D.2. The skin file

As mentioned above, this is the skin configuration file. It is line oriented; comment lines start with a ';' character at the beginning of the line (only spaces and tabs are allowed before the ';').

The file is made up of sections. Each section describes the skin for an application and has the following form:

section = section name
.
.
.
end

Currently there is only one application, so you need only one section: its name is movieplayer.

Within this section each window is described by a block of the following form:

window = window name
.
.
.
end

where window name can be one of these strings:

(The sub and menu blocks are optional - you do not need to create a menu or decorate the subwindow.)

Within a window block, you can define each item for the window by a line in this form:

item = parameter
Where item is a string that identifies the type of the GUI item, parameter is a numeric or textual value (or a list of values separated by commas).

Putting the above together, the whole file looks something like this:

section = movieplayer
  window = main
  ; ... items for main window ...
  end

  window = sub
  ; ... items for subwindow ...
  end

  window = menu
  ; ... items for menu ...
  end

  window = playbar
  ; ... items for playbar ...
  end
end

The name of an image file must be given without leading directories - images are searched for in the Skin directory. You may (but you need not) specify the extension of the file. If the file does not exist, MPlayer tries to load the file <filename>.<ext>, where png and PNG are tried for <ext> (in this order). The first matching file will be used.

Finally some words about positioning. The main window and the subwindow can be placed in the different corners of the screen by giving X and Y coordinates. 0 is top or left, -1 is center and -2 is right or bottom, as shown in this illustration:

(0, 0)----(-1, 0)----(-2, 0)
  |          |          |
  |          |          |
(0,-1)----(-1,-1)----(-2,-1)
  |          |          |
  |          |          |
(0,-2)----(-1,-2)----(-2,-2)

Here is an example to make this clear. Suppose that you have an image called main.png that you use for the main window:

base = main, -1, -1
MPlayer tries to load main, main.png, main.PNG files.

D.2.1. Main window and playbar

Below is the list of entries that can be used in the 'window = main' ... 'end', and the 'window = playbar' ... 'end' blocks.

base = image, X, Y

Lets you specify the background image to be used for the main window. The window will appear at the given X,Y position on the screen The window will have the size of the image.

Note

These coordinates do not currently work for the display window.

Warning

Transparent regions in the image (colored #FF00FF) appear black on X servers without the XShape extension. The image's width must be dividable by 8.

button = image, X, Y, width, height, message

Place a button of width * height size at position X,Y. The specified message is generated when the button is clicked. The image given by image must have three parts below each other (according to the possible states of the button), like this:

+------------+
|  pressed   |
+------------+
|  released  |
+------------+
|  disabled  |
+------------+
decoration = enable|disable

Enable or disable window manager decoration of the main window. Default is disable.

Note

This doesn't work for the display window, there is no need to.

hpotmeter = button, bwidth, bheight, phases, numphases, default, X, Y, width, height, message

vpotmeter = button, bwidth, bheight, phases, numphases, default, X, Y, width, height, message

Place a horizontal (hpotmeter) or vertical (vpotmeter) potmeter of width * height size at position X,Y. The image can be divided into different parts for the different phases of the potmeter (for example, you can have a pot for volume control that turns from green to red while its value changes from the minimum to the maximum.). hpotmeter can have a button that can be dragged horizontally. The parameters are:

  • button - the image to be used for the button (must have three parts below each other, like in case of button)

  • bwidth, bheight - size of the button

  • phases - the image to be used for the different phases of the hpotmeter. A special value of NULL can be used if you want no such image. The image must be divided into numphases parts vertically like this:

    +------------+
    |  phase #1  |
    +------------+
    |  phase #2  |
    +------------+
         ...
    +------------+
    |  phase #n  |
    +------------+
    
  • numphases - number of phases stored in the phases image

  • default - default value for hpotmeter (in the range 0 to 100)

  • X, Y - position for the hpotmeter

  • width, height - width and height of the hpotmeter

  • message - the message to be generated when the value of hpotmeter is changed

potmeter = phases, numphases, default, X, Y, width, height, message

A hpotmeter without a button. (I guess it is meant to be turned around, but it reacts to horizontal dragging only.) For the description of the parameters see hpotmeter. phases can be NULL, but it is quite useless, since you cannot see where the potmeter is set.

font = fontfile, fontid

Defines a font. fontfile is the name of a font description file with a .fnt extension (do not specify the extension here). fontid is used to refer to the font (see dlabel and slabel). Up to 25 fonts can be defined.

slabel = X, Y, fontid, "text"

Place a static label at the position X,Y. text is displayed using the font identified by fontid. The text is just a raw string ($x variables do not work) that must be enclosed between double quotes (but the " character cannot be part of the text). The label is displayed using the font identified by fontid.

dlabel = X, Y, length, align, fontid, "text"

Place a dynamic label at the position X,Y. The label is called dynamic because its text is refreshed periodically. The maximum length of the label is given by length (its height is the height of a character). If the text to be displayed is wider than that, it will be scrolled, otherwise it is aligned within the specified space by the value of the align parameter: 0 is for right, 1 is for center, 2 is for left.

The text to be displayed is given by text: It must be written between double quotes (but the " character cannot be part of the text). The label is displayed using the font identified by fontid. You can use the following variables in the text:

VariableMeaning
$1play time in hh:mm:ss format
$2play time in mmmm:ss format
$3play time in hh format (hours)
$4play time in mm format (minutes)
$5play time in ss format (seconds)
$6movie length in hh:mm:ss format
$7movie length in mmmm:ss format
$8play time in h:mm:ss format
$vvolume in xxx.xx% format
$Vvolume in xxx.xx format
$bbalance in xxx.xx% format
$Bbalance in xxx.xx format
$$the $ character
$aa character according to the audio type (none: n, mono: m, stereo: t)
$ttrack number (in playlist)
$ofilename
$ffilename in lower case
$Ffilename in upper case
$Ta character according to the stream type (file: f, Video CD: v, DVD: d, URL: u)
$pthe p character (if a movie is playing and the font has the p character)
$sthe s character (if the movie is stopped and the font has the s character)
$ethe e character (if playback is paused and the font has the e character)
$xmovie width
$ymovie height
$Cname of the codec used

Note

The $a, $T, $p, $s and $e variables all return characters that should be displayed as special symbols (for example, e is for the pause symbol that usually looks something like ||). You should have a font for normal characters and a different font for symbols. See the section about symbols for more information.

D.2.2. Subwindow

The following entries can be used in the 'window = sub' . . . 'end' block.

base = image, X, Y, width, height

The image to be displayed in the window. The window will appear at the given X,Y position on the screen (0,0 is the top left corner). You can specify -1 for center and -2 for right (X) and bottom (Y). The window will be as large as the image. width and height denote the size of the window; they are optional (if they are missing, the window is the same size as the image).

background = R, G, B

Lets you set the background color. It is useful if the image is smaller than the window. R, G and B specifies the red, green and blue component of the color (each of them is a decimal number from 0 to 255).

D.2.3. Skin menu

As mentioned earlier, the menu is displayed using two images. Normal menu entries are taken from the image specified by the base item, while the currently selected entry is taken from the image specified by the selected item. You must define the position and size of each menu entry through the menu item.

The following entries can be used in the 'window = menu'. . .'end' block.

base = image

The image for normal menu entries.

selected = image

The image showing the menu with all entries selected.

menu = X, Y, width, height, message

Defines the X,Y position and the size of a menu entry in the image. message is the message to be generated when the mouse button is released over the entry.