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[coding request] About shapes.. - Printable Version

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+----- Thread: [coding request] About shapes.. (/showthread.php?tid=84758)
[coding request] About shapes.. by DennisMartijn on 07-10-2008 at 11:57 AM

I've read the documentation, but I didn't find a way to use a picture as region for the contact list. To shape it.
So.. my question (obviously :P) : how do I set an image as the contact list shape? Its perfectly black and white already, I'm stuck at the coding part.

I'm using Open Live made by Willz, hope this makes stuff easier for you guys? x_x

Thanks in advance!
lekekekek.

RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by Volv on 07-10-2008 at 01:38 PM

You clearly did not read the official documentation:
Reshaping Your Windows (Official Skinning documentation)

EDIT: or download a copy of the official skinning docs here: http://www.msgpluslive.net/skins/resources/#official-documentation

RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by DennisMartijn on 07-10-2008 at 06:25 PM

That's excactly what I've read.. -.-
Anyway, I couldn't make heads or tails out of it.
thats the problem I have..

RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by aNILEator on 07-10-2008 at 09:38 PM

willz open live also has a mini guide to shaping inside it, honestly the best way is to play with it yourself and look at the code in other skins.

I'm in 2 minds whether to release beaver and steve 1.0.0 this week or improve it on 9.0 before releasing and also in time for the contest, as it's perfect on 8.5 now

RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by BradT on 07-11-2008 at 09:11 AM

Not to slate the Officail Documentation..But i starts off showing you one thing then moves onto another..With out finishing an example of the first. This is a perfect example... It talks about using images for the shape of the contact list etc..theN BAM jumps into a example of using rectangles in XML. Why doesnt it show examples of using images to shape MSN?; in XML.

;p

RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by DennisMartijn on 07-13-2008 at 08:42 AM

I still haven't figured it out, even after hours of experimenting with it. The documentation only shows examples about the rectangles, wich I don't want to use. I want to use a single picture as a mask for the shape of the contact list. No new backgrounds and stuff, just a mask picture.

So, how do I use that?

RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by Volv on 07-13-2008 at 12:46 PM

quote:
Originally posted by BradT
Not to slate the Officail Documentation..But i starts off showing you one thing then moves onto another..With out finishing an example of the first. This is a perfect example... It talks about using images for the shape of the contact list etc..theN BAM jumps into a example of using rectangles in XML. Why doesnt it show examples of using images to shape MSN?; in XML.

;p
It provides an introduction with an example of the capabilities then proceeds to explain the various ways of coding in shapes (including rectangles and images).
quote:
Originally posted by DennisMartijn
The documentation only shows examples about the rectangles
You're clearly not actually reading the documentation and just trying to track down a snippet of code you can copy+paste which is against everything the documentation tries to achieve (despite the fact that there pretty much is a snippet of code with almost exactly what you're trying to achieve). The documentation is there to teach you methods, not to hand-feed you answers.
code:
<Region>
    <ContactList>
        <Image Integration="add">
            <Source>
                <File>MyImage.png</File>
            </Source>
            <Position>
                <Left>0</Left>
                <Top>0</Top>
            </Position>
        </Image>
    <ContactList>
<Region>
It's not that we don't want to help you, we (or I) would much prefer you to learn how to do things yourself through research and trial & error, which is exactly how skinning works.
RE: RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by Willz on 07-13-2008 at 01:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Volv

It's not that we don't want to help you, we (or I) would much prefer you to learn how to do things yourself through research and trial & error, which is exactly how skinning works.

I agree with that :P

People just want things handed to them on a platter sometimes and if we did that they would never learn properly and would always look for things to be spoon fed.

The documentation does have this section called the "schema" and that shows what elements you can put in a skininfo file. So that right there is a good resource to show how code is meant to work. The problem is nobody looks there because they give up too easily or just try to jump into skinning without knowing about xml.

Anyway you should take a look at the schema section of the documentation, its a pretty good thing to figure out how things are meant to go.
RE: [coding request] About shapes.. by aNILEator on 07-13-2008 at 01:40 PM

I agree the clickable schema is very handy. At first I didn't understand it and felt like giving up, skinning being my first real xml experience. But now with a little help, but mostly perseverance I understand it and experiment and stuff, I still don't understand everything in the Messenger code itself but learn from looking at others skin examples, figuring out what has changed to enable or show a certain element in a certain way.