Hi.
Your arguments make sense. Actually, we had other options in mind:
It seems, regarding your answers, that the variation B is better than the
current proposal.
The variation B consists on developing only one panel which is the
"AppBar", or more certainly the "Favorite Applications Panel" + an
admin UI
to configure it instead of using the panel wizard.
We still need to add an option about the size of the panels bars, but we do
not need a panel per application anymore.
If we all agree on this, I will start the implementation.
Thanks for your help,
Guillaume
2014-04-16 18:14 GMT+02:00 Jeremie BOUSQUET <jeremie.bousquet(a)gmail.com>om>:
2014-04-16 17:02 GMT+02:00 Marius Dumitru Florea <
mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com>gt;:
On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Jeremie
BOUSQUET
<jeremie.bousquet(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just some thoughts reading this ...
>
>
> 2014-04-16 14:48 GMT+02:00 vincent(a)massol.net <vincent(a)massol.net>et>:
>
>> Hi Marius,
>>
>> On 16 Apr 2014 at 13:11:34, Marius Dumitru Florea (
>> mariusdumitru.florea@xwiki.com(mailto:mariusdumitru.florea@xwiki.com
))
>> wrote:
>>
>> > On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 4:54 PM, vincent(a)massol.net wrote:
>> > > Hi Marius,
>> > >
>> > > On 10 Apr 2014 at 21:07:13, Marius Dumitru Florea (
>> mariusdumitru.florea@xwiki.com(mailto:mariusdumitru.florea@xwiki.com
))
>> wrote:
>> > >
>> > >> On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 6:08 PM, Guillaume "Louis-Marie"
Delhumeau
>> > >> wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> > But developers already needs to create a UI Extension, why
not
a
>> panel?
>> > >>
>> > >> Because for the panel you'd have to write code.. Moreover, we
>> > >> discussed about the fact that the non-typed parameters of the UI
>> > >> Extension are not always a good idea and that for the application
>> > >> panel a dedicated class would have been better (with typed
>> > >> properties). There is a big difference between having:
>> > >>
>> > >> icon: myIcon.png
>> > >>
>> > >> and
>> > >>
>> > >> content:
>> > >> #if ($panelWidth == "small")
>> > >> [[image:myIcon.png]]
>> > >> #else
>> > >> ## Display stuff as a list
>> > >> #end
>> > >>
>> > >> The first is semantic (data) and can be reused in other places.
The
>> > >> second would have to take
the image from a property in order to
not
> >
>> duplicate the application icon, so more code.. The first is clear
to
> > >> the developer: he has to
specify the application icon. The second
is
>> > >> not, without reading documentation about what to write in the
panel
>> > >> content in order to have
the application icon available for the
>> > >> application bar.
>> > >>
>> > >> > Maybe we should provide a template for this kind of panels so
it
> would
be
> > >> > very easy to create a new one, or a wizard that generates it
easily?
> > >>
> > >> I find it awkward to ask the dev to create a panel in order to
display
> > >> an icon on the application
bar.
> > >
> > > It would be awkward if that was the goal but it’s not :)
> > >
> >
> > > There’s no notion of AppBar!
> >
> > Think as a user, you always ask me to do so :).
>
> hehe ;)
>
> > A user that sees the
> > flamingo skin for the first time will notice a vertical bar on the
> > left side that has icons on it, most of which seem to correspond to
> > applications (features). He will never think those are panels! The
> > fact that the left thin vertical bar (to not call it AppBar) is a
> > panel bar is just an implementation detail for me.
>
> In this case you’re saying that implementing the AppBar as several
panels
> is bad idea (i.e. it’s not natural) and the
AppBar should be a single
Panel.
>
> For me either you agree about having each app provide a panel or you
don’t
>> agree about having apps provide their panels. Agreeing about having
one
>> panel per app and then trying to
autogenerate the panels seem too
much a
>> tweak/hack to me and smell of a bad
design.
>>
>> > > It just means that if an app wants to have a panel on the side, it
>> needs to define it as they have always done (see blog app for ex) :)
>> >
>> > We're talking about the left side, the thin vertical bar. The app
will
>> > want to put an icon on it, not a
panel. A panel is just the means by
>> > which the app is going to make the icon available for the user.
>>
>> The thin bar can be anywhere, on the left, on the right, for any kind
of
>> panel. The idea is to still call Panels
the panel technology. We’re
just
>
adding panel sizes.
>
> Again if you don’t agree about having panels provided by apps then we
need
> to materialize the AppBar by having it as a
specific Panel (and thus
have a
> custom UI to configure that AppBar).
>
> > > So if an App wants that its users to display a panel to link to
them,
> then they do the users a favour by creating
such a panel for the users
to
> use.
> >
> > Again, the App doesn't want "to display a panel”.
>
> The app doesn’t want to display anything. It provides panels for users
who
> use to use them to be able to do so. They can
provide a shortcut panel
if
>> they wish. If you don’t agree with this (which is fine) then shortcuts
>> should not be implemented as panels IMO and instead we should have an
>> AppBar panel.
>>
>> > The App wants to
>> > allow the users to have a shortcut. In flamingo we display app
>> > shortcuts on the left side.
>>
>> Not quite. App shortcuts can be anywhere: on the left, on the right,
in
2
> columns or in 1 column. It just happens that
by default we’ll position
them
>> on the left in one column.
>>
>> > So apps will want to have their shortcuts
>> > displayed on the left side. If what it takes to display a shortcut
on
>> > the left side is to create a panel
then the App will provide a
panel,
>> > but we should make app devs a favor
by simplifying this as mush as
>> > possible (eliminating the need of creating the panel and
copy-pasting
>> > code is possible).
>>
>> Well you’re making a good point that Panels may not be the most
natural
>> way to represent an app shortcut. I
think I agree that it would be
more
>> natural to have an AppBar Panel (that
can be configured with a
specific
UI
>> to decide what apps it should display - Personally I’d prefer calling
it
>> Favorite Applications Panel and keep the
existing Applications Panel
to
list all apps).
Both could be just variants of the same Panel adjusting to the width of
the
panel left/right area, what do you think ?
Ie, with a "large" panel width, you would display what is in
"Applications
> Panel", with a "thin" panel width, you would display what would be
in
> "Favorite Applications Panel".
> I mean, the current "applications panel" could allow end-users to
choose
their
"favorite apps", and group the rest in the "..." or "other
apps"
shortcut (which it currently does except it doesn't use the wording
"favorite"). Basically both represent a list of links to applications
available in 1-click, along with a list of other applications available
in
> 2-clicks, both available from any page (panel concept).
> Another example: if this "thin panel column" / "AppBar" is a set
of
> specific (distinct) Panels that you can order as you want with panel
> wizard, it means you can put some other completely unrelated Panels in
> between those applications panels (like a stats panel, a toc panel,
...).
Nice and flexible, but does it mean anything in
terms of UI ? Would you
ever want to do that ? I'm not sure ...
Good point. Indeed I'm starting to think that having a Favorite
Applications Panel to handle the app icons is better than having a
panel for each icon.
>
>
>>
>> > > Autogenerating panel would make this a special case and I’m not
sure
>> we need a special case here.
>> >
>> > While discussing with Guillaume in private, I end up realising that
>> > what we are missing is the ability to 'configure' the panels.
Right
>> > now you can add a panel only once (and even if you add it twice it's
>> > going to display the same thing). But what if I create a generic
>> > panel, that has some parameters, and I would like to add this panel
>> > twice, with different values for the parameters. I can't. But if you
>> > think, you can do this with wiki macros. I can call the same macro
>> > with different parameters in the document content. Moreover, most of
>> > the current panels are not easily reusable, for instance if I want
to
>> > display the same thing inside the
document content or in a dashboard
>> > widget I have to either copy the panel content or write some
Velocity
>> > code. For the future I think we
should investigate implementing
panels
> >
as wiki macros. With this, we can use directly the wiki macro that
> > Guillaume is going to use right now in a panel.
>
> So you mean removing PanelClass/Sheet/Template (i.e. remove the notion
of
>> panels or have it only mean the left and right areas) and instead when
>> someone wants to write a panel they need to write a wiki macro? Thus
in
the
> left and rights areas, you’d configure the
list of macros to use with
their
>> parameters, similar to the {{gallery}} macro for images?
>>
>> This means we wouldn’t be able to list panels anymore, except by
having
a
>> “Panel” category for all macros representing panels.
>>
>> Or do you mean having a {{panel}} macro that bridges PanelClass
xobjects
> and
macros:
> - keep PanelClass and pages having PanelClass xobjets as now
> - {{panel reference=“Panels.Applications”/}}
> - {{panel reference=“MySpace.MyPanelPage”
parameters=“param1=value1,…"/}}
>> - change the way we define the panels to display on the left/right
areas
>> by using this {{panel}} macro. For
example by having a
Left/RightPanels
Is it really a problem of panels architecture, or
merely a problem of
some
lack of macros ?
My "problem" was that we have two notions "panels" and
"macros" and I
thought that we can implement panels using macros. But we can't
because we cannot set rights on macro calls (a panel would be a macro
call in a left/right side area).
If you want to put same content in 2 panels, or
in a panel and a
dashboard
> gadget, to me it means that you miss a rendering macro because you
should
never
duplicate your code.
Yes, this is the solution.
I suppose in most cases with this principle, you
would never write any
content in a Panel except a call to a macro with some parameters,
because I
> think you can almost always find a use-case where it'd be interesting
to
put any
panel content in a dashboard gadget or somewhere else.
But I suppose also it was not like that because initially (maybe still)
the
> idea was more to be able to include a Panel everywhere you want (like
for
Statistics for example). But being able to include a content through a
rendering macro wherever you want (in a Panel, in a gadget, inline in a
page) seem more flexible.
Yes, but you cannot set rights unless you bind the macro call to a
document.
Well you would set rights at the level of the container of the macro, so at
page level (a page that could contain a Panel, dashboard gadgets, or just
be a "plain" page), which anyway until now represent the finest level you
can set access rights on (until you add access rights to objects or macro
calls ;) ). A dashboard gadget is just something that wraps a macro call
with additional layout info (column/row), I imagine a panel could be seen
the same way. But you can also write any specific content in a dashboard
gadget (some groovy script, some velocity script, several macro calls...) -
and it's the same for a Panel. It's just an UI thing with a content and
some layout specificity / configurations.
To go back to initial subject (sorry), I'd say that improving panels
technology by adding the "size" parameter is very nice, the rest falls back
more into "improving existing panels" (not just technology).
Another example (that is listed in the proposal btw), if you implement this
"AppBar" as a set of Panels containing App name + Large Icon, then if one
day you improve Panels technology so you can display a horizontal panel bar
and not just vertical, and you want to implement something very similar to
the nice "dock" of MacOS, you would have to rewrite all apps panels or
create new ones (containing large icon without app name), and rewrite your
panel technology to be able to zoom a panel (and move the others further)
when hovered - and eventually add a specific typing of Panels so you
activate this behaviour only for those who represent apps panels.
While if you implement the "AppBar" as a unique Panel there is no impact on
panel technology by itself, to implement any variation of AppBar - and the
only inputs you need are "the info from app descriptors" whatever it could
be.
Thanks,
Marius
>
> Thanks
> -Vincent
>
> > Thanks,
> > Marius
> >
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > -Vincent
> > >
> > >> The dev should just fill an
> > >> application descriptor and then the App Bar manager (panel wizard
or
> > >> whatever) should create a panel
on the fly (if that is needed for
the
>> > >> underlying implementation) to display the icon/shortcut on the
>> > >> application bar.
>> > >>
>> > >> Thanks,
>> > >> Marius
>> > >>
>> > >> >
>> > >> >
>> > >> > 2014-04-10 16:09 GMT+02:00 Marius Dumitru Florea <
>> > >> > mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com>gt;:
>> > >> >
>> > >> >> To be clear, I'm not against reusing the left panels
bar for
the
> app
> > >> >> bar. What I don't like is asking application developers to
write a
> > >> >> panel (boilerplate
code) in order to have their application
listed
>> > >> >> somewhere.
>> > >> >>
>> > >> >> Thanks,
>> > >> >> Marius
>> > >> >>
>> > >> >> On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 4:41 PM, Marius Dumitru Florea
>> > >> >> wrote:
>> > >> >> > I don't like it very much. Instead of writing
code like
this:
>> > >> >> >
>> > >> >> > #if ($panelWidth == "small")
>> > >> >> > ## Display stuff as icons
>> > >> >> > #else
>> > >> >> > ## Display stuff as a list
>> > >> >> > #end
>> > >> >> >
>> > >> >> > in a panel, I would prefer to describe my
application using
an
>
XClass
> > >> >> > (with properties for app name and icon). Then the system
(XWiki,
>> Panel
>> > >> >> > Wizard, whatever) should use these data (app name
and icon)
to
>
build
> > >> >> > and UI that lets the user put shortcuts to his favourite
app
to
>> a bar.
>> > >> >> > If you want, the system should create this
"panel". Asking
app
> >
>> >> > developers to write this boilerplate code to have their app
> listed is
> > >> >> > not nice.
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > Thanks,
> > >> >> > Marius
> > >> >> >
> > >> >> > On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 4:17 PM, Guillaume
"Louis-Marie"
> Delhumeau
> > >> >> > wrote:
> > >> >> >> Hi.
> > >> >> >>
> > >> >> >> After some discussions with Caty and Vincent, we
would like
to
> propose
> > >> >> you
> > >> >> >> new ideas about the panels technology, that replaces
our
> previous
> > >> >> >> propositions about the Flamingo Applications Bar.
> > >> >> >>
> > >> >> >> The proposal is there, with more explanations and
screenshots:
>
>> >> >>
http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Proposal/PanelsImprovements
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Here is my +1.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Louis-Marie
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