[GUIDE] [EVERSION] How to add custom libraries to the home screen

[plm]

Bazrah posted an excellent guide at http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...?tid=60370 showing how to add new home screen items by adding custom genres to your NFO files.

This version achieves the same type of result but via a different method, using the EVstreamed skin.

If your directory structure is already organised such that you have a path for each category that you wish to seprate out (in this example we'll consider Movies, TV Shows, Music and Kids) then you can create custom libraries and have these show on the home screen rather than letting YAMJ automatically assign them to its default Movies and TV categories. This has the advantage that your Movies category won't be a catch-all any longer and will contain only genuine movie titles.

Edit your {YAMJ}\library.xml file to point to each of your category directories, and name them as you want them to appear on the home screen in the description field. The order they will appear on the home screen is the order they are listed in this file, so organise them to suit your preferences.

It will end up looking something like this:

PHP Code:

<library>
    <path>N:/shares/Video/Movies</path>
    <nmtpath>file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/Video/Movies/</nmtpath>
    <exclude name="sample,tmp/,temp/,RECYCLER/,RECYCLE.BIN/"/>
    <description>Movies</description>
    <prebuf></prebuf>
    <scrapeLibrary>true</scrapeLibrary>
  </library>

  <library>
    <path>N:sharesVideoTV</path>
    <nmtpath>file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/Video/TV/</nmtpath>
    <exclude name="sample,tmp/,temp/,RECYCLER/,RECYCLE.BIN/"/>
    <description>TV Shows</description>
    <prebuf></prebuf>
    <scrapeLibrary>true</scrapeLibrary>
  </library>

  <library>
    <path>N:sharesVideoMusic</path>
    <nmtpath>file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/Video/Music/</nmtpath>
    <exclude name="sample,tmp/,temp/,RECYCLER/,RECYCLE.BIN/"/>
    <description>Music</description>
    <prebuf></prebuf>
    <scrapeLibrary>true</scrapeLibrary>
  </library>

  <library>
    <path>N:sharesVideoKids</path>
    <nmtpath>file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/Video/Kids/</nmtpath>
    <exclude name="sample,tmp/,temp/,RECYCLER/,RECYCLE.BIN/"/>
    <description>Kids</description>
    <prebuf></prebuf>
    <scrapeLibrary>true</scrapeLibrary>
  </library> 


At this point the list will still be sorted into alphabetical order (the YAMJ default). You can turn this option off to force it to use your specified order, which you'll almost certainly want, by adding the following line to {YAMJ}\moviejukebox.properties:

Code:

# Force list of libraries into user-defined order rather than alphabetical
indexing.sort.libraries=false

Now you need to tell Eversion to display your own library list before its own categories on the home screen.

Create {YAMJ}\skins\eversion\eskins\evstreamed\settings.xml if you don't already have it and add the following entries:

PHP Code:

<settings>    
    
    <!-- Category types to display for home or menu -->
    <homelist>Library,Other</homelist>

</settings> 


At this point you will still have YAMJ's own categories as well as the custom libraries, so you'll have duplicate entries for movies and tv shows. Edit {YAMJ}\categories-default.xml to disable the Movies and TV Shows entries as follows:

PHP Code:

<category name="Movies">
    <enable>false</enable>
    <rename>Movies</rename>
  </category>
  <category name="TV Shows">
    <enable>false</enable>
    <rename>TV Shows</rename>
  </category> 


You can also disable any other categories you don't want on your home screen by setting the enable flag to false (don't delete entries), and order them to suit your needs.

Finally, you'll notice that there isn't any wallpaper on the home screen for your new categories. You can create this by adding appropriately named jpeg files to {YAMJ}\skins\eversion\eskins\shared\media\home. Ensure that the files are named exactly the same as your category names, including the case. Hint: you can copy graphics from categories you have disabled to get you started.

[accident]

Moved to the yamj guide subforum and I also edited the first post to make the CODE blocks for xml into php blocks so they display correctly.

and thanks.. now I'm starting to feel bad about my ranting a few weeks ago at you.

---

I just wanted to add something.. If you go on images.google.com there are options on the left side where you can specify only artwork that is 1280x720 or 1920x1080, color pallet, etc etc and search for some new backgrounds... The original home page artwork doesn't come from there.. for the adult nature ones, there is a setting to add in adult image results

http://www.htbackdrops.com/ is also an excellent background source

[plm]

Thanks for moving it to the proper place, and for noticing the code issues. I've noticed that the PHP code is hiding backslashes in the YAMJ library pathnames. Not that it's a huge issue since people won't be copying these pathnames verbatim but do you know how to escape them in a PHP block so they show properly? I tried \\ and that didn't make any difference.

[accident]

there's no good answer here... / is valid for windows even if it might look wrong just to show the slash.. mybb is just a pain in the ass for code blocks,they don't fully work right.

[gredavis]

why can't i post?

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Hi i'm a new at this
i have a C-300 popcorn hour running
eversion yamj r0179
evZap 1.2.1

using the home_300



I have followed everything that Bazrah said to do but when the home page comes up everthing works good only can't get the icons to show up, It come up a blank space

---

I made a new item in the homelist C:\YAMJ\skins\eversion\eskins\evZap\home.control

********************************************************************************​*
Added the new lines to en_zap.xml in the home section for the translation c:\YAMJ\skins\eversion\interface\eversion\settings

I put <Greg's>Greg's</Greg's> after <!-- home menu -->
I think that is what was ment by in the home section for the translation

---

IN THE FILE en_zap.xml
<updateshare>Update share list</updateshare>


<!-- *** skins -->
<!-- home menu -->

<3d>3D</3d> <all>All</all>
<other>Other</other>
<categories>Categories</categories> <Greg's>Greg's</Greg's> <category>Category</category>
<library>Library</library>
<libraries>Libraries</libraries>
<cast>Cast</cast>

********************************************************************************​******************************************

This is the part I can't seem to get to work.

In evZap\media\home make a copy of one of the icon sets and name it the same as the new entry (case sensitive) i.e. home.music-video_b300.png and home.music-video_r300.png

I made a copy of the following icon sets files in C:\YAMJ\skins\eversion\eskins\evZap\media\home

home_all_b300.png
home_all_bv8.png
home_all_off_zap.png
home_all_on_zap.png
home_all_r300.png
home_all_rv8.png

And then I renamed the 6 icon sets to the following

home_Greg's_b300.png
home_Greg's_bv8.png
home_Greg's_off_zap.png
home_Greg's_on_zap.png
home_Greg's_r300.png
home_Greg's_rv8.png

As I said everything works great its just the icons that are not working its like the file names are wrong? any help many thanks.

[JohnDoe]

Question about "N:sharesVideoTV"

Do you still need to use a slash "/" or was there a reason that it was omitted? Thanks.

Also, could you post a screen shot or a video of what yours actually looks like using this? Would be great. Thanks

[plm]

There should be slashes. The board code rendering engine was messing up backslashes so accident edited them to be forward slashes and must have missed a couple. And I've obviously been too lazy to go back in and edit them!

Mine looks just like the regular Eversion (with evstreamed) skin, except that my home page menus now read:
Movies, TV Shows, Music, Kids, New, HD, etc.

Movies only shows the content in the Movies library, Music only shows the content in the Music library, but the in-built categories like New and HD still work across the entire library, so HD would show Blu-ray content from Movies, TV, Music and Kids, and so on.