01 Organization

Introduction

In my mind, one of the most important things when developing anything - from the simplest script to the most complex, multi-tier application with multiple developers - is organization. From understanding existing protocols to creating your own and following them, consistent organization makes everything much more clear, not only to yourself but to others who may have to work with your project.

File Organization

I find that organizing the files within the theme makes things easier to find later, and makes the purpose of the various files more clear. My theme directory is organized as follows:

• ThemeRoot/ - usually a variation of your theme name, this is where all of the files for your theme reside
  • *.xml - all XML files, including the required base.xml, menu-ui.xml, and themeinfo.xml files, reside at the root of your theme directory
  • fonts/ - all fonts used in your theme reside here
    • font1/
    • font2/ - unless a font is entirely defined in one file (which it never should be - there always should be a license file), store fonts in separate folders with all required files
  • images/ - all large-format images (e.g. backgrounds), including your preview image, reside here
    • backgrounds/
  • icons/ - all small-format images (e.g. menu button images) reside here
    • menu/
    • recordings/
    • music/ - icons that are used on specific screens or for a particular purpose should be separated into folders
    • shared/ - icons that are used in multiple places can reside in a common location

The images and icons folders certainly can be combined if they each contain only a few files and folders.

Code Organization

Because writing themes really does involve writing code, your code should be organized. My writing style is derived from a lot of different coding styles. There are some coding style suggestions in the MythTV wiki, and I certainly add to them here in this tutorial. Use what you like; ignore what you do not.

Editors and IDEs

I code both on Windows machines and on Linux machines. Color-coding, line numbers, and intelligent indents are must-haves for me, but I really do not need anything more than that for MythTV theme development. So, instead of using a bloated, full-blown IDE, I use a simple but intelligent text editor. On Windows machines, I use Notepad++. On Linux machines, gedit suits me just fine.

Redistributing Files

Please be courteous when redistributing others' work with your themes. Respect the licenses contained in the work.