XLobby 3.0 List of Every Command, Event, ID, Variable Widget

[samsonlov]

(Just a concept),
but please vote above - thank you for voting!

How about a widget that can list every command, event, id, staticinfo, and variable in a particular skin.

It can show a list of what variables, events, and the like are available, which ones are used, the number of times they are used, where they appear(what page), and for items like events: whether or not they "match" the "default" value.

Such a tool would be super-helpful in troubleshooting, and would also make skinning, and event creation much, much faster.

(I can find a particular variable in my skin using search, but it seems like there should be an automated way to do it.)

Have any of you programmers already done something like this.

Does anyone have any ideas?... Anyone?... Bueller?

Thanks,
Samson.

"Help with Commands, Events, IDs, Variables, etc."

[vaporhat]

I never really wished I had that information directly yet.. however
What I would like to see even more is a log script that would indicate what events are being triggered or executed. For debugging purposes I think that would be more useful for myself. Just a simple text file with an echo of commands and possibly reception response or denial.

[Jay]

+1 I have wanted an event log forever.

[samsonlov]

Hey vaporhat,

I never really wished I had that information directly yet...

I thought you would really appreciate a list of every event and what it does/how it works, and all the commands, ids, and variables, and how they work - especially the "hidden" stuff. (It would serve as a "stripped-down" manual for skinners, programmers, and installers, and if everyone used it it would free-up Steven's and Wes' time to work on other stuff than have to answer the same questions that many of us are asking - not knowing that our question has already been answered.)

I got that impression from reading some of your posts like:

http://xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6732&p=47894#p47894
http://xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6274&p=46477#p46477
http://xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=6481&p=46193#p46193
http://xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6365&p=45369#p45369

I guess if I'm going to post a poll not "everybody" is going to vote the same as me.

But hey, i did give you the option to change your vote just in case you go back and re-read all your prior posts, and determine that you "might" have in-fact really meant to vote for let's say... ...hmmm... ...maybe #1?

But seriously, it's only a poll, and you should vote your concience...
...as long as you agree with me.

Jay:
I agree with you and vaporhat that even a simple ".txt" event log is a VERY useful tool that many, if not most, of us want or already use. In-fact, this valuable tool may already exist, just like so many other great parts of XLobby that so many of us are "unaware-of". If we had a list we could see if it's there.

I need your vote.

Maybe next time I should have a poll with only one answer.

[BaddaBing]

A list of this sort was started long ago by Colby, one of the original skinners of XLobby. It would be nice to get one from Steve and Wes as I know much more functionality has been added, but there is still no documentation. Given that XLv3 is still in relative beta format I would guess they are waiting until all functionality has been finalized.

[wesblack]

I have already started a list with examples. Yes the event log is on our current to-do list as well, enough said back to work............!




Wes Black \ Calrad

[vaporhat]

I believe I misunderstood what you were asking. A manual for XL would be perfect! As others had mentioned, other programmers have generated an abbreviated manual in the past that I found very helpful at one time. However as XL moved forward the manual didn't. I fully recognize the the struggle to document a moving target although it seems that since a lot of features are solid in V3 it might be time to revisit this.

From Wes's post it seems the boys also agree.

I changed my vote and certainly welcome some documentation.

[PhilB]

A manual? If there was food documentation, that would take away all the fun!

Event Log = Yes.

[lar282]

event log yes. I've been waiting for xlobby to log something for years. makes it so much easier to find errors and help the programmer to debug.


//Lasse

[samsonlov]

Yes, Badabing,

I sent an email to Colby, but maybe he didn't get it, or prefers to reply to posts - I'm still very new here so sorry if I wasn't supposed to e-mail.


Colby:

Hello Colby, The following is an e-mail sent to you by samsonlov via your account on"xlobby.com"...
...Message sent to you follows~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Colby,
I've been searching for a list of XLobby variables, events, ids, etc., andI came accross your post from 2004. Do you still have such a list?

by Colby on Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:19 am I am in the process of creating these lists, with the help of some otherson board. I have the event list mostly complete. And the others soon. Hangtight."Get creative or go home!"

I probably just keep missing it when I check the "documentation" sectionsof XLobby\help and Mantis\docs.

I'd really appreciate you sharing any info you may have about the list ofvaribles.

This is what I found on the "help" section:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by stevenhanna6 on Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:13 am
# ## The entire list of available variables in xlobby. ###
this is a little incomplete!!!
playlistname - get the current playlist's name spiderstatus - get the current status of the running spider datetime>F - show current date and time epg>rating epg>channel epg>title epg>description epg>runtime epg>runtime:dddd MMMM d hh:mm tt Date and time formats that can be used with some variables, like"datetime>" and "epg>runtime:" http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/defau ... stopic.asp
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide, because if I can't locate a list, I'll be starting one from scratch.(made a mantis post [0000362] but I know Steven's super-busy, and I have not heard back from anyone else yet.)

I know Wes and Steven are working on a list, but I'm still hoping someone can create a "Widget" that scans a skin folder for events, variables, and the like, and outputs some kind of "organized" list - is this something that would be really hard to do?

Thanks,
Samson

[samsonlov]

PhilB:

Just think of the list as a "menu" mmmmm.... delicious

[PhilB]

I really meant "good" but now I am hungry.

[BaddaBing]

I sent an email to Colby, but maybe he didn't get it, or prefers to reply to posts - I'm still very new here so sorry if I wasn't supposed to e-mail.

I still correspond with Colby from time to time. You may get an email response but as far as this forum goes he is no longer active. I wish he was still around because he is an extremely talented individual and was a tremendous help to me in learning photoshop and skinning.

As far as documentation goes there is not much out there. I do have an unfinished document I started with Colby back in the free XL days. We were talking about colaborating on an "XL for Dummies" book. There are lots of blanks in it but there is still a good bit of usable information. The last section of the document on variables was written by Colby.

http://www.xlobby.com/files/baddabing/files/Baddabings%20Guide%20to%20Xlobby%20and%20KISS.pdf File Size: 5.757 MB

For reading PDF documents I recommend FOXIT http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

[samsonlov]

Hey Baddabing:
Wow! You and Colby created quite a manual there! Thanks!
Looks like a lot of what you covered can be applied to V3.
I was hoping to find more V3 variables, IDs and such...
I know they're out there.

[Marbles_00]

I know that this post is dated a bit, but I have a google site with a bunch of documents and tips that I have collected/created here: http://sites.google.com/site/xlobbyfree ... -documents

It mainly pertains to the freeware xlobby, but you may find some interesting info that may still affect V3.