Your first screen, widget and label

The screen is the owner

A Python Screen owns the components and closes them when the dialog ends. The XML supplies geometry and styling. This complete small class illustrates the contract:

from Components.ActionMap import ActionMap
from Components.Label import Label
from Screens.Screen import Screen

class MyHello(Screen):
    skin = """
    <screen name="MyHello" position="center,center" size="700,240"
            resolution="1280,720" title="Hello OpenATV">
        <eLabel position="30,20" size="640,50" font="Regular;26"
                text="Static text from XML" />
        <widget name="greeting" position="30,90" size="640,60"
                font="Regular;32" foregroundColor="#005BD4EC" />
    </screen>
    """

    def __init__(self, session):
        Screen.__init__(self, session)
        self["greeting"] = Label("Hello from Python")
        self["actions"] = ActionMap(["OkCancelActions"], {
            "ok": self.close,
            "cancel": self.close,
        }, -1)

An existing plugin opens it with session.open(MyHello). A screen class alone is not automatically an entry in the Plugins menu; that requires a PluginDescriptor. The downloadable Skin Lab supplies the registration and capture tooling.

What each part does

Part	Meaning
`Screen.__init__(self, session)`	Initialises the screen before adding components
`self["greeting"]`	Registers the GUI component with exactly that case-sensitive name
`<widget name="greeting">`	Styles the registered `Label`; it does not instantiate the Python Label
`<eLabel text="…">`	Creates static decoration directly from XML
`ActionMap`	Connects action names to Python callbacks; no visible widget is needed for it
`self.close`	Returns control to the previous screen through the session
`self.skinName`	Name or ordered list of names used to find an external skin layout; defaults to the class name

Native result

The teaching screen below adds a neutral frame around the same named/static-label contrast. Its downloadable XML is the exact layout used for this image.

Static XML label and a larger cyan Hello from Python label on the native receiver — A decorative label and a Python component share the screen. The Python widget uses an explicit foreground layer above the decorative rectangle. Native Enigma2 OSD capture, English interface; no television video. Open original ↗

XML used for this result (inside the complete example screen):

<eRectangle position="48,218" size="1184,340" backgroundColor="#001E3048" />
  <eLabel position="80,244" size="1080,46" font="Regular;24" text="Static XML text: eLabel" foregroundColor="#00FFFFFF" backgroundColor="#001E3048" />
  <widget name="greeting" position="80,320" size="1080,68" font="Regular;38" foregroundColor="#005BD4EC" backgroundColor="#001E3048" zPosition="1" />
  <eLabel position="80,446" size="1080,60" font="Regular;24" text='name="greeting" matches self["greeting"] in Python.' foregroundColor="#00FFFFFF" backgroundColor="#001E3048" />

Download complete hello.xml · Download all examples and the test plugin

Lifecycle and updates

Create components in __init__. Their native .instance is not guaranteed to exist there. Use onLayoutFinish for work requiring final native geometry, and clean up owned timers or subscriptions on close.

Change a GUI Label with self["greeting"].setText("Updated text"). For a StaticText source, assign .text; its notification informs connected renderers. Avoid writing directly to a native instance when the Python component already exposes the operation.

If a visible GUI component is created in Python but not represented in the selected skin layout, the engine can reject the screen with an unused-component error. Conversely, a name that Python never creates cannot be skinned. Start from the screen’s actual component definitions.