Overview

How to edit revaMPed Basic Home

Introduction

You may modify revaMPed Basic Home and save your own versions which display only the menu items you wish.  You can configure which window opens when you select a menu item, or which sub menu displays when you press the right arrow while focused on an item. 

You can even select backdrop options for not only the Home Menu, but for each sub menu.  Up to three levels of sub menus are supported to display all your plugins.

Create as many different layouts as you wish, one for each member of your family.  Then save them in Profiles so each user can start MediaPortal with their own Basic Home layout.

How do you do all this?  Easily, using hte aMPed Basic Home Editor within aMPedConfig. The editor displays a user friendly tree display, to show your menus and sub menus, much like Window Explorer.

Edit revaMPed Basic Home

1. Select revaMPed in the Basic Home Layout on the Layouts Tab in aMPedConfig
2. Click the Edit button below the Preview window.

It is so easy you really don't need any instructions!

Note: If you ever wish to remove one of your modified (mods) Basic Home layouts, just press Delete.

Using the Editor

To open the Editor, first open aMPedConfig via your desktop shorcut, then

1. Go to the Layouts tab
2. Select revaMPed Basic Home Layout
   
3. Use the Move up and Move down buttons to arrange items how you wish.
4. Press the + symbol to view sub menu items.
5. Use the Remove button to remove an item or a whole submenu and all its items
6. To add an item, select an Empty item and then press the Edit button

You cannot move items between sub menus, you must remove them from one sub menu and add them to another.

You may add 'Menu only' items like Games or More. These items do not link to a specific window in MP, they are simply headings for Sub Menus. 'Menu only' items are displayed in light blue text, both in the Editor and in MediaPortal when using revaMPed.

Edit Menu Items

Use the Edit button to change which window will open when you select a button.

1. When you highlight an item and select Edit, choose a supported Item from the drop down box.
   
   Note: Only plugins/windows which are installed and enabled will display in the list.
   The correct label text and hover image will automatically be selected for you.
2. Press the Advanced button to customize the Label or hover image to whatever you wish.
   

• Label ID - usually uses the ID number which corresponds to text in the language/strings files - so labels are automatically translated. The current label/text displays to the right of the Label ID box.
  You may enter text directly in the Label ID field, you don't have to use a language string ID.
• Window ID - the ID of the window (or plugin) you wish to access when you press the menu item. Window IDs can be found at the top of any skin xml (e.g. MyFilms.xml shows <id>7986</id>.
• Hover Image - use the browse button [...] to select the image you wish to display for the Menu Item.

Important Notes:

1. You cannot edit items on the Actions Menu
2. If you add a new sub menu, the first item will always appear as the fourth item in the menu - the center of the menu - so that the display will always be centered vertically on your screen.
3. You can add only two levels of sub menus. So, for example, if you wish to move Games to the More sub menu, and you want all Games items listed on a Games sub menu, then you must create two items for Games and name them Games1 Games2 or whatever you wish. Of course, you may just use one item for Games and list only the games you use on that sub menu.

Backdrops

To choose the Backdrop for the main Home Menu, press the 'Home' button under Edit Backdrops.

To choose a Backdrop for a sub menu, select the item which has a sub menu and press the 'Current' button. If items do not have sub menus, the 'Current' button will be inactive, or greyed out.

You may choose from three types of Backdrops:

• fanart - displays random fanart images from [userdata]\thumbs\Skin FanArt\ folders
• multiple images - cycling backdrops from \amped\media\animations folders
• single images - static backdrops from \amped\media\animations folders

Once you select your backdrop Type, choose a category from the drop down box. For Single or Multiple image backdrops, you can also use the Browse option to select any other image or folder on your hard drive.

Home Menu multiple images are stored in the \amped\media\themes\\[themename]\animations folders as they change for each theme.  Default Single images are one of the images stored in those folders.

See Backdrops for further information.

Save Your 'Mod' or Basic Home Layout

Once you have completed your modifications, press the Save As button in the lower right and select a name for your new Basic Home. layout
Don't worry, you cannot overwrite the default layouts.
Your new Basic Home will be saved in it's own folder in the \Layouts\BasicHome folder and it will automatically display for you in aMPedConfig in the Basic Home Layouts drop down box on the Layouts tab.
You can create a new layout for every member of your family so they can select their own Basic Home layout when they start MP using aMPedConfig.
Note: Your Basic Home 'mods' are backed up in the programdata\aMPed\BasicHome folder and are restored whenever you choose to reinstall aMPed while preserving your settings.  However, due to changes in MediaPortal and aMPed, you cannot always resuse your Mods in a new release of aMPed. Just recreate them from the default Classic Basic Home layout, then delete your  old mods.