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dev:hig:panel-plugins [2009/01/10 13:08] – mike | dev:hig:panel-plugins [2012/06/14 15:06] – [Widgets padding/size] landry | ||
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Find below the HIGs for the panel plugins. | Find below the HIGs for the panel plugins. | ||
+ | |||
+ | For information about strings style please refer to this [[style: | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== About ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Rationale ==== | ||
+ | UI consistency is an important aspect of a mature desktop like Xfce. On the other hand, there are tons of panel plugins out there, developed by many different people. A written set of UI guidelines will help those developers ensure their plugins maintain some basic level of consistency. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Process ==== | ||
+ | We're trying to do this in a wiki fashion, so everyone is welcome to improve this. When you add something new, put " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Plugin Classes ==== | ||
+ | Most guidelines apply differently based on the plugin class. (" | ||
+ | |||
===== General ===== | ===== General ===== | ||
+ | ==== Tooltip ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | If displaying a value in a tooltip, prefer the GtkTooltip API in favor of the GtkTooltips deprecated API. Using [[http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | | ||
+ | | ||
+ | if (g_object_class_find_property(G_OBJECT_GET_CLASS(settings), | ||
+ | | ||
+ | </ | ||
==== Context Menu ==== | ==== Context Menu ==== | ||
The right click context menu provides items with default actions like " | The right click context menu provides items with default actions like " | ||
- | The About item is seldomly used, which makes it recommended to not include it at all. But that option is left open to the plugin writer. | + | The About item is seldomly used, which makes it recommended to not include it at all. But that option is left open to the plugin writer. |
Some plugins add a custom Help item inside this menu, but it is more common to put a Help button inside the properties dialog. | Some plugins add a custom Help item inside this menu, but it is more common to put a Help button inside the properties dialog. | ||
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With Xfce 4.6+ you can use Xfconf, in which case the settings are saved as soon as they change. | With Xfce 4.6+ you can use Xfconf, in which case the settings are saved as soon as they change. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On a completely different note, when the properties dialog is open, the context menu must be blocked with [[http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The properties dialog should be created using '' | ||
+ | A subtitle can be set using '' | ||
===== Main UIs ===== | ===== Main UIs ===== | ||
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The main purpose of the button is to open an external window or to display a menu. In the case of a menu, it must be a toggle button and keep the state pressed as long as the menu is displayed. | The main purpose of the button is to open an external window or to display a menu. In the case of a menu, it must be a toggle button and keep the state pressed as long as the menu is displayed. | ||
- | Usually an image is put inside the button | + | Usually an image is put inside the button |
- | The content is put inside a box of type XfceHVBox so that the label can be set either on the right or at the bottom | + | The button has to display |
- | The border width of the box is 0, and the spacing | + | ==== Labels ==== |
+ | |||
+ | Labels should be oriented horizontally in the horizontal and deskbar mode and vertically (rotated clockwise) in the vertical mode. | ||
+ | |||
+ | (RFC) For consistency with other panel plugins and for good aligning | ||
+ | |||
+ | If plugin displays multiple rows of labels, it should preserve their native | ||
+ | |||
+ | If multiple labels don't fit in the panel row, then either some of them should be hidden/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Images or Icons ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | If the plugin displays an icon-sized image, it should be aligned with the left edge (or top edge in the vertical mode) of the plugin. The size of the icon should match the size of icons embedded in buttons (launchers etc.). If all image sizes are same, the user may be able to set the size of the plugin in such a way that the images are not resized (resizing leads to smoothing | ||
==== Input ==== | ==== Input ==== | ||
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Plugin examples: system load monitor, battery monitor, sensors plugin, … | Plugin examples: system load monitor, battery monitor, sensors plugin, … | ||
- | The different elements are contained inside a box, please | + | The different elements are contained inside a box, the border width of the box is 0, and the spacing between the children is 2 pixels. |
+ | |||
+ | Some comments on the above design: | ||
+ | * IMHO it would be better to flush all labels to the left (align them with the icon) and to stop them expand vertically. | ||
+ | * It would be really nice to get rid of the progress bars. What if we could replace all the progress bars with custom indicators drawn on top of the icon itself? | ||
+ | * They will never be properly aligned across rows (we could try putting them between the icon and the labels but what if there is no icon?). | ||
+ | * It would be nice to use the above design in the deskbar mode as well, but currently if the number of rows is 1, labels and progress bars wouldn' | ||
+ | * It would be nice if the monitor plugin could display only an icon and still be useful (have the gauge displayed on it) - not too different from the mixer plugin. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The above would result in the following layout (mockup): | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | In a horizontal panel. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | In a deskbar. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Note that the icons/ | ||
+ | ===== Panel properties ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Mode ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The panel has three modes: horizontal, vertical, and deskbar. | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Horizontal mode === | ||
+ | * Widgets are placed horizontally | ||
+ | * Progressbars are placed vertically | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Vertical mode === | ||
+ | * Widgets are placed vertically | ||
+ | * Labels are rotated to 90 degrees | ||
+ | * Progressbars are placed horizontally | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Deskbar mode === | ||
+ | * Widgets are placed vertically | ||
+ | * Composited widgets can be packed horizontally | ||
+ | * Labels are not rotated | ||
+ | * Progressbars are placed horizontally | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Size ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The panel can be made from 16px tall to 128px tall, multiplied by the amount of rows : that makes a lot of combinaisons to test when designing an UI for a plugin, and one should try to make its UI consistent and usable in most sizes. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Widgets padding/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Widgets padding/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Plugins have to set their container border width with '' | ||
+ | * When displaying a frame around the plugin, the border has to be 0px for a size of < 26px and 1px otherwise. | ||
+ | * Plugins can set a default spacing between children in the container via the //spacing// parameter to '' | ||
+ | * Labels should be packed (via '' | ||
+ | * Progressbars, | ||
+ | * Progressbars should be 8px wide (when vertical, 8px tall when horizontal), | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== event box ==== | ||
+ | If the plugin has an eventbox (to receive clicks or such), it should be made invisible to avoid problems with transparent/ | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | gtk_event_box_set_visible_window(GTK_EVENT_BOX(ebox), | ||
+ | gtk_event_box_set_above_child(GTK_EVENT_BOX(ebox), | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | ==== number of rows ==== | ||
- | Given the panel orientation is horizontal and vertical, the progress bar has to be either vertical and horizontal. | + | plugins should set the '' |
+ | < | ||
+ | size /= xfce_panel_plugin_get_nrows (plugin) | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | before setting size on the various widgets. | ||
+ | ==== Action widget ==== | ||
+ | The right-click menu should be accessible through all (if possible) widgets of the plugin. Generally you only need to use '' |