Who can tell me what the purpose of the -group.xml file is?

[FrankL]

Who can tell me what the purpose of the -group.xml file is? Why not just put all the information in the player.xml or eq.xml file?

[FrankL]

also could someone tell me why the default skin has two entries for

<button
id="MainMenu"
action="SYSMENU"
x="21" y="3"
image="wasabi.button.appmenu.pressed"
downImage="wasabi.button.appmenu"
tooltip="Main Menu"
activeAlpha="0"
/>
<button
id="MainMenu"
action="SYSMENU"
x="21" y="3"
image="wasabi.button.appmenu"
downImage="wasabi.button.appmenu.pressed"
tooltip="Main Menu"
inactiveAlpha="0"
/>






and also what this means

<layout id="normal" minimum_h="116" maximum_h="116" minimum_w="275" maximum_w="275" droptarget="pldr">

<Wasabi:StandardFrame:NoStatus
x="0" y="0" w="0" h="0" relatw="1" relath="1"
content="player.content.group"
padtitleleft="12"
padtitleright="28"
shade="shade"
/>
<sendparams target="window.titlebar.title" default="WINAMP"/>
<sendparams target="mousetrap" dblClickAction="SWITCH;shade"/>
<sendparams target="window.top.left;window.top;window.top.right;window.left;window.right;window.bottom.left.top;window.bottom.left;window.bottom.left.bottom;window.bottom.top;window.bottom;window.bottom.bottom;window.bottom.right.top;window.bottom.right;window.b ottom.right.bottom;" resize="0"/>
<sendparams target="window.bottom.right.top;window.bottom.right;window.bottom.right.bottom;" scale="bottomright"/>
<hideobject target="close;close.inactive"/>





This will really help me out

[frisbeemonkey]

The -group.xml files are really just for cleanliness, not really necessary.
The two entries for the MainMenu button do serve a purpose. If you look at each, you will see that there is a difference in the last line. activeAlpha="0" tells winamp to hide(make it fully transparent anyways) that button when that window has focus, inactiveAlpha="0" tells winamp to hide that button when the window doesn't have focus. Basically it allows them to use two images for the same button, one for active and one for inactive.
As for the rest, that is a lot of stuff. Could you be a little more specific as to what you want to know? Or are you looking for a line by line analyzation?
~FrisbeeMonkey

[FrankL]

on the second part i was just wondering what the commands do

[frisbeemonkey]

Alrighty...
<layout id="normal" minimum_h="116" maximum_h="116" minimum_w="275" maximum_w="275" droptarget="pldr">
Most of that is pretty self-explanatory, it controls the min and max height and width. The droptarget tells Winamp to play any files you drag and drop on the main window.

Chances are you won't want the rest of this as most skins don't use the standard frame for their main window. But, in case you want to...

<Wasabi:StandardFrame:NoStatus
x="0" y="0" w="0" h="0" relatw="1" relath="1"
content="player.content.group"
padtitleleft="12"
padtitleright="28"
shade="shade"
/>
This tells Winamp which layout of the standard frame to use, in this case NoStatus, which means it won't put a status bar at the bottom of the window(like the ADD, DEL, etc in the playlist editor) The x, y, etc tell Winamp where to put the contents in frame, and how big to make it. Content tells it what to put in the layout(in this case whatever you placed in your player.content.group). The padtitle lines are used to for controling the spacing of the title and streaks. The shade line tells Winamp which layout to switch to when the mousetrap is double-clicked. The mousetrap is just an invisible rectangle that catches clicks.

<sendparams target="window.titlebar.title" default="WINAMP"/>
This determines what name will show up as the title. Set default to what you want the name to be.

<sendparams target="mousetrap" dblClickAction="SWITCH;shade"/>
This tells mousetrap what to do when double-clicked. SWITCH is the action, shade is the param.

<sendparams target="window.top.left;window.top;window.top.right;window.left;window.right;window.bottom.left.top;window.bottom.left;window.bottom.left.bottom;window.bottom.top;window.bottom;window.bottom.bottom;window.bottom.right.top;window.bottom.right;window.b ottom.right.bottom;" resize="0"/>
This tells winamp not to allow resizing with the pieces of the standard frame since the main window isn't resizable (in this case.)

<sendparams target="window.bottom.right.top;window.bottom.right;window.bottom.right.bottom;" scale="bottomright"/>
This tells Winamp to allow the bottom right standard frame parts to rescale the window.

<hideobject target="close;close.inactive"/>
This hides the close and close inactive buttons defined in the standard frame since they defined their own outside of the frame(the ones you pasted before.)

As I said, in most cases you won't use this, but there it is. Let me know if you need any clarification or have any other questions,
~FrisbeeMonkey

[FrankL]

Wowie wow wow wow.

You are the man.

That really helps me out these were the only things i could not figure out about winamp 3 skin code. I feel like I now know everything there is to know about the basic skin code.

Thank you very much.

[FrankL]

what if any XML editor do you use?

[Gonzotek]

I use Crisom Editor, which is a pretty good general purpose programmer's text editor. You can use XML editors, but there are still some instances where Winamp3's XML will mess up the editor, depending on the editor and the code. I tried several XML-specific editors, including Microsoft's and Pete's XML Editor, and neither suited my needs.

Using Crimson Editor, you get syntax highlighting for maki and Winamp3 xml, and you can configure it to compile your scripts with a keyboard shortcut.

-=Gonzotek=-

[Hollow]

I'm a major fan of EmEditor. Its not free ware, but it does have free registration for students. It has a plug-in system, and with the xmlsense plug it it works rather well.

[FrankL]

EmEditor is pretty sweet, I haven't tried the other one out yet.

[frisbeemonkey]

No problem
And I use TextPad for my xml/maki editing, not a bad little program, supports syntax highlighting, etc. Might have to check out Crimson Editor though, I like the sound of the compiling shortcut.
~FrisbeeMonkey

[FrankL]

excuse my ignorance but I don't really know what a compiler is.

[frisbeemonkey]

For Winamp, the compiler(mc.exe in your Winamp3 directory) turns .m files(human-readable scripts) into .maki files(machine-code) that Winamp can then use to perform the functions you desire. You don't need the ability to compile in your editor program, but if you plan on doing a lot of MAKI scripting, you might find it saves you some time.
~FrisbeeMonkey

[FrankL]

thanks for the response. I've got another question now. What is the difference and purpose of layer id and container id?

[allhailskippy]

that would be to identify your layout and container from a script.

you have to give them names so that the script knows which layout/container etc to use.

[FrankL]

but i still can't figure out what a container is

[frisbeemonkey]

A container is a holder for for all the different layouts of that component. The Playlist Editor has its own container, the EQ and Thinger can each have their own, etc. The name of the container is what shows up in the system menu(the right-click menu) The "main" container is special in that when you send the "CLOSE" action to it, it shuts down all of Winamp, not just that particular container. Basically, anything that you want in it's own window will have it's own container.
~FrisbeeMonkey

[FrankL]

thanks