My christmas theme



Current version - 1.58 - works with WLM 8.5 and  WLM 9.0

To Do (If you any other suggestions just post them)
- Make a few changes to text colours in the scripts
- change contacts displays names to a different colour (wite)
- Change toast so that they do not show the tree background but the gradient one
- bells for the sign in anmination

Change Log
-The text in the login screen is now white with the login boxes having a green background
-Sturart has fixed the problem with the backgrounds I have tested it in 8.5 and it works not sure about 9.0 though
-A few more things have been edited thanks to sturatbennett which are - option of which background you would like to use; word wheel and buttons are now the same colour
-9.0 Compatability now added
-The text on the dash board has been changed to white (only in 8.5)
-Windows Live Messenger picture on log on screen and contact list screen changed to say Christmas Messenger
-Contact list background removed to show the big christmas tree (rather than the smaller ones - a new screen shot will be up soon)

Comments and changes are welcome and may be added to the next version

Screenshot?

not workin, it says its not a valid plus skin pack

It's not working?? Which is strange as it works for me

I will see what the problem is

i made it work, just move definitions files out of the 8.5 folder

Here, I fixed it. I think it was because you included the trace file. I removed it.

Feel free to replace with your own, freak544.

Edit: Nevermind, you got it working.

Now that we can actually use it... Nice attempt

Imo, if all the backgrounds were the login screen background, it would be better. Green-red gradients look terrible.

Oh, and change the default display picture to a more Christmasy style.

Why does it work when I try installing it from where I have saved it on my laptop but when I try to download it is says its an invalid file?



Here is a screen shot of it working

quote:

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Originally posted by Keikonium
Screenshot?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Chris4
Here, I fixed it. I think it was because you included the trace file. I removed it.

Feel free to replace with your own, freak544.

Edit: Nevermind, you got it working.

Now that we can actually use it... Nice attempt

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quote:

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Originally posted by lordtinuviel
i made it work, just move definitions files out of the 8.5 folder

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quote:

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Originally posted by Nagamasa
Imo, if all the backgrounds were the login screen background, it would be better. Green-red gradients look terrible.

Oh, and change the default display picture to a more Christmasy style.

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The problems with the download are this.. You've already downloaded the old attatchment. When you download the new one, it's still downloading the old one saved in the cache.

To fix: Clear your cache. Then re-download. Works fine.

Oh silly me I think i am too tired with it being 1am lol I have been working on this skin for ages whilst doing other things inbetween

Could someone just request that it works so that I can go to bed and sleep

edit: Ok cheers i am glad it works and i can go to sleep now

Please have a look at this skin, any changes or comments are welcome and may be included/changed in the next version

The included screenshot is linked to the actual site and not the screenshot itself . Looks good from what I can tell.   

yes that looks very nice

Version 1.11 now released

The small tress on the contact list background have been removed

Hope you all enoy

Comments and changes are welcome

oh damn thats harsh lol, what i mean by that is i absolutely love this skin however since installing 9.0 my 8.5 has stopped working properly and this skin only works in 8.5 so i cant look at it, however based on the screenshot provided i am slightly concerned, although it looks great what you have to remember is when toasts pop up youll see a very dark green with part of a star in the middle and the black text "windows live messenger" will not be readable, i dont know if toast can be assigned seperate backgrounds than the rest of the windows however assuming its possible i recomend the same background at slightly smaller perhaps without the tree and set the images for the "windows live messenger" text to be a different colour maybe even change the default text colour on the toasts.

i know toasts dont pop up that often but when they do they need to look nice and be readable or people might not enjoy your skin.

those are my only real complaints about it, so if you fix the toasts and add 9.0 compatability it will be pretty near perfect i reckon, well actually perfect would include animated snow in the background of all windows however im not sure of the limitations of messenger or plus's skinning engine so that may not be doable at this time.

I am hoping to make the skin for 9.0 soon
I am working on making the toasts look a little better
It would be nice to have falling snow in the background but I think this is not possible
I will try and get 9.0 compatibility and other changes released tomorrow hopefully

I don't really like the light green it annoys my eyes. Same with the search bar. The Christmas tree looks good though.

I am planning to change the search bar colour (either to a darker green or a red or yellow)
Are you on about the light green at the top (I am planning to change this to either be green or show the rest of the christmas tree if this is possible)

yeah about the light green dashboard in contact list it is a bit bright, need sunglasses lol. i think id eventually get used to it although if it can be made transparent so you can see the rest of the tree thatd be great, word of warning though, if dashboard can be made transparent your text next to mail button and the arrow by the show menu button will have to be changed to white as black text on that dark green will not show up well as i stated in my comments regarding the toasts earlier.

i dont know if the falling snow is possible, probably not although would be cool if it were.

The background can seem a little ugly when non set at the images resolution, and the green is a little bright. sorry pal.

Well I changed the light green to a darker green and trying to add 9.0 compatability as we speak

The darker green dashboard may be uploaded tomorrow before 9.0 compability is added

When I make the dash board transparent I will make the text a different colour white sounds good

An update will hopefully be released tomorrow for this skin

cool freak thats sounds great.

quote:

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Originally posted by stuartbennett
cool freak thats sounds great.

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ok no problem.

My skin has now been updated please see the first post

After testing the skin option I have noticed a problem so please refer to the first post

Edit: "PLEASE NOTE: In the 8.5 version if the background is turned off it goes a white colour this will be fixed in the next version to go green as i will have to edit some of the files so don't untick the box in skin options on the 8.5 - with 9.0 I have no idea if this creates the same problem as I can't test it"

Other than this the skin works fine and an update will be released tomorrow so that the contact list (and sign in screen) will not show up white (the default colour)

with 9 the contact list is allways hidden cant use it

Stuart has fixed the backgrounds for me

snAke_LeAder hopefully this has now been fixed with version 1.55 if it hasn't been fixed I will look at the code and try to fixed it for the next version

same like in 1.50 i have no contact list

Can you provide a screen shot please

quote:

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Originally posted by snAke_LeAder
same like in 1.50 i have no contact list

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I have found the problem I think so version 1.58 sould now work

It was a problem with the skininfo one of the files wasn't referenced to correctly

hi mate... great idea...

I have several suggestions for you: please make the CL bg lighter cause I can't read the contact's display name, fix CL corners, replace the WL icon of the upper left corner with the tree you putted in the Christmas Messenger image, change toast's bg and change the signing in animation with some christmas bells or something like that ...

with those changes the skin will be lot better

UPDATE: you colorized the PSM arrow but the Display name...

What bg for the contact list te tree one or the gradient one

the contacts displays name i am oping to display in white

I am sure I have changed the icon in the new version (1.58)

the toast uses the same image at the moment but i will take off the bg on the toast so that they are just a green colour

bells for the sign in animation is a good idea

thanks for your ideas

any more changes??

quote:

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Originally posted by freak544
What bg for the contact list te tree one or the gradient one

the contacts displays name i am oping to display in white

I am sure I have changed the icon in the new version (1.58)

the toast uses the same image at the moment but i will take off the bg on the toast so that they are just a green colour

bells for the sign in animation is a good idea

thanks for your ideas

any more changes??

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im always happy to be one of your testers freak544 after all youve tested my skin for me several times now, and i agree with warmth about not posting so many releases so close to each other, my skin has only been release as version 1.00, version 1.20 had 9.0 compatability and the word wheel and searchbar remover but was never released i am now on version 1.30 which has removal options for all of the Contact List buttons except for Plus Button, Plus Scripts, Colourize & Showmenus as i feel those 4 buttons are pretty important and shouldnt be turned off.

however version 1.30 doesnt have 9.0 compatability on all these new features yet, i still want to add options for the convo window buttons and catch up with coding the 9.0 compatability, once all thats been done i will release it as version 1.50.

if possible id love for V1.50 to be released before Christmas but it may take until new years.

anyway im going to download V1.58 and see if i can see anything to suggest for ya.

Oh I did delete the trace file in one of the plsk's but i have been forgetting in the newer versions

yeah i have the picture in the folder and i am sure i changed the definitions files to change the corner images (but may have missed something out somewhere)

Yeah i am going to cange the contact list text to white

what fonts are you on about??

I will I might put the change log as a text file rather than writing it in the first post

I will get a few people to test it for me before uploading its just that i have a habbit of changing things one at a time seeing if they work then release it then work on the next thing

all people that are willing to test then add me on msn freak544[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk

If i don't make all the changes befors christmas day i will carry on making the changes troughtout the year so they are avaliable next year

without background

with background

contactlist is still there,...but no contacts

quote:

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Originally posted by snAke_LeAder
without background

with background

contactlist is still there,...but no contacts

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im not encountering the black screen bug that snake mentioned, i am using V1.60 at the moment. i have however found some things that could be changed for the next release.

firstly on the login screen these links dont look very readable

• forgot your password
  service status
  sign up for a windows live id
  privacy statement
  windows live id

Ok sturat I will change the input boxes to white and i haven't got round to making the contacts text in a different colour

And the links will have a different colour how ever I may remove them for the time being

ok freak fair enough, snake we will have your problem fixed in next version ive just this minute fixed the code.

Stuart I just installed 9.0 and it doesn't seem to work just a black screen I am going to uninstall 9.0 and put 8.5 back on so I can stay on msn

did you use the version i sent you, i fixed the issues on 9.0 in the pack i emailed you. if it still dont work send me your skintrace file so i can track down the error for you.

here is the part you will need

code:

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07/12/21 21:55:55| **** The trace has started ****
07/12/21 21:55:55| Skin: Christmas Skin 1.60
07/12/21 21:55:55| Messenger version: 9.0.1407.1107 (en-us)
07/12/21 21:55:55| Messenger Plus! version: 4.50.310
07/12/21 21:55:55| Last definition file loaded: 947
07/12/21 21:55:55| Last style sheet file loaded: 947
07/12/21 21:55:55| Last picture file loaded: 652
07/12/21 21:55:55| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 65
07/12/21 21:55:55| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
07/12/21 21:56:30| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 65
07/12/21 21:56:30| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
07/12/21 21:56:30| **** The trace has ended ****

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you see the bit where it says cant find stylesheet and end 65 that means that in stylesheet 947 theres an error on line 65, i looked there compared to a 9.0 style file of 947 and the values were different, i think you might have had an 8.5 947 style file in there without realising it.

anyways replaced it in the skin pack ive just sent you but youll have to redo your customizations again, sorry about that.

Thats ok stuart and it works but only for the login screen
I think I might give up on 9.0 compatabilty for this year (as it just seems to be problems wit 9.0 compatability that I am having) and release a new skin for it next year because who knows wen it will be released hopefully before next christmas
I will get the skin working on 9.0 though but the majo updates will be to the 8.5 version and not the 9.0 one
It partly works for 9.0 which is good but once the contact list is working then the plsk will be uploaded so that 9.0 users can have a christmassy theme

when you have it working how you want it to work in 8.5 send it to me and ill do the conversion for 9.0 for you, it'll take a little time mind you as after christmas ill only get to work on skins on weekends but i will gladly do the 9.0 compatability for you once you have finalised your features for 8.5

I don't think many people will be using it after christmas so aslong as I get te backgrounds working for 9.0 today then everyone will be happy

maybe not, well you have a whole year to get it perfect then hey?

Nubs at war.

quote:

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Originally posted by stuartbennett
whole year

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true i think he was planning to do seperate skins for each of the special days but your right why not make it into one, he could have a seperate resgroup for each theme and then hook them all into a dropdown box so you can go through skinops panel to choose which theme to use, this could replace the change background tickbox

freak if you want any help with this id be glad to hekp for example i could do you a theme for something, well actually i have a summertime theme we could merge our skins into one and together create a few more themes, just an idea.

What a good idea stuart

Yeah you are right I was going to create a skin for each holiday event

Joining them together is a great idea with having like a christmas, easter and summer theme, we could even add like a spring theme, autum and winter theme. Maybe also add a birthday theme so that the person can use that option on there birthday.

I feel I just haven't got the grasp off using xml fully I know the basics but when it comes to the options and stuff thats when I get stuck. Now I realise why i only got a D in computing (which was heavily involved with VB [VS] and coding).

me and Jason (freak544) are now in the early stages of merging our 2 skins together. christmas skin merged in without any loss of features however my skin i had to take the option to put word wheel to the top out as i dont know how to do it without creating a second resgroup for the summertime theme.

if anyone knows how to do this it will be added for all themes. we currently have 3 themes which are:

• Summertime
  Christmas
  Default

I thought someone was already making/finished a 'holidays' skin?

EDIT: Yeah, I was thinking of Sunshine's skin

yes but sunshines only offers a handful of event themes, we are looking at doing themes for every holiday in the UK calendar, hey freak544 do you know how to draw pancakes? (srove tuesday) lol

quote:

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Originally posted by vaccination
I thought someone was already making/finished a 'holidays' skin?

EDIT: Yeah, I was thinking of Sunshine's skin

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i will have a go at drawing pancakes

i think your right warmth that was my understanding of what sunshine was after too. and to be honest theres so much room for expansion with a skin that does holidays i mean do you just do the UK Calendar or do you incorporate other calendars, you could add independence day, 9/11, thanks giving, heck add the chinese calendar who have an animal representing each year and you can do themes for like year of the rooster etc the possibilities are endless i doubt one holiday skin will ever cover every holiday from every holiday calendar.

It will all be nice to have different styles of the same versions of skins so if people get board of one version they can use another version of it for a bit of change

I agree stuart it would be pretty hard to make a skin with all the events from all calenders thats why ours will be a UK holiday's skin

LoL
Pancake day skin
St. Georges Day skin. K1LL dA Dr@g0n!1!
etc

yeah there are loads of events

My birthday???

birthday will be one of them yes.

Submit it to the DB (http://www.msgpluslive.net/skins/submit/)? Just in time for Christmas .

yeah could do, i do have a question though menthix which is, i have the summertime skin already on the database, this is essentially a multitheme update of that skin, now incorporating the christmas skin and is now called the "365 Skin" its still only build for 8.5 at this time, i have my link for summertime in the database so if we did submit it in time for christmas would it get posted on same link as an update or will it get a seperate listing?

Probably better to keep them as separate skins as they look completely different.

quote:

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Originally posted by MenthiX
Probably better to keep them as separate skins as they look completely different.

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Sorry I got distracted with a few things and have only just got back yeah you can relases it in time for christmas Sturat and if you email with what you would like me to do tomorrow when you get up and I will see what I can do tomorrow for you

You should of just released it as its all working ok so far

I have the plsk pack and not sure weather to uplaod it to the database or not yet I know stuart would like it to be uploaded

A new thread will be started for mine and Stuarts skin pack in which the christmas theme and summertime theme is included int he pack so please refer to that thread from now on