Re: [mantisbt-dev] Proposal for new design

[Michiel D. <mi...@ti...>]

With my own OS project, phpList, I've just spend easily a few months
with a coder and a CSS-er to revamp the dramatically outdated interface.
I can tell you, it's not for the faint hearted, but once you get the
basics down, it's really worth it. phpList has about the same age as mantis.

I have no in-depth understanding of the mantis code and how it separates
the business layer from the display layer, so maybe many of these things
are already in place, but I would advice to approach it using widgets.
Do not go through designs page by page. Instead you build a library of
interface elements that each work out their own way to display things.
Then in the page code, you instantiate a widget and add content to it
and call a final method to display it's output.

Also, with current web technology, tables are out. Everything sits in a
div or span with a class. Name the classes by "function" and not by
display aspects, eg class="action" and not class="leftmenu" (who knows,
the menu might go to the right) Also, stylers love "UL"s for listings.

Basically, the coder determines the elements that go in a page and the
styler determines how they look and where they should go.

I have for example a "listingObject" that in the code I add elements to
with columns. At the end, I say "give me your output". It used to output
the entire listing in a table, and now it simply returns divs with
classes so that the styler can get his hands on it.

Michiel

On 28/09/10 07:58, Robert Munteanu wrote:
> To follow up on my comments, I think that we - as a development team -
> should come up with a clear roadmap related to the redesign of
> MantisBT.
>
> While stating that it will be difficult to achieve is nothing but
> correct, it's not bringing us closer to a resolution of what I
> perceive to be the greatest weakness that we have.
>
> I must admit that I have not worked with the rendering APIs at all,
> but I think that such a task would at least involve:
>
> 1. Redesign of the view issue page ( kudos to Oskar for picking up this one ).
> 2. Redesign of the view issues page
> 3. Redesign of the report issue page
>
> 4. Decision on how to implement changes . Should we refactor the core
> APIs to support templating for these changes? Yes, it makes sense, but
> on the other hand it might not be required. A template promotes good
> coding practices, but we should weigh the benefits of making this
> change and then implementing the design as opposed to the
> disadvantages of yet again postponing a much-deserved redesign.
> 5. Implement changes in the core APIs, if needed.
>
> 6. Implement changes on the view issue page.
> 7. Community feedback
> 8. Fix, and finish implementation.
>
> All that we - again , as a development team - must do is 4 - decision
> on how to implement the changes , and perhaps assist in 5 - implement
> changes in the core APIs.
>
> So my suggestion is
>
> 1. Evaluate what the best way of implementing these changes is.
> 2. Create any needed support in the core APIs .
> 3. Steadily apply changes to the design, as it unfolds.
>
> I don't necessarily see adopting a templating engine as a
> prerequisite, simply because it seems a huge task in itself.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Robert
>
> On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:23 PM, Robert Munteanu
> <rob...@gm...> wrote:
>   
>> On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 8:55 PM, John Reese <jr...@le...> wrote:
>>     
>>> Paying MantisBT developers for their work is just messy IMO, esp with
>>> international regulations and taxes involved, and only serves to
>>> complicate the situation.  I would actually greatly prefer that you
>>> contribute your employee's time to learning the MantisBT codebase,
>>> joining us in discussion of the features, and then developing the
>>> features in the open and working towards getting them accepted into our
>>> repository.  Time is always the biggest constraint on our existing
>>> development efforts, and contributing developer time and effort is IMO
>>> the best way to get things done.
>>>       
>> A huge +1 on that. One or more developers willing to work together
>> with us to refresh MantisBT's look is the best we can hope for.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sent from my (old) computer
>>
>>     
>
>
>