message view creation guide.

sdh · Post by **sdh** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:27 am

hiyall.

i would like to get into this making message view styles, but i dont where to start..
could someone be so kind to post a quick guide on how to get started and so on?

wouldnt it be cool to make one like this:

its probably not something i could create.. but cool huh?!

Reikon · Post by **Reikon** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:55 am

http://adiumx.com/messageStyleDocs.html

Yeah i own.

Bosk · Post by **Bosk** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 6:45 am

sdh, i like the mockup. the toggle for the header is definitely possible through some funky css/javascript wrangling that is frankly (and unfortunately!) beyond my knowledge. as for incorporating a button for emoticons or current song directly into the message view, i doubt that is possible. to insert an emoticon one must call on adium to enter text in the outgoing message field, and to insert a song requires a call to an applescript, both which i doubt can be done through a webkit template.

Perez · Post by **Perez** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:48 am

Actually, you probably want the tutorial, not the documentation - although the docs have a link to the tutorial.

The show/hide is definitely possible, and has been done many a time. It would involve javascript that accesses the visibility attribute (or the display attribute) of things that'd be in the header.html file, probably; I'd suggest looking at the code of one of the styles on the X(tras) site that does something similar. I don't think emoticons/iTunes would be possible, though - that's application-level, not webkit (message view) level. Cool mockup, by the way.

Son of a Preacher Man · Sun Mar 06, 2005 1:20 pm

A toggle for the header will be fairly unnecessary with .8, there's a checkbox in the prefs to decide whether to show it or not.

sdh · Post by **sdh** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:44 pm

ok, when is it released?

Son of a Preacher Man · Sun Mar 06, 2005 3:54 pm

Hahahahahaha...

"When it's ready."

Which is the only answer the devs will / can give.

sdh · Post by **sdh** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:49 pm

lol, ok.

ive read in the tutorial about how to make messageviewstyles, i cant really get a grip of it..
i can do all the graphical stuff, its just the css/html and coding thats hard for me..

anyways.. ive changed the sketch a little:

Son of a Preacher Man · Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:09 pm

It can be difficult. I learned first of all by playing around with an existing style, in conjunction with a decent CSS guide (just google for one). Then I followed the tutorial when I had some idea of what I was doing. But, seriously, you only learn by doing. It's not something that you can easily explain!

Bosk · Post by **Bosk** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 2:39 am

Son of a Preacher Man wrote:A toggle for the header will be fairly unnecessary with .8, there's a checkbox in the prefs to decide whether to show it or not.

unless you want to turn it on or off for single convos, or without having to open the preferences window

Son of a Preacher Man · Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:45 am

I was just trying to save sdh having to learn javascript as well as html/css.

If I can help with anything, feel free to IM me, as I like your idea. Trouble is, creating a style is really a one-person job I think!