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#85 2005-10-12 16:14:45
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
> “…I think they are used correctly within the admin…”
Well, no, not entirely. The tabs currently are layed out by putting each tab into a table cell.
> “…This weird idea that somehow we should avoid ALL tables at any cost is a bad interpretation of the standards…”
Indeed, but that’s not what is advocated by anyone with knowledge of the subject. The idea is removing tables that really don’t need to be there, or shouldn’t be there at all. The current header alone uses 3 tables. That’s too many, especially when using a table at all isn’t justified. :)
Edit: Just in case there’s any confusion: I am not removing tables just for the sake of removing them, so don’t worry. :)
Last edited by Mary (2005-10-12 16:15:50)
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
Sorry, agree with you about the tabs.
Stuart
In a Time of Universal Deceit
Telling the Truth is Revolutionary.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
For what it’s worth, I don’t think much in the Textpattern interface could be concidered “tabular data” (except perhaps listings of articles, plugins, etc). Probably better to style the input forms using divs and <code><form><input></input><label></label></input></code>. “Useful tags” and the like should really be ordered lists. From a developement standpoint though, I can understand your hesitation, Mary, with coverting things over to xhtml/css all at once. Let me know if you need a hand with things.
Last edited by Jeff_K (2005-10-13 19:46:45)
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
I think you understand, mary, that I was just talking about the visual layer, not the code behind it. The topic of the admin pages using tables is an old one, that never goes anywhere. If you are truly tackling that too, good on ye, even if you are just reducing the number of tables rather than getting rid of them all.
Regardless of the Web standards side of things, which I’m all for, I think there is some leeway here when you’re dealing with admin pages that only a handful of people (if that) are every going to be using. I certainly don’t care if my admin pages validate or not because nobody is every going to see them (or try and validate them); as long as they work, that’s all that matters.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
hi mary, i think the latest draft looks very nice and much better than the previous ones (which i didn’t like at all, to be honest). it should this one or the current look, imho. but since you’ve added so many nifty features (did you fix the left-hand side column when previous articles are shown too? the layout “jumps” too much currently when toggled, i think), i prefer your work to the default :) any news on wether this will make it to the svn soonish?
edit: oh, how about adding a border-top: 2px solid; kinda thing?
cheers,
/Anton
Last edited by Anton (2005-10-16 11:28:08)
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
oh, btw – it would be nice to know the DOM tree for your layout, since some plugins (mine included) uses the #edit-table to find the place to insert paragraphs. i guess i could search for the parent of the second (=Body) textarea and add it there, but i think i’ll leave as it is until the layout changes more dramatically, and then release an update.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
> Anton wrote:
edit: oh, how about adding a border-top: 2px solid; kinda thing?
Funny, I was playing with a border-bottom (in grey shades), but only on the second-level navigation block. The top level one has already quite a bit of visibility.
oh, btw – it would be nice to know the DOM tree for your layout, since some plugins (mine included) uses the #edit-table to find the place to insert paragraphs.
As far as I know, this won’t be a problem. That part hasn’t changed. Yet.
Where is that emoji for a solar powered submarine when you need it ?
Sand space – admin theme for Textpattern
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
OK, (takes deep breath). Let me start with a disclaimer. You guys are awesome, and I appreciate all of your hard work. But…
The original interface used a tab metaphor that looked like, well, folder tabs. The white tabs lift off the background of colored tabs and you understand it immediately. I may be alone in thinking this, but I think the facelifts so far are a step away from simplicity, immediacy and elegance toward unneccicary complication. And, they don’t look like tabs any more. They look like first generation CSS horizontal navs.
My vote is for simplicity, and immediacy. And with lots of respect for all the work done, my vote is to keep the tabs that way. I don’t want to hack ‘em back to the way they used to be.
-Dale
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#93 2005-10-16 16:50:22
- davidm
- Member
- From: Paris, France
- Registered: 2004-04-27
- Posts: 719
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
Dale, I understand your point, but I don’t think mary’s facelift has changed anything to the tab metaphor. If anything, it is cleaner and also more readable. Plus there is a “localizable” factor that current tabs do not have : in some language tab content is overflowing and it’s also true of browser font resizing… Accessibilty will no doubt be bettered.
The way I see it, the admin interface should be entirely skinnable, and in fact there is a plugin to do that. You should be able to keep the old textpattern style with hpw_admincss plugin anyway :-) No hack needed…
Last edited by davidm (2005-10-16 16:51:21)
.: Retired :.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
Function notwithstanding, I guess from my persective, the more a tab looks like a “tab” the more people will universally recognize it and feel comfortable using it.
From a design perspective if you want to show that a tab is selected and it use, it should come forward from a background. I’ve always liked how well the original design for TXP did this, beleive it or not, it’s what attracted me away from Drupal.
Cheers though, Mary (along with others in this thread) is awesome for all her work on plugins AND on this.
Much respect.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
@mrdale
This face-lift would make the TXP interface very easy to ‘skin’. Davidm already pointed to a plugin that makes this easier, and Mary’s underlying code simplifies life even more. The html is just a bunch of text-nodes, all styles are confined to the stylesheet.
Here are two variations I’ve been playing with while testing:
Any variation is possible: left or right aligned ‘tabs’, turning them upside down,… the sky is the limit (… and browser bugs or ‘shortcomings’).
I do like the simplicity of Mary’s concept. There might be some improvements possible, comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Where is that emoji for a solar powered submarine when you need it ?
Sand space – admin theme for Textpattern
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