new theme: arboxWidgets [iPod 320x240]: help

[hhannah]

I made a new theme that is working fine under the official build, however, I wanted it to have some things I haven't been able to do, so I would really appreciate any ideas or help on:

1- It is basically designed for use with Album Art (see image #1), but for the case when there is no AA, it shows a "dummy" AA; I think it would be much better to eliminate the frame and play / next icons, so that it looks like image #2. Amongst many things, I tried having image #2 as background, placing the frame when there is AA present, and the AA image itself, but the AA image is not shown. I also tried having image #1 as background, and when there is no AA, I placed an image that covers the frame, centering the text, but the text is not displayed over that "covering image". Any ideas???? (for the official build, without using viewports or any other patches!)

2- One of the "widgets" I wanted to display was the equalizer mode (on/off), or even the bass & treble values, but apparently there are no WPS tags for that information, all I found was http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/4780 ... does anybody know something else about this?

[nicks23]

hhannah

I'm not that expert to help you, i'm just writing to tell you that your theme is AMAZING. I would really like to see your project finished. It will cenrtaintly be my default WPS.

Will that WPS be able to show the next track?

[knight4led]

First things first, you will not be able to get text to show over any place you have loaded an image, whether the image is being displayed or not. So those play icons and the frame around the album art will either have to be omitted for both album art and non-album art instances or put somewhere where they don't interfere with either.

However, on the daily build text will show up where the album art itself is loaded if there is no album art on screen. Also, you can make part of that line between the text blocks disappear rather easily since it never interferes with text. Just a conditional statement and an image will get that taken care of.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that you can't accomplish exactly what you want.

[hhannah]

@nicks23: Thanks!  The theme was already in the WPS Gallery http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsIpod5g ... (and yes the next song is shown )

@knight4led: I'm afraid you're totally right about this... Put in other words what I said in 1)... Neither AA nor the text will be shown OVER a loaded image. So, since (I reckon) most of the people use now AA images, and  in this case it looks better"framed", I guess I'll leave the theme working as it is now - showing a dummy AA when no AA is present (unless someone comes up with a better idea!). Thanks for your comment (as always)!

[Llorean]

There are an awful lot of us who don't use AA. Why not just drop the frame? It's a minor change in appearance, but allows it to be compatible for everyone.

[hhannah]

OK Llorean, I placed a version of arboxWidgets "No Frame" here http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/2/11/1754365/arboxWidgets_NF.zip . I really like it when there is no Album Art, much better than the other version for this case; it also works OK if there is AA, but when it is in dark colours close to black, it gets totally lost. So it would be great to have feedback about the no frame version, both from people that do not use much Album Art, and also from people that have their music with AA... then decide wich one to leave for downloads in the wiki

[Llorean]

Of course, another solution is fixing the issue in the WPS where you can't display text where an image would go. I imagine a good patch for doing that would get accepted.

[hhannah]

Certainly! I wish I could do that ... I would have to start learning from zero... maybe some day 

[nicks23]

Something's wrong thow. When i extract it the files are not going when the WPS folder is but they appear in the root of the player

[zajacattack]

That's because the zip file he made has poor structure. Try unzipping it to your desktop (or another easy spot to get to). Then, open up the folder you unzipped, and you will see a .rockbox folder. Copy that to the root of your player. If you get an overwrite warning, you did it correctly. Say "yes" to the overwrite. It should be good now.

[hhannah]

I didn't realize there was en extra level in the zip files (some people would call it, instead of "poor" structure... actually "RICH", since it has MORE levels ) I'll modify it, in the meantime, please do as zajacattack explains 

Edit: File structure in zip files already corrected

[kratonator]

A very nice idea, I really like it. Can you provide the .psd files or something similar so that we can port it to other targets?

[hhannah]

Kratonator, I made this theme basically "by hand" (some icons where derived from the sources mentioned in the .wps file, if that helps)... so unfortunatelly I can't help you in the way you ask; however, if you want to work adapting this theme for a different target, I'll be happy to help you... which target would you like to port this theme to?

[kratonator]

I would like to port it to the Sansa e200, but I know that the screen isn't as big as the Video's screen, so I guess that some "widgets" will have to be removed (and of course the others have to be resized).

Thanks for wanting to help.

EDIT: We can communicate more easily through PMs or emails.

[crash91]

/me agrees with kratonator. Its a very nice theme, and I also want to port it to the e200, would you be willing to team up?