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#1 2005-08-12 01:43:54

Mary
Sock Enthusiast
Registered: 2004-06-27
Posts: 6,236

Txp Admin Facelift

Before. After: edit post, dropdown menu, publish button, message format, possible warning format, area hover, action hover, form label hover (Oct 27)

(Thanks to ImageShack for hosting the screenshots.)

download

Notes

The one in bold is the latest one I worked with, but I keep the others linked so you can see the progression. From now on there will also be additions/changes based on input from people actually trying to use the interface, rather than just me.

kemie, Philippe and others are helping me out with this, and others are welcomed and appreciated.

If any advanced users want to have a copy of the modified/created files to offer other suggestions, as well as try it out to see how it feels (looking at just a static image is difficult to judge, I know), email me and I’ll either email you a zip of the files for you to drop in or give you an address where you can download it – your choice, let me know when you contact me.

I really don’t want to just offer it for download for anyone and everyone, because of this being experimental and evolving, I don’t want to get stuck having to support this in any fashion for this reason. :)

Idea creds: Philippe and Rob’s pre-existing work, and those who’ve contributed their opinions, ideas and sometimes even comps (Jon, Philippe) or portions of html/css (Philippe), in this thread and also via emails back and forth.

I am hoping we get multiple categories at some point, in which case I like Rob’s implementation of the multi-select form input as opposed to, say, checkboxes (ala WordPress). I think it would fit in nicely: Multiple Category Support in Textpattern

Ideas and opinions are most welcome, either via this thread or contact me by email, so don’t be shy.

Header

  • It is still “Txp-ish”, the background an orange gradient.
  • “Textpattern” header image is replaced with some lightly styled text.
  • View site, now appears on the left, linked using the site’s name.
  • Username and logout at the top of the page as well.
  • Just in case you click “logout” by mistake, its a JavaScript prompt (“Logout?”). Similar for “View Site”. That might be helpful or just annoying, like everything else we see how it goes.
  • Replaced side tabs with buttons and moved them to the right-hand column. Current view’s button is disabled. Don’t hide the buttons, make them smarter.

Tabs

  • They are reborn. Hard to explain, take a peek.
  • They are centred, which seems to be okay from those I’ve heard from.
  • Operate more correctly with existing privileges.
  • Tab looks more obviously like a tab.
  • Tinkered with hover styling.

Other

  • CSS signature applied to admin header.
  • Event-based id for the body tag.
  • Scalable font sizes. Philippe suggested a new preference to determine the base font size (the size of “regular” text), and we could pre-populate it with a reasonable default (say, 12px). I’ve started including this in the zip so it can be tested (see more under “Font/text”).
  • Dropdown is styled.
  • Nice little permlink to post ala zem_article_info
  • Plugin tab nicely wraps the plugin preview code so the page does not scroll horizontally or vertically.
  • tagbuilder link lists use headers and unordered lists
  • tagbuilder window adjusted to match, layout placed in its own template file

Tweaks and fixes

  • Dropped JavaScript and CSS into separate files.
  • Removed some css redundancy, and some of the inline styling of the write tab.
  • Dropped the header and footer into individual files as well, with minimal but sufficient markup to support easier styling of admin interface (either private or for distribution).
  • Tweak red submit button borders so it matches the style used by the existing grey buttons, appears a little less harsh looking.
  • Fixed the left-hand side panel so that it doesn’t caused the whole layout to shift depending upon whether Advanced Options or Recent Article list is visible or not; hide/show is a lot more seamless.
  • All admin popup windows are auto-centred.
  • CSS validates, new txp_article.php validates.
  • Form labels are “clickable” and change colour on hover.
  • Various CSS/markup fixes for various browser/platform bugs, courtesy of Philippe.

Font/text

What do you think?

So, “what font size did you want”? Results thus far: 26 votes total

The current 11px is just fine. 15
11px is just a little too small, make it 12px. 6
None of the above, make it smaller. 3
None of the above, make it bigger. 2

Last edited by Mary (2006-06-05 04:09:53)

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#2 2005-08-12 02:46:57

andjules
Member
From: toronto
Registered: 2004-10-20
Posts: 44

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

oddly, i prefer:
the softer horizontal tabs & submit button;
but
not the vertically oriented tabs, even though they ‘fit’ with the top tabs
I actually never really like vertically oriented text – especially at microfont size – somehow they seem a touch less legible now. and the gap between them & the text area seems a little more noticeable.

but i definitely prefer the softer top tabs now that i’ve compared them 10 times.

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#3 2005-08-12 06:31:11

Dean
Founder (Gone, but not forgotten)
From: Languedoc
Registered: 2004-02-14
Posts: 235
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

Unfortunately, on my mac anyway, the shadow delineations all but disappear, making the file-tab visual met’phor kind of, well, nonexistent. I’m definitely open to a redesign of the tab system however.


text*

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#4 2005-08-12 07:02:12

sekhu
Member
Registered: 2005-05-12
Posts: 428
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

perhpaps yu can get robs permission to integrate quick pik into the interface?

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#5 2005-08-12 07:14:03

Jeremie
Member
From: Provence, France
Registered: 2004-08-11
Posts: 1,578
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

I prefer it in “before”.

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#6 2005-08-12 08:47:57

phiw13
Plugin Author
From: Japan
Registered: 2004-02-27
Posts: 3,058
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

> Dean wrote:

> Unfortunately, on my mac anyway, the shadow delineations all but disappear, making the file-tab visual met’phor kind of, well, nonexistent. I’m definitely open to a redesign of the tab system however.

Dean, have you seen this one ?

Mary,

Given the choice, I prefer ‘before’, although I – personal opinion – find both kind of chaotic overloaded would be a better word.

Last edited by phiw13 (2005-08-12 08:48:57)


Where is that emoji for a solar powered submarine when you need it ?
Sand space – admin theme for Textpattern

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#7 2005-08-12 09:28:56

NeilA
Member
From: Blue Mountains, Australia
Registered: 2004-08-15
Posts: 316
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

The ‘Empty Spaces’ design uses a much more readable font (to my eyes)… will try it this weekend
Otherwise I would stick with the ‘before’.

On a related note, I love the ‘QuickPik’ functionality. but get really frustrated with the slight delay when the screen refreshes, which shifts the screen contents down as it loads (this is on FF in Win XP).


Neil – Blue Mountains, Australia

http://westserve.org
http://ministrygrounds.net.au

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#8 2005-08-12 20:01:19

wilshire
Plugin Author
From: Akron, Ohio
Registered: 2004-08-27
Posts: 656
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

As long as we’re talking redesign of the tab system, hows about something like this

I’m not necessarily stuck on this specific look but having shortcuts in the header of each page to edit my recent articles, pages, styles and forms is a helluva time saver.

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#9 2005-08-12 21:50:30

NeilA
Member
From: Blue Mountains, Australia
Registered: 2004-08-15
Posts: 316
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

As I said Rob, I love the functionality of Quikpik, and I do have it set up to hide the tabs – the only two tiny problems I have are:
  1. The delay in redrawing the screen, as Quickpik takes a small amount of time to load the menu (or whatever it does). On my system, this causes the screen to draw, then move down as the menu kicks in. Probably not something you can do anything about, but worthy of a mention.
  2. When I have (for examples) many forms, the menu drops off the bottom of the browser window, and makes it hard to get to the bottom items. This happens more when I’m working on my laptop with a lower res screen.

But please know that I have it installed on all 12+ TXP sites! It’s just great.

Cheers

Last edited by NeilA (2005-08-12 21:51:32)


Neil – Blue Mountains, Australia

http://westserve.org
http://ministrygrounds.net.au

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#10 2005-08-12 22:42:11

rene
Member
From: Switzerland
Registered: 2004-03-27
Posts: 67

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

‘after’ is fine, but without the rounded publish button.

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#11 2005-08-12 22:51:49

bizartist
Member
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 2005-03-11
Posts: 62
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

Wow, I’m really liking the look of this one actually


After enduring years of Art School, mild mannered Owen Waring noticed some unusual changes… the constant bombardment of criticism, it seems, had altered his DNA. Half pixel pusher, half programmer, he had become…. THE BIZARTIST

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#12 2005-08-12 22:53:39

thebombsite
Archived Plugin Author
From: Exmouth, England
Registered: 2004-08-24
Posts: 3,251
Website

Re: Txp Admin Facelift

I’ve just installed it. Very nice indeed.


Stuart

In a Time of Universal Deceit
Telling the Truth is Revolutionary.

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