Put customizations in your user directory

as of version 18814, Digsby now loads some things from the both the "All Users" application data directory and the logged-in user  application data directory.

On Windows XP those folders are:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Digsby
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Username)\Application Data\Digsby

On Vista (and Windows 7) they're:

C:\ProgramData\Digsby
C:\Users\(Your Username)\AppData\Roaming\Digsby

Inside any of these folders you can put the following folders:

emoticons
MessageStyles
skins
sounds

and this file:

prefs.yaml

Each of these things is composed with their analogue from the Digsby\res\ folder (which are all named the same, with the exception of "prefs.yaml", which corresponds with "defaults.yaml").

The lookup priority in all cases is: user folder, all users folder, digsby application folder.

One caveat: Skins may not work properly from these directories. I only tried it briefly and it didn't work right away. There will be improvements to this in the future but given the number of people who are getting bitten by the auto-updates I wanted these changes in ASAP. For now, it may be sufficient to simply copy over the entire skins directory from Digsby/res into your user folder or all users folder.

questions, comments, concerns?

edit: added sounds

There's no prefs.yaml in Windows Digsby directory.

Feel free to make one ;-p

i don't think this works, well it might work... i just loaded my skins directory in my user folder, loaded up digsby and the skins name was there but wouldnt load any of the images

so for now i put the skins dir in program files/digsby, program data, and my user folder, will see what happens next update... as far as i've seen any time i've updated digsby its kept my skin, having it in just the program files directly, it does overwrite my sounds though

Last edited by artfuldodga (2009-03-06 15:32:19)

artfuldodga wrote:

i don't think this works...

that's very helpful[/sarcasm]

mike wrote:

Feel free to make one ;-p

Would user folder prefs.yaml got updated for changes made via digsby or have to copy over manually from default.yaml?

I've tried putting a downloaded skin in both of the folders listed, in addition to \Program Files (x86)\Digsby, but can't get it to show up. I did succeed in creating duplicates of the two included skins, though, so something went (sort of) right. What should the directory structure under \skins be? For example, I downloaded this theme which unpacks to \Vista Skin.

Sorry, somehow I've neglected this thread despite the fact that I link to it as often as possible.

SL: You don't need to copy the defaults.yaml file, in fact that's not desired since if we need to change the defaults for an option (for whatever reason, maybe the way it's used internally gets changed or whatever) the old value from the full defaults.yaml would override. While this is desired behavior, I think it's best if users only override things they specifically want different. Anyway, just create a new blank text file and call it "prefs.yaml".

spartanhooah: I noticed the vista skin has an extra level of folder depth to it. Make sure that the structure ends up like: "skins\<SkinName>\skin.yaml". With that zip file, if you just unzip it and try to use it, the format ends up being "skins\Vista Skin\vista\skin.yaml", which is wrong so it won't work.

I found a much easier (and more effective) method to adding skins.
Paste the skins in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Digsby\res\skins.
Or, if you have a 32-bit version of windows, then paste it in: C:\Program Files\Digsby\res\skins

Last edited by GYoung (2009-04-16 18:07:09)

that's exactly what we're trying to avoid.

mike wrote:

that's exactly what we are trying to avoid

seriously or sarcastically??

Last edited by adityagautam (2009-04-28 11:15:39)

seriously. putting things in the program files directory is not what we want.

On Windows XP those folders are:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Digsby
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Username)\Application Data\Digsby

On Vista they're:

C:\ProgramData\Digsby
C:\Users\(Your Username)\AppData\Roaming\Digsby

Inside any of these folders you can put the following folders:

emoticons
MessageStyles
skins
sounds

and this file:

prefs.yaml

Any specs for Windows 7?

Dunno, wherever the new user data folder is. if you find out, let us know.

win7 == vista for this.

I'm on Windows 7 atm, and the only way I can get the themes to work is by putting them in the program files directory. Putting them anywhere else with the prefs.yaml file causes digsby to freeze up at sign-in when loading skins (without it, Digsby loads but only with default skins).

On Vista 32 bit and having the same issue as you capthauq.

i am also on Vista 32 bit but don't having this issue

Okay can someone tell me how to set up the pref.yaml file. I understand blank txt file and naming processes. But should the file remain blank? Or should I just copy the default.yaml file and rename it to pref.yaml? Novice needing a little more direction. Thanks in advance.

you put in whatever changes you want to make to defaults.yaml there. this way, the defaults are still the defaults, but you (the user) can still edit prefs that aren't in the GUI.

copying the entire file isn't really the right idea (though it likely accomplishes what you want). if we decide to change the default for something, the new default will still be overridden by your prefs.yaml in your user folder.

for an example of how to go about setting your prefs with this file, let's take a common example: popup duration. 4 seconds just isn't enough for some (most?) people.

here's the notifications section from defaults.yaml:

notifications:
    enable_sound: yes
    enable_popup: yes
    popups:
        location: lowerleft
        duration: 4000
        opacity:
            hover: 100
            normal: 100
        max_height: 400
        max_lines: 2
        monitor: 0

the pref we want to change is notifications.popups.duration (note how the prefs values are accessed via dotted notation -- or dot syntax if you prefer ;-p).

so in your personal prefs.yaml file, you would have this:

notifications:
    popups:
        duration: 10000

and now your popups last for 10 seconds. so as you see, you only have to put in values for what you want to change in prefs.yaml.