[kittmaster]

So I've discovered that the way the skin was setup was to show the items when things are not empty, like we all know/see, title, genre, path.... etc.

I'm looking for an example to handle this in two ways because I've tried a few things that didn't work (not listed because that code attempt is gone).... so bare with me:

1: The visual space holds 8 items, right click/arrow, show 9+ or 9-16, 17+ and so forth (assuming 17+ existed in code > coming). When there are more than 8, "visually", there is no way to detect/see there are more than eight items being shown unless you manually hit the right/arrow control/keyboard to "see" if there more. I assume this is the OnNext image button that should be displayed conditionally. I've yet to try to implement that, but I think that is the right trajectory of what I am asking.... how is that done? I've searched the Skinning manual, that term does not exist even once, yet I've seen it in other skin code but haven't dived in fully to see it work.

2: The more sexy feature, is there a way to have the first 8 show up, display for say 3 seconds, then fade/slide/whatever out the first 8 and replace the next 9+ or 9-16 and then loop back to 1-8? This one I did try, I thought using "alarmclock" to trigger the visibility with a 1-8 having a visible tag of 0 and other items 1 and so forth... had it all set up, but the alarmclock never seemed to fire causing it to swap. 

In closing, I would implement both features where if someone didn't want to wait the 3 seconds (or whatever I program in, or allow user to select), there would be a visual button that says "More" or "Next/Previous" or something with a right arrow to create the right click and show 9+.

As it stands, the code I have in the skin works, but it is entirely manual and finer details get lost if you don't use it enough... and here I am X years later realizing there was more data to see.... so it becomes a feature that I need to include for a better user experience.

Thanks for reading.

[jurialmunkey]

1.

"Container(id).HasNext | Returns true if the container or textbox with id (id) has a next page. "
https://kodi.wiki/view/List_of_boolean_c...#Container


2.
<autoscroll time="$PARAM[time]">$PARAM[condition]</autoscroll>
It's only one item at a time (don't think there is a way to do multiple).
https://kodi.wiki/view/List_Container

[Hitcher]

2. Might be possible by sending PageUp in an alarm.

Control.Message(id,message,[windowid])
Sends a given message to a control in a given window (or active window if omitted). Messages can be movedown, moveup, pagedown, pageup, click.

[realcopacetic]

2. Might be possible by sending PageUp in an alarm.

Control.Message(id,message,[windowid])
Sends a given message to a control in a given window (or active window if omitted). Messages can be movedown, moveup, pagedown, pageup, click.

You could do it with a skin timer as well. I use one to autoscroll my widgets one item at a time every x seconds for auto trailer playback like Netflix, but using Control.Move you can choose how large you wish the offset to be: Control.Move(id,offset)

[kittmaster]

2. Might be possible by sending PageUp in an alarm.

Control.Message(id,message,[windowid])
Sends a given message to a control in a given window (or active window if omitted). Messages can be movedown, moveup, pagedown, pageup, click.

You could do it with a skin timer as well. I use one to autoscroll my widgets one item at a time every x seconds for auto trailer playback like Netflix, but using Control.Move you can choose how large you wish the offset to be: Control.Move(id,offset)

I downloaded your skin and see the timers.xml, lot going on in there, your basic example seems to make sense. How does timers vs alarmclock differ? I couldn't get alarmclock to work and was unaware timers might make sense to use here.

I need have it cycle every 2 seconds only when container 9004 for me is active with the data and if it has greater than 8 items, which I have the command logic. It is more about, having the timer start and stop under those conditions. Seems like an easier approach... TY for the tip.

[realcopacetic]

2. Might be possible by sending PageUp in an alarm.

You could do it with a skin timer as well. I use one to autoscroll my widgets one item at a time every x seconds for auto trailer playback like Netflix, but using Control.Move you can choose how large you wish the offset to be: Control.Move(id,offset)

I downloaded your skin and see the timers.xml, lot going on in there, your basic example seems to make sense. How does timers vs alarmclock differ? I couldn't get alarmclock to work and was unaware timers might make sense to use here.

I need have it cycle every 2 seconds only when container 9004 for me is active with the data and if it has greater than 8 items, which I have the command logic. It is more about, having the timer start and stop under those conditions. Seems like an easier approach... TY for the tip.

Timers are nice, I think they were added in Nexus and they do a lot of things that previously you needed alarms for. A couple of restrictions:
 - they are resolved every 500ms so if you need more accuracy than that they won't work too good
 - expressions don't work in the condition tags for some reason so you have to write things out in full

Documentation is here with some good examples: https://xbmc.github.io/docs.kodi.tv/mast...imers.html
Basically you can start and stop the timer with a condition or let the skin do it with a builtin: Skin.TimerStart(mymanualtimer) or Skin.TimerStop(mymanualtimer).
You have <onstart> and <onstop> to set what actually happens when the timer starts or stops. And the other thing that's good is there's a reset function which causes the timer to start again. And if you add reset="true" to your <start> tag, then that will fire every time the timer resets, which is probably what you need for the recursive function you're looking for (1,0,1,0,1,0...etc )

You can approach timers in two ways I've found. Either have the timer start straight away and get it to do something when a certain time is reached (using onstop). Or wait until a certain condition is met and then do something straight away (using onstart). Or a combination of both. They're pretty flexible.

Oh and you can have multiple <onstart> or <onstop> actions which is cool

Assuming that this is a container that the user can control as well, it would probably be important to also incorporate System.IdleTime to make sure that the autoscroll only happens after three seconds of inactivity and not while the user is trying to do something. If this is a container that is not directly focused, you would just need to think about when exactly you want the scroll to happen (i.e. when a certain window is visible, or when another control is focused).

So for yours something like one of these might work:

xml:


<timer>

    <name>timer_name</name>

    <start>Control.HasFocus(123)</start>

    <stop>Integer.IsGreaterOrEqual(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(timer_name),3) + System.IdleTime(3)</stop>

    <onstop>Control.Move(123,8)</onstop>

    <onstop condition="Control.HasFocus(123)">Skin.TimerStart(timer_name)</onstop>

</timer>

This is the simplest version I could think of (I tend to over-complicate as you'll see below!). Timer starts once Control with id="123" gets focus. Once the timer has been running for at least 3 seconds and there has been no user input for at least three seconds it stops. On stopping, it moves focus in container "123" forward 8 places. Then it restarts the timer, which should be back to 0 after stopping. (I think timers reset on stopping, but haven't looked at them in a while so would need to check this). 

If that doesn't work, you can do it with a reset coded in like below:

xml:


<timer>

    <name>timer_name</name>

    <start reset="true">Control.HasFocus(123)</start>

    <reset>Integer.IsGreater(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(timer_name),3) + System.IdleTime(3)</reset>

    <stop>!Control.HasFocus(123)</stop>

    <onstart condition="String.IsEmpty(Window(home).Property(timer_name_first_run)>SetProperty(scroll_on_next_loop,true,home)</onstart>

    <onstart condition="String.IsEqual(scroll_on_next_loop,true)>Control.Move(123,8)</onstart>

    <onstop>ClearProperty(scroll_on_next_loop,home)</onstop>

</timer>

This gets a bit more complicated but it might cope better with different scenarios. Timer starts when control "123" gets focus same as before. After three seconds of inactivity and the timer running, it resets back to zero and the count starts again. Each time it resets back to zero the <onstart> condition will be fired. But <onstart> will also be fired the first time that the timer runs, as soon as Control.HasFocus(123) is true. You don't want it to scroll straight away, so I've added a Window Property check to ensure it doesn't fire the <onstart> line to move the container forward 8 places on the first run. Instead if the window prop is empty (i.e. first run), <onstart> will set the property to true. Then on subsequent runs, the property will be true, so the Control.Move built-in action will fire. To clean up the property, I have the timer set to stop fully when Container (123) loses focus. And <onstop> it clears the property.

You may need to add some additional conditions depending on if anything can take away focus from Container(123) while you still want the auto scroll to take place. For instance, one thing I noticed was when I was running auto play on trailers with a skin timer, the focus was being lost because playing a trailer would cause The busy dialog window to momentarily take focus. In that instance, I could avoid this by adding to my <stop> line like this:
<stop>!Control.HasFocus(123) + !Window.IsVisible(busydialog)</stop>

But you'll probably have to play around with it a bit to find the best way for it to work for you

[kittmaster]

I tried it out, and quite a few iterations, it's like, I can get it to toggle when I hover the mouse or move the nav over the items window, but it won't send the message to the 9004 container when the mouse is anywhere else and I'm also see it "move" the focus on the buttons to the right... so I almost got it, but still not quite... not sure what I'm missing, I mean, it comes down to: just send page down to 9004 every 2 seconds while 9004 is visible while container 9000 ID112 has focus with VideoDialogInfo.xml is active.

Here is what I have, any ideas on a tweak or something I'm missing?

xml:


<timers>

    <timer>

        <name>pagedown_timer</name>

        <start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

        <stop>!Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + !Control.HasFocus(9004)</stop>

        <reset>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Container(9004).SetFocus + Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</reset>

        <onstart>Container(9004).SetFocus</onstart>

        <onstart>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onstart>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">Container(9004).SetFocus</onreset>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onreset>

        <onstop>CancelAlarm(pagedown_alarm)</onstop>

    </timer>

</timers>

[realcopacetic]

I tried it out, and quite a few iterations, it's like, I can get it to toggle when I hover the mouse or move the nav over the items window, but it won't send the message to the 9004 container when the mouse is anywhere else and I'm also see it "move" the focus on the buttons to the right... so I almost got it, but still not quite... not sure what I'm missing, I mean, it comes down to: just send page down to 9004 every 2 seconds while 9004 is visible while container 9000 ID112 has focus with VideoDialogInfo.xml is active.

Here is what I have, any ideas on a tweak or something I'm missing?

xml:


<timers>

    <timer>

        <name>pagedown_timer</name>

        <start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

        <stop>!Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + !Control.HasFocus(9004)</stop>

        <reset>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Container(9004).SetFocus + Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</reset>

        <onstart>Container(9004).SetFocus</onstart>

        <onstart>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onstart>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">Container(9004).SetFocus</onreset>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onreset>

        <onstop>CancelAlarm(pagedown_alarm)</onstop>

    </timer>

</timers>

I'm not sure how well it would work combining a timer and alarm clock, should be unnecessary to use both. I would pick one and focus on that.

If you simplify it down as much as possible to begin with, does this work in terms of moving the list how you wish every 2 seconds when 9004 is focused?

xml:


<timers>

    <timer>

        <name>pagedown_timer</name>

        <start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

<reset>Integer.IsGreater(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(pagedown_timer),2)</reset>

        <onstart condition="Control.HasFocus(9004)">Control.Move(9004,8)</onstart>

    </timer>

</timers>

[kittmaster]

I tried it out, and quite a few iterations, it's like, I can get it to toggle when I hover the mouse or move the nav over the items window, but it won't send the message to the 9004 container when the mouse is anywhere else and I'm also see it "move" the focus on the buttons to the right... so I almost got it, but still not quite... not sure what I'm missing, I mean, it comes down to: just send page down to 9004 every 2 seconds while 9004 is visible while container 9000 ID112 has focus with VideoDialogInfo.xml is active.

Here is what I have, any ideas on a tweak or something I'm missing?

xml:


<timers>

    <timer>

        <name>pagedown_timer</name>

        <start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

        <stop>!Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + !Control.HasFocus(9004)</stop>

        <reset>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Container(9004).SetFocus + Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</reset>

        <onstart>Container(9004).SetFocus</onstart>

        <onstart>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onstart>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">Container(9004).SetFocus</onreset>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onreset>

        <onstop>CancelAlarm(pagedown_alarm)</onstop>

    </timer>

</timers>

I'm not sure how well it would work combining a timer and alarm clock, should be unnecessary to use both. I would pick one and focus on that.

If you simplify it down as much as possible to begin with, does this work in terms of moving the list how you wish every 2 seconds when 9004 is focused?

xml:


<timers>

<timer>

<name>pagedown_timer</name>

<start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

<reset>Integer.IsGreater(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(pagedown_timer),2)</reset>

<onstart condition="Control.HasFocus(9004)">Control.Move(9004,8)</onstart>

</timer>

</timers>

Yes, I can get it to work with 9004 is in focus, the thing is, because DialogVideoInfo.xml is active, I have 9004 as an <item> list x8. It also has Container 9000 with buttons but the primary focus is ID112 for 4 of the up to 11 buttons. My goal is to have the item list shift even when 9004 is not focused.... i.e. by buttons (keyboard) and also the mouse which is causing loss of focus when on a PC (in which most users, including me, use on both pc and non pc devices). That is where the primary issue is, to have it keep "running/scrolling" say every 5 seconds when the user is not focused on it... 

It is to bad "animation" can't do a send or shift because that just runs without any intervention from the user like fade/slide etc.

So that is kind of the mountain I'm climbing, in focus ok, it's getting it to be autonomous while on that .xml, control 9000 id112 has focus (showing 9004) and while 9004 is active, scroll no matter what mouse is doing etc etc.

[realcopacetic]

I tried it out, and quite a few iterations, it's like, I can get it to toggle when I hover the mouse or move the nav over the items window, but it won't send the message to the 9004 container when the mouse is anywhere else and I'm also see it "move" the focus on the buttons to the right... so I almost got it, but still not quite... not sure what I'm missing, I mean, it comes down to: just send page down to 9004 every 2 seconds while 9004 is visible while container 9000 ID112 has focus with VideoDialogInfo.xml is active.

Here is what I have, any ideas on a tweak or something I'm missing?

xml:


<timers>

    <timer>

        <name>pagedown_timer</name>

        <start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

        <stop>!Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + !Control.HasFocus(9004)</stop>

        <reset>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Container(9004).SetFocus + Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</reset>

        <onstart>Container(9004).SetFocus</onstart>

        <onstart>AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onstart>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">Container(9004).SetFocus</onreset>

        <onreset condition="Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)">AlarmClock(pagedown_alarm,Action(right),00:00:02,loop)</onreset>

        <onstop>CancelAlarm(pagedown_alarm)</onstop>

    </timer>

</timers>

I'm not sure how well it would work combining a timer and alarm clock, should be unnecessary to use both. I would pick one and focus on that.

If you simplify it down as much as possible to begin with, does this work in terms of moving the list how you wish every 2 seconds when 9004 is focused?

xml:


<timers>

<timer>

<name>pagedown_timer</name>

<start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

<reset>Integer.IsGreater(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(pagedown_timer),2)</reset>

<onstart condition="Control.HasFocus(9004)">Control.Move(9004,8)</onstart>

</timer>

</timers>

Yes, I can get it to work with 9004 is in focus, the thing is, because DialogVideoInfo.xml is active, I have 9004 as an <item> list x8. It also has Container 9000 with buttons but the primary focus is ID112 for 4 of the up to 11 buttons. My goal is to have the item list shift even when 9004 is not focused.... i.e. by buttons (keyboard) and also the mouse which is causing loss of focus when on a PC (in which most users, including me, use on both pc and non pc devices). That is where the primary issue is, to have it keep "running/scrolling" say every 5 seconds when the user is not focused on it... 

It is to bad "animation" can't do a send or shift because that just runs without any intervention from the user like fade/slide etc.

So that is kind of the mountain I'm climbing, in focus ok, it's getting it to be autonomous while on that .xml, control 9000 id112 has focus (showing 9004) and while 9004 is active, scroll no matter what mouse is doing etc etc.

Does it not work if you just change the conditions on the timer to remove 9004 being focused? The timer can run it's loop whenever the dialog window is active

[kittmaster]

I'm not sure how well it would work combining a timer and alarm clock, should be unnecessary to use both. I would pick one and focus on that.

If you simplify it down as much as possible to begin with, does this work in terms of moving the list how you wish every 2 seconds when 9004 is focused?

xml:


<timers>

<timer>

<name>pagedown_timer</name>

<start reset="true">Window.IsActive(DialogVideoInfo.xml) + Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

<reset>Integer.IsGreater(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(pagedown_timer),2)</reset>

<onstart condition="Control.HasFocus(9004)">Control.Move(9004,8)</onstart>

</timer>

</timers>

Yes, I can get it to work with 9004 is in focus, the thing is, because DialogVideoInfo.xml is active, I have 9004 as an <item> list x8. It also has Container 9000 with buttons but the primary focus is ID112 for 4 of the up to 11 buttons. My goal is to have the item list shift even when 9004 is not focused.... i.e. by buttons (keyboard) and also the mouse which is causing loss of focus when on a PC (in which most users, including me, use on both pc and non pc devices). That is where the primary issue is, to have it keep "running/scrolling" say every 5 seconds when the user is not focused on it... 

It is to bad "animation" can't do a send or shift because that just runs without any intervention from the user like fade/slide etc.

So that is kind of the mountain I'm climbing, in focus ok, it's getting it to be autonomous while on that .xml, control 9000 id112 has focus (showing 9004) and while 9004 is active, scroll no matter what mouse is doing etc etc.

Does it not work if you just change the conditions on the timer to remove 9004 being focused? The timer can run it's loop whenever the dialog window is active

I moved to fade in/out type I liked, but that got jammed up with trying to change it from a 2 page to 3 page form.... 

I will SVN revert my code to get back to exactly this, try it, and report back in the new few hours... I'll try original first, then your comment. That just may be my ticket!

TY. 
Chris

[kittmaster]

I modified your version of this to see if I could get it to work, I'll continue to mess with it, but here is how I modded it to meet my DialogVideoInfo.xml and two containers on that page and mouse control:

xml:


<timers>

    <timer>

        <name>timer_name</name>

        <start reset="true">Control.HasFocus(9004)</start>

        <reset>Integer.IsGreater(Skin.TimerElapsedSecs(timer_name),3) + System.IdleTime(3)</reset>

        <stop>!Control.HasFocus(9004)</stop>

        <onstart condition="String.IsEmpty(Window(home).Property(timer_name_first_run)">SetProperty(scroll_on_next_loop,true,home)</onstart>

        <onstart condition="String.IsEqual(scroll_on_next_loop,true)">Control.Move(9004,1)</onstart>

        <onstop>ClearProperty(scroll_on_next_loop,home)</onstop>

    </timer>

</timers>

I'm not sure about: timer_name_first_run

I'm not sure what type of BW you have, but is there any chance you install my skin and see if you can see what I may be missing?

Here is a video of what it's doing is here:

http://www.kittmaster.com/imagedump/kodi...igger.html

If you do happen to have any time to try it, you won't see the left/right arrows as that is WIP. But the mechanism is identical and untouched. In the github version, you just have to press the "right" arrow and the extra fields are shown (hence the arrows I'm working on).

https://github.com/kittmaster/skin.madno...s/main.zip

If not, I understand, been trying to get a good trigger solution for days now and I'm just so burnt I just may not be seeing things clearly.

Any who, thanks for trying to help no matter how it goes...

Best,
Chris

[kittmaster]

NM, I found a simplistic fix that does it all:

DialogVideoInfo.xml

xml:


<onload>AlarmClock(MetaData_Slide,Control.Move(9004,1),00:07,silent,loop)</onload>

Exactly as I wanted it to be. Now onto adding enable/disable of it in the admin panel and user adjustable time value for complete control over it.

Thanks for looking at though, learned some stuff fur sure...lol.

Chris