to Mr Jowaldo, Colby, Rika, Baddabing and others....

[kasje]

hi all,

first, sorry for my typing mistake cause english is not my native language.

i'm looking for 2 weeks now into this xlobby thing..tried every other
thing before (meedio, mediaportal etc) but like someone at a forum
pointed out....you can customize everything in xlobby.
And thats what i need. I have a 12 inche tft touchscreen that i want to
use in my living room.
I've made another touchscreen in my kitchen 2 years ago with meedio..
http://kasperjr.blogspot.com/ but it isn't what i want this time. I want it
more customized this time. Back then i solved every problem with a link to
a custom made html page. It was more then enough back then.

Now i want to make it so i can do almost everything with my touchscreen.
Like starting a video..rewind it...stop it etc. Just a bunch of buttons on my
so i can controle a player like media player classic.

I downloaded xlobby and Mr Baddabing Heavy metal skin (you guys have
to consider this for a default skin in xlobby ..It;s great) and tested everything
out...some things worked like pictures and movies and radio and other stuff.
But i can not find the connection or the structure of the whole xlobby skin
editor.

My only question is..can someone make a movie of how to set up a simple skin.
Just something like..setting up a movie page.

Oke lets start to say..i'm using the baddabing skin and i want to make a button
on the first startup screen to a movie page.
Just the first screen on the movie is the baddabing screen and so on. From then
you go to the skineditor...you add a button with somebackground pictures from the
baddabing installed skin and then you make a new black page for the movie page.
I just can't figure out how to do this. then the movie page must have a few buttons like
play movie..stop movie. fullscreen etc. And how do you assign these buttons to
the media player classic or another player.
Just a quick run through the skineditor so i know how the basic principles works.

In a videotutorial i can watch it several times so i can follow and try everything at home.
I'm sure if i know the basics, it will become much easier to do other things.

I know maybe it's a stupid question, i have no idea if its possible to do what i'm asking.

After 2 weeks reading this forum and many sleepless night thinking about how to get
everything working, i need a break. I still find its the best out their if you want to customize
everything to your own needs.

Can someone help me out?

I have a nice link to a weather page for 2 years now in my kitchensetup..maybe someone
could use it. I don't know if it works for everyone..so try it out.
http://weather.eu.msn.com/f5/loader19.s ... City=&

thanks in advanced
Kasper belgium

[rembetis]

First off, no need to apologize. Your English is excellent.

Secondly, though it's a good idea, I doubt a video tutorial is coming anytime soon. Xlobby's feature set is so big that even scratching the surface of them would require a full-length feature film

In the meantime, make sure to read Colby's Skinning Guide for detailed info of the functions of the skin editor.

This thread might also be instructive in creating and customizing new pages.

Database link with scren

[kasje]

sorry everybody..the weatherlink above doesn't work in opera..but it does work in internet explorer...don't ask me why..i have no idea. Sorry, it's in dutch but maybe you guys can figure out to your language.

And yes, i understand that it is almost impossible to cover everything in a videotutorial..thats why i just want the basic.

And yes, i've read every tutorial..even the last of baddabing in pdf. But it's not a skinning tutorial. And the few skinning tutorials out there are to difficult for me

[rembetis]

And the few skinning tutorials out there are to difficult for me

OK, I am nowhere near an expert, but I'll do my best to help. I'm a little confused whether you need a second movie page, or you are just using that as an example, but let's just assume you are trying to add any kind of page to a premade skin.

1. Load Xlobby and load skin editor (Pause/Break)

2. Use the Goto tab to navigate to the page most like the one you are trying to create (it's much easier to clone and edit an existing screen than create a new one from scratch.)

3. Under the Screen > Add tab, type a name for the new screen (don't duplicate existing names) and hit Clone. If you want to create a screen from scratch, type a name and hit Add instead.

4. Select any components of the cloned screen you don't need and delete them. Use Control-Z to Undo any mistakes.

5. Edit the screen as desired:

a. To change/add the background, select a background from the list under Screen > Edit > Backgrounds. If you are creating your own, these files (typically .png or .jpg) need to be in the Backgrounds folder of your skin before you load Xlobby.

b. To add new buttons, use Screen > Add Button. Like above, these files need to be in your Buttons folder before loading Xlobby.

i. To edit the dimensions and position of new buttons you can either click and drag or use the X/Y (position) and W/H (size) fields under Item > Default (be sure the button is selected).

ii. There are numerous other features of buttons that you can customize, too many to cover here, but for you purposes the most important will be setting the Click Event under the Item > Event tabs. See below for creating a new event.

iii. Buttons don't necessarily have to do anything. They can be just decorative images. If you want to add anything other than colored circles or rectangles (available under Screen > Add > Shapes), you will need to create it in Photoshop or something similar and save it into your Buttons folder.

c. Besides Backgrounds and Buttons, the other major type of item you may want to add to a screen is called a Category. Basically, Categories allow you to link screens to the Databases you create with the Basic or Database section of the Setup screen (F2).

i. Categories are not the same as Databases -- they act like the middlemen between Xlobby screens and Databases. They can be named the same, but you will have to link them to see anything.

ii. To Add a Category to a screen, go to Screen > Add in the Skin Editor, type a name into the Category field, and hit Add. You will now see a blank box with a green marquee around it.

iii. To link the Category to a Database, select the Category (marquee turns white) and select a Database under Item > Category > Database.

iv. As with buttons, click and drag or use the size/position fields under Item > Default to change the Categories location and dimensions.

v. Use the Columns, Rows, etc. fields and the other tabs under Item > Category (mainly Layout) to change other properties of the Category. See Colby's Skinning Guide for what all these options do.

6. Create and/or Assign Events for Your Buttons.

1. There are way too many options and variables to cover this entire topic right now, but the absolute best way to understand Events is to select an existing button that does something similar in the Skin Editor, find the event assigned to it (Item > Event > Click Event), close the Skin Editor, open Setup (F2), search for that Event under Events, and take a look at what Commands that Event is using to achieve its results. (Be sure to fully open all the sub-steps using the little "+" boxes).

2. You asked specifically about video control buttons. Typically, these involve using Send Messages to send command line parameters to an external player. I believe all Baddabing's skins are setup for Zoomplayer, which is also what I use, so I can't recommend specifics for Media Player Classic but do a search to see if others are using it and then open up one of Baddabing's video control pages, check the event names, and take a look at them in the Events part of the Setup screen. Basically, assuming MPC supports them, you will simply need to edit the Send Messages.

Hope all that helped. Took me two cups of coffee to finish

[Colby]

In regards to a tutorial, I have started a complete guide some time ago, never finished it because of the immense amout of work envolved in such an endeavor. Baddabing, and Jowaldo were in on it too. If I had time I would share what I know.
I would also create a video tutorial of things, but I have yet to find a good windows recording software. The free ones gobble up to much memory and I dont care to pay for a good one.

[PhilB]

I know how to create streaming training tutorials and they are pretty time consuming....

scripting
screen capture
audio over
conversion to flash
compression

I could perhaps do a quick tour if anyone is interested in that. I have my own skin (see MusicServer in the Home Theater forum) but seems like there is lots of interest in Heavy Metal. If there is interest in this, I would like to hear the comments before I do one.

PB

[kasje]

hi all,

thanks Mr Rembetis for the recap how i can get started..i tried the steps like you told me..created a new page..made a button on an exsiting page..but when i try to assign it in click event...i can't find the new page that i made?
Must i make a new folder in the skins folder or?

and yes it was just as an example?

Mr Colby..now i'm really feeling stuped

I thought it was pretty simple to make these days..so you could upload it to youtube and others for streaming. My opinion was that such smart guys like you did it in 5 minutes...sorry for that.

I few months ago, i downloaded SketchUp 5 and it only took me a week to master the basics of the program with there videotutorials.

Now i understand a little of the skinning proces but i don't follow on the link proces of pagelinking and buttonslinking. Most of the tutorials is about covering what each button in the skineditor does that's why i find it so difficult to see the whole picture of the structure of the program.

I don't expect you cover everything but just the basics like Mr Rembetis above tried to do.

greetings

[rembetis]

thanks Mr Rembetis for the recap how i can get started..i tried the steps like you told me..created a new page..made a button on an exsiting page..but when i try to assign it in click event...i can't find the new page that i made?
Must i make a new folder in the skins folder or?

If the event you are trying to assign is "Go to my [new page]" you will need to create that event before you try to assign it. Xlobby doesn't know what you called your new page, and has no built-in event to get there.

1. Go to F2 > Events

2. Under Skin > Goto (I'm pretty sure all Baddabing's skins have this section, if not you can put this new event anywhere that makes sense), click Add Event and type a name for it (name of your new screen works).

3. With that name highlighted, go to the right section of the screen, click on the "+" sign next to the Xlobby submenu and select "goto screen."

4. Type the name of your new screen (make sure you get it right!) and click add.

Now, you can go back into the skin editor, highlight your new button, and assign it that event.

Hope that helps.

[kasje]

hi all,

after one month i still have a hard time managing the structure of xlobby..yes i can move buttons en pages around ..point button to other pages ..setting up..music, pictures and even movies with ant movie cataloque.
But now the real work has to begin..it's not the skinning that is difficult..its combining the skinning with all those lovely plugins. Where do i put what.
Oke put the plugin into the plugin dir...no problem...configure the ini of the plugin..oke no problem..but then...how do i setup the plugin in my skins...how do i trigger all the commands of that plugin...what are the variables, where do i put them...etc.

Thats, i think, the biggest problem for most users. I tried xltv...yes i managed to configure the channels in the plugin..but thats all..from there..its all a blur..i read the english forums...the frence forums..(translated them)..but..nope..i have no idea where to start.

So i looked around..how do you guys can help me out. I mentioned it before..it is not hard to make a videotutorial...i have no programming experience at all.

I downloaded my screen recorder pro and gave it a try...set my resolution at 800*600..recorded 5 frames/sec and then put my mic to my lips and gave it a go. then i converted to file to swf format with the program and had a file of 9 meg for 2.25 minutes. And yes cristalclear view. So If any of you want to give it a try...90 megs for +- 22 minutes.

you can upload it to rapidshare or youtube or google vieo etc so that everybody can download it. Or even split it to smaller pieces with the program.

So it must be possible. Who wants to try it!!

[Jay]

[quote="Colby"]In regards to a tutorial, I have started a complete guide some time ago, never finished it because of the immense amout of work envolved in such an endeavor. Baddabing, and Jowaldo were in on it too. If I had time I would share what I know.
I would also create a video tutorial of things, but I have yet to find a good windows recording software. The free ones gobble up to much memory and I dont care to pay for a good one./quote]

Hey Colby. You forgot to credit me