Shoutbox

How to update your skin
difficulty level - basic

You made a nice skin but now a new messenger version got released it isn't working anymore, now what?
Now we are going to upgrade your current skin to work with the new version!

First of all make sure you save your current skin, including the plsk, elsewhere too (backup folder).

Then you can start editing the SkinInfo.xml in your current skin folder. First put in the new version in Compatibility in Information area and make sure you have TraceFile set to true (if you use this element).

code:

---

     <Compatibility>
       <MsgVersion Major="9" Minor="0"/>
     </Compatibility>
     <TraceFile>true</TraceFile>

---

Next thing to do is put in the new messenger version in the Restrictions area(s).

code:

---

     <Restrictions>
       <MsgVersions>
         <Version Major="9" Minor="0"/>
       </MsgVersions>
     </Restrictions>

---

If you have more Resource blocks repeat in those too.
Now in Messenger select your skin and restart as asked. This will generate a SkinTrace.txt in the skin folder if there's incompatibilities.

This file will give you some information about what isn't working, this is described in:
Messenger Plus! Live - Skinning Documentation
Skins Essentials - The Trace File.

First things to fix are the Definition files/Style sheets (if you modified any for your skin). You will need to use the ones from the new version so first extract the resources. You can do so from the skin panel in Plus! Preferences > Customize! > Skins. Rename the current msgres file(s) in your skin's folder to f.e. msgres_4004_947_85.txt (note the 85 at the end is old version number for easy reference) then copy the ones you altered in your skin from the resources folder to your skin's folder so you can edit the copy (if you plan on making a multi-version skin: rename* this copy to f.e. msgres_4004_947_90.txt). Now you will need to put everything you altered in them into the new msgres files. If you forgot what you've altered, or just want to make sure everything is copied over and in the correct place you can use a comparing app such as AptDiff (freeware). Using a tool like this will make this task lots easier, you can even copy whole blocks from one file to the other.

Once you fixed these files, rename (if you renamed them) the resources in SkinInfo.xml to the correct ones.
Example:

code:

---

     <Windows>
        <Definitions>
           <Definition Id="947">
              <File>msgres_4004_947_90.txt</File>
           </Definition>
        </Definitions>
     </Windows>       

---

Now try your skin again, you will see lots less errors reported in the SkinTrace. If it's still not all working as should then there are images/backgrounds IDs that have a different ID in the new version. To solve this you will have to look into the new resources to find the new ID and edit that in your SkinInfo.xml accordingly. Check your SkinTrace file again and if there's no more errors: congrats, you succesfully updated your skin to work with the new version! If you only want it to work with this new version you can remove all files from the folder that are no longer in use and repackage your skin (don't forget to set TraceFile back to false before you do).

How about if we want it backwards compatible?



How to update your skin with backwards compatibility (Multi-version skin)
difficulty level - advanced

If you want your skin to be backwards compatible, you will need to appoint resources to different messenger versions in your SkinInfo.xml. This can be achieved by using different resource blocks (<ResGroup>):
1 for everything that hasn't changed in the new version,
1 for the things different in the new version and
1 for the the things that are different in the previous version.
You tell it to load that specific block by setting restrictions in it.

Block for things unchanged:

code:

---

    <ResGroup>
      <Restrictions>
        <MsgVersions>
          <Version Major="9" Minor="0"/>
          <Version Major="8" Minor="5"/>
        </MsgVersions>
      </Restrictions>
     <Resources>
     </Resources>
    </ResGroup>

---

This block will be loaded in Windows Live Messenger version 9.0 and 8.5
Put all things same in both versions between <Resources></Resources> in this block.


Block for new version:

code:

---

     <ResGroup>
       <Restrictions>
         <MsgVersions>
           <Version Major="9" Minor="0"/>
         </MsgVersions>
       </Restrictions>
      <Resources>
      </Resources>
     </ResGroup>

---

This block will be loaded in addition to the first when using Windows Live Messenger 9.0
Put all things different in the new version between <Resources></Resources> in this block.


Block for previous version:

code:

---

     <ResGroup>
       <Restrictions>
         <MsgVersions>
           <Version Major="8" Minor="5"/>
         </MsgVersions>
       </Restrictions>
      <Resources>
      </Resources>
     </ResGroup>

---

This block will be loaded in addition to the first when using Windows Live Messenger 8.5
Put all things different in previous version between <Resources></Resources> in this block.


You can use this method from the get go (copy paste differences from the first block to the seperate resource blocks and edit in the block for the new version) or make a single version skin and compare later on (remember your backup folder) and then edit skinInfo.xml to be compatible with both versions.

Finally, don't forget to edit the Compatibility element in Information to support both versions:

code:

---

     <Compatibility>
       <MsgVersion Major="9" Minor="0"/>
       <MsgVersion Major="8" Minor="5"/>
     </Compatibility>

---

*Rename - instead of renaming your msgres files you can also put them in seperate folders, just make sure to specify the folder in SkinInfo Resource block(s) then too (and not to modify the wrong one by accident as all files will be named the same) - thanks aNILEator for this tip.

Note: the messenger versions in this tutorial are used as an example. Version 9 is not released.

hi i was looking in the resources for 8.1 and compared them to 8.5 absolutely nothing has changed between the 2 versions as far as i can see yet when i add the 8.1 version tags to SkinInfo file it dont work in 8.1 can somebody help me figure out how to make my skin 8.1 compatable please as the instructions above do not help at all.

Even if none of the IDs changed you will still need to use the Definition/Style files from 8.5 to make it work with 8.5. Look in the SkinTrace.txt for clues as to what is wrong.

ok im not sure what you mean, as you stated above underneathe every version tag for 8.5 ive added one for 8.1, below is my skin trace file

quote:

---

07/12/12 13:21:50| **** The trace has started ****
07/12/12 13:21:50| Skin: Beach Skin 1.00
07/12/12 13:21:50| Messenger version: 8.1.178.0 (en-us)
07/12/12 13:21:50| Messenger Plus! version: 4.50.310
07/12/12 13:21:50| Last definition file loaded: 947
07/12/12 13:21:50| Last style sheet file loaded: 947
07/12/12 13:21:50| Last picture file loaded: 20099
07/12/12 13:21:50| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 290
07/12/12 13:21:50| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
07/12/12 13:21:51| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 290
07/12/12 13:21:51| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
07/12/12 13:21:58| **** The trace has ended ****

---

You changed a stylesheet for your skin in 8.1 (logon). You need to put all the changes you made in that into the same stylesheet from 8.5 resources. For multi version compatibility make seperate resource blocks (ResGroup) for things different in both versions.

Once you've done that restart messenger and see if there's still errors in SkinTrace.txt

If it makes things any clearer have a look at the SkinInfo.xml in my skin (SkyLines).

ive added a second set of the definition and style files and put them in folders etc and clearly stated where each versions files are as far as i can tell it should work but doesnt

please understand this is my 3rd day using xml so i still dont really understand it properly yet can you please help?

EDIT:

i think the easiest thing is if you look at my files for me and see if you can spoit my mistake maybe then you can point out to me what i did wrong so i can learn from my mistake, i have therefore attached the skin pack file to this message.

I'm looking at it and at first glance...you didn't make seperate resgroups for the versions...instead you try to call different files for the same ID in a resgroup for both versions....

* Sunshine tries to fix....and to understand what you did...

ok thank you.

Partially fixed, i will leave you to sort out the background change part...

Edit: ohh another thing, you are using the definitions and styles out of the consolidated windows. For public distributions you need to use the corresponding msgres ones out of the Windows resource folder. This is to prevent language changes (string replacements) in other language messengers etc. The ones in consolidated are created by Plus! to help you find what you are looking for.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sunshine
Partially fixed, i will leave you to sort out the background change part...

Edit: ohh another thing, you are using the definitions and styles out of the consolidated windows. For public distributions you need to use the corresponding msgres ones out of the Windows resource folder. This is to prevent language changes (string replacements) in other language messengers etc. The ones in consolidated are created by Plus! to help you find what you are looking for.

---

background change part? i dont really see what has to be done there, it still only works in 8.5 and not in 8.1, im sure they all the styles and definition files came from the msgres files and not from the consolidated, but out of curiosity how can you tell the difference?