Author Topic: Proposed (optional) changes for simplified layout  (Read 113588 times)

mikebo

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It's a new layout.  Learning new habits will be part of it regardless, so let's focus on making it good for the long haul rather than not forcing people to change their habits.  Otherwise what's the point?
You're right and I wasn't clear enough when I wrote
I don't think it was a good idea to rearrange the tab bar elements when it's integrated in the caption bar. There is no good reason to force users to learn a new layout and fight old habits if they decide to switch.
What i meant was that there should be no difference in order of elements in the tab bar between 'Horizontal' and 'Horizontal in Caption Bar' layouts.
I actually think the changes we discussed in this thread shouldn't be optional if they really are an improvement (and i think they are just don't agree with some details)

Regarding the search button, do you think that something similar to this that is found in Opera Browser would work well? Not sure how technically challenging this would be though.


That's very close to what i had in mind. Truly a picture is worth a thousand words (not to mention an animated gif :)

I've been visualizing different layouts in my head and the more I think about this the more I believe that there is no way to include absolutely everything in the header bar while maintaining a high enough level of visual clarity. Hopefully I can be proved wrong though...
If we turned the search box into an expanding button, combine toolbar buttons into one we would be down to three buttons: toolbar, layout configuration and search.

We've lost internet browsing (presumably because it was to hard to integrate into the smaller header space)
That's part of the reason why. It's also gone because it sucked.

Steven

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one initial comment i have is i am determined to remove the panel toggle buttons as they dont look good in a number of the skins and also I cant think of any applications that have this type of button and yet the users of those applications seem to manage fine eg. iTunes users need to hide/show the left panel via the main menu. What i will do though is if the status bar remains full width i will add a right click/ Open/ Close panel context menu item on the status bar

Also I will mention for the horizontal tabs when not in the caption bar, for the dark skins they tend to hide the tab effect, and now the tabs extend into the left panel it really doesnt look good for those skins. So i will probably make the default behavior (for skins not flagged to use the new layout) that the tabs bar is in the main panel only
Last Edit: July 05, 2014, 07:51:51 AM by Steven

Bee-liever

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I will say quickly this though, I simply do not get the dislike of the new status bar.

I don't dislike the new status bar.
What I'm saying is why make change for changes sake.  If the status bar is not going to be shortened horizontally to gain more space in the side bars, why remove the sidebar toggles?

As well as moving the searchbox and layout icon back to the right in 'Caption Bar' layout, maybe the "Playing Track" header could be changed as 'now playing' has a comparable meaning

that way the statusbar could be shortened back to the main panel as originally suggested
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SimonBRT

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this should fix the bug:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/w37hzh4o95mlptj/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

also this version now applies the new status bar which spans the entire application to older skins. Also the 2px gap between the left/ main and right panels (used by midnight and the windows theme is no longer supported and now has a 1px border between those panels. This is so it works better with the new status bar
Hate to bring this one back up, but still has not solved the problem I am afraid.  Works fine with skinned borders, the white line only shows with unskinned borders.

one initial comment i have is i am determined to remove the panel toggle buttons as they dont look good in a number of the skins and also I cant think of any applications that have this type of button
Agree with this 100%.  In terms of whether the statusbar should span the whole width, my opinion is definitely yes.  I like what you have done with it in the latest version a lot.

I actually think the changes we discussed in this thread shouldn't be optional if they really are an improvement (and i think they are just don't agree with some details)
Yes.  Completely agree with you here.

If we turned the search box into an expanding button, combine toolbar buttons into one we would be down to three buttons: toolbar, layout configuration and search.
I do think this approach sounds really promising.

boroda

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In terms of whether the statusbar should span the whole width, my opinion is definitely yes.
I second this.

Steven

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http://www.mediafire.com/download/w37hzh4o95mlptj/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

- for skins not supporting the new "UseModernLayout" skin settings, tabs are now displayed in the main panel in place of the location bar. This differs from the new tabs in that they dont extend across the left panel. It also looks much better for the dark skins where tab features dont show. Again for the skins without this skin setting, when the tabs are docked in the caption bar then the location bar displays in much the same way as the current musicbee version but only because there would be a large gap if the location bar didnt display
- for the status bar, by default it still spans the entire application window but with improved centering and also tweaks to how the info is displayed when the player is docked down the bottom
- however there is a new skin setting "AllowStatusBarInPanel" that allows you can override the status bar to only show in the main panel when the player is docked down the bottom (when docked elsewhere the status bar spans the entire window). Its not enabled by default as many of the older skins dont look good with the status bar only in the main panel. A new element override controls the colours of the status bar when displayed in the main panel only "Panel.StatusBarInPanel.Default"
- an updated MusicBee default skin is included with this setting enabled so you can see what it looks like
- I ask people creating skins to consider how it looks when the library explorer or Now Playing list is docked in the left panel and the main panel is displaying a full panel of tracks in Track Details layout. Personally i dont like that the panels dont align on the bottom so i might still consider showing the status bar across the entire panel in that case (or at least spanning the left and main panels)
- I havent looked at the tabs in caption bar as yet and still plan to add elements for the tabs bar separators

Code
  <element id="UseModernLayout">true</element>
  <element id="CaptionBar.HeaderControl.Default" fg="190,190,190" />
  <element id="CaptionBar.HeaderControl.Disabled" fg="120,120,120"  />
  <element id="Panel.StatusBarInPanel.Default" bg="245,245,245" fg="95,95,95" bdr="230,230,230" />
  <element id="AllowStatusBarInPanel">true</element>
Last Edit: July 05, 2014, 05:16:43 PM by Steven

SimonBRT

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Hate to bring this one back up, but still has not solved the problem I am afraid.  Works fine with skinned borders, the white line only shows with unskinned borders.
Fixed - Thank you!

psychoadept

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What i meant was that there should be no difference in order of elements in the tab bar between 'Horizontal' and 'Horizontal in Caption Bar' layouts.  I actually think the changes we discussed in this thread shouldn't be optional if they really are an improvement (and i think they are just don't agree with some details)

Ah, I see.  You're right on that.  They should be consistent within the layout.


- however there is a new skin setting "AllowStatusBarInPanel" that allows you can override the status bar to only show in the main panel when the player is docked down the bottom (when docked elsewhere the status bar spans the entire window). Its not enabled by default as many of the older skins dont look good with the status bar only in the main panel. A new element override controls the colours of the status bar when displayed in the main panel only "Panel.StatusBarInPanel.Default"

Yay for this option, and could it please be applied even without the player bar at the bottom?  I promise I'll check all the potential layouts with Mellon Remixed.  :)

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Steven

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I noticed a little bug with modern layout activated (horizontal in caption bar). It's not possible to adjust the now playing list via mouse in the left sidebar, right sidebar works fine.
do you mean that the Now Playing panel header doesnt display? I see it happens if the tabs are docked in the caption bar which is fixed for the next update

Steven

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http://www.mediafire.com/download/w37hzh4o95mlptj/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

- when tabs are docked in the caption bar, the toolbar buttons (if any) now show as a single button which you click to open a popup toolbar. It also has the advantage that the popup panel background is the same colour as the standard header bar so icon colouring will still work well
- new elements for tabs bar separators for the inactive tabs (like in mikebo's screenshots on page 6)
Code
 <element id="TabsBar.Tab.Separator" bg="180,180,180" /> 
 <element id="TabsBar.TabInCaptionBar.Separator" bg="180,180,180" />
- fixes a couple of bugs

i will wait for more feedback before deciding what to add/ change (if anything) but i am pretty happy with it and dont want to make any substantial changes. I would also like some comments from people using dark skins and see if you agree with me it looks better without the "UseModernLayout" setting when tabs are in the main panel

Lastly, regarding the remove of the web browser interface - if it seems enough people will miss that functionality i will add it back in as a plugin

boroda

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Steven, will 'Upcoming concerts', etc. work without web browser interface? If "no" I will vote for remaining web interface.

hiccup

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one initial comment i have is i am determined to remove the panel toggle buttons

-1

Or will this removal be optional?
(either through configuration setting or skin file)

hiccup

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Both esthetically and functional it looks strange to me that the first tab is positioned above the left panel, and doesn't align vertically above the main panel.

Steven

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Steven, will 'Upcoming concerts', etc. work without web browser interface? If "no" I will vote for remaining web interface.
yes they continue to work as now

Pingaware

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The collected toolbar button icon stays in the caption bar after switching from horizontal tabs in caption bar to anything else.

Just had my first quick play-around with this - overall, I like it. I think the new positioning of the horizontal tabs in both places looks really good - may even consider putting them in the caption bar now, as I think that looks really great. I also really like the collected toolbar button.

Vertical tabs isn't particularly great, but I never considered it to be anyway and I understand that's not what this is focussing on at first (if ever).

I would also like some comments from people using dark skins and see if you agree with me it looks better without the "UseModernLayout" setting when tabs are in the main panel.

Not quite sure what you mean by this, but I'd very much like to see the new layout in dark skins as well. I really like the tabs all the way across the screen. I feel it would work fine. Has anyone got a modified dark skin kicking around for me to try it out with?
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