Talk:Comparison of skin features

You might have noticed that the table formatting has changed. It's slowly being converted to pull the information from the individual wiki pages for a skin. Normal (manual) entries for skins without a wiki page will still work. To change info for a skin that has a wiki page, go to that wiki page and edit the section called "Special skin features". Now the features will be listed in both places with one edit. If you have any questions/concerns then please PM Ned Scott on the forums or leave a message on User talk:Ned Scott.

Another downside to this is that it makes it harder to add a new feature column due to the complex templates being used. However, just let me know if another one needs to be added/removed/whatever, and I can make the change ASAP (or feel free to learn the crazy dark magic of wiki templates and parser functions). -- Ned Scott 17:25, 9 February 2012 (EST)
 * Added YES to movie sets in confluence adn metadata actors field with ? as Im not sure it has that yet.--uNiversal 06:45, 26 November 2012 (EST)


 * You also mean the vertical headings right? I dont like it. it almost broke my neck while reading. ;-)
 * Since the available Artworks @ fanart.tv are gettings the same for every Type (Movies/Shows/Music) i though about this table Style+grouping:
 * Maybe it's better to use Icons for Movie, TV Show & Music
 * the coloum ClearLOGOs for Movies is missing btw
 * Pred 04:37, 29 March 2012 (EDT)
 * the coloum ClearLOGOs for Movies is missing btw
 * Pred 04:37, 29 March 2012 (EDT)
 * Pred 04:37, 29 March 2012 (EDT)

possible additions
Maybe add:
 * Cinema Experience
 * Global Search
 * Weather Plus

-- Ned Scott

In general I think the layout could use some re-arranging. Adding new columns will make a very wide table. Maybe it needs some splitting up to make it better readable (don't ask me how though)

New module for skins to use

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=122448

Random and last items of video smartplaylist script for Skins

Watchlists/Global search also have their own wiki page so better point to that one

Martijn 13:58, 15 February 2012 (EST)

groupings
Thinking of the following groupings and making each one a table. -- Ned Scott 19:00, 25 February 2012 (EST)


 * Navigation?
 * custom home items
 * custom submenu items
 * Live TV
 * Media flags
 * mouse support
 * touch screen friendly?
 * Intro movie?

Movies:
 * Poster
 * Fanart
 * Extrafanart
 * Extrathumbs
 * Movie disc
 * Logo
 * Clearart
 * Thumb 16:9
 * Studio Logo

TV Shows:
 * Poster
 * Season Posters
 * Fanart
 * Season Fanart
 * Extrafanart'
 * Clearart
 * Characterart
 * Logo
 * Banner
 * Season Banners
 * Thumb 16:9
 * Season Thumb 16:9
 * Studio Logo

Musicvideos:
 * Poster
 * Fanart
 * Extrafanart
 * Logo
 * cdArt
 * Record Label logo

Music:
 * Fanart
 * Covers
 * Extrafanart
 * Logo
 * cdArt
 * Record Label logo

Weather:
 * Animated icons
 * Weather based backgrounds

Special add-on support:
 * Advanced Launcher
 * Artwork downloader
 * Artist Slideshow
 * Cinema Experience
 * Global Search
 * Metadata Actors
 * MovieSets (add-on)
 * Next Aired
 * Random and last items of video smartplaylist script
 * TvTunes
 * Watchlist
 * Weather Plus


 * What about Grouping like this:
 * Extrafanart
 * * Movies
 * * TV Shows
 * * Music
 * Logo (CLEARLogos)
 * * Movies
 * * TV Shows
 * * Music
 * Pred 04:54, 29 March 2012 (EDT)
 * Pred 04:54, 29 March 2012 (EDT)
 * Pred 04:54, 29 March 2012 (EDT)

How should the Skin Features box show up on individual skin pages
Right now on individual skin pages they just have a sort of raw dump-list of skin features. This list is taken from the same template that populates this page, using a switch to change the appearance based on what page the template is being viewed from. I wanted to incorporate a listing of these features on the individual skin pages in some way, as well as make it so they show up in two places, but I'm not sure how it should appear on those skin pages. The raw-list was used just as a temporary placeholder, but doesn't seem very effective.

They could be a series of logos, they could show up in the infobox on the upper right corner, they could be a grid, etc. We could even have it trigger not only the feature, but a short summary for those features. If anyone has any concepts/ideas, feel free to list them. I'll also post this message to the skin forums, since most people aren't looking on the wiki talk pages. -- Ned Scott 00:20, 3 March 2012 (EST)

Makeover for Frodo
After thinking about this for a long time, I think previously we approached this in the wrong direction. The most useful I've seen this table used is typically for showing which skins show features that aren't art-related. At the same time, this is important to other users. So what I suggest is two tables, one for most commonly searched for features, and another for basic art groupings.

My suggestion for the features table:


 * Custom home menus/items
 * Live TV/PVR
 * Next Aired
 * TvTunes
 * Advanced Launcher
 * Skin widgets
 * movie sets info
 * metadata actors
 * Cinema experience
 * Global search
 * Intro movie
 * Mouse/touch support
 * in XBMC.org repo or not

With explanations on what each one is.

I'll try to throw up an idea for the art table next. -- Ned Scott 23:06, 28 November 2012 (EST)

Future plans
I should mention on here what the future plan for this table is. It's been something in my head for a while, but I need to write it down. Basically, not too long ago we got an updated Dynamic Page List MediaWiki extension that should be able to automate the table by using nothing more than categories. Each skin will get a page (if it doesn't already have one), and the yes/no boxes will be filled out based on what categories that skin page is in. It will be dynamically generated, which is awesome because it means we can make other tables easily with other options, all on the fly. It's just a lot to learn about how Dynamic Page List works: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList_(third-party) -- Ned Scott 19:17, 10 May 2013 (EDT)


 * Well that the idea but thers way too much stuff on wiki to get it all right and working in one go. Whatever you do bare in mind some tolerance, Im not working against you eh, Im working with you. Just trying to get this boat to float. hehe. What a facepalm moment but hey.--uNiversal 20:26, 10 May 2013 (EDT)