Skin Developer Resources

TjMSN does not use skins as such, instead it utilises Swings Plugable Look And Feel (PLAF) architechture to achieve a similar effect.

Making a PLAF work with TjMSN is a very simple task firstly you need to compile the PLAF, you then need to write a simple XML file to discribe the skin and allow TjMSN to load an exmaple is shown bellow:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE tjmsnlaf [
<!ELEMENT tjmsnlaf (title, description?, interface)>
<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT description (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT interface (#PCDATA)>
]>
<tjmsnlaf>
    <title>Hippo</title>
    <description>
        Module that deploys the relavent GUI onto a console.
    </description>
    <interface>se.diod.hippo.plaf.HippoLookAndFeel</interface>
</tjmsnlaf>

The title tag is the title shown in the skin selection dialog as the skin is installed. The interface is the full class name of the PLAF class that implements javax.swing.LookAndFeel.

This file sould be named tjmsn.xml. To complete the package you need to create a jar file of the files required by the PLAF and place tjmsn.xml in the META-INF directory of the jar file. Once the jar has been created it should simply be a case of installing it though the options dialog.