GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 464619
Templates: Home: Add the "What is GNOME" block.
Last modified: 2010-02-12 20:53:02 UTC
In the beta design, if I arrive on the Homepage linked by someboby else, and that I do not know what Gnome is, there is no obvious and catchy description of gnome. I need to scan the page to find the small-sized description on the right...too small, too righty... I think it might be a good idea to make it more central, concise, and bigger. The center and catchy part is currently taken by special event (ie. Bugsquad). IMHO it has far less importance than a good description of the Gnome Projet and organisation. Keep in mind that the intended audiance is the current gnome users but eventuals as well. And those might have never heard of gnome nor have clear view of it. Other information:
The big banner needs to be always generic an understandable for outsiders. The current example is not a good one and in the release we will have very likely one generic of GNOME like the one you can currently see at http://gnome.org The bug day could be a good candidate to the (currently missing) small banner in the right column. About the description, agreed it should be more visible. I think the place is the right one considering that the bug banner will very likely point also to a generic GNOME thing. But it could have some graphical treatment, like being inside a shadowed block or something. Andreas, what do you think?
The banner is always good for highlighting a current event where we are currently pushing our forces. For example when there is a important conference coming up (in the hope of getting users there as well), when there is a new release or soon, the upcoming 10th anniversary of the project. This is a important part of keeping the page alive and up to date (so people want to visit again). Therefore I think it would be a bad idea to have the banner switch places with the description of the project. I could try to make the banners more descriptive, but it's hard to balance it against good and clean design. I'll keep it in mind though. The current bug day one is mostly there as a example of the size and I have no idea if there is a bug day coming up soon or not. Some color should help to highlight the description of what kind of project we are.
A bug day is mostly an internal activity and these splash banners should refer to activities, products, etc with a clear interest for outsiders as well. What about a splash about GNOME 10 years. You'll have to do it anyway for the current wgo. :) About the color background (and to avoid confusion) I was talking only about the "Love the Freedom" block (thumbnail + blurb) appearing now in the right column. Not a color code for the splash or something.
I tend to agree with the original comment. I'd like to see at least "GNOME produces free software that makes computers friendly, useful and fun." in the middle of the page, probably above the splash image.
Look the "WHAT IS GNOME?" block in the right column at http://people.redhat.com/duffy/gnome-brand/wgo/wgo_mock-9nov.png This is how the current "Love the Freedom" should look like. I think it covers your concerns. The problem is to find someone to apply the CSS magic to the current home.
Yeah, that would be great, though I guess it's more than just a stylesheet change. Retitling this bug appropriately.
Well, the block is already there. I just didn't want to put a title as obvious as "What is GNOME?" since it is like an evidence that it is totally unclear to our visitors. I went for "Love the Freedom" but feel free improving this. Screenshot and description are already in place, feel free to improve them as well. No link to "Screenshots", but it could be easily added, pointing to a specific link under art.gnome.org. The only piece left is the grey background with rounded corners and the bigger fonts. All this belongs to CSS only.
The right column in the current layout contains so called Portlets. Every box/block is one Portlet, at the moment the "Boston Summit" banner and the "Get Involved" text. Portlets can be added, edited and removed by site-managers everywhere in the site, So they give enough flexibility. http://plone.org/documentation/manual/plone-3-user-manual/portlet-management There are many different portlet-types. In the to cases above, the so called "Static Text Portlet" is used. You get a form with a Title, a [wysiwyg-]editor and some other stuff. This is suitable to edit the text of a "What is Gnome"-Portlet, change the image, etc. But the out-of-the-box funktionality of the portlet does not provide a flexible, easy to use system to choose a style for the box itself. (The two individual css-classes every portlet gets are derived from the normalized title (e.g. portlet-static-what-is-gnome - if you change the title, the css-class changes) and from an calculated hash.) To get a styled portlet like the "What is Gnome" box in the mockup, we need an extended static text portlet with a custom template and css. Maybe subclass plone.portlets.static and call it wgo.portlet.gnomebanner. http://plone.org/documentation/how-to/subclassing-new-portlets Question: Is it enough to have 1 style for such a box, or is there a need to choose between different styles/colors?
What specific additional flexibility is needed? If the two individual CSS classes a portlet gets are not enough, why and what would be enough?
To have two styles for static text portlets (name them "featured" and "plain") we need an reliable identifiers and enough markup. I think a clean solution would be at least one additional specific css class for the portlet, e.g. "featured", that can be turned on some way. The unique, predictable identifiers we have are calculated from the title ("portlet-static-whats-gnome") and from a hash. I see three options to reach the goal with the standard static text portlet that all have their downsides: 1) With a visible portlet title If we use the "portlet-static-whats-gnome" css class, the title of the portlet must not change. If the title is visible it's too inflexible. The scope of the portlet would be too narrow and we can not use another flashy portlet on a subpage, both without an administrator/developer that changes the stylesheets. 2) Use "Omit portlet border" in the portlet settings The title from the portlet settings would be hidden and we could set a visible title in the wysiwyg editor. But we wouldn't have enough markup to add rounded corners to both portlet types cause "Omit portlet border" strips most of the markup from the portlet. 3) Use css to remove the title of the "featured" portlet. I don't know if it's possible to set display:none; with the default markup as portletHeader also contains the span's we need for the rounded corners. It's less accessible markup as it leaves useless text in the page, but maybe acceptable with a generic invisible title like "Feature". A third question is if it's acceptable for usability. The editor has to know/remember that he has to set an excact title to get a different style, and that this title will be invisible even if he does not tick the "Omit portlet border" box. Subclassing static text portlet would be one way, but I did not look for third party products or other ways to implement it.
Let me see if I understand. You have a CSS block that accomplished the portlet style you want: {...} And you want or may want to apply this style block to more than one portlet. Using the OOTB static text portlet, you could do this like so: #portlet-static-whats-gnome, #portlet-static-some-other {...} But you want to add some additional code so that you can check a "featured" checkbox for these portlets on one of the portlet management pages and then do: .portlet-featured {...} Is this correct?
Sure you can add #portlet-static-whats-gnome, #portlet-static-some-other {...}, but you have to change the stylesheets if someone edits the portlet and changes the title to "Advantages of GNOME". That's unhandy. A fixed css class for the flashier type of portlets would avoid this problem. The requirement is a portlet that can be added anywhere, displays custom, editable html, but is differently styled (without the need to customize the stylesheets at the same time)
There is an existing way to meet the requirement without writing new code to maintain, namely use the portlet ids that are generated from the title. The proper solution for the requested behavior would be to add support for some sort of portlet "styles" on the portlet management form where the selection of styles is independent from the type of portlet. The portlets system is already plenty complicated and I don't think actually adding this feature would be a net gain. Furthermore, this implementation is beyond the scope of this project or at least the time I have available to volunteer to it. I recommend you use the portlet IDs so as not to incur the maintenance costs of a code solution. If real world experience with the site confirms that the problem is as significant as anticipated then a code solution can be implemented later or some better solution adopted. I suspect, however, that it won't be as significant a problem as anticipated.
Good point. Let's do it as you proposed.
Obsolete bug. We'll be working on new website now.