Admin Facelift. Take 3

Ace of Dubs · 2006-08-25 11:18:47

Mary wrote

That’s not a question I can answer – I can’t read minds.

What?! That’s it… you’re fired! Oh and don’t forget to finish off Crockery and it’s subsequent updates before you pack your things ;)

almost anything is possible with pure CSS with the right markup behind it.

Very true, but in this case I think we are playing outside the “almost” zone. For example:

On the top nav, both levels are active links. But on the side nav, only the subcategories are active (since they are all visible)… their parent tabs should simply be headers. Also, we have discussed the problem of the extension and plugin tabs and the very real possibility of their subcategories getting too long. Both of them would be have to be listed under a new heading called “extras” or “add-ons”

Right now I can only dream up 2 solutions:

1. Include both menus in the actual html and simply toggle the visibility for each with CSS. OK..its not the most semantic solution in the world but it would be the easiest/fastest way.

2. Build an admin-side plugin which dynamically spits out the desired html according to user prefs. We already have hpw_admincss plug, which perhaps could be expanded on to include this feature… I’m not sure.

Ultimately I agree that this is still in its infancy stage and for now we have to settle for visual comps. But I am glad we are all putting our heads together here and I think this collective effort will result in one of the leanest and meanest GUIs out there..

Keep the feedback coming!

Mary · 2006-08-26 01:19:39

Lists are going to be used, which you can do just about anything with. There will also be an “active” class applied to whatever area and tab you’re in. As I said: best to wait and see what you’ve got to work with first. :)

phiw13 · 2006-08-27 03:46:42

@ Ace of Dubs
The modified txp interface I made for TXP 4.03 uses lists for the tabs, and basically still works on the latest rev from SVN. That stylesheet needs some tweaks, of course. Contact if you want the thing up to date (not available for public release yet, and the stylesheet only works correctly in the latest Gecko trunk builds, because that is what I use), and play with it.
Obviously I have no idea what the code in Crockery will look like :-)

Ace of Dubs · 2006-09-26 13:10:32

@phiw13

You’ve got mail, buddy :)

Mary wrote:

Lists are going to be used, which you can do just about anything with. There will also be an “active” class applied to whatever area and tab you’re in. As I said: best to wait and see what you’ve got to work with first. :)

I hear you, which is why I havent posted any new stuff in a while (that and work is crazy right now) At the same time I feel we should not lose sight of the fact that this whole design challenge is a bit of a chicken/egg conundrum and I just hope some of the ideas brought up in this thread (especially ones dealing more with the structure of content than design) will help push crockery in the right direction. Admitedly I still havent got crockery running as time has not permitted. Will try to do this as soon as I can as it will help me push the envelope a bit more.

In the meantime, here is the latest tweak, incorporating some of the cool stuff you have going on in your thread…

hazel · 2006-09-26 18:33:49

The only real visual difference in crockery at the moment is the controls being wrapped in form/legend tags

—-

I did a quick paintjob of the admin (using the modified files from phiw13 / Mary) for a customer’s site

Ace of Dubs · 2006-09-26 19:05:40

Nice work there hazel… digging the limey freshness of the colors for sure, and the “Article posted” notice is a nice touch.

I’m not sure where the chips will fall in terms of organization however and though it seems most TXP vets favor tab-less side navigation I’d love to hear more feedback on how we can restructure what’s on the actual pages to make the admin faster and simpler to use, (moreso than suggestions for a skin.)

Still.. kudos to you for actually getting your hands dirty with a lovely working example. I been way too lazy to poke through the code myself… shame on me! :(

NyteOwl · 2006-09-26 23:11:43

I was writing an article today when a friend looked over my shoulder and we got to talking about Textpattern. In the course of the discussion and idea developed, that while it may not be fully practical is certainly reasonable from an intuitive, workflow perspective.

Basically what we thought up is a “Write” interface that is layed out like the Hemingway blog theme. If you are not familiar with the Hemingway theme, it puts the articles in the top portion of the page and any other links, navigation etc in a seperate section at the bottom. Here is an example screenshot http://warpspire.com/images/posts/hemingway_home.png

Now what I’m talking about is put the layout (very roughly) so that it flows logically in how one writes:

<pre>
Title
Article Body
Excerpt
——————————————————————
Keywords Section Date
Image Categories Status
Comments Advanced Preview

Publish </pre>

This would also permit the expansion of the content textareas to be made a elastic or at least a bit bit larger giving more “elbow room” for editing

Ace of Dubs · 2006-09-27 16:47:40

Hmmm…. I say Hmmmmmm Mr. Owl

You may be onto something here.. stay tuned

mercury · 2006-10-17 22:11:48

it seems like the compatibility with 4.0.4 is broken. am i right?

Ace of Dubs · 2006-10-29 15:16:45

hcgtv · 2006-10-29 15:29:07

Ace, I’ll take 5 of those ;)

squaredeye · 2006-10-29 23:45:30

Ace,
Ditto. Nice work.

hakjoon · 2006-10-29 23:51:41

That’s some nice stuff there.

I’d like the navigation to be collapsible (maybe Scriptaculous accordion style) and for me it would be cool to have them be position:fixed effectively creating a navigation frame to the interiror content.

BTW let me know if I can help with coding.

Last edited by hakjoon (2006-10-29 23:54:35)

Ace of Dubs · 2006-10-30 12:41:34

Update: Finally getting my hands dirty and have my HTML template set up and validating to Strict 1.0.

All the necessary CSS hooks are in place and I have decided to implement consistent naming convention with underscores separating multiple words (hyphens dont let me double-click select entire ids and classes)

I’ve also incorporated hakjoon’s request for collapsable navigation using the very same JS that TXP uses for the existing display toggles. I didn’t want to deviate too much from what we already have, but you are welcome to tinker with your own JS when I post the code.

Today I’ll be dipping into the CSS and having fun. Stay tuned TextFans!

squaredeye · 2006-10-30 13:07:10

Ace of Dubs,
well done, This is exciting stuff.

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#151 2006-08-25 11:18:47

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#152 2006-08-26 01:19:39

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#153 2006-08-27 03:46:42

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#154 2006-09-26 13:10:32

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#155 2006-09-26 18:33:49

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#156 2006-09-26 19:05:40

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#157 2006-09-26 23:11:43

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#158 2006-09-27 16:47:40

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#159 2006-10-17 22:11:48

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#160 2006-10-29 15:16:45

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#161 2006-10-29 15:29:07

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#162 2006-10-29 23:45:30

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#163 2006-10-29 23:51:41

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#164 2006-10-30 12:41:34

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

#165 2006-10-30 13:07:10

Re: Admin Facelift. Take 3

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