General questions about modifying studio?

[wado1971]

I'm trying to modify my stvi file for general consumption and the more I look into it, the more work I realize must be done. The last thing I want to do is clutter up peoples stv's with all my mistakes, redundant menus which should have been references, etc. I plan on reviewing the studio manual but I have a couple general questions for the veterans to help steer me in the right direction. Any comment which keeps me away from trouble is welcome. - Thanks

1) When creating an import for the default stv is it generally assumed that dynamicmenu must be installed first? Is it ok to create a ref. inside dynamicmenu which calls other code or should more time and effort be put into creating the import for both scenarios - with or without dynamicmenu? (My stvi currently places a panel onto the dynamicmenus)

2) When using themes should an existing (default stv) theme be referenced or a copy made and renamed so that future versions have less of an impact on the import? Even if it's an identical theme?

..... If you haven't gathered how new I am to studio with the above question... this one will probably make it all too clear
3) I created user customizable variables with the format "modulename/option/var" and now notice that they are put into the properties file. Is this format appropriate? Do all these variables need to be passed into the properties file?

Thanks-rob

[GKusnick]

1. There are people who don't use dynamic menus, if that's what you're asking. Whether you want to support such users is up to you. If you want to require dynamic menus as a prerequisite for your STVI, you're free to do that. If you don't want to have that requirement, then you'll have to code for and test both cases.

2. I say use the existing theme where possible, rather than bloating people's STVs with a lot of redundant stuff. Andy is generally pretty good about not renaming or deleting themes unecessarily, so you should be fairly safe unless there's a major UI overall.

3. I don't understand the question. Variables and properties are two different concepts. Variables are (generally) defined by Attribute widgets and do not persist from one run of Sage to the next; properties are accessed by GetProperty and SetProperty and do persist (that's the whole point of properties). It's not unusual to store the result of a call to GetProperty into an Attribute variable if that suits your coding needs, but you're not obliged to do so. If you have temporary values that you don't need to remember from session to session, just store them in variables. If you do want to remember them, use Set/GetProperty to save and reload them. (The property name format you're using will work so long as your modulename doesn't conflict with anbody else's. So you may want to include your name in there somewhere. My practice is to name properties along the lines of "gkusnick/sagetv/package/class/property", just to avoid any possibility of collision with other add-ons.)

[wado1971]

Ok - thanks for the suggestions on 1&2 and the clarification of variables & properties on 3. I was using SetProperty & GetProperty successfully (by trial/error & examples) but without the understanding that these values were being set in the property file A small spark went off when I saw my values listed in the file and your response was what was required to concrete the concept.

thanks-rob