[BUG] Slider Positioning

[ipkiss]

hmm.. i've had a look @ the panel thing... i reckon we should do away with the group? or perhaps merge the panel w/ the group element, since they're both similiar?

The Group element is not enough, because it is only used to add an offset to the x and y attributes of the elements it contains.
I would have loved to add the Panel functionality to the Group element, but it would have broken backwards compatibility (the behaviour is potentially different for the skins which actually use the Group control).

anyway... i had a request for the panel thing... perhaps allow the visible attribute for the panel?

Since a Panel is not visible, such an attribute would in fact be applied to the contained controls. So you have a work-around consisting in modifying the visible attribute of all these controls directly.
Adding the attribute directly to the Panel element would of course be possible, but it would require a rather big code reorganization, and I am not motivated to do so

and for the visible attribute itself... allow for a "dummy" value e.g. dummySet

I don't know what you mean.

Panels with a visible attribute (you'd have to give the Panels an ID attribute as well) combined with a PanelID.isVisible boolean expression would be a really great idea, but I think that is more what the Layout tag is for?

A Layout is a view on a Window, and it can only appear directly as a sub-element of the Window tag. So you can't use it as you describe.
Also note that having a PanelID.isVisible boolean expression is not needed, unless you want to have other controls visible depending on this value (this might be the case, but I really don't see any need for that).

I'd love to see these enhancements to the panel tag, but I also say the biggest roadblock right now in creating skins is the video problem when changing layouts.

Unfortunately, this problem is quite hard to understand and fix. Personally, I don't have enough free time these days to investigate it.

[Asim]

well having a panel visible/invisible is what's needed for skins... otherwise we have to resort to switching layouts, which imho is clunky and rather unappealing to designers and end-users (the layout switching limit w/ videos comes to mind).

if that's not possible... then is it possible to add boolean expressions....

e.g. dummySet1, dummySet2...etc... (this would be a great addition, as we can manipulate the skins to work in our advantage with something like this....)

[ipkiss]

Sorry, I still don't see why you need layouts, and I don't understand your dummySets.
Could you please explain with more details and examples?

[Asim]

well in regards to the layouts... im talking about... say the playlist as an example... now currently, you have two choices if you want the playlist to be shown/hidden.... either create a new window... or create a new layout... the latter is inefficient, since it requires that you create the background et al. with the playlist.

however, if we were to have a panel, there would be no need to create a new layout, as the panel would simply be nested within the layout, and perform a function similiar to the layout (appear/dissapear), there would also be no need to have each button visible="bla bla bla" inside the panel, because then we would have one Panel to rule them all. still confused?


in regards to the dummy value...

ok think of it this way...

you click on a button... e.g. "Show Skin Details"... now currently, you can have that in a new window... however what happens if you dont want it in a new window? so then say we have a dummy value... so when you click "Show Skin Details" the action is "setDummyValueX()" or something like that... then you can show some images according to: visible="DummyValueXisSet" or something along the lines of that.

hope that clarifies it for you... otherwise.. ... lol

- Asim

[joethezombie]

I'm not quite getting the dummy value idea either. If Panels were allowed to be visible or not (meaning, the controls contained inside the panel could be switched on/off en mass) then switching panels would just be a matter of:

PanelID.show(): Show the Panel whose id attribute is 'PanelID'.
PanelID.hide(): Hide the Panel whose id attribute is 'PanelID'.

Since VLC allows mutliple actions, you could hide one panel while showing another panel by using action="PanelID.hide();PanelID.show()"

The trick would be how to tell VLC which panel(s) should be turned on by default.

This could be used to hide the normal controls, and show equalizer options in their place without having to resort to a new window.

In fact, if the video breaking problem when switching layouts is too hard to track down, how about being able to hide the video that is in a panel. This way, we could have a button that toggles showing video, or the playlist without interrupting the video, and all in the same window.

My WMP11 skin acts like this, but to show the playlist, I have to switch layouts which breaks the video. With hide-able panels, I'd just hide the video panel, and show the playlist panel in its place.

[Asim]

i perfectly understand what's going to happen w/ the panels if the common attributes are set.... (which is why i requested em in the first place )

however, im thinking beyond just the panels when i asked about the dummy values...

e.g. a dummystate which multiple buttons/functions/images can relate to... sure we can have the panel thing... but at the same time, we can have several dummy values which will add flexibility.

like.. say for example... you click a button... and dummyValueX is set ( = 1)

the video will get hidden because of this.... and now multiple images/buttons/checkboxes etc will look at their states... visible="(not dummyValueX)"

or lets say for example (yes its only an example)... you have a set of checkboxes... and then u have a main button which says "alternate controls" which alternates between dvd buttons and normal VLC buttons... by clicking, you will set a state in the dummy value.... either Set or Not Set... if its set, the controls will be replaced with dvd controls, if unset, it will be normal vlc controls... (and yes i know there's the dvdisactive... this is a mere example)

as i said... it will allow for flexibility in the skin... (why should we always have to hide/unhide stuff to get functionality )

- Asim

[joethezombie]

So basically when you are saying dummyValueX, you are actually wanting user defined boolean variables?

[CloudStalker]

The example you gave of setting the state in the dummy values for alternate controls would be quite useful. For instance: when watching a DVD, if you press the “N” hotkey or the “Next” button on the player, it will go to the next item in the playlist instead of the next chapter in the DVD.

There are some skins that have separate buttons for going to the next chapter, but being able to use the same buttons with slightly different functionality would be a much better idea.

[Asim]

So basically when you are saying dummyValueX, you are actually wanting user defined boolean variables?

yep... either it's set, or it's unset...


- Asim

[ipkiss]

User-defined boolean variables can indeed be useful. I will give it a try when time permits...