Emulator Skin XML Schema

Article
06/30/2006

The following code example shows the XML schema for the .xml file. For more information about the .xml file, see Emulator Skin Files.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<skin>
  <view
    titleBar ="My Emulator skin"

    displayPosX="10"
    displayPosY="149"

    displayWidth="272"
    displayHeight="224"

    displayDepth="8"

    mappingImage="map.bmp"
    normalImage="up.bmp"
    downImage="down.bmp"
  >

    <button
      
      toolTip="This is my ToolTip."
      onClick="  DOWN:Key_LeftShift
                 Key_Z
                 0x00000015
                 UP: Key_LeftShift
                 Key_A"
      onPressAndHold="Key_B"
      mappingColor="0x00FF00"

    />

  </view>
</skin>

In this example, the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> text encoding specifier defines which script the parser passes to the engine for an Emulator skin. For Japanese, you may replace ISO-8859-1 with Shift-JIS.

The <skin> tag encapsulates the schema for an Emulator skin. You can use only one <skin> tag in each .xml file.

The <view> tag contains the schema for an Emulator skin. You can use only one <view> tag per <skin> tag.

The titleBar ="My Emulator skin" title bar element specifies the title of the window for the Emulator.

The displayPosX="10" and displayPosY="149" elements specify the position to locate the window containing the display for the Emulator within the window for the Emulator skin. You may choose coordinates that are off screen to make the display not visible.

The displayWidth="272" and displayHeight="224" elements specify the width and height of the display for the Emulator. For width, choose an integer between 80 and 1024 that is divisible by 8. For height, choose an integer between 64 and 768.

The displayDepth="8" element specifies the color depth of the display for the Emulator. For color depth, choose 8, 16 or 32.

The normalImage="up.bmp" element specifies the normal art file for the Emulator skin. The normal art file is required for the Emulator skin. The normal art file specifies the size of the window for the Emulator and the appearance of the Emulator skin.

The mappingImage="map.bmp" element specifies the mapping file for the Emulator skin. The mapping file is an optional file that defines the regions occupied by the buttons in the Emulator skin.

The downImage="down.bmp" element specifies the down art file for the Emulator skin. The down art file is an optional file that specifies the appearance of the buttons on the Emulator skin when the buttons are pressed. For more information about art and mapping files, see Emulator Skin Files.

The <button> tag contains the description of a button on the Emulator skin.

The mappingColor="0x00FF00" element specifies the RGB color in the mapping file to use for the button. All pixels having this color in the mapping image represent the area in the Emulator skin that you can click for this button. This area behaves as a mask through which the down art file is displayed when you press the button.

The toolTip="This is my ToolTip." element is an optional element whose text displays when you move the pointer over the button.

The following element is optional. It specifies the keyboard key presses that the keyboard driver passes to the engine for the Emulator skin when you press the button. You can specify a key code from the table later in this topic, or you can specify a hexadecimal or integer value corresponding to a raw keyboard scan code. For more information about raw keyboard scan codes, see the specifications for your keyboard.

onClick="       DOWN:Key_LeftShift
                        Key_Z
                        0x00000015
                        UP: Key_LeftShift
                        Key_A"

The onPressAndHold="Key_B" element allows you to specify keyboard events to repeat while a button on the Emulator skin is being pressed. This feature supports all key codes except for the SHUTDOWN key code.

The Emulator provides key codes corresponding to the action of pressing certain keys on the keyboard. You can use these key codes to define behavior for the Emulator skin in the .xml file for the Emulator skin. The following table shows key codes for keyboard keys recognized by the Emulator.

Keyboard area	Key codes
Top row	Key_Escape Key_F1 Key_F2 Key_F3 Key_F4 Key_F5 Key_F6 Key_F7 Key_F8 Key_F9 Key_F10 Key_F11 Key_F12
Numbers row	Key_LeftApostrophe Key_1 Key_2 Key_3 Key_4 Key_5 Key_6 Key_7 Key_8 Key_9 Key_0 Key_Hyphen Key_Equals Key_Backspace Key_Insert Key_Home Key_PageUp Key_NumLock KeyPad_Divide KeyPad_Multiply KeyPad_Minus
QWERTY row	Key_Tab Key_Q Key_W Key_E Key_R Key_T Key_Y Key_U Key_I Key_O Key_P Key_LeftBracket Key_RightBracket Key_Backslash Key_Delete Key_End Key_PageDown KeyPad_7 KeyPad_8 KeyPad_9 KeyPad_Plus
ASDF row	Key_A Key_S Key_D Key_F Key_G Key_H Key_J Key_K Key_L Key_SemiColon Key_SingleQuote Key_Enter KeyPad_4 KeyPad_5 KeyPad_6
ZXCV row	Key_LeftShift Key_Z Key_X Key_C Key_V Key_B Key_N Key_M Key_Comma Key_Period Key_Slash Key_RightShift Key_Up KeyPad_1 KeyPad_2 KeyPad_3 KeyPad_Enter
Modifiers row	Key_LeftCtrl Key_LeftWindows Key_LeftAlt Key_Space Key_RightAlt Key_RightWindows Key_Application Key_RightCtrl Key_Left Key_Down Key_Right KeyPad_0 KeyPad_DecimalPoint

The Emulator also provides the following three special key codes:

DOWN:
UP:
SHUTDOWN

The DOWN: key code provides the effect of keeping pressed in the keyboard key corresponding to the key code that follows the DOWN: key code. The UP: key code provides the effect of releasing the keyboard key corresponding to the key code that follows the UP: key code.

The following code example shows how to generate an uppercase A character using the DOWN: and UP: key codes.

OnClick="DOWN: Key_LeftShift Key_A UP: Key_LeftShift"

The SHUTDOWN key code displays a dialog box where the user can choose to shut down the Emulator.

Emulator Skin XML Schema

See Also

Additional resources