Fresh start

[edwinbonneau]

How do i start from scratch building my own skin. I have tried to delete every screen from the xlobby folder but then i cant get it to start up.

[BaddaBing]

The easiest way to do this is to start with an existing skin and re-do it one screen at a time. No disrespect, but it sounds like you need to start with this first untill you get a better grasp of how XL works. If you still really want to start with a 'blank canvas' follow these directions:

You need at least two screens in order for XL to start. The easiest way to do this is just pick a skin - the default skin for example - make a copy of the default skin directory and rename it to what ever you want. Delete every xml skin file from your newly created skin root directory except splash.xml and menu.xml. Next delete all the files in the background and buttons directories. Start Xlobby, bring up the SetUp window, goto the skins tab, select your skin and hit the restart button. There will still be some text and blank objects but they are easily deleted. You now have a totally blank skin and no pre-existing graphics. You will need to create the background, buttons and control images. Then start skinning.

[edwinbonneau]

Thanks for the reply badabing, I actually just figured it out. Thanks for the advice, and no disrespect taken. I am pretty new at this stuff and I undoubtedly need a lot of work still, but im eagar to learn. I want to start from scratch because it forces me to learn more about the structure of each page. I found that with changing settings i didnt know how the pages were set up. Anyways i have two instances of xlobby so i can look back at previous pages to see how they are set up exactly. Also i want to create a barebone xlobby setup for audio and i dont want unnecessary files, screens and db. thanks for the help! and if i still got your attention i was wanting to make my musicviewer an overlay and i didnt know how to change the music info screen an overlay. any more help would be appreciated.

[BaddaBing]

Ok, first look at the music screen in the background - see how the area with the track listing is highlighted? That is called a category - it displays filtered information from a database. Now if you look at the skin editor and in the NAME field you will see I have named this category 'musicdetails'. In the next field down is the name of the overlay that I want to appear when this category control is clicked. The format for this is:
overlay:[name of my overlay]
I would recommend you find a skin that works in a way that is similar to what you want and just dig through it with the skin editor - its the way I (and Colby and Jowaldo and all the other skinners) learned because as you know xlobby ins't documented - you just gotta play with it to figure it out. I would recommend digging through Colby's as his skin utilizes music overlays and that appears to be the way you want to go. Good luck - look forward to seeing you post your skin.