Skin (skin.ini)

The appearance of the mAirList user interface (colors, fonts, buttons, etc.) can be customized through a skin. The skin is defined in a text file named skin.ini, which is located in the configuration folder of your mAirList installation.

If skin.ini does not exist, or a particular setting is not present in the file, mAirList will use its built-in defaults. So the file only needs to contain the settings you want to change.

Skin Editor

The easiest way to edit the skin is the built-in Skin Editor, which can be opened from the Windows menu of the playout window. It shows the contents of skin.ini in a text editor, and many changes are applied to the playout window immediately, so you can see the effect right away.

In addition to the usual editing functions (cut/copy/paste, undo, and search with Ctrl+F), the Skin Editor provides a Select Color dialog, which lets you pick any of the color values described below, including a preview for both light and dark mode.

When you close the Skin Editor, you will be prompted to save your changes.

If you edit skin.ini with an external editor instead, use the SKIN RELOAD command in order to apply the changes without restarting mAirList.

File Structure

skin.ini uses the common INI file format, i.e. it consists of sections in square brackets, each containing a number of Key=Value lines:

[Colors]
ButtonActiveBackground=#C00000

[Peakmeter]
Design=Classic

Each section controls a particular part of the user interface, see Sections below.

Light and Dark Mode

mAirList supports a light and a dark mode, which can be switched with the commands DARKMODE ON, DARKMODE OFF and DARKMODE ON/OFF.

For each section, you can add settings that only apply to one of the modes, by creating an additional section with the suffix .Light or .Dark. These settings will be merged with (and take priority over) those of the base section:

[Player]
BorderColor=#808080

[Player.Dark]
BorderColor=#404040

As an alternative for colors, you can also specify a pair of colors for light and dark mode in a single value (see below).

Prefixes

Some components embed other components, e.g. each player contains a progress bar and a waveform display. In these cases, the settings of the embedded component are specified within the section of the outer component, using the name of the embedded component as a prefix for the keys. For example, the settings of the progress bar within the players are specified as ProgressBar... keys in the [Player] section.

Value Types

Colors

Colors can be specified in any of the following ways:

• HTML color code: #RRGGBB, e.g. #FF8000. The short form #RGB is also accepted.
• Light/dark pair: Two HTML color codes separated by a comma, e.g. #FFFFFF,#202020. The first color is used in light mode, the second one in dark mode.
• Predefined colors: LightRed, Red, DarkRed, and likewise for Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue and Purple; White, Black, and the shades of gray Gray1 to Gray7.
• Skin colors: The name of any of the colors defined in the [Colors] section, e.g. ButtonActiveBackground. This allows you to reuse the same color in multiple places.
• Style and system colors: The name of a color of the current Windows style, so that the color automatically adapts to light and dark mode.
• Custom colors: The name of a color defined in the [CustomColors] section.

The Select Color dialog of the Skin Editor lists all available names.

Fonts

Fonts are specified with up to four keys, which usually share a common prefix indicating the element they apply to:

• ...FontName: The name of the font, e.g. Segoe UI.
• ...FontSize: The size of the font in points.
• ...FontStyle: Any combination of the letters B (bold), I (italic), U (underline) and S (strikeout), e.g. BI.
• ...FontColor: The color of the font (see above).

Keys that are not specified retain their default values.

Buttons

Buttons in the players, toolbars etc. share a common set of settings. They are specified with a prefix, which depends on the section and the button, e.g. Button for all buttons of a toolbar, or PlayButton for a particular button. In the descriptions below, the prefix is written as Prefix.

All settings except the border settings can be specified for a particular state of the button, by adding the name of the state after the prefix:

The default colors refer to the [Colors] section. A setting without a state applies to all four states, and a setting with a state takes priority over it:

ButtonColor=#404040
ButtonActiveColor=#C00000
ButtonActiveFontStyle=B

Toolbars

The toolbars of the playlists, cartwall and Mix Editor share the following settings:

In addition, each button can be configured individually, using the name of the button (see the respective section) followed by Button:

For example, PlayButtonWidth=80 and PlayButtonActiveColor=#00C000 change the width and active color of the Play button.

Sections

General Sections

[Colors]

This section defines the default colors of the various components, e.g. buttons, waveforms and progress bars. Most of these colors can also be overridden for a particular component in its own section; the values in [Colors] apply wherever no such specific setting is made. In addition, each color can be referred to by its name in other sections (see Colors above).

Note that the values in this section are more restricted than elsewhere: Only HTML color codes (#RRGGBB or #RGB) and the names of the predefined colors (e.g. Red, Gray3) are accepted. Light/dark pairs and references to other colors cannot be used here. In order to set different colors for light and dark mode, use a separate [Colors.Dark] (or [Colors.Light]) section:

[Colors]
ButtonActiveBackground=#A6CAF0

[Colors.Dark]
ButtonActiveBackground=#2A353B

The tables below list all available keys, along with their default values for light and dark mode. Defaults marked as (system) refer to the respective Windows system color.

Buttons

These colors apply to the buttons of the players, cartwall, browser and toolbars. “Active” refers to a button in its active (pressed, switched on) state, e.g. the PLAY button of a player while it is playing.

Waveform

These colors apply to the waveform displays in the players, Cue Editor, cartwall, Mix Editor etc.

Peak Meters

Volume Faders

Progress Bars

These colors apply to the progress bars in the players, cartwall, and the global progress bar below the playlists.

Cartwall

If a playlist item loaded into a cart player has its own color, that color is used instead of CartwallPlayerInactive and CartwallPlayerDisabled.

Database App

[CustomColors]

In this section, you can define your own named colors, e.g. MyRed=#E00000. These names can then be used as a color value in any other section, which makes it easy to change a color in a single place.

[MainWindow]

Settings for the main playout window.

Like in the [Colors] section, Color only accepts HTML color codes and the names of the predefined colors.

Changes to this section only take effect after restarting mAirList; they are not applied by the Skin Editor or SKIN RELOAD.

[Toolbar]

Settings for the main toolbar of the playout window.

The Show... settings can only hide buttons; a button that is not available anyway (e.g. because the respective function is disabled in the configuration) will not be shown even if the setting is on. The visibility of the Database button is controlled by the database configuration, see Options.

Like Color in the [MainWindow] section, FontColor only accepts HTML color codes and the names of the predefined colors, and changes only take effect after a restart.

Playlist and Players

[Playlist], [Playlistn]

Settings for the playlist display in the playout window. [Playlist] applies to all playlists; settings for a particular playlist are specified in [Playlist0], [Playlist1], etc. (numbering starts at 0).

The settings fall into two groups:

• Row settings (colors, fonts and dimensions of the playlist rows) can be applied selectively to particular rows, e.g. only to the row of the item that is currently playing, or only to jingles. This is done with row selectors, see below.
• Global settings (columns, header, grid lines, etc.) apply to the entire playlist.

Row Selectors

The key of a row setting consists of an optional selector, followed by the name of the property, e.g.:

RowColor=#FFFFFF
PlayingRowColor=#C0FFC0
MusicFontSize=16
Player0PlayingTitleFontStyle=B

Without a selector (RowColor), the setting applies to all rows. With a selector, it only applies to the rows matching the selector: PlayingRowColor sets the background of the row that is currently playing, MusicFontSize sets the font size for all music items, and Player0PlayingTitleFontStyle makes the title bold while the item is playing in the first player.

A selector is made up of the following parts, each of which is optional. If multiple parts are used, they must be specified in exactly this order:

A row matches a selector if it matches all parts used in the selector. For example, AlternatePlayingMusicRowColor applies to rows that are on an odd position, are currently playing, and contain a music item.

The available player states are:

The available item types are Unknown, Music, Voice, News, Weather, Traffic, Advertising, Package, Jingle, Sound, Trailer, Promo, Sponsorship, Sweeper, Drop, StationID, Bed, Instrumental, Show, Stream, Container, Playlist, Command, CartwallPage, Break, Dummy, Silence, Error, Other, Custom1, Custom2 and Custom3.

Some values exist both as an item type and an item category (Stream, Container, Break, Dummy, Other), and Error exists both as a player state and an item type. Since the parts are processed in the order given above, such a value is always interpreted as the earlier part, i.e. Error as a player state, and Stream etc. as an item type.

If a key cannot be parsed completely (e.g. because of a typo, or because the parts are in the wrong order), it is silently ignored.

Precedence

All settings whose selector matches a particular row are applied one after another, in the order in which they appear in the skin, so the last matching setting wins. In other words, put general settings first and more specific ones after them:

RowColor=#FFFFFF
MusicRowColor=#F0F0FF
PlayingRowColor=#C0FFC0

Here, a playing music item gets the PlayingRowColor, because it comes last. If the order of the last two lines were swapped, it would get the MusicRowColor instead.

The settings are processed in the following order: First the built-in defaults (see the tables below), then the settings in [Playlist], then those in [Playlistn]; for each of these sections, the .Light/.Dark variant follows directly after the base section. If a key is specified more than once, only the last occurrence counts, and it takes the position of that last occurrence.

Note that some of the built-in defaults already use selectors, e.g. PlayedFontColor. A plain FontColor in your skin will therefore not affect the played items, unless you also set PlayedFontColor.

Item Colors

The row background and the color ribbon can also be colored according to the color of the item, or the color of its item type, depending on the options Use item colors for row color and Use item colors for color ribbon in the playlist configuration. In this case, the item color takes priority over a RowColor or RibbonColor without selector, but settings with a selector (e.g. PlayingRowColor) still take priority over the item color, unless the option Item-specific colors have priority over skin.ini is enabled.

Row Settings

The following settings can be combined with a selector:

For the font settings, the built-in defaults also include ContentFontSize=10, CommentFontSize=12, TimeFontSize=12, PlayerFontStyle=B, TimeFontStyle=B, TitleFontStyle=B, ContentFontStyle=B, PlayedFontColor=#808080, SkippedFontColor=#808080, DebugFontColor=#FF0000 and DebugFontSize=6.

The font category part of the selector (part 7) is only meaningful for the four font settings. It selects the text element the font applies to:

For example, ArtistFontStyle=I shows the artist in italics, and PlayingTimeFontColor=#C00000 shows the time of the playing item in red.

The available values for TitleDisplayMode are:

Columns

The playlist consists of the following columns, identified by these names: Player, Peakmeter, Timing, Time, Expand, Icon, Title, Attribute1 … Attribute8, Dynamic1 … Dynamic8, Ramp, Duration, EndType and Link.

Attribute and dynamic columns are only displayed if the respective Attributen or Dynamicn key is set. They are left-aligned and 150 pixels wide by default.

The default column widths are: Player 48 (120 if Show player state is enabled), Peakmeter 20, Timing 24, Time 80, Expand 32, Icon 48, Ramp 64, Duration 100, EndType 48 and Link 48. The default alignment is Left for Time and Title, and Right for Ramp and Duration.

Layout

A left margin of -1 aligns the area with the left edge of the Title column.

The progress bar within the rows is configured with the prefix ProgressBar (see [ProgressBar] for the available keys), and the peak meter in the Peakmeter column with the prefix Peakmeter (in addition to the global [Peakmeter] section).

Header

Other Settings

In addition, the following color keys of the underlying list control are available: BorderColor, DisabledColor, DropMarkColor, DropTargetBorderColor, DropTargetColor, FocusedSelectionBorderColor, FocusedSelectionColor, GridLineColor, HeaderHotColor, HotColor, SelectionRectangleBlendColor, SelectionRectangleBorderColor, TreeLineColor, UnfocusedSelectionBorderColor and UnfocusedSelectionColor. Like the SelectedFontColor setting, these only accept HTML color codes and the names of the predefined colors.

[PlaylistToolbar], [PlaylistToolbarn]

Settings for the toolbar above each playlist. [PlaylistToolbar] applies to all playlists; settings for a particular playlist are specified in [PlaylistToolbar0], [PlaylistToolbar1], etc., and take priority.

The toolbar supports the common toolbar settings. Its default height is 36 pixels, and the default button width is 40 pixels.

The toolbar contains the following buttons:

Some buttons have default colors that differ from the [Colors] section: AssistAuto is Green when inactive (ASSIST) and Red when active (AUTO); Auto is Red when active; Assist is Green when active; and Event is Yellow when inactive.

The buttons of the edit bar (shown with the EditBar button) are configured in the same section. Their appearance is controlled by the button settings with an empty prefix (i.e. Color, ActiveColor, FontName etc. apply to all edit bar buttons), or with the name of the button as prefix:

For example, EditTimingActiveColor=#C00000 changes the active color of the timing button in the edit bar.

[Player], [Playern_m]

Settings for the players of the playlists.

[Player] applies to all players. Settings for an individual player can be specified in [Playern_m], where n is the number of the playlist and m the number of the player within that playlist (both starting at 0), e.g. [Player0_1] for the second player of the first playlist. These settings take priority over those in [Player].

(The section [PlaylistPlayer] is still supported for compatibility with older skins, but there is no reason to use it in new skins.)

Player States

Colors and fonts can be set differently for each state of the player, by adding the name of the state as a prefix to the key. The following states are available:

Colors

By default, the background color in the states Playing, Fading, EOF and PFL is the color of the player as set in the playlist configuration, and the panel color of the window style in all other states (including FlashEOF, so that the player flashes between its own color and the panel color). Note that Color overrides the defaults for all states, including the playing states; use StateColor in order to change particular states only.

If the player option Use item color when idle is enabled, the color of the loaded item (if set) is used instead of the Loaded and Paused colors. The FlashEOF color is only used if Flash during EOF warning is enabled.

Fonts

The player displays five text elements, each with its own font:

The default font color is black in the states Playing, Fading, EOF and PFL, and the caption text color of the window style otherwise.

The font keys (FontName, FontSize, FontStyle and FontColor, see Fonts) can be combined with a state and/or a category prefix. They are applied in the following order, so later ones take priority:

1. FontSize etc.: all text elements in all states
2. StateFontSize, e.g. PlayingFontColor: all text elements in a particular state
3. CategoryFontSize, e.g. TimeFontSize: a particular text element in all states
4. State**CategoryFontSize, e.g. PlayingTimeFontColor: a particular text element in a particular state

Note that a category setting (3) takes priority over a state setting (2). For example, with PlayingFontColor=#FFFFFF and TitleFontColor=#000000, the title of a playing item will be black; use PlayingTitleFontColor to change it for the playing state.

Buttons

The player has the following buttons: Start, Stop, Pause, Close, PFL, Loop, FadeOut and Reset.

Their appearance is configured with the button settings, using the prefix Button for all buttons, or the name of the button followed by Button for a particular button, e.g.:

ButtonFontSize=10
StartButtonActiveColor=#00C000
PFLButtonActiveColor=Yellow

Which buttons are displayed is set in the player configuration, not in the skin.

Dimensions

Other Settings

The embedded progress bar is configured with the prefix ProgressBar (e.g. ProgressBarRemainColor, see [ProgressBar] for the available keys), and the waveform display with the prefix Waveform, in addition to the global [Waveform] section.

Custom Layout

With the XMLLayout setting, you can replace the built-in arrangement of the elements of the player with your own layout, defined in an XML file. A relative filename refers to the config folder of your mAirList installation.

The XML file contains a root element (with any name), which contains Object and Container elements:

• <Object Name="..."/> places one of the elements of the player. The available names are Name, State, Time, Title, Artist, Status, ProgressBar, Waveform, Peakmeter, VolumeSlider, and the buttons StartButton, StopButton, PauseButton, CloseButton, PFLButton, LoopButton, FadeOutButton and ResetButton. Elements that are not placed are not displayed.
• <Container>...</Container> creates an invisible panel, which can contain further Object and Container elements, in order to build more complex layouts.

Both elements support the following attributes:

For text elements (Name, State, Time, Title, Artist), the size adjusts automatically to the text unless Width or Height is specified.

Example:

<Layout>
  <Container Align="Left" Width="60">
    <Object Name="Name" Align="Client"/>
  </Container>
  <Object Name="ProgressBar" Align="Bottom" Height="12"/>
  <Container Align="Bottom" Height="38">
    <Object Name="StartButton" Align="Left" Width="60"/>
    <Object Name="StopButton" Align="Left" Width="60"/>
  </Container>
  <Object Name="Title" Align="Top"/>
  <Object Name="Time" Align="Right"/>
</Layout>

[ProgressBar]

Settings for the global progress bar displayed below the playlists, which shows the progress of the item that is currently playing.

The defaults refer to the [Colors] section, so changing a color there changes it for all progress bars at once.

Whether the ramp is displayed, whether the progress bar is split during the ramp, and whether it is hidden when nothing is playing, is set in the configuration, not in the skin.

The progress bars embedded in other components use the same keys, with the prefix ProgressBar, e.g. ProgressBarRemainColor in the [Player] section. Note that these progress bars do not inherit the settings of the [ProgressBar] section; to change all progress bars at once, use the ProgressBar... colors in the [Colors] section.

Common Components

[Peakmeter]

Settings for all peak meters, i.e. those in the playlists, the Peakmeter and Encoder Status screen objects, etc.

The default colors refer to the [Colors] section.

The same keys can be used with the prefix Peakmeter in the [Playlist] and [EncoderStatus] sections, in order to change the peak meters of these components only.

The Peakmeter screen object has a Skin ID setting; if set, the peak meter will additionally read its settings from the section with that name (without prefix). This allows you to give individual peak meters a different look:

[MyBigMeter]
Design=Classic
TotalWidth=4
ActiveWidth=3

[VolumeFader]

Settings for the volume faders in the players, cart players and VT Recorder.

The default colors refer to the [Colors] section.

[Waveform]

Settings for all waveform displays, e.g. in the players, Cue Editor, cartwall and Mix Editor.

The default colors refer to the [Colors] section.

The fonts of the waveform display are specified with the following prefixes, followed by FontName, FontSize, FontStyle or FontColor (see Fonts), e.g. TimelineFontSize or TitleFontColor:

The waveform displays of the players additionally read these settings with the prefix Waveform from their own section, and those of the Mix Editor from the [MixEditor] section.

Cartwall

[Cartwall]

Settings for the cartwall and its cart players.

Cart player colors. The background color of a cart player depends on its state, and on the mode of the cartwall (ON AIR, OFF AIR, PFL or VT). The keys are formed from an optional mode prefix and the state:

Without a prefix, the color applies to all modes. With one of the prefixes OnAir, OffAir, PFL or VT, it only applies to the respective mode, e.g. PFLActivePlayerColor. In OFF AIR mode, all players use the DisabledPlayerColor by default. If an item has its own color, that color is used for inactive and disabled cart players.

Other settings:

The font colors of the cart players are always determined by NormalFontColor and InverseFontColor, depending on the brightness of the background, so the ...FontColor keys have no effect here.

The progress bars of the cart players are configured with the prefix ProgressBar (see [ProgressBar] for the available keys), and the waveform display in the toolbar with the prefix Waveform, in addition to the global [Waveform] section.

Page tabs. The tabs for the cartwall pages are configured with the prefix Tab:

[CartwallToolbar]

Settings for the cartwall toolbar. The toolbar supports the common toolbar settings; the default button width is 40 pixels. It contains the following buttons:

By default, the OnAir button is Red with white text when active, and the PFL button is Yellow when active.

Mix Editor

[MixEditor], [Waveformn]

The Mix Editor displays the items as waveforms on two levels: level 0 for the items themselves, and level 1 for sub-items, e.g. the contents of a container. The waveform settings (see [Waveform]) are read in the following order, so later settings take priority:

1. The [Waveform] section
2. The [Waveform0] or [Waveform1] section, for the respective level
3. Keys with the prefix Waveform in the [MixEditor] section
4. Keys with the prefix Waveform0 or Waveform1 in the [MixEditor] section

By default, the background of level 1 is #404040.

[MixEditorToolbar]

Settings for the Mix Editor toolbar. The toolbar supports the common toolbar settings; the default button width is 50 pixels. It contains the following buttons:

Browser

[Browser]

Settings for the browser, which is displayed on the right-hand side of the playout window by default.

Navigation pane. The browser consists of a stack of panes. Their colors can be set with the following keys. Each color is drawn as a gradient; the key itself sets both ends, and the keys with the suffix From and To set the start and end of the gradient individually (e.g. HeaderColorFrom, HeaderColorTo):

In addition, the following keys set a single color: ButtonSeparatorColor, FrameColor, HeaderFontColor, DividerFontColor, NavPanelFontColor and NavPanelHotTrackFontColor.

Lists. The following keys apply to the list-based panes of the browser (e.g. files, database):

In addition, the color keys of the underlying list control can be used, as described for the [Playlist] section (e.g. FocusedSelectionColor).

BackgroundColor, WindowBackgroundColor, FontColor and the list control colors only accept HTML color codes and the names of the predefined colors.

[BrowserToolbar]

Settings for the toolbar of the browser:

All keys except Visible and the font keys can also be specified in the [Browser] section, which takes priority over [BrowserToolbar].

[CommentViewerBrowser]

Settings for the Comment Viewer pane of the browser:

Screen Objects

[EncoderStatus]

Settings for the Encoder Status screen object.

Database App

[Database], [DatabaseTree], [DatabaseLibrary], [DatabasePlaylist]

Settings for the lists in the Database app. [Database] applies to all lists; [DatabaseTree], [DatabaseLibrary] and [DatabasePlaylist] apply to the library tree, the library item list, and the playlist editor, respectively, and take priority.

The playlist editor ([DatabasePlaylist], or [Database]) supports the following additional settings:

For MainColumn and IconColumn, the columns are numbered as follows: 0 = number, 1 = time, 2 = database ID, 3 = external ID, 4 = title (default), 5 = artist, 6 = duration, 7 = filename.