Need some Skin Editing help.

[zewt]

I have been using xlobby for a few years now and have been loving it.

I have also played around a bit with making skins and customizing my interface and enjoy that also.

But recently I tried to modify one of the skins that people have available to downoad and could not figure out how to make a change, so I am here looking for help.

I want to add a few fields from the DVDprofiler XML file to the movie display pages, but I cannot figure out how to add them. I specifically am looking to add the "notes" field from the XML file.

Can anyone point me to instructions that explain how to add fields such as that?

[dgemily]

I specifically am looking to add the "notes" field from the XML file.

add a text zone with
category>movies>plot
where "plot" is the name of your xml feild or "notes" if it is this one...
And "movies" is the name of your category

look at the doc by Colby, should help you
http://www.xlobby.incolby.com/EventVari ... _Variables:

[zewt]

Thanks, I will spend some more time reading that doc. I did try that previously

category>movies>notes

But it did not work so I must have done something wrong.

[zewt]

Well I cannot figure out how it is working.

How are Categories created and variables created?

For example: category>movies>plot displays the plot detail, but in the XML file the tag for plot detail is "overview"

Why isn't the variable category>movies>overview ?

And I see the XML tag I want to use is "notes", so why when I modify the text to say category>movies>notes, I get nothing?

Where are these variables being created? Where does "plot" find out it is actually "overview"?

And when I use the skins editing window, and try to see Categories and Database, it is always greyed out and I cannot change anything. Why is that?

[Colby]

Ok Zewt here is the deall,

Categories are arguably not the same as databases. Category refers to a representation of a database. Usually graphically. In the skin editor, a category is a place holder for the info in a db. you can create a category or select a category and you will know when a category is selected because it will have bold yellow dashed outline. Other objects will not. If a category is selected then it wont be grayed out.

As far as what you are trying to accomplish with overview vs. plot, quite some time ago, Steve made Xlobby read the databases produced by dvdprofiler. Since Xlobby isnt generating the database, there were some discrepensies.

I am curious if you goto your movies database in f2, and edit database, are there checkboxes for overview, plot, notes etc? these are checkboxes must be enabled for the variable category>movies>notes to show up. If they do not exist, then the variable can not be displayed. These checkboxes are the variables for the category.

You could add any of the missing variables to the database here, but I dont know if it will import the preexisting info. I would try though then restart Xlobby. Be sure to back up you profiler xml. good luck.

[zewt]

Well I tried what you suggested and it seems to have no option to add that field.

here is a ss of what the edit db screen looks like.



I added a field using the function in the bottom right. In the area where "director", genre, and so forth are seen, I added "notes" which is the name of the tag on the XML file.

I then restarted xlobby. Nothing changed. The "notes" field was still listed but no data had been loaded for it.

[Colby]

Well then there we are, it dont work. I wasnt sure about that. How many movies do you have? Would it be to much work to edit the database manually? Or edit the xml? What tags are in your dvdprofiler xml but not the edit db xml?

[zewt]

I guess I need to explain my purpose for wanting to do this.

I want to display my offline movies via the XML file from DVDprofiler, but I need a way to identify where that offline movie is located.

In my situation, I store movies on removable SATA Harddrives that I can hotswap into a pc.

So I was looking to display one of the more esoteric fields from the profiler XML file in the Xlobby movie detail display, just as title, director and so forth are displayed.

I thought it would be easy to use the "info" field from the XML since that is easily user-editable. I did not realize that the XML tag fields that are being converted into the Xlobby "movie" category are fixed by code, and not user-definable, which would be the more logical to do from a programmatical perspective.

That is my goal.

[bafarmer]

Assuming you don't change "locations" often, you can add the field/attribute to your database manually. It will me a PITA the first time, but once it is done, it's done.

Also, check the plug-ins forum. I believe someone was working on a different DVDProfiler import process.

[zewt]

Considering all the fields currently available, and new fields that are being created in DVDprofiler, that would be a good idea.

In fact as a registered user of profiler, you get the "hi-res" image downloads, and those would be nice to use in xlobby, but there is no mechanism to include their source.