Purpose

• Required:  No
• Type of Change:  Feature

Skin maintenance becomes more difficult when the same <define> tag appears in multiple skin xml files.  This new feature allows you to place <define> tags in the references.xml file, for use by all skin xml files.

Description of Change

Simply place:

<define>...</define>

tags in the references.xml file, and refer to these definitions in any of your skin xml files.  The <define> tags typically appear before the first <control> tag (this is not required, but it is likely a good standard). <define> tags occupy the same position in the hierarchy as <control> tags (<define> and <control> are siblings).

This implementation does not alter the prior implementation of the <define> tag.   You can still place a <define> tag within the scope of a <window> tag in an xml file.  However, if you place the same <define> tag in both the references.xml file and the skin xml file for a window, the value defined in the skin xml file overrides the value set in the references.xml file. This behavior mirrors the present behavior of the references.xml control "template" attributes, which are overridden by the values defined in the window xml file.

Additional Information and References

XML/Code Samples

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<controls>
	<skin>
		<width>1366</width>
		<height>768</height>
		<version>1.0.1.0</version>
	</skin>
	<define>#screenWidth:1366</define>
	<define>#screenHeight:768</define>
	<define>#screenTitleTextColor:FFFFFFFF</define>
	<define>#timeTextColor:FFFFFFFF</define>
	<style Name="smallTitle">
		<id>0</id>
		<width>220</width>
		<font>font10</font>
		<textcolor>ffffffff</textcolor>
		<shadowAngle>45</shadowAngle>
		<shadowDistance>2</shadowDistance>
		<shadowColor>ff222222</shadowColor>
	</style>
	<control>
		<description>default image</description>
		<type>image</type>
		<id>1</id>
		<posX>0</posX>
		<posY>0</posY>
		<width>32</width>
		<height>32</height>
		<texture>background.png</texture>
		<colorkey>0</colorkey>
		<colordiffuse>ffffffff</colordiffuse>
		<filtered>yes</filtered>
		<centered>no</centered>
		<keepaspectratio>no</keepaspectratio>
		<visible>yes</visible>
	</control>