Some SageMC Theme questions

[jbarr]

I recently installed SageTV, and was playing around with the themes, and noticed settled on the MCE theme. It looks great, and has the elements and "feel" I was looking for. Curiously, though, it seemed to be missing some elements that I saw described in several threads. For example, the Disk Bar at the to nicely displayed the free space, but strangely, the graphic "gauge" was missing. And though I enabled the setting that would display the tuner number in a recording's information, the number wouldn't display. There were some other idiosyncrasies also.

So, I started to dig around in the theme folders to try to understand what is what, and what is where.

It seems to me that when you select a theme, a command file copies that theme from the theme's folder into the .\SageMCE\Images folder. (can someone please confirm this?) So, I then navigated into the .\SageMCE\Images_MC folder, and manually copied the contents of that folder into the Images folder, and voila! all of the missing elements appeared! (After re-starting the SageTV client, of course.)

So, after understanding this, it was a simple matter of browsing the other folders to find elements that I liked better, and copy them into the Images folder. You see, though I realy do love the SageMC themes, I prefer several of the "stock" elements more, simply because I feel that they are more readable. For example, the HD logo, the First Run image, and a few others. I also like the manual and recording "disk" icons over the MC versions.

So, after getting all the elements I liked into the Images folder, I then copied THAT folder to another folder as a backup.

So now some questions:

1. Can someone confirm that the Images folder is the folder from which SageMC reads the current theme images?

2. Is there an "order of precedence" with a theme's sub-folders? Some hav duplicated images (the filenames, anyway) in the theme's root folder as well as in the ShowIcons folder.

3. Can someone explain or point me to any documentation detailing just what needs to go into a theme? I know that Meinmaui said that his Liquid theme has all the "necessary" icons to make a theme unique, so it is a great starting point, but is there any other documentation?

I'd love to start honing the theme to my specific needs and wants, and maybe even try my hand at developing one from scratch, but I really need to understand the underlying structure first.

BTW, thanks for some EXCELLENT looking themes!!!

[dflachbart]

Hi Jim,

Originally Posted by jbarr

1. Can someone confirm that the Images folder is the folder from which SageMC reads the current theme images?

Yes, all images are read relative to the 'Images' folder. When you switch a theme in SageMC, it will rename the current 'Images' folder back to the original folder name (e.g. "Images_mc"), and then rename the new theme folder to 'Images'. Once you restart the UI, it will pick up the new graphic files

2. Is there an "order of precedence" with a theme's sub-folders? Some hav duplicated images (the filenames, anyway) in the theme's root folder as well as in the ShowIcons folder.

No, the code either references the image file in the root folder, or in the ShowIcons folder. If there are duplicate images in both folders, one of them really shouldn't be there...

3. Can someone explain or point me to any documentation detailing just what needs to go into a theme? I know that Meinmaui said that his Liquid theme has all the "necessary" icons to make a theme unique, so it is a great starting point, but is there any other documentation?

I'm afraid that is the best you can get...


Dirk

[jbarr]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hi Jim,
...
I'm afraid that is the best you can get...
Dirk

Thanks for the info. It's at least an excellent starting place!!

[MeInMaui]

Yeah, there isn't any documentation for creating themes. I had to go through SageMC in Studio and figure out what images are used. That's why it took me nearly a year to finally commit to putting a theme together. Right now, the only images that I know are missing from the liquid theme are the default DVD cover and hover_my news.png (for the next SageMC update ). At some point soon I'll add them. I've just been very busy with my other projects lately. Anyway, good luck if you decide to put a theme together. Let me know if you need any pointers.

Aloha,
Mike