[FM15 Guide] How to Edit the Sidebar

[gpsanchez]

You need to edit the sidebar menu table.xml file, locate this bit of code:

<!--club/nation selector-->

It works!.

Thanks Michael.

[Onyewu]

You need to edit the sidebar menu table.xml file, locate this bit of code:

<!--club/nation selector-->

and paste this in above it:

<!-- Primary Logo -->

<widget class="picture" id="lgtF" scale_picture="true" keep_aspect_ratio="true" image_alignment="bottom">

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="bottom" inset="0"/>

<attachment class="test_setting_attachment" get_setting="show_badges" default_value="true" set_property="hidn">

<boolean id="value" value="false"/>

</attachment>

<!-- tells the picture to listen to the 'main picture' global property being set, and set its own file property from it -->

<record id="object_property">

<integer id="get_property" value="mnpc" />

<integer id="set_property" value="file" />

</record>

</widget>

That will display the main logo on the bottom of the sidebar. If you want to move it up increase the inset value. If you want to change where it is positioned change the image_alignment value. however note it just sits behind the sidebar options at the moment, if you want it to show on top paste the above code down here the bottom of the file but above the </panel> bit at the bottom, if you want it to move the sidebar contents then it requires more than a quick checking of the code, also doesn't seem possible to display the secondary logo (can get a weird cut-off transparent nation logo to show using the sbpc id?)

Does the side bar need to be a certain width for it to work? Using Scorpio skin with narrow sidebar-icons only........and (after reloading the skin) it does not show up after adding and altering the sidebar menu table.xml

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Hi. I can't change the widt of the sidebar, the line of code indicated in the first post (<attachment class="test_screen_size_attachment" alignment="horizontal" min_value="0" max_value="1200" set_property="widt" true_value="45" false_value="160"/>) is not in the "client object browser.xml".

Any help ?

Make sure you are using the patched file not the original one, instructions are here: [FM2015 Guide] How to Extract Default Files & Understanding File Structure

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Does the side bar need to be a certain width for it to work? Using Scorpio skin with narrow sidebar-icons only........and (after reloading the skin) it does not show up after adding and altering the sidebar menu table.xml

Nope works fine for me, if the scoprpio skin has altered the file you might need to alter the logo coding for the logo to show up.

[Onyewu]

Nope works fine for me, if the scoprpio skin has altered the file you might need to alter the logo coding for the logo to show up.

Thanks....I'll fiddle with it........Scorpio did not have the sidebar menu table panel, so I added it.......issue may be somewhere else....thanks anyway.

UPDATE 11/24: still no luck...even tried using other skins sidebar menu table panel that showed the logo......

[wkdsoul]

Can we get one of these for increasing the hieght of the titlebar and relevant team logo?

[Drakestone]

Thanks....I'll fiddle with it........Scorpio did not have the sidebar menu table panel, so I added it.......issue may be somewhere else....thanks anyway.

UPDATE 11/24: still no luck...even tried using other skins sidebar menu table panel that showed the logo......

It is there, it's just because your resolution is too low to display it (so it would always appear off the screen).

In the sidebar menu table.xml, find the bit about logos and there should be a reference to 'layout', you will need to alter these values until its low enough to reappear.

[Drakestone]

Team logo in the default titlebar will naturally increase size to fit (as it uses to auto_size="true" attribute)

To change the height of the titlebar, open up header.xml and find this bit of code:

<!--titlebars-->

<container class="bordered_box" appearance="" height="40">

<layout class="arrange_horizontal_attachment" alignment="left,extend" offset="0" gap="0"/>

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="vertical" layout_children="true" inset="0"/>

And change the bold text to whatever height you want it.

[wkdsoul]

Team logo in the default titlebar will naturally increase size to fit (as it uses to auto_size="true" attribute)

To change the height of the titlebar, open up header.xml and find this bit of code:

And change the bold text to whatever height you want it.

got it. cheers.

[Jusander]

Does the side bar need to be a certain width for it to work? Using Scorpio skin with narrow sidebar-icons only........and (after reloading the skin) it does not show up after adding and altering the sidebar menu table.xml

The code need to be added to the end of the code just before </panel>, which closes the file. If you add it to the start as suggested, then it tries to add the side panel buttons below the logo and thus they are not visible as the logo is set to be at the bottom. If you want to use the logo at top of the panel then you'd need to but it the beginning of the code and change the inset value. Hopefully this makes sense.

[wkdsoul]

Finally figured out the logo, the titlebar height, the overlay colour and the background selector and icons....

Big shout out and thanks for those i've annoyed with questions Mostly Drake & Mike

[Drakestone]

The first two are modified Venia and the last one is modded Slymlyne?

[wkdsoul]

The first two are modified Venia and the last one is modded Slymlyne?

Pretty much, i prefer your titlebar and browser layout over the others, bar a few panels here and there, like i said its only a basic tweak for my own learning Its started as Scorpio..

I think the only screen i fully changed panels and all, was match overview (the 9 panel sucked). As well as the icons and minor asthetic things here and there.. (I notice more things as i start playing the game) and I did wanna change the player attributes panel but it keeps ****ing up..

Damn, the last ones an old shot lol.

[gargantuan_ego]

Try this: FMC Small sidebar skin (I'd already done it for someone else)

Sorry to bring this up again. I downloaded the file above some time ago but have since suffered a major computer crash and had to re-install everything. The link now seems to be dead and after having had a go myself to actually learn to edit I have to face it...I am useless! Would anyone be so kind as to help me out here, or maybe point me to a FMC skin that works?

Thanks!

[OddFM]

Sorry to bring this up again. I downloaded the file above some time ago but have since suffered a major computer crash and had to re-install everything. The link now seems to be dead and after having had a go myself to actually learn to edit I have to face it...I am useless! Would anyone be so kind as to help me out here, or maybe point me to a FMC skin that works?

Thanks!

Ditto. Sorting the Skin and the column panels for squad screen are the last two things which bug me.

[wkdsoul]

Since the update, a watermark of the club badge has appeared in my sidebar mod, there is no code for this in the sidebarmenupanel.xml any idea where its pulling the badge/overlay from as its off centre and needs adjusting?

[Barry1983]

I have a problem,i changed the colour of the titlebar to this

<!-- it's a non-human object - so go this colour for for the sidebar background-->

<colour name="colour side bar" red="255" green="0" blue="0" alpha="255"/> it works changes back to clear evertime i click on something else

[kubo]

Yeah, the new update seems to have messed up our skins pretty badly.

I made a very minor modification of mmurrays base skins to just get a icon only sidebar in solid black. After the update, it's all kinds of ugly colours. Any suggestions for a fix?

[michaeltmurrayuk]

I have a problem,i changed the colour of the titlebar to this

<!-- it's a non-human object - so go this colour for for the sidebar background-->

<colour name="colour side bar" red="255" green="0" blue="0" alpha="255"/> it works changes back to clear evertime i click on something else

The sidebar has two different states one when you are on a linked screen where it shows the colour of your club, the other colour displays on all other screens, to get it to always be one colour you need to also follow the To Stop the Sidebar being recoloured on team screens instructions in the opening post, the code you have edited only changes the non-club colour of the sidebar.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Yeah, the new update seems to have messed up our skins pretty badly.

I made a very minor modification of mmurrays base skins to just get a icon only sidebar in solid black. After the update, it's all kinds of ugly colours. Any suggestions for a fix?

Turn skin cache off, reload skin, switch to the skin you want to use, exit game, reload game as colour changes to the sidebar are only detected on a restart of fm and the patch will have cached the new patched files instead of your modified files.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Since the update, a watermark of the club badge has appeared in my sidebar mod, there is no code for this in the sidebarmenupanel.xml any idea where its pulling the badge/overlay from as its off centre and needs adjusting?

What coding are you using, the simple picture code example I posted is still working fine post patch, though when I was testing it some of the ids you can use resulted in transparent cut off logos, so it's possible you might need to edit the id that is being used.

[wkdsoul]

Thats just it as far as i can tell in the sidebarmenu.xml there is no coding for the club badge top or bottom.

[gholliday87]

I use the default skin, I quite like it, but on the side bar, I want to get rid of all the text, any way I can do that?

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Thats just it as far as i can tell in the sidebarmenu.xml there is no coding for the club badge top or bottom.

If you rename the sidebar file to disable it does a logo still display? If you haven't added any code to the sidebar to display a logo not sure why one is displaying there? The xml file has been updated with the patch but the only change was to add a twitch button and the lack of that code shouldn't be causing any issues.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

I use the default skin, I quite like it, but on the side bar, I want to get rid of all the text, any way I can do that?

If you use the instructions in the opening post you can reduce the width to less than 125 that will then stop displaying the text.

If you don't want to download the base skin then you should just be able to create a panels folder inside your saving location, then place the extracted file in that folder, edit the file and it should then apply to the default skins.

[wkdsoul]

If you rename the sidebar file to disable it does a logo still display? If you haven't added any code to the sidebar to display a logo not sure why one is displaying there? The xml file has been updated with the patch but the only change was to add a twitch button and the lack of that code shouldn't be causing any issues.

I'll try it when i get in, i'm prob staring right at it...

[gholliday87]

If you use the instructions in the opening post you can reduce the width to less than 125 that will then stop displaying the text.

If you don't want to download the base skin then you should just be able to create a panels folder inside your saving location, then place the extracted file in that folder, edit the file and it should then apply to the default skins.

Sorry, I have zero expericence in skinning matters.

Which part of the below code do I chance to 125? Does it matter what screen res I use (1200 x 800 is it does!)

<attachment class="test_screen_size_attachment" alignment="horizontal" min_value="0" max_value="1200" set_property="widt" true_value="45" false_value="160"/>

[razmth]

Michael, congratulations!

This guide helped me a lot. It's a good way to start editing.

Here is my first result:

In addition, I want to tell you that I'm translating some of your guides to portuguese. My intention is to extend the community of skinners to portuguese speakers. I'm posting it in a SI affiliated forum (specifically here: http://forum.fmanager.com.br/topic/120167-skinning-o-processo-de-criacao-e-edicao-de-skins/#entry1062479772). I've published your site through a link below the title, I hope to be enough, as you suggested in your site. If not, let me know and I'll make the changes you want.

All the best, and keep it up!

[kubo]

Turn skin cache off, reload skin, switch to the skin you want to use, exit game, reload game as colour changes to the sidebar are only detected on a restart of fm and the patch will have cached the new patched files instead of your modified files.

Thank you!

No more bleeding eyes.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Sorry, I have zero expericence in skinning matters.

Which part of the below code do I chance to 125? Does it matter what screen res I use (1200 x 800 is it does!)

<attachment class="test_screen_size_attachment" alignment="horizontal" min_value="0" max_value="1200" set_property="widt" true_value="45" false_value="160"/>

Change the values of both of these bits to 125: true_value="45" false_value="160"

[gholliday87]

Change the values of both of these bits to 125: true_value="45" false_value="160"

Excellent, thank you very much.

[Barry1983]

thank you for replying,im a bit of a thicko when it comes to computers,so what is it i need to change to get my sidebar to stay red on all screens and were do i find this file?thank you

The sidebar has two different states one when you are on a linked screen where it shows the colour of your club, the other colour displays on all other screens, to get it to always be one colour you need to also follow the To Stop the Sidebar being recoloured on team screens instructions in the opening post, the code you have edited only changes the non-club colour of the sidebar.

[wkdsoul]

Sorted it, had to go back to scratch but simple enough, cheers. Finally got my titlebar sorted too....

[michaeltmurrayuk]

thank you for replying,im a bit of a thicko when it comes to computers,so what is it i need to change to get my sidebar to stay red on all screens and were do i find this file?thank you

Instructions are in the opening post you just need to follow them (you can ignore the resizing section but follow the rest of it) if you don't know how to extract files then there is a guide in the Skinning Bible thread which is stickied at the top of the forum.

[gholliday87]

There is no panel folder in the base skin download?

**EDIT** SORTED THIS **EDIT**

[Onyewu]

Would anyone know a way to lower the icons on the side menu table? I have the team logo on the top (and bottom) of the sidebar, but the "home" and "mailbox" icons are covering the top logo. I was hoping to lower the entire line of icons to give a clear view of the top logo. I have messed around with other skins panels to see if I could adjust, but have not had any success.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Would anyone know a way to lower the icons on the side menu table? I have the team logo on the top (and bottom) of the sidebar, but the "home" and "mailbox" icons are covering the top logo. I was hoping to lower the entire line of icons to give a clear view of the top logo. I have messed around with other skins panels to see if I could adjust, but have not had any success.

Easiest thing to do is have a look at how ArtDekDok did it here for these mods: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/412869-FM15-Sidebar-Mods (just delete the code for the extra bits you don't want).

[Onyewu]

Easiest thing to do is have a look at how ArtDekDok did it here for these mods: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/412869-FM15-Sidebar-Mods (just delete the code for the extra bits you don't want).

Thanks Dr. Murray.....tried about 10 variations without getting what I wanted........thanks anyway....I'll survive.

[BoxToBox]

To Change the Width of the Sidebar

The Width of the Sidebar is controlled by the 'client object browser.xml' file you want to locate the following line of code (Line #30):

<attachment class="test_screen_size_attachment" alignment="horizontal" min_value="0" max_value="1200" set_property="widt" true_value="45" false_value="160"/>

min_value="0" and max_value="1200" - Determine between which values the small icon only sidebar appears at (or the true_value sidebar), with default code the icon sidebar appears when window width is between 0 and 1,119 pixels, whilst the full sidebar will appear if you window width is 1,200 pixels or greater.

true_value="45" - At first glance controls the width of the icon sidebar, but really controls the width of the sidebar when your screen width is between the set min and max_values.

false_value="160" - At first glance controls the width of the full sidebar, but really controls the width of the sidebar when your screen width is outside of the min and max_values.

You can adjust these values to set the sidebar up in different ways.

If you want the full sidebar to always appear then you can set the max_value to zero, if you always want the icon sidebar to appear then set the max_value to something above the max. width your screen supports.

Alternatively you can set both true_value and false_value to the same value to stop them from being resized, if you set these values to a value below 125 with the default text settings then only the icon will appear, if you set them to a value above 125 the full sidebar will appear so setting the values to:

true_value="45" false_value="45" - This will always display the icon sidebar.

true_value="160" false_value="160" - This code will always display the full sidebar.

If you want the change when the full and icon sidebars appear then you just need to play around with the min_value and max_value values, so for example if you wanted the icon sidebar to appear at any width below 1,680 then you'd change the max_value code to read max_value="1680", you can also if you wanted have the full sidebar appear at 1,024 width, and 1920 width with the icon sidebar appearing inbetween by setting the code to: min_value="1025" max_value="1919"

How would I go about doing this with FMC skins? I've been working with the FMC dark base skin, and I'm happy with most everything else, but I just can't find a way to do this.

[Dagenham_Dave]

How would I go about doing this with FMC skins? I've been working with the FMC dark base skin, and I'm happy with most everything else, but I just can't find a way to do this.

Yeah, me too.

I have a small sidebar skin for FMC but it's for the light version. I'm wondering if I just copy and paste the client object browser file from that into the FMC alternative skin folder, that would work?

[Dagenham_Dave]

It worked! Huzzah! Perfect.

[BoxToBox]

I tried that with the default FMC base skin, but it added it's own issues.

More importantly, I'd like to know how to do it the right way, I'd like to know more about skinning in general. Changing the sidebar colour and making it transparent felt like a victory in itself.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

How would I go about doing this with FMC skins? I've been working with the FMC dark base skin, and I'm happy with most everything else, but I just can't find a way to do this.

It's the same instructions you just need to ensure you have taken the client object browser.xml file from the fmc skin as the other coding in the file is different from the full mode skins but the changes you need to make are exactly the same.

[BoxToBox]

It's the same instructions you just need to ensure you have taken the client object browser.xml file from the fmc skin as the other coding in the file is different from the full mode skins but the changes you need to make are exactly the same.

I tried this today, I downloaded the Resource Archiver, and there seems to be no Panels folder, or client object browser.xml on the FMC dark skin, or dark base skin.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

From the opening post:

'client object browser.xml' - if not present obtain from the \skins\fm\panels folder (or \skins\fmc\panels folder for an FMC skin) extracted from the skins.fmf file.

[BoxToBox]

From the opening post:

'client object browser.xml' - if not present obtain from the \skins\fm\panels folder (or \skins\fmc\panels folder for an FMC skin) extracted from the skins.fmf file.

Right, I've found this, and and pasted it into a panels folder in my skin. Which, while having given me the desired result, has left me confused.

The sidebar now stays collapsed, but I have not edited the client object browser.xml in any way.

I did open it to have a look, and it didn't contain the line that I should have edited.

[mano76jl]

hi matte how to change the sidebar to show the letters?

[False 9]

Hi, can anyone help me with my problem, as on some of the pages, my sidebar is transparent, but on other pages it is a solid. Thanks

[Svartinho]

Thank you so much! I got it to work with HelveticaLite Rebooted.

But i just don't understand how to do it with the base skin. I downloaded the dark base skin from you site, but i don't see the files your talking about in your instructions?

[wkdsoul]

Thank you so much! I got it to work with HelveticaLite Rebooted.

But i just don't understand how to do it with the base skin. I downloaded the dark base skin from you site, but i don't see the files your talking about in your instructions?

you can always extract them using the resource archiver, in your tools (steam).