21
Mamba
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/12 14:03

  • Mamba

  • Moderator

  • Posts: 11366

  • Since: 2004/4/23


I have move this thread to the "Blue Move" forum, because it seems like this is the best home for it!
Quote:
But we could we create a specific part on xoops.org, where we could see infos for each module :
- who is working on it
- what are the development perspectives
- which requests have been taking into account (we see a lot, and i also post a lot :), in forums, but as xoopser, i never know if my request have been read by the module developers or not, and more important, if they added it in their planning)

That's what the "Blue Move" Forums were for. As you can see, we had already threads focused on some modules:

XoopsPolls
User Points
Xoops Members
Xoops Partners
XoopsFAQ

and we could use the same approach, unless we can find a better one.

What do you think?

Right now we could focus on the two modules Voltan is working on: xNews and extGallery, so we could finalize them and release as stable.

And also finalize the original "Blue Move" modules listed above.

Or do you see other modules as more important?
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22
redheadedrod
Re: Open letter to module devs

I can somewhat understand what aphex is saying. I have played with themes and modules on my system now and I can agree that it would be nice to have a better supported structure to allow CSS changes to most anything that can be displayed.

Not only the even/odd stuff but the fact that you are pretty stuck now to news related id's for most module stuff. We need a better structure or design for supporting theme building so that we can know as a module developer what id's to use to get the desired results.

I agree that for ANY displayed item they should be coded with ID's that can be connected to a CSS style.

We should also be considering a structure for providing suggestions to module developers for ID's to use for anything displayed. Maybe providing multiple choices for some items so everything doesn't look the same. But still maintains the theme look.

And on the same note we don't necessarily want hundreds or thousands of ID's either because that will make the CSS file unreasonable.

Original Xoops 2.x was around before CSS was widely used. Hopefully with Xe we can make flexibility in display a big improvement. But this does need to be followed through with module developers as well. And should be made a big deal to developers in any documentation. It really is too late to do much of this with 2.x as most module developers will be moving to the Xe once it goes to beta. Not to mention 2.5 is intended to be just updated to resolve issues with bugs or security.



Rodney

23
fdeconiac
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/12 19:34

  • fdeconiac

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2008/11/29


Quote:
Or do you see other modules as more important?


Multimenu looks important for me but this module really needs to be updated!

I'm also agree with your suggestion "xnews" and "extgallery" that are used by lot of people.

Also, regarded your links Mamba, i think discuting of modules in forums is right, but i think it would be interesting to have specific part to have a quick view of module (last version, developpers in charge,...), like there was on babylon by xoops

24
Mamba
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/12 22:06

  • Mamba

  • Moderator

  • Posts: 11366

  • Since: 2004/4/23


Quote:
Also, regarded your links Mamba, i think discuting of modules in forums is right, but i think it would be interesting to have specific part to have a quick view of module (last version, developpers in charge,...), like there was on babylon by xoops

I have created such a list on our Wiki. Of course, it has to be now populated, like AMS (Article Management System), as an example.

As next steps we could:

- those who are in charge of a particular module development, should update their modules, so we see which are which.

- as a project, we should focus on two or three modules (like the xNews and extGally) and work on them collectively (like Voltan is already doing with Goffy and DRossi)

The target could be, for example, that we release stable versions of xNews and extGallery by end of March.

Would it make sense? If yes, who would like to join Voltan, DRossi and Goffy to work on these modules?

Who would like to take lead on other modules? Which ones?
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25
Balzac
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/13 7:36

  • Balzac

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 68

  • Since: 2010/1/11


Small Example:
Every module has their own icons, buttons etc. (print, pdf etc). These icons are within every module itself. Every module developer uses their own icons and even extensions.
Now, if you change the looks and want to change or adjust the icons to look consistent within every module on your website, you have to upload your own icons within every module separate. One hell of a job.
I still don't understand why:
- the name and extension of these images aren't uniform;
- these images aren't standard centralised within one xoopscore folder (uploads-icons or themes-icons);
- to pick up the needed icon, the image url within the modules should be pointing to that central xoopsfolder.

You can compare it with smilies. We have 1 central xoops directorie for this! WHich makes changing/adjusting them much easier.

This would make changing the looks and feel for this small icon part much easier. And this is just one small example.

26
fdeconiac
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/13 9:52

  • fdeconiac

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2008/11/29


Agree with you.

We could define a common format for icons (.PNG ?) and a common folder like :
- uploads/icons/default/
and be able to choose in admin between icons theme :
- uploads/icons/default/
- uploads/icons/theme1/
- uploads/icons/theme2/

So each module could be in a zip archive presented like :
- modules/themodule/...
- uploads/default/mymoduleicon1.PNG
- uploads/default/mymoduleicon2.PNG

I think this move was part started with xoops 2.5 by organizing uploads folder like :
- uploads/avatars/
- uploads/smileys/
- uploads/ranks/
- uploads/icons/
- ...

Am i wrong ?

27
Mamba
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/13 10:24

  • Mamba

  • Moderator

  • Posts: 11366

  • Since: 2004/4/23


You are absolutely right.

In XOOPS 2.5.0, some of the icons have been added to:

modules/system/images/icons/default

As next step the plan was to identify more standard icons and add them there.

Let's start working on "Module Development Guidelines" where we could define icons, the standard GUI for a module, and other standards that would be recommended to follow.
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28
aph3x
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/13 11:27

  • aph3x

  • Theme Designer

  • Posts: 834

  • Since: 2004/12/26


Balzac is totally right!

XOOPS is built from an engineer's point of view which is cool cause it gained the means to be a powerful platform but thats not enough.

There are hundreds of websites showcasing designs and there are hundreds of websites showcasing innovations in design... none for XOOPS

XOOPS developers are focused on delivering a feature rich product alone... you guys should add "beautiful" to the equation.

A visitor judges a site by its covers, a developer judges a site by the methods used and XOOPS offers a large set of options the only problem is that XOOPS is only focused on amount of methods ( modules & admin features ), in other words XOOPS is trully admin orientated not regular user orientated.

Developers will always improve their module and core based on the info they get via their forums, the only problem is that all info comes from other developers, other admins...When was the last time you asked a "regular" visitor if he likes how your work looks like? you only ask them if they like the features you added.

Thats great a lotta features right? But you misinterpret consistency and XOOPS has consistency over all sites using XOOPS not individually

Everything I'm not made me everything I am
The Themes

29
Balzac
Re: Open letter to module devs
  • 2011/2/14 0:40

  • Balzac

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 68

  • Since: 2010/1/11


All default, standard used Frontend and Module icons should be placed within: uploads->icons.
You cannot create more directories because how should module developers declaire the standard icon url?
Default Frontend/module icons can be replaced by the icons ( if created) delivered by the specific theme and its developer.

Backend/System icons can stay within modules/system/images/icons

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