The Custom Browse page contains of the following parts: 1. The header which contains the "Name, Duration, File Size, Album, Genre, Year, Search On" stuff.
2. The main contents which start with "All Songs" and continue with listing all the albums 3. A footer which by default doesn't contain anything but can be configured in the same way as the header part. Besides this you also have some additional items above the header, like the navigation bar "Home > Custom Browse / Artists / Adams" and the sorting option drop list and the cover art switch. The sorting option drop list and cover art switch is combined into a single list box in the default skin and shown at the bottom below the footer. The main content part (2) is configured in "SqueezeCenter Settings/Custom Browse/Manage menus". As long as you don't choose to customize the XML for a menu the entered parameter values is stored in a *.cb.values.xml file. This file just contains the parameter values, the real menu configuration is contained in the *.template files in the Custom Browse/Templates directory or the MenuTemplates sub directory if you are using a menu type implemented by one of my other plugins. The real XML configuration used is based on the *.template file but with the real values from the *.cb.values.xml file inserted. Each *.template file represents a specific menu type which results in a top level menu and it contains the main content part (2) of all the menu levels of that top level menu. The header part (1) is configured in "SqueezeCenter Settings/Custom Browse/Manage header/footer items". Each row in the header is contained in its own configuration file. The same principle is used here, so you have a *.cb.context.values.xml file which contains the parameter values and a *.template file which contains the template XML configuration which should be filled with the real values. The parameter "Object type" is the one that decides which information that is shown on each menu page. All items with "Object type" set to "albumheader" is shown when you click on an album, all items with the "Object type" set to "artistheader" is shown when you click on an artist. The footer part (3) is configured in the same way as the header part but uses an "Object type" that ends with "footer" instead of "header". If you choose to customize the XML in the user interface, the menu will be stored as a *.cb.xml instead of *.cb.values.xml. The result of this is that you will get a XML configuration filled with real values and you can change anything you like. The disadvantage is that changes in the *.template files in future Custom Browse version won't affect your customized XML configuration. So if you like to benefit from changes in the *.template files, you will need to repeat the XML customization process after you have upgraded to a new release. The menu configuration is stored in a number of directories which is specified in "SqueezeCenter Settings/Custom Browse". - Browse configuration directory: Contains the *.cb.values.xml and *.cb.xml files for your created menus - Browse templates directory: Contains your own *.template files for main content part templates you have made, this is also where templates using the "Download" links in the user interface is stored. Each *.template file has a corresponding *.xml file which describes which parameter the user should enter for the template. - Context templates directory: Contains your own *.template files for header/footer part which you have made, this is also used for downloaded templates. By default all the above mentioned directories should be configured to point to three different empty directories. These should be somewhere outside the SqueezeCenter installation dir to make sure they aren't overwritten when you install a new SqueezeCenter version or a new plugin version. The XML format is somewhat described on my wiki page for Custom Browse. This was the description part, I'll continue with the answers to your questions in a separate post. -- erland Erland Isaksson 'My homepage' (http://erland.homeip.net) 'My download page' (http://erland.homeip.net/download) (Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse, Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and Database Query plugins' (http://wiki.erland.homeip.net/index.php/Category:SlimServer)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45342 _______________________________________________ plugins mailing list plugins@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/plugins
