Author Topic: modern skin  (Read 35380 times)

cooljazz

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I just made up a basic idea of a new modern skin. However, to make it happen, I would need some help and on top of that I'm not sure if something like this is even possible because a lot of things like the menus would go to different areas on the screen

Here is just a basic idea of what i mean and far from complete:
http://musicbee.amasongs.de
Last Edit: May 20, 2011, 06:19:12 PM by cooljazz


cooljazz

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Well, is it possible to rearrange things and modify dynamic behaviour of MusicBee with skinning? I do understand that you can change a lot concerning colors and images. But as far as I see all skins so far have the same layout, the same buttons for stop/play and the same font?
Last Edit: May 17, 2011, 04:39:07 PM by cooljazz

Rotem K.

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Right. for now you can't make it look like the mockup you posted.

You could PM Steven if you need new stuff added.

cooljazz

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The most easiest way to program skins the way you want would be with the support of CSS and JavaScript as they introduced it to GNOME 3.
The only thing I'm afraid of is that this could have a negative impact on performance.
Last Edit: May 17, 2011, 05:24:48 PM by cooljazz

Steven

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i've been thinking of adding support for rounded buttons so it is something i am willing to do.
i wont be adding css or javascript support - for layout and positioning i have built musicbee so that is customisable to a degree by the user and independent of skins

cooljazz

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I mean CSS would make it easy for webdevelopers to contribute to MusicBee?
I think songbird has support for CSS and despite the fact that it can't do half of the things MusicBee can do and that it is rather slow, it has some brilliant feathers.

Here is one of my favourites.
http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1624
Last Edit: May 17, 2011, 05:49:33 PM by cooljazz

Steven

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so if i added support for the rounded buttons, and allowed a bitmap for the volume bar so you can get the shape you want would that suffice?
there is already a request to dock the player panel to the top, so when i do that i would probably dock the menu as you want
but for what i have in mind the volume bar would stay where it is now the the right player controls would stay the same shape (but its that way with the songbird example anyway)

cooljazz

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Yeah, of cause that would be great: Here is just a little more detailed version of what I'm planning to do for MusicBee:
http://musicbee.amasongs.de

Thank you Steven.
Last Edit: May 20, 2011, 06:19:59 PM by cooljazz

cartman005

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If you don't mind me interjecting, I would prefer the menu to be on top or hidden if possible. Just my opinion.

Blinghound

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I agree with Cartman, the UI would look sleeker (just my opinion) if the menus were on top, or optional a la firefox 4 (pressing ALT reveals them at the top).  The only problem with this though is that the menus in MusicBee are in use quite a lot, but that could be because I am still sorting and refining my music collection.

cooljazz

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I just did it in my example: http://donkey-arts.de/test3/idea.png
And what can I say: I think both of you are right about this.

cooljazz

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I made a few updates to my mockup.

I have thought about how to make the grid view eye-appealing. I think that a really slight shadow would do a good job.
In my example i used two grey lines 1px each.
background color: #EEEEEB
inner grey line:        #C4C4C2
outer grey line:       # E1E1DE

In the navigation box I used a double inner shadow on the buttons and the windows for the now playing information.

Last but not least: MusicBee right now puts the name of the artist on top of the name of the album. But in many cases there are more Albums of one Artist than there are different artists having albums with the same name. So I would suggest making it iTunes alike: Put the Album on top in bold letters.

See for yourself: http://musicbee.amasongs.de
Last Edit: May 20, 2011, 06:20:21 PM by cooljazz

Steven

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i did a quick change to see what the player panel docked to the top would look like and it looks very cluttered as-is, so like in your mock-up it would need to "lose" quite a few of the controls to work
In your mockup, there is no back/forward navigation, new tab or refresh button, and no button to switch views.
all of this is probably acceptable to someone who wants a simple player and only uses the main library panel and plays music from there ie. no right sidebar
i do think it would need to have the bottom right player controls though eg. shuffle, equaliser, repeat etc displayed in the player controls panel at the top
i imagine many people would want to have ratings/last.fm love button displayed in the player controls panel
Last Edit: May 19, 2011, 08:12:14 PM by Steven

Sarge

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Last but not least: MusicBee right now puts the name of the artist on top of the name of the album. But in many cases there are more Albums of one Artist than there are different artists having albums with the same name. So I would suggest making it iTunes alike: Put the Album on top in bold letters.

You can Configure how the lines read..in configure layout of the Artwork