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Skinning Documentation

Introduction to Skinning
Getting Started
What's a Skin in Messenger Plus! ?
How Does it Work?
Integration with Messenger
Your First Skin
Skins Essentials
Windows Definitions and Styles
The Trace File
Using Pictures
Packaging Your Skin
Specialized Subjects
Restrictions: How and Why?
Reshaping Your Windows
User Modifiable Options
Options for Advanced Users
Skinning Plus! Itself
XML Schemas Reference
SkinInfo Files
SkinInfo Information
SkinInfo Diagram
Schema Documentation
Messenger Plus! Interfaces
Interfaces Information
Schema Documentation

Messenger Plus! Interfaces Information

Interface files are what's used by Messenger Plus! to display its own windows. These files are not particularly complicated to understand and use a much simpler/straightforward structure than Messenger's own system. That being said, Messenger Plus! interfaces use a lot of different kinds of objects and attributes. You'll need to get familiar with many of them if you want to create or modify a Messenger Plus! window file (useful when skinning Messenger Plus! itself or when creating custom option panels for your skin).

The Schema file for Interface Windows can be temporarily placed in the interface directory of your choice to validate your XML files. However, the schema must not be redistributed with your skin (it would only be dead weight anyway). Here is how to write the first element of your XML file to make your XML editor aware of the schema file:

<Interfaces xmlns="urn:msgplus:interface"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="urn:msgplus:interface PlusInterface.xsd">

    <Window>
        ...
    </Window>
</Interfaces>

It is considered to be a good practice to always link your xml files to their respective schemas to prevent any possible run time error caused by a mistake in your XML. This header is not added in any example of this documentation for clarity reasons only. You should add it yourself every time you create a new interface file or modify an existing one, without exception.

The best examples you can get for interface window files are probably the windows of Messenger Plus! itself. Those files can easily be extracted with Messenger Plus!'s own resource extractor if needed. If your XML Editor does not come with graphical browsing of the schema file, you can view a documentation generated by XMLSpy in the Interface Windows Schema Documentation section.

Important: remember that Messenger Plus! interface files are not to be mixed with Messenger's own definition and style files. When skinning Windows Live Messenger, any file related to Messenger Plus! interfaces won't be of any use to you so make sure you don't get confused by mixing both documentations.

See Also

Interface Window Schema File, Schema Documentation.