[Silvaire]

Hi, just thought I'd pipe in that I follow this skin primarily because it seems to be the best looking vertical-based skin. I've used horizontal skins for the last 3 years but having tried vertical skins I find them to simply be more functional while maintaining an elegant minimalist design, so I for one hope that a vertical option is maintained but either way the work looks very good.

Edit: I thought I'd echo the comments above me, that despite my desire for vertical menus, that that horizontal menu is the best I've ever seen as well.

[samukas]

If I may give my opinion, I'm also "voting" for the vertical menu. I think it fits with the rest of the skin pretty nicely and is more polished as well. The horizontal menu just seems out of place to me.

I don't think the WebOS-look fits with the rest of the skin at all.
The screenshots you posted a while back seem to keep everything consistent, so it gets my vote.

[butchabay]

If I may give my opinion, I'm also "voting" for the vertical menu. I think it fits with the rest of the skin pretty nicely and is more polished as well. The horizontal menu just seems out of place to me.

I don't think the WebOS-look fits with the rest of the skin at all.
The screenshots you posted a while back seem to keep everything consistent, so it gets my vote.

Agree, i think the clean look of refocus vertical menu looks fantastic.
But i understand the idea behind the horizontal menu, meaning code wise and navigation.

Time ago i've started a project called: skin.dawn it was a mix of vertical and horizontal home menu, but the code has become a monster, now with the new method in gotham things are easier and less code is required.

Ofcourse in some cases there are understandable reasons why a skinner goes in another direction and it's always nice seeing new ideas coming up.

Anyway, Jeroen keep up this great skin and by all means, it's your decision

[ZZRX]

i vote also vertical, its Refocus logical step, modern and clean look.

[kyotocafe]

I like this new horizontal menu proposal. As mentioned before it allows the whole menu to be seen on the screen, so there is not need to scroll around as in most horizontal menus. I'd definitely like to try it out.

[Jeroen]

If there's any help you need with, or features you'd like in, script.skinshortcuts feel free to ask.

Thanks, I will In short, what I would need to replicate the current menu is to load submenu items in between main menu items. But I'll explain better when I actually get around to work on it.

And the icons look good , at least to me.

Thanks! I already made them for other parts of the skin, so they'll have their use regardless

I love the horizontal menu, but how would it look like to someone that only uses "Movies, TV and Settings"? (no music, pictures, video, weather, add-ons or live tv)

They would just all move up to the left or center with the lighter shade of blue on the sides of the menu expanding to keep the look uniform I guess.

You did however keep the options for hiding everyone of the menu items, did you? I don't like clutter, just like loggio and I always hide unused menu items.

That part isn't coded at the moment, but those options would be available yes.

Btw. what do you think of designing a diagonal menu? would be something really new!!

*starts code editor*



You know what, I believe someone actually did one before. I remember seeing a WIP in the skin dev forum a long time ago

Also, regarding the vertical menu, is it possible to incorporate some of the design/asthetics from the horizontal menu into the vertical one? Specifically, the menu icons? I'm not saying that's necessarily a good idea - just a suggestion.

Unfortunately not. At least, not easily. One of the early versions of the menu was using them, I posted a picture of it here but I ran into some limitations regarding the submenu items which made me have to switch to using a different set of controls. The current set of controls only allows text in the menu items. There are some methods I can think of to make it work in a hackery way, but I'm not too keen on doing that.

I think you should still make all your fans happy by trying to implement both version of the menu in your skin.

If there's one thing I have learned in my years skinning, it's that you can never make everyone happy

Seriously though, one of the challenges to me personally is to code as efficiently as possible. I could "easily" write a completely separate alternate home menu, put a toggle in the skin settings to switch between the two and be done with it. It's things like that that make code bases grow wild and become a chore to maintain though. Because I would go for no less than feature parity between the two, every addition or change needs to work in both menus.

I'm more a fan of trying to re-use as much code as possible. So recent XBMC developments like content targets and (related to that) Unfledged's skinshortcuts add-on fit perfectly in that vision. It theoretically offers the possibility to separate form from content. So I could write code for all the home menu items and their functions and then load them into a "form" the user has selected (so, a horizontal or a vertical menu for instance). That would save enormous amounts of code and be much easier to maintain.

As an example, in the next release you will be able to select what the shelf widgets on the homescreen will show (in progress items, recent items, or a user defined playlist). Previously I would need to write three separate lists for that. Right now it's just one list, and based on what the user selects, it "injects" that content into that list.

Anyway, hopes that makes some sense / gives some insight.

That's one of the best horizontal menus I've seen. I especially like that you've managed to fit the whole menu on the screen at once - no endless scrolling left and right wondering where in the options you are.

Yup, that's one of the main issues I always had with horizontal items too.

Time ago i've started a project called: skin.dawn it was a mix of vertical and horizontal home menu, but the code has become a monster, now with the new method in gotham things are easier and less code is required.

Yeah, if you have the horizontal and vertical menus in separate list controls it's a lot easier.

Regardless though, it already saved huge amounts of code. The total used code for my watchlist screen for example has gone from about 1200 lines to 170

[removed151214]

If there's any help you need with, or features you'd like in, script.skinshortcuts feel free to ask.

Thanks, I will In short, what I would need to replicate the current menu is to load submenu items in between main menu items. But I'll explain better when I actually get around to work on it.

The OneList branch should get fairly close.

[Jeroen]

Interesting I'll definitely look into that, cheers

[Jeroen]

1. Seems that lots of skinners seem to be missing with PVR is the "show channel info when switching channels" option. Not working in current version of ReFocus.

I don't have any idea if this is working in my dev version, but could you (or anyone else with a PVR set up) check which skin(s) other than Confluence show the channel info when switching channels?

I just noticed Confluence puts all the video information in VideoFullScreen.xml instead of DialogFullScreenInfo.xml. Actually it doesn't even have that xml... So just maybe it has something to do with that. Worth looking into I think.

[pettson3816]

Love the horizontal menu! Hope that's where it's heading.

[loggio]

1. Seems that lots of skinners seem to be missing with PVR is the "show channel info when switching channels" option. Not working in current version of ReFocus.

I don't have any idea if this is working in my dev version, but could you (or anyone else with a PVR set up) check which skin(s) other than Confluence show the channel info when switching channels?

I just noticed Confluence puts all the video information in VideoFullScreen.xml instead of DialogFullScreenInfo.xml. Actually it doesn't even have that xml... So just maybe it has something to do with that. Worth looking into I think.

Yeah sure, I can confirm xperience1080, Arctic and back row all do it... I'm sure there are others but I these are the only ones I had installed and was able to try. I'm sure rapier works as well, but I'm pretty sure development stopped on that skin so I double you'll get a workin version.

Arctic is the best example as it works and looks great. Hope this helps.

[jasonlcox]

Jeroen, I'm very happy to see that you're continuing to develop this skin - I've been using it since XBMC Eden, I think, and it's exactly what I'm looking for in a skin. For what it's worth, I prefer the vertical menu and would hate to lose it.

[Jeroen]

Yeah sure, I can confirm xperience1080, Arctic and back row all do it...

Thanks, I cant see any big structural differences, those all use DialogFullScreenInfo.xml too. I guess I'll just have to see what happens.

Jeroen, I'm very happy to see that you're continuing to develop this skin - I've been using it since XBMC Eden, I think, and it's exactly what I'm looking for in a skin. For what it's worth, I prefer the vertical menu and would hate to lose it.

Thanks jason. The horizontal menu is currently on hold while I focus on getting rid of some OCD tickling issues.
It's just too much work to do properly and not delay the release any further. One thing is for sure though, if the horizontal menu ends up in a release it will be as an option and not a replacement to a vertical menu.

[fabiomello]

i really love the new look of reFocus. it will look very awesome on gotham, and the new horizontal home looks very neat
just a feature request: like most modern skins like eminence, xperience1080, CCM, amber and quartz., could you make the home screen fully customizable, so the user can change/enable/disable the items, icon, widgets, backgrounds, etc? so it can adapt to the specific user preferences and shortcuts.

[Jeroen]

i really love the new look of reFocus. it will look very awesome on gotham, and the new horizontal home looks very neat
just a feature request: like most modern skins like eminence, xperience1080, CCM, amber and quartz., could you make the home screen fully customizable, so the user can change/enable/disable the items, icon, widgets, backgrounds, etc? so it can adapt to the specific user preferences and shortcuts.

The menu is fully customizable in the sense that you can enable or disable any main or sub item available. You can also add custom folders and playlists to the video menu. This functional aspect of the menu isn't much different from the "old" reFocus.

The background customization has four options:

1. Set a single image background
   
2. Set a background folder as a background slideshow
   
3. Use your library fanart as a background slideshow (only video fanart for now, options will be added later to choose music fanart or mixed fanart too)
   

The fourth option is when you use the shelf /widgets option. In that case basically the widget is the background. The widgets and backgrounds will not change based on the selection in the home menu. Going to the right from the main menu will bring you in the widgets section. There will be two widget spots available there.

You can set the widgets to show:

1. In progress tv shows / recommended movies
   
2. Recent episodes / recent movies
   
3. Playlist. With this option you can set it to any of the included smart playlists, or your own of course.
   

Hopefully this gives you a clear impression.