Start Page Redesign

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triplus
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by triplus »

kkremitzki wrote:What do you think about my idea of breaking out the "FreeCAD Start Center" (what I'd like the Start WB to become) into something besides a workbench? I suppose if I get the WB functioning the way I want, I could make it so that having the config option "Load Start Center on start" behaves similarly to having the Start WB be default and then switching to another WB (the "true" starting WB in the options.) Then View > Start Center could behave similarly.
Once finished you could (optionally) move the content of the Start Page to a separate window/widget. And use the same functionality from it or from both.

P.S. Note that some changes have been made when it comes to web engine in Qt(5). Maybe some porting will be needed in the future.
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yorik
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by yorik »

Maybe another thing that could be nice is to allow the user to more instinctively discover the wiki (and forum) contents... Not sure how that can be best done, but something that would pass the idea to newcomers, that freecad and 3d cad is hard to learn, but we got you backed!
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kkremitzki
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by kkremitzki »

Making progress, although it doesn't look great right now when the window is somewhat small as the conversion to single-column doesn't occur smoothly.
Screenshot from 2017-03-03 04-22-09.png
Screenshot from 2017-03-03 04-22-09.png (296.37 KiB) Viewed 2309 times
Since the "latest commits" at half-width sometimes cause linewraps, the height of the window is variable. I used JS to align the "example projects" height to match, and then took the total heights of the 3 panes plus margins to adjust the right-side description bar, as well.

I think this might almost be ready for a phase 1 pull request, so any feedback would be welcome.
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yorik
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by yorik »

Huge improvement already, congrats!!
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kkremitzki
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by kkremitzki »

yorik wrote:Huge improvement already, congrats!!
Thanks, it's actually kind of an interesting challenge... make a simple start center with just HTML, CSS, and standard JS, no frameworks, no jQuery, just the DOM API. Since the deploy target is Qt Web Kit (and Qt Web Engine when we move to Qt 5) it's actually a cleaner experience than the Wild West of real web development.

For example, at my old job in healthcare web apps we looked at the analytics once and someone was connecting to our web app with a Nintendo DS. Luckily I don't have to write code that has to degrade gracefully in cases like that :lol:

One major concern I have is with the impact my refactor has on the translation strings for the start page. I'm not sure how to test if they still work, but someone who is used to seeing non-English there, I'd appreciate some help if you can confirm it still looks ok!
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triplus
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by triplus »

Looking good.

Some observations:

The file (information) preview panel is still empty by default? That is something that could change in the future. As if that is correct from user point of view there is this huge element sitting there and it is empty. It gives the impression something is missing or not working. And i was hoping you would style background and panels a bit. Not necessary going after the best possible job you can think of. But at least to start a discussion.
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Mika38
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by Mika38 »

kkremitzki it look very nice. It's neutral. There is may be too much information, but at least the new user will easily access high quality project. Have you think of the people with low resolution screen? Does the 3 columns will fit?

I think it would be nice to have a button on the top right to copy the version (os, hash, branch, ...) in clipboard. The same as the one in the menu: Help/about_FreeCAD. This it will be easier to ask for help on the forum. What do you think?
;) Le chemin est long, mais la voie est libre :D The journey is long but the way is free 8-)
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agryson
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by agryson »

Loving this. Currently working on the FEM icons, so can't help out much, but loving the iterative approach you're taking.
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Mika38
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by Mika38 »

kkremitzki wrote:I used JS to align the "example projects" height to match, and then took the total heights of the 3 panes plus margins to adjust the right-side description bar, as well.
.
Can we modify the parameters of the file from the right-side description bar? When I see it, I want to click on it and change the licence or the name of the file. Idem with the image, I would like click on it and it open the file.
;) Le chemin est long, mais la voie est libre :D The journey is long but the way is free 8-)
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kkremitzki
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Re: Start Page Redesign

Post by kkremitzki »

Mika38 wrote:
kkremitzki wrote:I used JS to align the "example projects" height to match, and then took the total heights of the 3 panes plus margins to adjust the right-side description bar, as well.
.
Can we modify the parameters of the file from the right-side description bar? When I see it, I want to click on it and change the licence or the name of the file. Idem with the image, I would like click on it and it open the file.
It seems like it would be tough with the way things are set up right now. There isn't a straightforward way that I can see to pass arguments from the page into FreeCAD. For example the links to open recent files are really links to 4 separate files, one for each recent file, rather than, say, a Python file or function executed with the recent file number as an argument. That means you would need a separate file for each property for each recent file.

With the Qt5 stuff happening, and specifically in Qt5.6, the core functionality behind the Start WB is deprecated (but not removed.) I think a major rewrite of the Start WB should wait until things have calmed down post Qt5, and a lot of nicer features like this will have to wait for then.
Like my FreeCAD work? I'd appreciate any level of support via Patreon, Liberapay, or PayPal! Read more about what I do at my blog.
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