HOW TO BUILD A SKIN
===================
Version 0.0 (Jan 26 2009)

1 INTRODUCTION

2 SHARED OBJECT SIGNATURE FUNCTIONS 
        2.1 AllocSkin()
        2.2 GetSkinName()

3 ESSENTIAL CLASSES
        3.1 Skin
        3.2 AppInterface

4 SUMMARY

5 VERSION HISTORY

================================================================================

1 INTRODUCTION
==============
        This  document  is intended  to give a  high-level  description  of  the
process of creating a new Skin for the iptv_client application. Although it does
not cover  the process  in detail,  it presents  the main classes  and functions
involved in the process and gives a brief description of them. For more details,
please see the source code.

2 SHARED OBJECT SIGNATURE FUNCTIONS
===================================
        To be recognized as a Skin,  a shared  object  must export the functions
AllocSkin() and GetSkinName(). These must be marked as C-linkage functions. They
must also be exported from the DLL (in the Win32 case).

2.1 AllocSkin()
---------------
extern "C" Skin *AllocSkin()

        This function serves to allocate an  instance of your Skin-derived class
(more on this in Chapter 3) and return a pointer to it to the application.

2.2 GetSkinName()
-----------------
extern "C" const char *GetSkinName()

        This function  returns the  skin name as  a C-style string.  This is the
name that appears in the skin selection dialog.

3 ESSENTIAL CLASSES
===================
        There are two  main classes  involved in  operation of a Skin,  they are
Skin and AppInterface. See the source for more details on them.

3.1 Skin
--------
        The Skin class is common to the Skins and the application. It represents
the Skin object.  It is also a wxFrame derivative so it also represents the main
window of your Skin.  It may or may not  be shaped.  Most of the virtual methods
in  Skin  are  called by  the  application  and  are  used mostly to  update the
interface or  inform the Skin of  application/protocol  events.  Your new Skin's
"main" class is derived from  class Skin (and in the  Win32 case it must also be
exported from the DLL). See Skin.h and SkinLite's source for more details.

3.2 AppInterface
----------------
        The  AppInterface  class  is an  isolation  layer  between  Skin and the
application. It's an abstract class whose  methods are implemented internally in
the application.  Upon loading,  the protected member  Skin::m_appInterface will
contain a  pointer  to the  AppInterface  implementation.  Use the  AppInterface
methods  to   "give  commands"   to  the  application.   See   AppInterface  and
implementation IPTVClientApp in the source code for more details.

4 SUMMARY
=========
        Creating a Skin is essentially creating a shared object (DLL) with:
        - C-linkage functions AllocSkin and GetSkinName.
        - a class derived from Skin  (and in turn from wxFrame) implementing the
virtual methods (please see SkinLite's source for reference).
        - whatever more  is needed  for your Skin  to operate.  Access  to App's
functions is done through a pointer to AppInterface.

5 VERSION HISTORY
=================
        0.0 090126 Initial revision.