Button Navigation via DVDAuthorGUI xml editing

[awesomer]

So, pretty much, I want to do the stuff talked about in this thread, only with DVDAuthorGUI. A few weeks ago, I tried using xml output from DVDStyler with DAG's xml editing option, but it didn't work. I looked about online and found something that made it look like DVDStyler was switching ID for NAME (or the other way around, I can't remember) in a kind of sort of proprietary sort of deal. Idano. All I know is I switched the tag to the other one and DVDAuthorGUI still didn't complete the processing. Somethine about not finding a button or something, even though I had done did gave a button the name it was complaining about. Anyhoo, I guess I should be asking:

What is the proper XML code to tell DVDAuthorGUI what I want my DVD to do when I press a certain remote control button?


If you need an example, say I have some "highlights" (to keep the word "button" in remote control context only) arranged vertically on a menu. Say also, that I want to press "right" on my remote and have the selected highlight go left.

To get more advanced (I guess), let's say I wanted to press a number on my remote and have some appropriate highlight selected or a secret video to play.

And, I suppose more advanceder, what if I wanted to control the angle, zoom, or rewind buttons (like maybe to disable them)?

Right now, I'm interested in controlling the directional buttons, but if someone knows how to do the other things, I'm sure this thread would help someone else in the future.

[awesomer]

Hi, self, how's it going? Here's the error I mentioned:

 STAT: Processing C:\dvddir\menusub2.mpg... 
 ERR:  Cannot find button '1' as referenced by the subtitle 
 
Process aborted due to above error
There was an unknown error.  Please review the log for more information.

All I did was add

name="blahblah"

inside the button tags like the DVDAuthor online manual thing said to do. What gives?

[borax]

Please post the full xml file for both spumux and dvdauthor. Then I can probably help you. AFAIK, DVDAuthorGUI doesn't name the buttons. But the naming has to be the same for both spumux and dvdauthor.

[awesomer]

Where is the spumux file?

Please post the full xml file for both spumux and dvdauthor. Then I can probably help you. AFAIK, DVDAuthorGUI doesn't name the buttons. But the naming has to be the same for both spumux and dvdauthor.

[borax]

Actually I don't know where dvdauthorgui creates its (temp-)files. Probably in the same folder as where the author.xml file is (which you have changed, therefore you should know where it is...). AFAIK dvdauthorgui creates a big batch file for the whole process. In this file you should also find the locations for the control files (author.xml, spumux.xml...). But it could be that these files are automatically deleted after the authoring step.

[awesomer]

DVDAGUI has a thing you can check to edit the xml before authoring, so wherever it keeps the files is hidden unless I'm a smarty pants and looked around.

Anyhoo, here's a file I found in the program's directory called menu2.xml. It might be what you are asking for maybe.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<subpictures>
<stream>
<spu start="00:00:00.0" end="00:00:00.0"
highlight="C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\highlight2.png"
select="C:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\select2.png"
transparent="010101" force="yes"
autoorder="rows">
<button x0="146" y0="64" x1="183" y1="93"/>
<button x0="100" y0="140" x1="137" y1="169"/>
<button x0="95" y0="224" x1="132" y1="253"/>
<button x0="137" y0="296" x1="174" y1="325"/>
<button x0="248" y0="367" x1="285" y1="396"/>
<button x0="362" y0="365" x1="399" y1="394"/>
<button x0="490" y0="304" x1="527" y1="333"/>
<button x0="575" y0="212" x1="612" y1="241"/>
<button x0="555" y0="140" x1="592" y1="169"/>
<button x0="491" y0="59" x1="528" y1="88"/>
<button x0="378" y0="35" x1="415" y1="64"/>
<button x0="258" y0="35" x1="295" y1="64"/>
</spu>
</stream>
</subpictures>

edit:

I went and tried editing the menu xml's, but DAG just overwrites my changes. I tried pasting the edited "<subpicture>" stuff into the config.xml (the xml file the you can edit before authoring), but DAG seemed to ignore it. I can give the buttons names in config.xml, but I get:

ERR: Cannot find button '1' as referenced by the subtitle

I even tried "name="1". That worked, but why bother. It also won't let you put right= left=, etc. in the button tags on config.xml

ERR: Cannot match attribute 'right' in tag 'button'. Valid attributes are:
ERR: name

I'm starting to think that it's impossible to do custom button navigation in DVDAuthorGUI.

[borax]

At least, it is very cumbersome. Using pgcedit afterwards is probably easier in this case.

[GTRBudda]

Turning off DVDAuthorGUI and running the process.bat file directly makes things easier for me. The way I work it is, after DAG does the "heavy lifting" for me, I turn on "Edit XML before Authoring", hit the big "author DVD" button, close the XML editor and answer Yes to save and No to proceed, then save the project file (the dva, just in case...) and close DAG. All the XML files and the process.bat file are left in the DAG folder, ready for the tweaking The only drawback is there's no "clean-up" afterwards. I keep my project files anyway, so not really a drawback for me.
If that doesn't help, I'll sit down and be quiet

[awesomer]

Turning off DVDAuthorGUI and running the process.bat file directly makes things easier for me. The way I work it is, after DAG does the "heavy lifting" for me, I turn on "Edit XML before Authoring", hit the big "author DVD" button, close the XML editor and answer Yes to save and No to proceed, then save the project file (the dva, just in case...) and close DAG. All the XML files and the process.bat file are left in the DAG folder, ready for the tweaking The only drawback is there's no "clean-up" afterwards. I keep my project files anyway, so not really a drawback for me.
If that doesn't help, I'll sit down and be quiet

That did it! WOOO!

I tried the pgcedit thing borax suggested before you posted and that worked, too. It was pretty easy to dig through and find the thing that looked like button controls and edit them. Nice and graphically, too. And, it didn't need installing, which is super beans in my book.

But, what I really wanted to do was get the DAG method working, and you came up with it. I did what you said with DAG and then ran the process.bat. Turns out you don't get a log that way, so errors are impossible to track down unless you have some way to keep the DOS window from closing. It also turns out that you gotta put the name tags in both the menu file and the config file or it doesn't work. I just guessed that that was the problem since that darn window kept closing, and it worked. yay!

Thankums all around!

Now, new problem, how to keep the highlight from jumping back to the first button when the background animation loops.

[Midzuki]

awesomer wrote:

so errors are impossible to track down unless you have some way to
keep the [s:c00ba214c1]DOS[/s:c00ba214c1] window from closing.

Open a CMD.exe window and then run the file 'process.bat'.
Don't be afraid of the command-line!

[borax]

...how to keep the highlight from jumping back to the first button when the background animation loops.

How is the loop defined?
Usually, if you use the command: jump cell 1;
the highlight is not reset.

[awesomer]

How is the loop defined?
Usually, if you use the command: jump cell 1;
the highlight is not reset.

DAG does a

<post> jump menu 1; </post>

[borax]

So try the jump cell 1; command

[awesomer]

So try the jump cell 1; command

It totally worked! YAY! Thanks!

Okay, so in another 7 months, I'll come back and ask about controlling the OTHER buttons on the remote.