Skins2 Technical Questions

[Steven S.]

I have a couple of questions about the new skins2 interface. I'm currently porting the iTunes skin by mdi to skins2 (and improving it) and I cannot figure out how to insert two actions into one action field. In the original skins interface you would just separate them by semicolons, but that doesn't seem to work in skins2.

The reason I need this functionality is to replicate the switch between the full-size and compact player in the original skin. So when I click the button to switch to the compact player it should hide the full-size player and show the compact player.

Also, I added embedded video support into the skin, but the video goes blank when resizing the window or moving around the player and generally stays that way. In fact, it sometimes doesn't display even if you don't touch anything after clicking play. Is this a known bug in vlc's skinning or am I doing something wrong?

I know this should be in the request forum, but I thought I'd mention it while I'm here. To the developers: please add additional actions to skins2 like being able to control the different video filters with sliders (like contrast, hue, etc.) like in the wxwindows interface (but without having to enable it first and restart the stream to get it to work).

Click here for a pic of the iTunes skin that I've ported to skins2. Feel free to offer any suggestions.

Thanks

[adn]

Hello ! Happy to hear news about skins2 designing

I cannot figure out how to insert two actions into one action field. In the original skins interface you would just separate them by semicolons, but that doesn't seem to work in skins2.

AFAIK, there is no way to do that ! The right way is to "setLayout".
Let us take the example of the WB Kids Skins2 (http://people.via.ecp.fr/~adn/vrac/WB.tar.gz) :

action="player.setLayout(player.main.wolverine)"

where "player.main.wolverine" is the id of the layout that will appear.

Also, I added embedded video support into the skin, but the video goes blank when resizing the window or moving around the player and generally stays that way. In fact, it sometimes doesn't display even if you don't touch anything after clicking play. Is this a known bug in vlc's skinning or am I doing something wrong?

I am not sure to understand but I think I've had this problem on windows (and not on Debian GNU/Linux).

Have you checked the Overlay state of VLC ?
Try to switch fullscreen ON and OFF to solve that problem.
Try the nightly builds.

I know this should be in the request forum, but I thought I'd mention it while I'm here. To the developers: please add additional actions to skins2 like being able to control the different video filters with sliders (like contrast, hue, etc.) like in the wxwindows interface (but without having to enable it first and restart the stream to get it to work).

Good Idea ! When I have some time to concentrate on that, I will try to do it, else I will tell the main skins2 developers.

Click here for a pic of the iTunes skin that I've ported to skins2. Feel free to offer any suggestions. to replicate the switch between the full-size and compact player in the original skin. So when I click the button to switch to the compact player it should hide the full-size player and show the compact player.

Server is not responding
Good luck ! Tell me when your work is over so that we put your skins on the website.

[ipkiss]

There are actually some problems with the skinned video outputs, the main one probably being that the window doesn't resize automatically to the size of the video.

I hope it will be fixed before next release...

[Steven S.]

Thanks for the replies.

AFAIK, there is no way to do that ! The right way is to "setLayout".

Yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for. I noticed it in the skins2 docs but I wasn't sure of its function because the description was worded strange.

Speaking of the skins2 doc, it's missing two actions:
vlc.minimize()
playlist.sort()

I am not sure to understand but I think I've had this problem on windows (and not on Debian GNU/Linux).

Have you checked the Overlay state of VLC ?
Try to switch fullscreen ON and OFF to solve that problem.
Try the nightly builds.

Sorry, I should've mentioned what OS and version I was using. I'm on Windows XP and am using the latest nightly build (8/12/04 now). The video problem does correct itself if you go to fullscreen and then back, but only until you resize the video or move the window around. It must be a bug like the one ipkiss mentioned.

I hope it will be fixed before next release...

Yeah, Same here!

Good Idea ! When I have some time to concentrate on that, I will try to do it, else I will tell the main skins2 developers.

Sweet.

Server is not responding

Works for me (I've updated the screen with the recent changes, too). *shrugs*

Anyway, I've completed the skin and am about to submit it to vlc@videolan.org.

Thanks guys

[ipkiss]

Speaking of the skins2 doc, it's missing two actions:
vlc.minimize()
playlist.sort()

playlist.sort() was actually forgotten.
But a few other actions are missing in the doc, because the doc corresponds to the latest release (0.7.2) and is not updated until the next release. Perhaps we should have the doc correspond to the nightly builds, rather? I don't know.

Anyway, here is a list of actions added after VLC 0.7.2 was released:
vlc.minimize()
vlc.ontop() (toggles the "Always on top" status)
playlist.setRepeat(true)
playlist.setRepeat(false) (to repeat and stop repeating the same playlist item forever)

There is also a new boolean expression:
playlist.isRepeat (state corresponding to the setRepeat() actions)

[The DJ]

Very nice work people...
Please keep it up.

Off course, our very own Mac OSX controller is much prettier
http://download.videolan.org/vlc/screen ... -osx-1.jpg

[ipkiss]

Any news of your iTunes skin?
It would be a better default skin than the current one...

[Steven S.]

Sorry for resurrecting a dead topic and the delayed response. I had finished the iTunes skin months ago and sent it to vlc@videolan.org like the skins doc said to a couple of times, but it was never posted on the site, so I gave up. That and the video rendering bug that was previously discussed kind of made me lose interest (I'm still affected by the bug on 0.8.0).

If anyone wants to download it, you can get it here.

ipkiss, if you want to add it to the site, here's a description:
Skin made by mdi, improved and ported to skins2 by Steven Sheehy

Thanks

[ipkiss]

The iTunes skin is now on the website.
As you said, the vout bug is still present (for Windows users only), but this is a bug in VLC itself, not in the skin.

Thanks a lot for your contribution!