[barcoboy]

Greetings.  Playing more with Amber after converting my systems to Matrix, I've got a few more feature requests that I'd like to ask for.

1) Would be possible to modify Amber to show any icons that normally appear in notification messages?

An example of what I mean... using the kodi-send.py command, I send the following notification command to my KODI server:

cpp:
kodi-send.py -a "Notification(A message for you...,This is a test message,30000,/phone.png)"

This produces the following screen in the default Estuary skin:



However, displaying the same test message using Amber and the phone icon does not appear:



Also wondering if the font size of the notification message could also be a configurable item... I'd love for it to be a little bit bigger.

2) Could the "Favourites" screen be modified so that the normal Viewtypes (List, Panel, Icon, etc.) be selectable to display favourites?

Thanks in advance for the consideration.

[bsoriano]

@barcoboy , thank you for the feature requests.

1. I will add to my To-Do.  I am thinking of adding an option for a new notification style, which would include the icon, and the font size would follow the skin font size options (Small/Regular/Large).  How does that sound to you?

2. Unfortunately, not possible.  This is a Kodi limitation; the Favourites screen is treated as a dialog, not a media window, so it is not possible to change the view type.

I will let you know when I complete #1.

Regards,

Bart

[barcoboy]

@bsoriano , #1 sounds great, and understand about #2.

Thanks.

[barcoboy]

@bsoriano , thinking some more about #2... would it be possible to set up different views of the Favorites screen and have them selectable in the main Amber settings page?  Example: a page which looks like the "Big List" view of other sections?  If I understand skinning correctly, it would mean setting up an XML file for each different view, and then the settings page just choosing which one to load to display the screen, or in Favorites case, the dialog.

[bsoriano]

@bsoriano , thinking some more about #2... would it be possible to set up different views of the Favorites screen and have them selectable in the main Amber settings page?  Example: a page which looks like the "Big List" view of other sections?  If I understand skinning correctly, it would mean setting up an XML file for each different view, and then the settings page just choosing which one to load to display the screen, or in Favorites case, the dialog.

@barcoboy, in theory I understand this could be doable.  However, you would not be able to change the "view" from the favorites dialog itself (without a lot of code that I am not willing to take on).  What I can offer is to code one of the media views as an "alternate layout" for favorites (with the limited info that is available to the skin for each favorite item), and provide a skin setting so that you can choose this alternate layout.  Which view would you like?  Please let me know.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[barcoboy]

@barcoboy, in theory I understand this could be doable.  However, you would not be able to change the "view" from the favorites dialog itself (without a lot of code that I am not willing to take on).  What I can offer is to code one of the media views as an "alternate layout" for favorites (with the limited info that is available to the skin for each favorite item), and provide a skin setting so that you can choose this alternate layout.  Which view would you like?  Please let me know.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking of.  I think my favourite view is the "Big List" view.

[bsoriano]

@barcoboy, in theory I understand this could be doable.  However, you would not be able to change the "view" from the favorites dialog itself (without a lot of code that I am not willing to take on).  What I can offer is to code one of the media views as an "alternate layout" for favorites (with the limited info that is available to the skin for each favorite item), and provide a skin setting so that you can choose this alternate layout.  Which view would you like?  Please let me know.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking of.  I think my favourite view is the "Big List" view.

@barcoboy , it will look something like this:



The problem with the favourites dialog is that the only info available for the skinner for each item is the label and the icon, nothing more.  Do you stil want me to add the option? Please let me know.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[barcoboy]

That's perfect!  I like this look much better than the current view.

[bsoriano]

That's perfect!  I like this look much better than the current view.

@barcoboy , very well.  If you want to test, the changes are on GitHub already.

Regards,

Bart

[barcoboy]

@barcoboy , very well.  If you want to test, the changes are on GitHub already.

Regards,

Bart

@bsoriano , I have updated from GitHub, but I don't seem to be able to find the new menu option to change.  I can see from the source that it should be "Use Alternate Favourites Layout", but I can't find that anywhere in the settings.

[bsoriano]

@barcoboy , very well.  If you want to test, the changes are on GitHub already.

Regards,

Bart

@bsoriano , I have updated from GitHub, but I don't seem to be able to find the new menu option to change.  I can see from the source that it should be "Use Alternate Favourites Layout", but I can't find that anywhere in the settings.

@barcoboy , it should be under General in the skin settings:



Please let me know if this is not showing up correctly for you.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[barcoboy]

I am seeing under General the option "Show Smaller Favorite Icons", but then the next menu item I have is "Enable Use of Embuary Helper" and finally "Holiday Snowfall Theme"

[bsoriano]

I am seeing under General the option "Show Smaller Favorite Icons", but then the next menu item I have is "Enable Use of Embuary Helper" and finally "Holiday Snowfall Theme"

@barcoboy , that is very strange; I just looked on GitHub, and the changes are there correctly, adding the setting in the skin settings.  Could you please try updating again from GitHub? Since you are in Matrix, that would be from https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin...master.zip .  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[barcoboy]

You are right, this is very strange.  :-)

The download link that you gave me is the same one I was using, but downloading the file again and I get a different size ZIP file.  However, when I try to install it, KODI tells me that it is invalid due to having an invalid structure.

So then I ran "git clone https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.amber.git", and replaced the skin.amber directory in the addons folder.  I can see the changed files in the 1080i directory, but I still didn't see the option appearing in KODI.

All of this was being done on a Linux workstation running Slackware64-Current, and a self-compiled version of KODI Matrix, so I tried a fresh install on a MacBook Pro with BigSur, and after installing the ZIP file, the option appeared.

So then I went back to Linux, switched to the Eustary skin, uninstalled Amber (but kept my settings), then re-installed from the ZIP file.  This time, KODI did not complain that the ZIP file was invalid, and now the new option appears!

The Favourites screen looks great too.  Thank you very much for implementing this.

[bsoriano]

You are right, this is very strange.  :-)

The download link that you gave me is the same one I was using, but downloading the file again and I get a different size ZIP file.  However, when I try to install it, KODI tells me that it is invalid due to having an invalid structure.

So then I ran "git clone https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.amber.git", and replaced the skin.amber directory in the addons folder.  I can see the changed files in the 1080i directory, but I still didn't see the option appearing in KODI.

All of this was being done on a Linux workstation running Slackware64-Current, and a self-compiled version of KODI Matrix, so I tried a fresh install on a MacBook Pro with BigSur, and after installing the ZIP file, the option appeared.

So then I went back to Linux, switched to the Eustary skin, uninstalled Amber (but kept my settings), then re-installed from the ZIP file.  This time, KODI did not complain that the ZIP file was invalid, and now the new option appears!

The Favourites screen looks great too.  Thank you very much for implementing this.

@barcoboy, I am glad you got it sorted. I have not forgotten about your other request.

Regards,

Bart