify colors for EVERYTHING that is not an image in eJukebox. eJukebox Buttons, text colors for things like the playtime and songlist title, border colors, popup menu colors, etc. The color definitions for all these things will be located in the colors.ini file.

The colors you specify in the INI will need to be in LONG format (i.e. Black=0 White=16777215) instead of the HEX format the .DIS files use.

Here is an example of the ini settings for the A-Z Artist List Letter Buttons:

[ArtistBarLetters]
UseDefault=0
Background=16744576
Text=0
HiBackground=16777215
HiText=0
Style=9
SelBackground=16777215
SelText=0
SelStyle=3

"Hi" being for when the mouse is over the button. "Sel" for after it is clicked.

eJukebox's non-image buttons also have the following styles available:

1 = Windows 16-bit
2 = Windows 32-bit
3 = Windows XP
4 = Mac
5 = Java metal
6 = Netscape 6
7 = Simple Flat
8 = Flat Highlight
9 = Office XP
12 = 3D Hover
13 = Oval Flat
14 = KDE 2

Audiosoft - 4-25-2004 at 03:28 AM

Here is a little (31 Kb) helper program for Skin developers...to make it easy to select colors and convert between the LONG and HEX color formats.
This program does it all as far as color selection goes....

Download ColorPicker.exe

Pirk - 4-25-2004 at 09:55 AM

Fine tool your color picker! It reminds me the control panel of my Atari 520!
Yes, it will be very handy to select colors used in our skins, and indispensable to modify the colors.ini file...

The "Pick from screen" button is a benediction!

Thanks a lot.

junk - 4-25-2004 at 10:41 AM

Thanks for the boasting, Pirk,i appreciate it. And it is great to hear that we can soon start stylish eJ designs.

Fishy; i agree that the playlist is too small to fill up with equally large images, but a .dis file where the "up next" file is the biggest, and the next in the list range from smaller to quite small, it could look dazzling without losing more than a couple of lines from today's playlist..

Pirk - 4-25-2004 at 10:49 AM

And oh! it's of your own devising!! Congratulations Audiosoft!

The following stage will be to link it directly to the eJukebox interface as a "live" color theme selector...

Audiosoft - 4-25-2004 at 11:27 PM

ArtistList.DIS and PlayList.DIS files are now implemented for v3.8.

Also, the skin selection menu will be on the Tools button menu in addition to the right-click songlist menu.

junk - 4-26-2004 at 09:37 AM

Lovely stuff! What is the estimated time of arrival for the new version? Getting eager here..

Pirk - 4-26-2004 at 11:20 AM

Wonderful!

Audiosoft - 4-26-2004 at 06:05 PM

v3.8 will be released sometime this week.

We would like to get NowPlaying.DIS and a temporary HomeView.DIS (for color specifications - until we recreate the homeview) implemented for it as well; so that v3.8 is the first fully skinable version of eJukebox.

Fishy - 4-27-2004 at 12:32 AM

This is going to be so great! Looking forward to this. But don't release the child before it's ready

junk - 4-27-2004 at 07:10 AM

Kick the chicken out from its nest, and we'll se if it can fly.

jhlurie - 4-27-2004 at 11:16 AM

Heh. Don't take it the wrong way, but sometimes it's hilarious to see versions of sayings and cliches translated. Then again, most of these sayings are hilarious anyway.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

junk - 4-27-2004 at 01:24 PM

Hehehe, relax, it's hilarious for us (non-english-speaking) as well.

Fishy - 4-27-2004 at 05:09 PM

Jhlurie: Totally off topic: but that doggie in your avetar is it yours? Or just a random image from the net? Just curious

Pirk - 4-27-2004 at 06:27 PM

Fishy, you don't know TRIUMPH the insult comic dog? Neither do i!
Apparently he seems to be a comic celebrity on American TV shows...
http://www.triumphtheinsultcomicdog.com/

jhlurie, you should explain that to us!

Pirk - 4-27-2004 at 07:16 PM

Ah ok! Thanks for the videos! Very funny...
So it's a puppet who comment the news, with a lot of humor!

In France we also have some puppets, but it's human puppets! like the French and American presidents... and all the celebrities. It's very funny too!

Pirk - 4-24-2010 at 03:14 PM

Guignol de l'Info - USA - Bush - We [Censored] the World

USA for Africa - We Are The World (w/M.Jackson) + Lyrics