Appendix O: User Interface Themes

= Appendix O: User Interface Themes =
The graphics used for the SageTV user interface and some
other settings are loaded as theme sets, via the Select
the User Interface Theme option in Detailed
Setup: Advanced Settings. SageTV installs with the Standard theme. 
Additional user created themes may be found on the SageTV
online forums at forums.sagetv.com/forums or may be available via Theme category in the Plugin Manager.
== Adding Custom Images to an
Existing Theme ==
If all you want to do is change a few images without
creating an entirely new theme, then simply add the new images to the User Images subdirectory of an existing
theme directory, naming the files the same as the filenames of the images being
replaced. After adding images to that subdirectory, reload the current theme
via the Select the User Interface Theme option
in Detailed Setup: Advanced Settings. Note: If existing images in that
subdirectory have been changed, you may need to restart SageTV to see the new
images in the user interface. 
It is better to place your custom images in the User Images subdirectory instead of in
the theme’s base directory because the files in the base directory will be
replaced when a SageTV update is installed (if replacing files in the Standard theme) or when a theme plugin
update is installed (if replacing files in a custom theme). The files in the User Images subdirectory are not
replaced by the SageTV installer. If a custom theme replaces files in that
subdirectory, inform the theme’s author so the author’s custom files can be
placed in the proper location. 
== Creating a New Theme ==
To create an entirely new theme, simply create a new
directory under the <install
dir>\SageTV\STVs\SageTV7\Themes directory, using the name of your new
theme. You can change one or more UI image files by placing new versions of
images in the custom theme directory and you can create a theme.properties file
to change one or more properties. If an image file or a property setting is not
found, the one from the default Standard
theme will automatically be used. 
Exceptions: 
The ProgressBar<N>.png files must be a
full set of 5, #1-5. 
If you change the weather icons, you have to
provide a full set and use theme.properties in the custom theme directory to
specify the offset path from where the current STV is located to the weather
icons. 
As the default UI changes, new graphics are being put in
the theme directories, but those are not the only images you can place in your
own theme -- you can change almost any image found in the <install dir>\SageTV\STVs\SageTV7 or Standard theme directories. When loading a theme, each image is
searched for by checking the current theme directory and its “User Images”
subdirectory, the default theme directory and its “User Images” subdirectory,
then the STV's directory. However, not all images in the STV directory are
currently in use by the default STV.  
Additional
Theme Notes: '''
See the theme.properties
file in the default Standard theme
directory for additional comments about various theme settings. The first
section of the file documents the possible theme settings. 
To determine which images are being used and
where they are loaded from, check the debug log for a list of themed images.
Debug logging can be enabled via the Debug Logging
option in Detailed Setup: Advanced Settings.
If a custom theme contains an image file named
preview.jpg, that will be the
preview image shown in the theme selection dialog when the theme is
highlighted; see the Select the User Interface Theme
option. 
In the new theme’s custom theme.properties,
add a property line named Description/<ThemeName>=,
where ThemeName is the name of the new theme, followed by a short description
of the theme. Users will see this description in the theme selection dialog
when the theme is highlighted. 
The focus highlight images are actually drawn
behind the regular button backgrounds or fill colors, so it works better if the
button background images are semi-transparent.
Category:Manual