Table of Contents

General Layout Information

Layouts define the look and feel for your frontend. Each layout is a folder containing at least the following two main files.


Directory Structure

Path Description
/layouts/<layout name>/ Folder to store all image files for a particular asset. i.e. <layout name> = “Default 16×9“
/layouts/<layout name>/splash.xml Splash screen to show at startup
/layouts/<layout name>/layout.xml Main layout file to show when frontend is loaded

An example of a layout An example of a layout.xml

The global settings.conf file contains the default layout used by RetroFE. It is however possible to give a collection a completely different layout by adding the layout.xml and layout artwork to the /layouts/<layout name>/collections/<collection name>/layout/ directory. A splash.xml is not required/used for a collection's layout. This way you can give each collection a completely different look and feel.

RetroFE will first search for a layout XML file that matches the screen ratio, so e.g. layout 16×9.xml or layout 4×3.xml. If that file is not found, it will default to layout.xml.

General Layout Structure

A layout generally consists of the following structure: 

<layout>
 <sound/>
 <menu/>
 <video/>
 <image/>
 <text/>
 <reloadableVideo/>
 <reloadableImage/>
 <reloadableText/>
 <reloadableScrollingText/>
</layout>


menuIndex Activated on
menuIndex=“0” Activate the animation on the main menu.
menuIndex=“1” Activate the animation on first submenu.
menuIndex=”!0” Activate the animation on every index except for the main menu.