[Blurayx]

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2638237

How is this confusing navigation? The method you use here to get to the add-on browser is completely unnecessary. By default there is a home menu entry called add-ons which has a link to the add-on browser. Even then, the home menu is completely customisable, so you can add a link to the add-on browser anywhere in the menu... Something I already told you even

Yes, I know you told me. It was confusing at first. now I can see the logic in it now

Please don't take offence it's the last thing I want. if I did, I truly apologies.

Blurayx

[Jeroen]

Dunno if this will fall into a bug report or perhaps feature requests or maybe just feedback? Bear with me.
---

Regarding views, the required/default watchlist plugin doesn't have the option/functionality to ignore specials making it unusable for me, so I replace the "watchlist" menu entries with ones from skin helper service widgets, since it has said option/functionality. Unfortunately, this makes the views less than ideal since I don't think SHSW passes all the same info/metadata/art to the skin as the watchlist plugin or library itself does, causing things to zero out or vanish, like the air date.

Well, I haven't noticed things vanishing, but there's definitely something wrong with the airdates as all the items in my list apparently aired in 1969 In any case delivering the metadata is Skin Helper's territory and not something the skin has direct control over. The airdate issue you mention is probably this: https://github.com/marcelveldt/script.sk...s/issues/5

As the watchlist plugin says it was created for Refocus, I assume it's under your purview & can be extended to ignore specials?

I'm pretty sure it can, but the watchlist was not created by me and I do not have the Python skills to update it accordingly.

Or would I be better off seeing if I can get SHSW to pass more info?

I don't think there's anything you should have to do to make Skin Helper pass more info really. I think checking with the add-on author about the issue is your best chance at getting it to work properly. You could also try installing a newer (beta) version of Skin Helper from the marcelveldt's repo: https://github.com/marcelveldt/repository.marcelveldt As a matter of fact, going to do that myself too.

Another views request would be for consistent text title fallback for tv shows that don't have graphic logos available. As it stands, Slide, Landscape, List all have no visible series titles if there's no logo to display when looking at a list of episodes from different series such as the "Recently Added Episodes" library node. Big List has the series title in text, plus the logo over the thumbnail if available. Landscape has text fallback for logos if it's looking at a group of tv series (not episodes). I don't know if it's easy or feasible to unify, but I'd love for this to be consistent, with the series title in text if there's no logo to superimpose & otherwise not in the text of the menu item itself, if that makes sense.

When a show doesn't have a logo I am seeing text as a text based fallback for tv shows and episodes in Landscape view? I did find some instances where only the title of the episode was shown, and not the tv show when browsing nodes like recenty added or watchlisy. I will have these fixed.

Only did a quick check now, will do a complete checkup later but in short the way it should be / I intend it to be:

TV Shows

• Show a superimposed logo when available, regardless of what viewtype (apart from Gallery at the moment, and posters for obvious reason)
  
• Always show the TV Show title in text in list view (oviously)
  
• Show the TV Show title as a fallback in art based viewtypes e.g. Landscape, Gallery. Slide being an exception as the text is already available below the actual list containing the artwork.
  

Episodes

• Show a superimposed logo when available and when the current node contains (or can contain) episodes from multiple tv shows. Please note though that this is not really enforceable in a... structural way. Kodi can't let the skin know when it's showing episodes from multiple shows. For a couple of situations and add-ons (like watchlist and recently added episodes for example I have hardcoded this).
  
• Show the TV Show title and episode title when listing episodes from multiple tv shows (the note above applies here too)
  
• In Landscape view I opted to not show logo's even if it's a list of episodes from multiple tv shows. With the text, thumbnail and status overlays it looked really cramped. Obviosuly it should always show the tv show and episode title here
  

Note: currently Slide view does not show logo's in mixed tv show episodes. This is either a bug or oversight.

On the main menu side, one niggle that drives me bonkers is the discrepancy between the menu entry titles & the title on the corresponding next view/screen not matching up. "TV SHOWS" in the menu leads to "TVSHOWS" as a menu item, for instance.

When using items that are added to the home menu by default, this has been a personal choice.

For instance: tv shows > recently added

is named like that because having recently added episodes as the sub menu entry is too long imo, plus considering I am in the submenu for tv shows it's quite redundant to state they are episodes.

However, if you pick any shortcut besides the ones in the "Grid" folder when customizing your home menu, the home menu will just show you whatever the library node or add-on providing the content path are set to. In other words, then it's out of my / the skin's hands.

So, while I can understand in some cases there can be an iconsistency, the default configuration of the home menu is just that. It's my personal base setup and it's meant to be changed to your preferences. And you can always manually enter the name for any of the items in your menu.

Furthermore, the title of any/all SHS widgets is "Skin Helper Service Widgets" rather than the menu entry that calls them. I'm not sure if it's a skin/string thing, but it would be nice for us to have (at least the option to have) the menu item names carry over as a sweeping fix to all of the naming discrepancies. I built the menus I use, I know what leads where & why I use the labels I do.

Pretty much the same explanation as above, the skin will just display whatever, in this case Skin Helper, sets it too. In some situations however, I created an exception because I don't like it and I use that add-on. So even though strictly speaking that is an inconsistency, it's meant to improve. These are all add-on specific exceptions though, obviously I can't do this for all add-ons. Ultimately though, again you can change the menu item's label to your liking.

Also with the main menu, the whole menu shifts down one row if I open a submenu that has 3 items in it, but if I put 4 items in it it stays put. I use a 4 entry main menu with 3, 3, 4, 4 submenu items each (from top to bottom) & the first two items will shift down a row when their submenu is open & pop back up when it's closed. Not sure if that's intended behaviour.

I wanted the home menu to be centered vertically. Now, with the grid lines / pin stripes being an essential part of the design of the skin, depending on the number of items on screen and them being an odd or even number, this isn't always possible. (There is no way for Kodi to use alternating rows, so I have to rely on overlays to provide the stripes) So in some case this results in it being a row higher, or lower, than I would like. Nothing much I can so about that I'm afraid. The only other option is to not do any centering. This will result in the main menu first item always staying in place. I'm willing to look into adding such option, but it would be a post release thing.

Periodically (and this happened with Refocus too), hitting 'back' on my remote doesn't take me back to where I came from but dumps me out into the "Videos" menu (which isn't even on my menus as an item whatsoever) or the Video Add-On submenu inside. Another 'back' or two will generally get me back to the main menu. Not sure why there's the extra steps though.

I'm going to need specifics to be able to investigate. If it's about script.watchlist: I am aware and don't have an explanation tbh. Basically all default main menu items have a paramater set that tells them to return to home when you press back, but for some reason watchlist doesn't adhere to this anymore (it used to though, so I'm guessing something in Kodi changed that should be updated on the script).

Also it'd be lovely to be able to change the left-pointing arrow used for the selected vertical submenu item icon out for something else. I'll likely go in manually once the skin's stable & switch it myself if there's no option.

Sorry, there will be no option for this.

Otherwise, thanks for the great work on a fantastic skin. I've been digging this more than the last couple of Refocus releases.

Thank you, I hope the explanations make some sense. Some things are hard to explain in a couple of lines.

[Jeroen]

Yes, I know you told me. It was confusing at first. now I can see the logic in it now

Please don't take offence it's the last thing I want. if I did, I truly apologies.

I truly don't take offence. Obviously you are entitled to your opinion, that goes without saying.

I just found it strange that you declare something as confusing navigation when:

a. That route you take is the same in any skin from the point where you enter settings and not to mention unnecessary.
b. Before your comment I already told you that you can add it to your home menu (and it's even there by default). In which case getting to the add-on browser takes... 1 click which cannot reasonably be seen as confusing imo.

To me that is a matter of an opinion anymore, but of not being familiar with the matter and (the way I perceived it) ignoring the advice I gave you. In which case, I feel the need to address it

Again, no offence taken and no disrespect intended.

[Blurayx]

Yes, I know you told me. It was confusing at first. now I can see the logic in it now

Please don't take offence it's the last thing I want. if I did, I truly apologies.

I truly don't take offence. Obviously you are entitled to your opinion, that goes without saying.

I just found it strange that you declare something as confusing navigation when:

a. That route you take is the same in any skin from the point where you enter settings and not to mention unnecessary.
b. Before your comment I already told you that you can add it to your home menu (and it's even there by default). In which case getting to the add-on browser takes... 1 click which cannot reasonably be seen as confusing imo.

To me that is a matter of an opinion anymore, but of not being familiar with the matter and (the way I perceived it) ignoring the advice I gave you. In which case, I feel the need to address it

Again, no offence taken and no disrespect intended.

I totally agree the one click option is great. To be honest I didn't know the add-on browser could be added to the home screen until you told me

I really appreciate the help and advice you have given me over the past week and looking forward to the official release

[3500]

i found again

[runsamok]

I'm pretty sure it can, but the watchlist was not created by me and I do not have the Python skills to update it accordingly.

Fair enough! It's a shame, as the Watchlist does respond quicker & with more detail than the SHSW alternative, but messes with episode order.

Well, I haven't noticed things vanishing, but there's definitely something wrong with the airdates as all the items in my list apparently aired in 1969 In any case delivering the metadata is Skin Helper's territory and not something the skin has direct control over. The airdate issue you mention is probably this: https://github.com/marcelveldt/script.sk...s/issues/5

I don't think there's anything you should have to do to make Skin Helper pass more info really. I think checking with the add-on author about the issue is your best chance at getting it to work properly. You could also try installing a newer (beta) version of Skin Helper from the marcelveldt's repo: https://github.com/marcelveldt/repository.marcelveldt As a matter of fact, going to do that myself too.

I've been running the beta the entire time I've been using GRiD, fwiw. I'll do some more poking when I've got a chance to see exactly what's missing or different & see if I can find any further info from the add-on author or support threads.

When a show doesn't have a logo I am seeing text as a text based fallback for tv shows and episodes in Landscape view? I did find some instances where only the title of the episode was shown, and not the tv show when browsing nodes like recenty added or watchlisy. I will have these fixed.

Only did a quick check now, will do a complete checkup later but in short the way it should be / I intend it to be:

TV Shows

• Show a superimposed logo when available, regardless of what viewtype (apart from Gallery at the moment, and posters for obvious reason)
  
• Always show the TV Show title in text in list view (oviously)
  
• Show the TV Show title as a fallback in art based viewtypes e.g. Landscape, Gallery. Slide being an exception as the text is already available below the actual list containing the artwork.
  

Episodes

• Show a superimposed logo when available and when the current node contains (or can contain) episodes from multiple tv shows. Please note though that this is not really enforceable in a... structural way. Kodi can't let the skin know when it's showing episodes from multiple shows. For a couple of situations and add-ons (like watchlist and recently added episodes for example I have hardcoded this).
  
• Show the TV Show title and episode title when listing episodes from multiple tv shows (the note above applies here too)
  
• In Landscape view I opted to not show logo's even if it's a list of episodes from multiple tv shows. With the text, thumbnail and status overlays it looked really cramped. Obviosuly it should always show the tv show and episode title here
  

Note: currently Slide view does not show logo's in mixed tv show episodes. This is either a bug or oversight.

I'm picking up what you're putting down, I'll wait for you to do a pass through & confirm things are working as you intended before passing any further judgement or critique.

When using items that are added to the home menu by default, this has been a personal choice.

For instance: tv shows > recently added

is named like that because having recently added episodes as the sub menu entry is too long imo, plus considering I am in the submenu for tv shows it's quite redundant to state they are episodes.

However, if you pick any shortcut besides the ones in the "Grid" folder when customizing your home menu, the home menu will just show you whatever the library node or add-on providing the content path are set to. In other words, then it's out of my / the skin's hands.

So, while I can understand in some cases there can be an iconsistency, the default configuration of the home menu is just that. It's my personal base setup and it's meant to be changed to your preferences. And you can always manually enter the name for any of the items in your menu.

Pretty much the same explanation as above, the skin will just display whatever, in this case Skin Helper, sets it too. In some situations however, I created an exception because I don't like it and I use that add-on. So even though strictly speaking that is an inconsistency, it's meant to improve. These are all add-on specific exceptions though, obviously I can't do this for all add-ons. Ultimately though, again you can change the menu item's label to your liking.

Is there a way for me to manually manage those exceptions? I'd like to try and fix any of these inconsistencies myself & realize it's impractical for you to manage everyone's individual preferences, but maybe a little direction will help me help myself.

I wanted the home menu to be centered vertically. Now, with the grid lines / pin stripes being an essential part of the design of the skin, depending on the number of items on screen and them being an odd or even number, this isn't always possible. (There is no way for Kodi to use alternating rows, so I have to rely on overlays to provide the stripes) So in some case this results in it being a row higher, or lower, than I would like. Nothing much I can so about that I'm afraid. The only other option is to not do any centering. This will result in the main menu first item always staying in place. I'm willing to look into adding such option, but it would be a post release thing.

I can understand that, but the default/fully closed state isn't vertically centred, it's shifted towards the top. It's only when you dive into a submenu does the desire to vertically centre the menu assert itself, causing the shifts. A toggle to keep it consistently shifted or centred would be great, though I understand your pre/post-release priorities.

I'm going to need specifics to be able to investigate. If it's about script.watchlist: I am aware and don't have an explanation tbh. Basically all default main menu items have a paramater set that tells them to return to home when you press back, but for some reason watchlist doesn't adhere to this anymore (it used to though, so I'm guessing something in Kodi changed that should be updated on the script).

Yeah, it's with the watchlist primarily, though I can get it to occur if I back out of a view that's derived from a SHSW item if I hit back before its finished populating (which sometimes takes a few seconds for some reason).

Sorry, there will be no option for this.

Fair enough. That's what text editors are for! Can you point me to where the arrow is defined? Drives me crazy it points out of the menu instead of towards its selection.

Thank you, I hope the explanations make some sense. Some things are hard to explain in a couple of lines.

No, I appreciate it immensely. It's tough to know where some things may or may not be artistic choice versus technical limitations & I appreciate the responses. It's a huge chore for me to get a keyboard hooked up to take screenshots so it's extra awesome you took the time to get through my wordy responses.

[lstar337]

Think I found a couple of bugs.

Every time I switch colour theme, the home screen background is reset to be fanart, when I use a custom image.

The GRID icon for the home menu is cut off on the right hand side. Also the lines on the Grid and Linux icons are too thin compared to the others.

[lstar337]

In the Add-on information screen for Grid, there is a 'space' missing between the end of 'functional elegance' and the beginning of 'The goal for Grid.....'

[Jeroen]

I'm pretty sure it can, but the watchlist was not created by me and I do not have the Python skills to update it accordingly.

Fair enough! It's a shame, as the Watchlist does respond quicker & with more detail than the SHSW alternative, but messes with episode order.

Maybe I can persuade the author to take a look into it sometime, but he is a busy guy and I don't think he has enough time as is for his main project (skin shortcuts) and I have already asked him for a pretty substantial feature request on that.. I am trying to find the time to learn more about python but I don't think I will be able to tackle this myself for quite a while

I'll do some more poking when I've got a chance to see exactly what's missing or different & see if I can find any further info from the add-on author or support threads.

Great!

Is there a way for me to manually manage those exceptions? I'd like to try and fix any of these inconsistencies myself & realize it's impractical for you to manage everyone's individual preferences, but maybe a little direction will help me help myself.

I think so, it all depends on what exactly it is you want to do. If you want to change how the item appears in the home menu, I wouldn't touch a line of code and simply edit the label's name. If you want to change what the window header shows, you'll have to add these exceptions to the variables used for the window headers. There are several, but they are all in Variables,xml and named as window:Title.[group] Be warned though, it can be quite the rabbit hole. The inconsistensies between nodes, windows and especially add-ons and will drive you nuts sometimes. If you thought there are inconsistencies now...

Just an FYI, there is no direct correlation between an item's name in the home menu and the one used in the window header. Generally speaking I use a node's Container.Foldername as the window title (for instance recently added episodes). In the case of the main movies listing fore example though, Container.FolderName is set to Title which I don't feel is very suited as a window title. So then I set it to the Container.Content, in this example Movies. In some nodes however, Container.FolderPath is empty, and sometimes Container.Content is empty as well. So in that case I have to rely on other (combinations of) conditions to set the window title to something that makes sense. And then you have add-ons, which is basically total anarchy. In the case of Extended Info or Skin Helper, all Container.Folderpath are set to the name of the script which, again I don't find suitable as a window title. It would be so much more useful of they would set the folderpath to what mediatype they are showing (for example recommended episodes). So for those add-ons that I use / support in Grid I create these exceptions and create variables purely for those add-ons.
Still with me, is the rabbit hole becoming more apparent?

I can understand that, but the default/fully closed state isn't vertically centred, it's shifted towards the top. It's only when you dive into a submenu does the desire to vertically centre the menu assert itself, causing the shifts. A toggle to keep it consistently shifted or centred would be great, though I understand your pre/post-release priorities.

I'll have to check that some time in that case. My home menu uses the entire height most of the time, so I don't see that all too often.

Yeah, it's with the watchlist primarily, though I can get it to occur if I back out of a view that's derived from a SHSW item if I hit back before its finished populating (which sometimes takes a few seconds for some reason).

Possibly the window's on back action is evaluated only until after the entire list has been populated, but that's a guess at best.

Fair enough. That's what text editors are for! Can you point me to where the arrow is defined? Drives me crazy it points out of the menu instead of towards its selection.

From the top of my head it's set in a variable called home:Symbol
The goals was for it to indicate pressing left or back collapses the menu

No, I appreciate it immensely. It's tough to know where some things may or may not be artistic choice versus technical limitations & I appreciate the responses. It's a huge chore for me to get a keyboard hooked up to take screenshots so it's extra awesome you took the time to get through my wordy responses.

Cool

[Jeroen]

I like to see all the Kodi addon updates listed with a date, Grid does seem to remove the update date infos?

I'll come back to you about this, seems logical but need to look into it first

at the video osd can you add the finish time for video files that are not in our library?

Yes, will be included in the next update.

[Jeroen]

Think I found a couple of bugs.

Every time I switch colour theme, the home screen background is reset to be fanart, when I use a custom image.

Strange, these two functions should not have any effect on eachother whatsoever. I'll look into it.

The GRID icon for the home menu is cut off on the right hand side. Also the lines on the Grid and Linux icons are too thin compared to the others.

Yeah the Grid icon was just a little tryout thing really. It's shape (and certainly the Linux icon's shape) are just too complex to display in such a small space. I could make the outlines thicker, but all it would is make everything "bleed" together

[allard1992]

I know you are a skinner. But how can I set static fanart for my pvr channels. I have only 4 channels. Now if I open my channel list I see sharp logo before the channel name. But in the fanart preview I see unsharp zoomed logo's(low-res). So thats the reason I wanna set fanart. I have highres pictures for the cannels.

[Luke Cage]

@Jeroen Have you got any idea what's causing this error to be logged, or is it not serious enough to worry about? :

Code:

22:10:46.782 T:139651792758528  NOTICE: Skin Helper Widgets --> Backgroundservice started
22:10:47.106 T:139651213924096   ERROR: Exception in thread Thread-1:
                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                              File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 801, in __bootstrap_inner
                                                self.run()
                                              File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 754, in run
                                                self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
                                              File "/home/lukecage/.kodi/addons/script.colorbox/resources/lib/Utils.py", line 140, in Color_Only
                                                img = Image.open(Img)
                                              File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/Image.py", line 2477, in open
                                                fp = builtins.open(filename, "rb")
                                            IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/lukecage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.colorbox/d22a2d328f04d3217431174921a38325.png'
22:10:47.151 T:139651773855488  NOTICE: [Artist Slideshow] script version 2.0.8 started
22:10:47.151 T:139651773855488  NOTICE: [Artist Slideshow] debug logging set to false

[runsamok]

Managed to take some screenshots of my menu through the power of JSON & made an imgur library for you to show you what happens with my main menu & the shifting.

http://imgur.com/a/PO5H0

(Will just link the gallery rather than pollute the thread with my whole menu structure)

At the end is a pair of screenshots of the same view from two data sources. Top is from the library node, bottom is from SHSW (which now says watchlist, vs Skin Helper Service Widget so yay?) The SHSW one is missing the logo, date, & genres. (I assure you I have a logo for The Simpsons).

Thanks again for all your insight on how to tweak the little things that irk me & great work on fixing 90% of them (with half of the rest being taste/preference really) in such a short time.

[Jeroen]

I know you are a skinner. But how can I set static fanart for my pvr channels. I have only 4 channels. Now if I open my channel list I see sharp logo before the channel name. But in the fanart preview I see unsharp zoomed logo's(low-res). So thats the reason I wanna set fanart. I have highres pictures for the cannels.

I don't think you can manually set fanart for PVR channels? I think it may also be dependant on what backend is used? I'm really not the best person to ask, as I have 0 experience with actually using the PVR.

@Jeroen Have you got any idea what's causing this error to be logged, or is it not serious enough to worry about? :

Code:

22:10:46.782 T:139651792758528  NOTICE: Skin Helper Widgets --> Backgroundservice started
22:10:47.106 T:139651213924096   ERROR: Exception in thread Thread-1:
                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                              File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 801, in __bootstrap_inner
                                                self.run()
                                              File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 754, in run
                                                self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
                                              File "/home/lukecage/.kodi/addons/script.colorbox/resources/lib/Utils.py", line 140, in Color_Only
                                                img = Image.open(Img)
                                              File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/Image.py", line 2477, in open
                                                fp = builtins.open(filename, "rb")
                                            IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/lukecage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.colorbox/d22a2d328f04d3217431174921a38325.png'
22:10:47.151 T:139651773855488  NOTICE: [Artist Slideshow] script version 2.0.8 started
22:10:47.151 T:139651773855488  NOTICE: [Artist Slideshow] debug logging set to false

Probably best to check in the colorbox thread to be sure, but it looks like it fails to find a cached version of one of the images it generates for the blur effect. You could try to clear out
/home/lukecage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.colorbox/ and restart to trigger regeneration.

Managed to take some screenshots of my menu through the power of JSON & made an imgur library for you to show you what happens with my main menu & the shifting.

Cool, thanks. The vertical menu centring will be fixed in the next update.

At the end is a pair of screenshots of the same view from two data sources. Top is from the library node, bottom is from SHSW (which now says watchlist, vs Skin Helper Service Widget so yay?)

Yes, that is one of the exceptions I mentioned. It was actually there before, but I recently found out the content paths for Skin Helper have changed so it wasn't getting catched anymore, along with some other things.

The SHSW one is missing the logo, date, & genres. (I assure you I have a logo for The Simpsons).

I believe that might also be the cause of at least part of the issues here with Skin Helper. I'm not seeing this issue on my end at least.[/quote]

Thanks again for all your insight on how to tweak the little things that irk me & great work on fixing 90% of them (with half of the rest being taste/preference really) in such a short time.

No worries, thanks for the constructive feedback