Customising home screen menu items?

[Truman]

In XBMC Eden on my atv2 when I click movies and tvshows It brings up my list of files. But in xbmc4xbox confleunce light skin it brings up a sub menu of genres, etc etc. How do I change this so movies just takes me directly into the movies folder with a list of movies? I thought this had soemthing to do with library mode which I switched off, but when I bring up the left side bar when in movies, library mode is still always highlighted.

Also is there a way to add another menu item to the home screen such as documentaries? I read a tutorial on customising the home screen on the xbmc forums but it was hard for me to follow and a lot of it didnt seem to relate to confluence.

Thanks for the help.

[Dan Dar3]

For "file mode", you may enable "Videos" in the Confluence Lite skin settings (Settings menu) and use that to go directly into files view.
Alternatively, you can try in any view to press the white button (context menu) on a particular entry and choose "Make default" - that should make it the default entry to into when using that section.

[EFORCE]

The make default option doesn't work in file mode. There can be only one . I have the same issue when using Transparancy! where I enabled Video, Movies and TV Shows. Movies brings me to the library, but I'd like 2 different defailts for Video and TV Shows. Unfortunately both bring you to the video screen, so there cannot be seperate defaults. Is there a way to work around this?

[Truman]

So no option to allow you to set the movies main menu link to go direct to your movies folder and the TVshows main menu link to go direct to your TVshows folder? It works like this in eden on ATV2. I only use videos files if I want to play something thats in another folder on my shared drive?


Also still looking for an option to add documentaries to my main menu on the home screen which will take me to my folder of documentaries.

[whufclee]

If you have your content scanned in then yes "Movies" should take you directly to the movies section and "tv shows" should take you to the tv shows section. If you want to change exactly where you are taken to (Root, Title, Genre, Year etc) then you'll need to use the xaf-SAF skin and you'll find options for this is skin settings. On other skins it requires a tweak in the code, sorry I can't remember how to do it but ronie did tell me a few years ago how to hardcode it. I'm sure xbs or one of the skin devs could help you on that one.

[EFORCE]

Whufclee, thanks for the update, it looks indeed that there is a tweak in the skinsettings needed for file mode. Let's hope someone can point us in the right direction....

[byron]

@ Truman...as great as xbmc is, it's pretty difficult to find a skin that offers everything you want (and the ability to customize it completely to your liking). If you have a request there's no harm in posting it here. As for your issue, if you enjoy using confluence lite, and you want some help I can show you how to get want you want. First download notepad ++ and let me know when you have it. Also whufclee is correct, you should just be able to click on TvShows or Movies and go directly to the "title" menu. At that point you just choose the view that you want

[xbs]

Main menu Movies points to

Code: Select all

<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,Movies,return)</onclick>

i.e. Movies node

Videos submenu Movies points to

Code: Select all

<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,MovieTitles,return)</onclick>

i.e. Movies title (node)

To add a documentary button to main menu you need to add a button in home.xml pointing to 'VideoFiles,Documentary'.
Next you need to add a video source named it Documentary (folder name/path can be anything).

Code: Select all

<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles,Documentary,return)</onclick>

It's much easier to add the Documentary folder/path to Favourites

[byron]

It's much easier to add the Documentary folder/path to Favourites

very true...messing with the code on your own box is always fun though

[Truman]

If you have your content scanned in then yes "Movies" should take you directly to the movies section and "tv shows" should take you to the tv shows section. If you want to change exactly where you are taken to (Root, Title, Genre, Year etc) then you'll need to use the xaf-SAF skin and you'll find options for this is skin settings. On other skins it requires a tweak in the code, sorry I can't remember how to do it but ronie did tell me a few years ago how to hardcode it. I'm sure xbs or one of the skin devs could help you on that one.

This is what happens in Eden on atv2. Clicking movies on the home screen takes me to the movies folder showing my list of movies. etc etc

@Byon..I have notepad++, If you could advise how to do this and add documentarys to th home screen that would be great much appreciated.
I assume its similar to what XBs has said but I didnt quite get this part.

Next you need to add a video source named it Documentary (folder name/path can be anything).

Does that mean to actually just add the documnetarys folder in add video source? If so Ive already done this, but wouldnt the code here

<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles,Documentary,return)</onclick>

Have to actually point to the location of this folder on the server? So something like this

<onclick>ActivateWindow(smb://Troy-PC/E:/Documentarys,return)</onclick>

BTW Ive actually as of last night just received my raspberry Pi and am using that instead of xbox. But Im still using confluence light and I hope that you guys are still going to help and not banish me out of this forum as Im now batting for another team..LOL

Or does the code actually just look for a folder called documentarys regardless of where it is located?

[byron]

Hey Truman, I think what xbs was suggesting was hightlight/selecting the folder via smb with the white(context) button and then choosing "add to favorites." It would then be added there for quick access. As for the coding, it's really just a matter copy and paste. While this might not be the best approach, it should do the trick. Open up xbmc/skin/confluence lite/720p/IncludesHomeMenuItem in notedpad++. The submenu bar for movies starts on line 55...just pick one of them that you want to replace (this id "90163"was movies sets and I just changed the label), and replace it with this

Code: Select all

<control type="button" id="90163">
	<include>ButtonHomeSubCommonValues</include>
	<label>Documentary</label>
	<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles,Documentary,return)</onclick>
</control>	

save it, ftp it back over and that should work. If you actually use all of the tabs that are there, that's another story...but start there. It's also a good idea to make a copy of the file before you start messing with it

[Truman]

@Byron.....thanks heaps. That worked although I had to do it slightly different in openelev ecause I couldn't edit that file in that exact folder location so had to clone it elsewhere.

I now have a sub me under movies called documentarys but when I click on it just a blank folder opens.
I have documentarys added under videos>add source so what might I have done wrong?

Also if I wanted to add documentarys to my main menu without renaming one of the current menu items, can you tell me the other story?...lol.

Thanks again.

[byron]

so you've got the button on the home menu now. I'm guessing you have the folder scanned into your library right? The whole story is adding another button ie documentaries, incorporating into the list that's already there...and making it look good too

edit:
I could be wrong, but if you just have a source and haven't scanned it into the library yet...xbmc doesn't see it in library mode. Movies/Documentary that you created (nice work by the way) is looking for the info in the library so if you haven't scanned it in yet it makes sense that the folder would be empty. BTW, it makes things easier to FTP the file/folder that you're tweaking to your work area first (say to your desktop...), then all you have to do is change it and resend it.

[Truman]

When I scan for new content on the documentarys folder I get an error message saying "Unable to connect to the remote server, do you want to continue? If I click yes it finds the next doco and says the same thing. This happens if I set the scraper as tvdb or imdb which I wasn't sure which one I should use.

This is a recent problem as I was able to scan my other folders no problems but get the same error if I do it now.


I did FTP the file to my desktop first but couldn't add it back into openelec as a lot if the files are read only. But I found another location I was able to clone the confluence skin folder to and this worked.

Any ideas on why the scraper won't work?

[byron]

There have been some posts recently about this happening, I have no idea why. Probably on this thread somewhere. I'm guessing that's why the folder is empty though. Could also be your folder structure? But if you scanned other stuff, and it's in the same manner then I'm not sure. This would be a good time for you to play with the code a bit though Try adding the same button you just did with a different id to the same list without getting rid of the "sets" button (only use another id...one that isn't already being used ) and see what happens. I'm not familiar with this skin's code since it was xbs that made it, so that's what he was explaining to you a few posts up I think. Anyway, I'll see if I scan something to my library...

[Truman]

My bad. I had changed the dns settings in openelec when I was trying to ssh into it earlier and forgot to change it back. I should have realized because my time was out too.

It's scanning fine now.

[Truman]

Okay Ive scanned that in but it still doesnt work. One thing I did notice was that the code said this

<control type="button" id="90163">
<include>ButtonHomeSubCommonValues</include>
<label>Documentary</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles,Documentary,return)</onclick>
</control>

So I changed it to this in case it made a difference but it didnt. (took out the word files)

<control type="button" id="90163">
<include>ButtonHomeSubCommonValues</include>
<label>Documentary</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(Videos,Documentary,return)</onclick>
</control>

[byron]

actually my bad, try this

Code: Select all

    <control type="button" id="90163">
       <include>ButtonHomeSubCommonValues</include>
       <label>Documentary</label>
       <onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,Documentary,return)</onclick>
    </control>   

[xbs]

AFAIK Video Library is for Movies and TV Shows... not sure if you can have Documentaries in Library mode.

Favourites

Also, keep in mind that some code isn't the same in the xbox and in the RPi.

[Truman]

This still didnt work when I changed it to vidoelibrary.