Priiprocess

This tool was created to help make it easier to create, edit and maintain .ini files for software that doesn't manage them itself

The goals were:

• Easier theme creation/editing/management
• Smaller & Modular themes

It does this by introducing:

• Variables
• Includes

The result is kind of like a cross between INI and CSS.

You can define a single .color_heading and then use it in many places. To change the colour of all those elements, simply change the single definition and you're done!

To show that the tool works, I have deconstructed Rhapsodii 2.0 - a theme for WiiFlow Lite - which in the process became a more organised. By reusing definitions for common positions and reusable elements I was able to consolidate and improve consistency. Thanks to @Hakaisha the creator of that theme for their kind support!

Capabilities

Variable (Long)

;.example_1	: key=value

Usage:

[SECTION]
.example_1

Variable (Short)

;.example_2	: value

Usage:

[SECTION]
key=.example_2

Includes

;.example_3	: inc.file_name.ini

Usage:

[SECTION]
.example_3

Example

As an example, every title has the same code:

[ABOUT/TITLE]
color=#FFFFFFFF
effect_scale_x=1
effect_scale_y=0
effect_x=0
effect_y=-200
font_line_height=0
font_size=0
font_weight=0
height=60
width=600
x=20
y=15

We can replace this with the names of (unshown) user definitions, which is easier to read/write but still repetitive:

[ABOUT/TITLE]
.white
.fixed_scale_x
.zero_scale_y
.fixed_left
.from_off_top
.no_line_height
.no_font_size
.no_font_weight
.title_height
.title_width
.title_x
.title_y

But we can go even further by using a single include to reuse the definitions in multiple places:

[ABOUT/TITLE]
.title

[PLUGIN/TITLE]
.title

The best results would come from building a theme from a scratch with the tool in mind, as my deconstruction of Rhapsodii 2.0 could be optimised further still.

So... the tool! I'm calling it Priiprocess and it is less than 100 lines of PHP code. It could easily be ported to Python or even C (if WFL wanted to add support for this type of theme structure).

Usage

php priiprocess.php themename

Input files structure

• themename (folder)
  • themename.prii (definitions)
  • other files (suplementary definitions)

Output files structure

• themename.prii (includes merged, variables untouched)
• themename.prii.ini (incudes merged, variables replaced)

Changelog

20 Mar 2020 — improvements to command line usage, minor fix for Rhapsodii
25 Feb 2020 — initial release