The history method

For displaying incoming connection speed (rx_speed) as a bar graph, we'll need another animation. Since it contains a 26-frame animation, the rx_bar.tga image from the cFosSpeed "Liquid Crystal" skin lends itself particularly well to this.
Keep in mind though that the parameter here may change very rapidly, which could cause the animation to behave slightly erratically. So, we'll have to smooth things out a bit. This can be accomplished with the history method. Not only does it offer a number of ways for displaying the progression of a value (consult our skin definition reference for a more detailed description), but it can also be used to calculate and display the arithmetic mean of the values a parameter assumes over any given time period.

    [disp3]
    value=rx_speed
    method=history
    updatetime=240
    historysize=1
    hdisp1=rx_speed_disp
  

You may have noticed there is no bitmap but a hdisp1 entry instead. This is because the history method can handle multiple display sections for rendering value progression. These are defined as hdisp1,...,hdispN and can be used to create effects like the scrolling bar graphs of the cFos "Modern" skin or the moving fish-shaped packets of the cFosSpeed "Default" skin. For this bar graph, however, only one such section is needed.  It should be given its own name though (to distinguish it from regular disp sections). Note that there is no need to enter a value here, because the value in the history section will be used for this section as well.

    [rx_speed_disp]
    method=animation
    rect=54,41,108,59
    bitmap=rx_bar.tga
    min=0
    max=100
    frames=26
  

The min and max values define the range of the rx_speed parameter, which is best thought of as the percentage of available bandwidth.


Again, adding a similar display for the speed (tx_speed) of outgoing connections can be done simply by copying the previous sections, changing disp name, value and rect entries, and applying the same color transformation as for the tx_packet.

    [disp4]
    value=tx_speed
    method=history
    updatetime=240
    historysize=1
    hdisp1=tx_speed_disp

    [tx_speed_disp]
    method=animation
    rect=54,58,108,76
    bitmap=rx_bar.tga
    min=0
    max=100
    frames=26
    transform1=15,0,0,40,255,255,100,0,0,120,230,210
  

Next step: Adding text sections