Part 1: Adding Thumbnails to your Favourites
(At the moment this requires manual changes, I'm sure it will eventually be automated)
• Although it will require manual edits to your favourites.xml, adding thumbnails to your favourites is easy and risk free
• Your favorites.xml is located in your userdata folder (Home folder), if you are using Windows you will find it here...
(C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\favourites.xml)
• In order to Add/Change thumbnails you will obviously need to start by adding favourites within XBMC. Using Eden: Beta simply navigate to a playlist or library section, bring up the context menu
[c] and select 'Add to Favourites'
• Now that you have added your favourites, your favourites.xml should look like this...
PHP Code:
<favourites>
<favourite name="YouTube" thumb="C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\addons\plugin.video.youtube\icon.png">ActivateWindow(10025,"plugin://plugin.video.youtube")</favourite>
<favourite name="Anime">ActivateWindow(10025,"videodb://2/1/6/")</favourite>
</favourites>
• As you can see, the YouTube add-on (as well as most add-ons) already has a thumbnail assigned to it. This is perfect since all we need to do is replicate the code.
To make things easier you might want to save your custom thumbnails somewhere within the XBMC home folder (I like to create a folder in the root, just like I do for backgrounds)
1. Open your .xml
(To edit your .xml I recommend Notepad2, even though you can use almost any text editor)
2. Add the path to your thumbnail (corresponding with the YouTube example above)
PHP Code:
thumb="C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\Custom Thumbs\thumb.png"
• Your .xml should now look like this...
PHP Code:
<favourites>
<favourite name="YouTube" thumb="C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\addons\plugin.video.youtube\icon.png">ActivateWindow(10025,"plugin://plugin.video.youtube")</favourite>
<favourite name="Anime" thumb="C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\Custom Thumbs\anime.png">ActivateWindow(10025,"videodb://2/1/6/")</favourite>
</favourites>
• Make sure you always have a space between
" and
thumb=
• You can quickly make sure it worked by navigating to your favourites in XBMC
__________________________________________
Part 2: Create Custom Home Menu
Quote:In this part of the tutorial I will demonstrate the simple set up process. If you need help with smart playlists and splitting your library scroll down for the third part of the tutorial.
• XeeBo gives you 6 favourite item slots on the home screen.
• To have a custom menu as the top row of your home screen, you will need to set the first row to 'favourite items'
1. Navigate to the home tab in Xeebo's skin settings...
Home > Settings > Skin Settings > Home
2. Navigate down the options list until Set Row #1 is selected
(as you navigate down you will notice each setting cycles through it's options)
3. Cycle through Set Row #1 until you see Favourite items, it should be the second option
4. Press enter to save
• Now you can populate your custom menu with favourite items, this is pretty much the same as the last process.
1. Navigate to the home tab in Xeebo's skin settings...
Home > Settings > Skin Settings > Home
2. Navigate down to the 2nd option (Select Favourite for Custom Item #1)
(the item number might be different since you cycled through the list to set the first row)
3. Navigating up or down cycles through the options item number. To set your custom menu's first item make sure
item #1 is displayed and press enter.
4. The favourites menu will pop up, select the favourite you want as your first item and simply press enter to save
• The favourite item you selected will now be displayed on your home screen.
When setting a playlist as a home item you will be given the option to play the playlist instead of entering, you will need to select no for this option in order for your playlist to act as a menu item.
[i]Reminder: You can favourite almost anything; Playlists, Video Add-Ons, Library sections (e.g. the root of your Movies library), Program Add-ons and more...[/i]
</favourite>
