Thread: RockCar Frontend Update

Download:
The setup files for the Front End and Skin Builder are attached to this thread.

Updates:
I've been busy with other development projects but I've made changes where I needed them most.
I run this as my front end full time and have been for about a year.

• You can now select items in your WMP library or select from folders on your drives.
• Edit and move groups of items in the skin editor (click Ctrl to select multiple items)
• Buttons now have a click color your can assign to them.
• New default skin.

In Development:

• HD Radio support
• Application embedding feature
• Embed iGuidence
• Embed 3sixty.2 app

Features:

• Uses WMP 10+ for the media library and album art. Both audio and video.
• Install takes about 20 seconds.
• Multi-language capable interface.
• Skinable interface with themes.
• Skin Builder is included to make your own skins.
• Plugable interface so it is possible to create extended features.
• External controls plugin interface that allows external controllers (joysticks, etc.)
• Flexible core engine that can be leveraged in plugins.
• Built in C#

Requirements:

• Windows XP or Vista 32bit
• Windows Media Player 10+ (RockCar uses your WMP library)
• .NET 2.0 Runtime (free from Microsoft)

Plugins Included:

• Head - Main control surface.
• Media Selector - Selects media from the WMP library.
• IE Browser - Internet Explorer web browser.

Translations
English, German, Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese Translations Available
I used Babel Fish for the translations, so I apologize if any translations are incorrect. PM me if you would like to help out with

translations.

Change the translation to the language you want by editing the GlobalOptions.xml file and changing the "Culture" to:

en English
de German
es Spanish
fr French
ja Japanese
ru Russian

Modify a Skin
To modify a skin start by duplicating one of the existing skins.
Experiment with the themes and layouts to see what you can do. Make sure to save your changes.
Click test on the layout tab to see the results.

Create a Skin
I would suggest modifying an existing skin to get a good feel for how the skins are organized.
If you woul like to try from scratch here is a short 'how to':

1. Click 'New' on the skins tab.
2. Name your skin and click update.
3. Click the 'Themes' tab.
4. Click the + to add a new theme.
5. Rename the theme and click update.
6. Add and name an image for the background.
7. Add a surface theme for a button.
8. On the Layouts tab create a new layout called "RockCarHead"
9. Add an exit button using the surface theme just added.
10. Click 'Test Skin'
11. Experiment with adding buttons to your skin.

Layout Switching
Layout Switching - Each feature (player/GPS/etc) of the front end has a layout that determines where the controls are placed. Switching

layouts allows the skin designer to create multiple layouts for each feature. This helps in creating skins with minimal controls on the main

screen that link to sub-screens with controls specific to the function. The subscreens can be multiple levels deep.

The skin builder now allows to create skins to do this:
1. Create a new layout from the Layouts tab.
2. Create a button on the main parent that switches to the new layout, make it's funtion 'LayoutSwitch' and set the argument to the name of

the layout.

Graphic Artists and Skin Builders Needed:
I need some better looking skins. I'm good with Photoshop, but I need someone with vision to create some something really cool.

Developers:
RockCar has an easy to use plugin framework. I'm looking for developers who would like to develop features for RockCar. GPS with iGuidance

would be awsome, but I've not had time to learn the code to accomplish this.