Full skins for MX4 [MCB] seem to back ????


Tony

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A comment from magg to Snero got me wondering - so firstly thanks to them - also thanks to unknown people on the chinese forum who posted the original skin files

to explain - from those comments it seems skins work again in MX4 without mods to the ui.dat file - the screen grab at the end of this post is a skinned MX4 with clean ui and page.dat files

I tried some of my old .mxskin files and some from JarC and they did not work - they tried to but just opened the browser without installing the skin

on looking at the .mxskin file in the chinese skin the skin3.ini file is different - it has a line

guid={6eb65a41-cc43-4a16-ba08-3e25b19a328a} plus other changes

so i overwrote the skin3.ini file in my skin - packed it and clicked on it - it installed and created a new skin file with the same number as the guid and it then worked - i now have a clean ui.dat file with a skin file in the skin dir in users and it all seems fine - so we are back to the MX3 system

i have tried the same process with a new generated guid and that seems fine

i have not tested extensivly and have had a failure when trying to change skins within the browser - the new skin would not load and had to be re-installed but that may be because i am jumping from one version to others

so anyone who is interested - try it - if this is part of a 'new' skin program why has it not been announced - if its just chance that it works then i guess it may stop working with further updates - hopefully not

post-2400682-14315112085198_thumb.png

Tony     -  Vivaldi 4 on Windows 10 64Bit
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just version numbers in the skin3.ini file - no idea if they mattered - certainly the guid line did - without that it would not work - the rest i just copied - there was nothing there that needed understanding so i looked no further

the guid line seemed the key to getting the skin to load

as to a detailed tuturial - not sure what you mean - a how to make a skin - if so you are asking the wrong person - i take what there is and play - i understand the logic of how it is built and what section of the code does what but not the program code itself

so all i can say is look through the code - its in sections and the titles are meaningful and then play - it works or not - when it does not then either play some more and learn a little or leave it as is - the main person who was able to teach is no longer here and no one has taken up the baton - my knowledge is what i have gathered along the way

Tony     -  Vivaldi 4 on Windows 10 64Bit
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tony. replied at 2013-8-25 03:38 back.gif

just version numbers in the skin3.ini file - no idea if they mattered - certainly the guid line did ...

Thanks:)

Now I get it.

I was just curious about the " other changes"-now I know that most important is that guid.

Thanks for explanation Tony

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Indeed, thanks for the clarification Tony! :-) That explains I think why I was having no luck trying to modify the chrome-style skin that I downloaded from the Chinese forum... I was unpacking and changing it then repacking it as a ui.dat and wondering why I wasn't seeing any difference lol. It was 4 a.m., that's my excuse...

So if I understand this properly now, it means that we can edit the mxskin file in the same way as editing the ui.dat file, but then repack it as an mxskin file which means it can be installed without changing the original ui.dat. And, it also means that we can swap between different skins easily too.

I'd love a tutorial about skinning, e.g. how different layouts, sizes, shapes etc are achieved. I'm coming along slowly through trial and error and have lost count of how many times I've broken the gui and had to start again at the beginning... using portable Maxthon makes this process a lot less painful.

My main problem is identifying what all the different lines of code are related to - e.g. looking in the tabs section I fnd a whole load of different "px" entries and it's difficult for a beginner like me to have any idea of which ones need to be altered. The percentage entries are also a bit confusing, changing those often seems to have no effect at all. Unpacking other people's work is helpful to an extent, but a basic tutorial about all this would be invaluable, if anybody has the knowledge/inclination to do it or knows where we could find something like that.

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short answer is install it and you will see - longer answer is in a similar way to the way 4 does now - there were 3 embedded skins that showed in the skin window when you opened it - any new skins that were added into the skin dir showed up as a graphic in the same window - click on it and it changed skins - same principal as today - skins were and still are at he skin centre - they can still be downloaded but dont work easily - but can be made to - always have been so its possible to learn from them or use them if you want

Tony     -  Vivaldi 4 on Windows 10 64Bit
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Switching between skins isn't working really, here at least...

I installed the chrome-style skin, and then used the skin options to change the colour, which makes the browser revert to the default skin. After that I could use the skin options to "load last skin" and restore the chrome-style, but when I installed a third skin (from the Chinese forum) it seems that the skins have to be re-installed to be reactivated.

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skin switching with 'full' skins is working for me - i have a custom colour skin and 2 full skins - i can switch between those and any of the included colour skins - have done nothing special - it just started to work

Tony     -  Vivaldi 4 on Windows 10 64Bit
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heres an interesting screen grab for those who have been here a while - a JarC skin back in the skin dir on MX4 - no mod to ui.dat and it loads - theres a lot wrong with it as would be expected but nothing that could not be fixed - his main code still works as well as it always did :)

post-2400682-14315112091214_thumb.png

Tony     -  Vivaldi 4 on Windows 10 64Bit
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tony. replied at 2013-8-26 12:38 back.gif

install 3 and do it that way

Yes I thought of that, but I don't like installers and can't find a portable version. There used to be a portable Mx 3 at the paf site but their link now goes straight to Mx4. Softonic seem to have it but I can't be doing with their wrapped downloader...

I'll just stick with the v4 skins I guess, or perhaps I can find some on DeviantArt or somewhere similar.

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Tony I now have 3 of JarC's skins for M3 installed in the skins folder(%appdata%>Roaming>Maxthon3>Skins) that I installed from the old forum by simply clicking on them in JarC's threads. Now the info I need is how do I access them from Maxthon Cloud? There is no toolbar dropdown as there is in M3 and in the Skins dialog accessed from the Menu>Skins the new ones are not available. A little more direction as to how to make them work would be appreciated, even if they won't work fully in MCB; just want to know how this now works. Thanks.

And just a semantics thing: Should the title of this thread be "Full skins for MX4 seem to be back"?

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Hi, we are improving skin support for Maxthon4.

1. Please unpack the Maxthon3's skin with MxPacker.exe,

2. set "" -> "_def" & "version" of "skin3.ini" to be "2.x.x"eg:

_def = 2.0.0

version = 2.0.0

3. Change the skin html & css files to make sure it suitable for Maxthon4.

4. Then, pack it to be xxxx.mxskin.

5. Double click it , Maxthon4 will use that skin (maybe restart required)

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More interesting by the minute.

Still curious about the GUID listed in the chinese forum skins.

So it seems most of the backend work is sorted out, it just needs to be implemented in the skin so the new skins can be accessed. No doubt it will be available in the next 1 or 2 releases.

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7twenty replied at 2013-8-27 07:57 back.gif

More interesting by the minute.

Still curious about the GUID listed in the chinese forum skins.

tested without guid and it works as above - as said i just copied what i found - i find it most odd that the solution to one of the biggest long term gripes was found by accident - its obviously been implemented and no roll of the drums to say look at this - maybe its still a work in progress but even so surely they would want to tell users

Tony     -  Vivaldi 4 on Windows 10 64Bit
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tony. replied at 2013-8-26 02:45 back.gif

heres an interesting screen grab for those who have been here a while - a JarC skin back in the skin ...

Tony, was the skin from JanC ever posted on the Mx3 skins download area? I'd like o see it live if it will work in Mx4. I do have an Mx3 installation now too.

Thanks for any leads. I have nosed around in the MX3 skins, but didn't see anythnig similar to JanC's.

SL

SL

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