Skin based on skin.confluence (currently version 3.1.43).

The targeting use case is the RPi 1 with a CRT TV on the composite output.
Currently, only the main controls was changed.

The following changes was made:
  • General downscaling of GUI from 720p to 480p.
  • Increase font size to made text more readable.
  • Add VT323 font. Looks vintage, eh?
  • Increase width of many GUI elements to reflect the
    styling issues due big fonts for the confluence theme.
    Note that scrolling of text consume a lot of CPU/GPU time.
  • Added theme with opaque background textures. This could reduce
    flickering, see (Settings>Appearance).
  • Added color set with better contrast.


How to build (short):
  • `./parseTemplates.py`
  • `./buildPackage.py [--pack]`
  • `cd /dev/shm ; zip -r skin.confluence.480.zip skin.confluence.480`


How to build (long):
  • Run `./parseTemplates.py` to translate the XML files from ./templates
  into ./out. The 'out'-folder was defined as skin directory in `addon.xml`.
  • Use `./buildPackage.py` to export the data for a release of the skin.
    Add `--pack` to compress the images with Kodi's TexturePacker. If not installed,
    you could compile the tool with ./TexturePackerBuild.sh.
    See ./buildPackage --help for more information.


Notes for developers:
  • The sed scripts in `./templates/sed` could also be used for other skins. They
    wrap the values of <width>, <height>, <left>, <top> by a function. This is dual
    to the font resizing but more flexible.
  • I was disappointed about the capabilities of
  Kodi's $VAR and $PARAM capabilities (or simply misunderstand how to use them…)
  and attached an own variant for variables.
  ./templates contains the normal skin definitions but some values was
  replaced by `{variable}` or `{{Python code}}` token.

  `./templates/config.py` contains the definition of variables.


  • Workflow for updates on new confluence versions (sketch)
   1. Checkout branch 'original_skin'.
      This branch holds the used reference of skin.confluence.

   2. Update static files like addon.xml, changelog.txt
      and the folders: 720p, resources, languages, media,
      colors, fonts and backgrounds.

      Commit these changes now, to cherry-pick them in step 4/5.

   3. Replace xml files in ./templates with new files of
      original confluence skin (./720p) and commit changes again.

   4. Checkout branch 'sedChangesOnly' and cherry-pick changes of 2.
      Replace xml files like in 3., and finally run sed scripts.
      ( cd templates ; rm *.xml;  git checkout original_skin *.xml;
      cd sed; ./runSubstitutions.sh *.sed)

      Commit changes.

   5. Rebase unstable branch on new sedChangesOnly. 
      This should lift the manual changes of the templates upon the new
      automated.
      This step required manually work, especially if new xml files was added.
      Run './parseTemplates.py --force' to check if templates are still valid.

   6. Build new package ( ./buildPackage --dest /dev/shm -t -p -f )

   7. Zip result, .i.e.    
      cd /dev/shm ; zip -r skin.confluence.480.zip skin.confluence.480

   8. Copy skin-zip to media center and resolve errors.