Well first off I have to say congrats to Patchou on surprising us with this new version. You have outdone yourself yet again.

Anyway since Messenger 9 has changed significantly since we were last able to edit it, I think it would be good for skinners to post up any oddities / limitations they find with the new skin system.

This is not only as reference for us as skinners, but also we might find something that Patchou could look into. After all there is a lot of power behind 9. Plus if you have problems with something then others can see if they have issues as well.

I will be working furiously these next few days to try and get some perspective on 9 and see where things are at.
Good luck to all skinners.

Offtopic - 750 Posts woo.

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Limitations
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• Scenes can cause issues whilst skinning, in general if you do not do drastic changes to the UI then you won't experience too much trouble. The main issue is that the header elements will create a colored layer on top of all elements underneath the scene element. Either lay the scene element underneath a static image that suits your design or leave the header alone.
  
  
• Scenes can't be physically removed. If you do so colorize will no longer be remembered on the window you remove the scene element from.
  
  
• Alerts no longer colorize, any colorized images will be ignored like they are in drop down menus.
  
  
• Standard toolbar in the chat window must not exceed 30px in height (this includes element padding). If the toolbar goes above 30px in height the elements will all get squashed down to 30px height.
  
  
• Temporary Limitation: DUI:Glow effects can't be fine tuned due to Messenger Plus! not being able to parse static values correctly.

• Although chat window backgrounds don't cover the full window area it is entirely possible to restore chat window backgrounds to cover the full window area like they did in 8.5. The best way to do this is to refer to the 920 Definition from 8.5 and then try to structure it the same. Please note that the Dynamic background container must be restructured and moved with the background element for this to work properly.

Sorry for double post, just keeping this going so it doesn't get buried.

Limitation: Scenes must be disabled and hidden in order to skin properly. This is because it affects the top header element and lays its own style rules on top of your own. Remember to use the reset scene feature as soon as its available.

On top of the game again will . Anyway, I just got back from my vacation and I'll see if I find anything.

Sorry cba uni's starting up again and skinning takes lots of time, that I've found I enjoy doing real life things, by the way I got 2 baby rats recently too cute things best of luck though everyone

uni is no excuse, and rats need attention once a day at most.

Get back to work Nile!

quote:

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Originally posted by Patchou
uni is no excuse

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let me get my hands over this...

quote:

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Originally posted by Willz
Heh I can vouch for that I started skinning when I started uni.

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Limitation: Alerts no longer colorize, any colorized images will be ignored like they are in drop down menus.

By the way it might be a good idea to move this to the public forum now

Limitation: the following CmdIds don't work at the logon window:
40166: change status to available (worked on 8.5 while signing in)
40168: change status to busy (idem)
40169: change status to away (idem)
40167: change status to invisible (idem)

What can be done:
Scenes can be removed, and does't affect colorization.
Display Pictures can be aligned to right again
All Contact List Backgrounds can be merged into one (by hiding the others and extending the heigh of the not hidden to something really big, like 4000rp)
Translucid png scroolbars and scrool buttons can be used and will display properly
Translucid alerts can be used and will display properly, means you can shape it.
Dots before each message can be removed (by replacing picture ids 1749 and 1786)
The Scene area can be moved to the bottom or be hidden.

quote:

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Originally posted by Willz
Limitation: Alerts no longer colorize, any colorized images will be ignored like they are in drop down menus.

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If WLM worked, I'd still be skinning and scripting
* John Anderton still hates the lack of WLMness

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
* John Anderton still hates the lack of WLMness

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quote:

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Originally posted by MenthiX

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
* John Anderton still hates the lack of WLMness

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What happened?

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Felu: <3

I'd so love to have created a skin during the competition ;( Oh well!

More dodgy colourising behaviour (not sure if it's the same as reported before).

I've replaced a few resources at the bottom of messenger, to give my own style to the ad-container.  They're the original picture from messenger just edited slightly....and set to colourise.

On most colours they colourise properly.......however on black and white (and some others too), they just go to a wierd kind of dark red colour

I can't explain it

djdannyp can you please post a screenshot to illustrate it better...

Another limitation, it seems the standard toolbar in the chat window now has a hardcoded height. It isn't that big of a deal since the majority of skins probably wont go over it, but for the skinner looking for something more unique its just not going to happen.

Anyway from some tests I have found the maximum height of the toolbar to be 30px (this includes element padding) anything after that causes the toolbar to squish elements.

quote:

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Originally posted by warmth
djdannyp can you please post a screenshot to illustrate it better...

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Sorry for the double post, but here's some completely seperate stuff, copied from the beta forum:

Originally posted somewhere


I kind of need these issues addressing......some are suggestions for the new plus.....some are me not being able to figure out how to do things!


1. Pictures in line with DP - Main problem!
Anyone who's used/seen my skin will know that I have a picture that goes in line with the display pictures, resting 'on top' of the lower display picture.  On the new beta I have put this picture in place, however there appears to be padding around the DP....due to not being able to decode the msrle object that provides the image for the DP border, I'm not sure as to whether it's a certain amount of padding included in the picture itself, or if there is some padding somewhere in the UI file that i'm missing (i've tried removing almost every padding option in and around the DP code and I've had no joy).......any ideas?

2. Working CMDID for skin options button - Suggestion
It's a semi known issue that due to the dividing of the contact list into two different UIs, but a workaround was found for the Preferences and Script button......any advances on one for the skin options button?

Now fixed as of 354


3. Tabbed options window - More of a suggestion
Originally suggested by Willz, it would be a VERY decent way to separate out skin options that only apply to 8.5 and to 9/14....as the new interface means that some things don't apply to both versions

Extra information for 1.

code:

---

<element id=atom(meleftsidecontainer) layout=FlowLayout(2,1,0,2) layoutpos=bottom>
<clipperh layoutpos=bottom class="AvatarClipper" layout=BorderLayout()>
<element id=atom(secondpicture)>
</element>
</clipperh>
<element id=atom(mecontainer) layout=BorderLayout() selected=false>

---

quote:

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Originally posted by djdannyp
2. Working CMDID for skin options button - Suggestion
It's a semi known issue that due to the dividing of the contact list into two different UIs, but a workaround was found for the Preferences and Script button......any advances on one for the skin options button?

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quote:

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Originally posted by blessedguy

quote:

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Originally posted by djdannyp
2. Working CMDID for skin options button - Suggestion
It's a semi known issue that due to the dividing of the contact list into two different UIs, but a workaround was found for the Preferences and Script button......any advances on one for the skin options button?

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If you mean there's no CMDID for skin's options... you're wrong =)

As you can see, the skin's options button is there it's the same cmdid, and can be placed both where it is and where the add contact button is. (cmdid 7460)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Guena
It works fine def file 920 but it doesn't work in def file 1001 or 923

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quote:

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Originally posted by djdannyp

quote:

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Originally posted by Guena
It works fine def file 920 but it doesn't work in def file 1001 or 923

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Correct, whilst you can add the button alongside the add contact button, etc......the CMDID doesn't work

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quote:

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Originally posted by blessedguy


My fault =X
Misinterpratation.
edit: it DOES work in def 923.

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it never worked on def 920 =)

Temporary Limitation: DUI:Glow effects can't be fine tuned due to Messenger Plus! not being able to parse static values correctly.

quote:

---

Originally posted by djdannyp
2. Working CMDID for skin options button - Suggestion
It's a semi known issue that due to the dividing of the contact list into two different UIs, but a workaround was found for the Preferences and Script button......any advances on one for the skin options button?

---

quote:

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Pictures in line with DP - Main problem!
Anyone who's used/seen my skin will know that I have a picture that goes in line with the display pictures, resting 'on top' of the lower display picture.  On the new beta I have put this picture in place, however there appears to be padding around the DP....due to not being able to decode the msrle object that provides the image for the DP border, I'm not sure as to whether it's a certain amount of padding included in the picture itself, or if there is some padding somewhere in the UI file that i'm missing (i've tried removing almost every padding option in and around the DP code and I've had no joy).......any ideas?

Extra information for 1.

code:

---

<element id=atom(meleftsidecontainer) layout=FlowLayout(2,1,0,2) layoutpos=bottom>
<clipperh layoutpos=bottom class="AvatarClipper" layout=BorderLayout()>
<element id=atom(secondpicture)>
</element>
</clipperh>
<element id=atom(mecontainer) layout=BorderLayout() selected=false>

---

Top and bottom lines are just for context.....but that produces the picture in virtually the right position, but with a few px gap between them.  Also, whatever layoutpos i apply to "clipperh" it doesn't seem to actually alter the position of the picture.  also, the element "secondpicture" doesn't contain any layout/aligning data, just the picture to be added

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Djdanny, when you colorize to black and grey, even without plus!, it goes that red =/
(as you can see underneath the scene button when colourised to black.)

quote:

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Originally posted by blessedguy
Djdanny, when you colorize to black and grey, even without plus!, it goes that red =/
(as you can see underneath the scene button when colourised to black.)

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I bet it's messenger's fault.
If you remove the scene background, and let the window's background there, you'll see it goes red.

After much searching I think i've finally pinpointed the cause of the picture alignment (as described earlier)

The display pictures in the conversation window have small amounts of padding around them.

I'm unable to ascertain whether this padding is in the UI files, or in the picture files themselves, as any chance that I make seems to have no effect

The pictures themselves (4400_var, 4401_var, etc) DO have blank space around them corresponding to the gap that's left when I try to add a picture sitting ontop of the display picture.

So I tried adding a new resource without that space around it and replacing it in the UI files, but it made no difference (and I tried setting the 'online' one to be there for every single status, but it didn't change)

I also notice that there's padding in the style file against idUserTileContainer, which I tried setting all of them to 0, but again nothing changed

So it seems like I'm close to being able to solve the problem (and therefore release my skin), but I just can't seem to figure it out

Thank-you .

willz you asked us to report skinning issues with 9.0 here so heres my first issue with it. in 9.0 i cant figure out how to set the word wheel position, in 8.5 i could set it to top or bottom depending on my preference but it only seems to like being on the top in 9.0 is there any way around this?

quote:

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Originally posted by stuartbennett
willz you asked us to report skinning issues with 9.0 here so heres my first issue with it. in 9.0 i cant figure out how to set the word wheel position, in 8.5 i could set it to top or bottom depending on my preference but it only seems to like being on the top in 9.0 is there any way around this?

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i dont know whsat element it is now but in 8.5 it was 1001 so im totally confused regarding 9.0

quote:

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Originally posted by stuartbennett
i dont know whsat element it is now but in 8.5 it was 1001 so im totally confused regarding 9.0

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xml code:

---

<*PlusSkin FileKind(def) MsgVer(5) PlusVer(1) */>
<Element ResID=Scrollbar/>
<PopupMenu2 ResID=UXEditMenu Sheet=0>
<MenuItem2 Icon=rcimg(20250) Text=rcstr(20250) CmdId=11/>
<MenuItem2 Icon=rcimg(20251) Text=rcstr(20251) CmdId=12/>
<MenuItem2 Icon=rcimg(20252) Text=rcstr(20252) CmdId=13/>
<MenuItem2/>
<MenuItem2 Text=rcstr(20253) CmdId=17/>
</PopupMenu2>
<Element ResID=BuddyList sheet=0 Class="AddressBookBG" id=atom(abLayout) Layout=BorderLayout()>
<*PlusSkin Conditions(WordWheel = "Top") *><Element LayoutPos=top Layout=BorderLayout()></*PlusSkin*>
<*PlusSkin Conditions(WordWheel = "Bottom") *><Element LayoutPos=bottom Layout=BorderLayout()></*PlusSkin*>
<*PlusSkin Conditions(WordWheel = "None") *><Element LayoutPos=none Layout=BorderLayout()></*PlusSkin*>
<MsgrWordWheelElement id=atom(WordWheelElement) LayoutPos=client Padding=Rect(8,0,0,0)/>
<Toolbar id=atom(SimpleToolbar) LayoutPos=right CmdGroup=guid("{102a0bf5-44ec-4a0a-b5d7-54228fa20952}") Padding=Rect(0,7,5,7) Layout=BorderLayout() Accessible=true AccRole=22>
<Element LayoutPos=client Layout=FlowLayout(0,2,0,3)>
<MenuButton CmdID=50138 AccName=rcstr("msgr",49110) AddBehavior=DUI::MenuFromChildren("LeftClick","Bottom","AddContactDropdown") Active=7 AccDesc=rcstr("msgr",49110) Layout=BorderLayout()>
<ButtonIcon Content=rcimg("msgr",1131) Padding=Rect(3,3,0,3) Layoutpos=left/>
<element layoutpos=right Class="DropdownButtonCaret" Padding=Rect(0,4,0,4)/>
<Element Layoutpos=client Layout=FillLayout() ContentAlign=middlecenter>
<Menu ID=atom(AddContactDropdown)>
<MenuItem2 CmdID=50005 Text=rcstr("msgr",49111)/>
<MenuItem2 CmdID=50136 Text=rcstr("msgr",49112)/>
<MenuItem2 CmdID=50014 Text=rcstr("msgr",49313)/>
<MenuItem2/>
<MenuItem2 CmdID=317 Text=rcstr("msgr",49314)/>
<MenuItem2 CmdID=318 Text=rcstr("msgr",49315)/>
</Menu>
</Element>
</MenuButton>
<button class="HIGToolbarButton" padding=rcrect(20136) layout=BorderLayout() id=atom(viewoptsdlg) cmdid=40370 AccRole=43 AccDefAction=rcstr(20500) Tooltip=true active=7 accname=rcstr("msgr",49209) accdesc=rcstr("msgr",49210)>
<ButtonIcon class="HIGToolbarIcon" content=rcimg("msgr",1490) ContentAlign=middlecenter padding=rcrect(20140)/>
<element layoutpos=right ContentAlign=middlecenter layout=FillLayout()>
<ButtonText Id=atom(ButtonTextId) class="HIGToolbarText" content="" FontSize=rcint(20958)pt ContentAlign=middlecenter padding=rcrect(20141) Shortcut=1/>
</element>
</button>
<Button class="TransparentDropdownButton" layout=BorderLayout() layoutpos=client margin=Rect(0,0,0,0) AccName=rcstr("msgr",21075) CmdID=40206 ID=atom(FLWMenuBtn) AccRole=57 AccDesc=rcstr("msgr",21075) Active=7>
<element layoutpos=client layout=FlowLayout(0,3,1,2) ContentAlign=middlecenter padding=Rect(0,0,0,0)>
<element class="ToolbarIcon" content=rcimg("msgr",1489) Padding=Rect(3,0,0,0)/>
</element>
<element layoutpos=right Class="TransparentDropdownButtonCaret" padding=Rect(0,4,0,4)/>
</Button>
</Element>
</Toolbar>
</Element>
<Element LayoutPos=client Layout=BorderLayout()>
<Element Layout=FillLayout() LayoutPos=top>
<Element Class="InfoBar" AddBehavior=Msgr::InfoBar() Layout=BorderLayout() Margin=Rect(5,5,5,5) LayoutPos=bind(property:"InfoBar::LayoutPos") Background=bind(property:"InfoBar::Background")>
<Element id=atom(InfoBarIcon) LayoutPos=left Padding=Rect(5,3,3,0) ContentAlign=topcenter ContentIndex=bind(property:"InfoBar::Icon") Content=rcimg("msgr",729)/>
<HtmlView id=atom(InfoBarText) Active=3 LayoutPos=client Padding=Rect(0,3,0,5) Content=bind(property:"InfoBar::Message") YScrollable=false/>
<Button id=atom(InfoBarClose) Active=3 AccName=rcstr("msgr",8016) LayoutPos=right Padding=Rect(2,3,0,5) ContentAlign=topright Content=rcimg("msgr",629)/>
</Element>
</Element>
<Element id=atom(idZeroContactBubble) LayoutPos=none Layout=BorderLayout() Padding=Rect(25,10,5,0)>
<Element LayoutPos=top Layout=FlowLayout(0,0,0,2) Padding=Rect(0,0,0,5)>
<Element Content=rcimg("msgr",1131) Padding=Rect(0,0,5,0)/>
<Element Class="ZeroContactsHeader"/>
</Element>
<HtmlView Class="ZeroContactsText" Active=3 Tag=bind(property:"Config::ContactImport")/>
</Element>
<Element id=atom(idZeroResultsGroup) LayoutPos=none Layout=FlowLayout(0,0,0,2) Padding=Rect(0,2,0,0)>
<Element id=atom(idWWZeroResults) Content=rcstr("msgr",45800) AccName=rcstr("msgr",46400) AccDesc=rcstr("msgr",46401) Padding=Rect(10,0,0,0)/>
<Button id=atom(idZeroResultsPhoneLink) CmdID=50129 CmdGroup=guid("{102a0bf5-44ec-4a0a-b5d7-54228fa20952}") Content=rcstr("msgr",49807) AccName=rcstr("msgr",49807) AccDesc=rcstr("msgr",49807)/>
</Element>
<Element id=atom(idZeroContactAfterFilter) LayoutPos=none Content=rcstr("msgr",46402) AccName=rcstr("msgr",46404) AccDesc=rcstr("msgr",46403)/>
<Element LayoutPos=client Layout=FillLayout()>
<Element layout=FlowLayout(2,1,1,1)>
<Animator id=atom(watermark) active=0/>
</Element>
<BuddyList id=atom(abView) Layout=FillLayout() CmdGroup=guid("{16E32D35-5350-4805-B7F0-5E782510AF6F}")/>
</Element>
</Element>
</Element>
<Element ResID=CircleMembershipView sheet=0 Layout=BorderLayout()>
<BuddyListCommon id=atom(abView) Layout=FillLayout() CmdGroup=guid("{16E32D35-5350-4805-B7F0-5E782510AF6F}")/>
</Element>

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tried that code blessedguy but it didnt work.

That's what I use...
Have you remebered adding the option to skininfo? =P

yes i have

quote:

---

Originally posted by stuartbennett
yes i have

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quote:

---

Originally posted by stuartbennett
i dont know whsat element it is now but in 8.5 it was 1001 so im totally confused regarding 9.0

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oh i see, no i havent updated the 1001 style files yet as they contain massive amounts of changes for other features and im still not that up on these new files yet and how to do things with them, thanks willz, ill try using an unedited copy of the 1001 style files and see what happens.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by stuartbennett
i dont know whsat element it is now but in 8.5 it was 1001 so im totally confused regarding 9.0

---

are you replacing both the style and definition? in order for the your code to be converted to UIB you have to have both there even if you haven't edited one of them.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Skinning Documentation
when a skin is loaded, if either a definition file or a style file is missing for one window, Messenger Plus! decodes the internal UIB data to generate the missing piece before re-encoding the whole thing.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by djdannyp

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by stuartbennett
i dont know whsat element it is now but in 8.5 it was 1001 so im totally confused regarding 9.0

---

are you replacing both the style and definition? in order for the your code to be converted to UIB you have to have both there even if you haven't edited one of them.

---

Actually, you don't have to include both:

quote:

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Originally posted by Skinning Documentation
when a skin is loaded, if either a definition file or a style file is missing for one window, Messenger Plus! decodes the internal UIB data to generate the missing piece before re-encoding the whole thing.

---

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right but presently my skin refers to the 8.5 style files and definition files, thus far 1001 definitions is the only 1 i have replaced with a 9.0 copy which might explain why its not liking the word wheel much right now.

Quick Question: Unlike WLM 8.5, our defintions should be from the original windows, rather than the Consolidated Windows, correct?

quote:

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Originally posted by Nagamasa
Quick Question: Unlike WLM 8.5, our defintions should be from the original windows, rather than the Consolidated Windows, correct?

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quote:

---

Originally posted by djdannyp

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nagamasa
Quick Question: Unlike WLM 8.5, our defintions should be from the original windows, rather than the Consolidated Windows, correct?

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I thought that was the case with 8.5 too?

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