Forum .LRN Q&A: new themes (was: navigation changes)

Hi everyone !

As the previous thread became a bit overloaded, I start a new one.

First I sum up where I am, a bit of the discussion with Malte, and I would like your comments on some points.

You can checkout the last version from the cvs (the version is reviewed by Andrew and Malte).

So 2 goals to be achieved with these changes :
-> the look and feel : should be more beautiful than ever (and no doubt it is already, except with IE), and should be super easy to change, for graphists to be able to adapt it for their own need, for the needs of their institution, etc)
-> the navigation process : is now very confusing. Users get lost between their own space and the communities's, they don't understand the difference between the control-panel and the control-panel.

What I've done for now :
-> use my own DefaultMaster : this is to remove all the old and unused css from the html header, and to adapt the html tags to the new css.
-> localized using catalog files not to rely on the next version of openacs. This is to be changed, as the next version of dotlrn will use OACS 5.2.
-> Added static tabs : this is part of the navigation process. These tabs should offer a kind of "reference" for users to navigate through the site. Done with parameter from the info file, so it will offer a way to create new tabs in the future, via an administration console (probably part of the control panel)

Now, apart from what we discussed and agreed with Malte, I would like opinion and ideas from everyone regarding some points :
-> The "you_are_here" : Malte thinks it is not obvious, I thought we could add a text above the tabs. Now it is, I would like what other thinks of that ? Is it still confusing where you are ? Is better in one way or the other ?
-> Breadcrumps : 1 line, 2 lines, 3 lines ? How would you organize it ? I'm removing the links "your account" and "logout" as they are already part (or will be) of the tabs navigation process. Anyway, this can be easily changed with modifying the css (so it is not a priority, even if we should agree on the final solution before next stable release)

Waiting for your comments, I'm going back to the code 😊

Jeremy

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Posted by Jeremy Monnet on
BTW, Malte (or someone else) Can you explain us how to move a current installed dotlrn to OACS 5.2, please ?

Jeremy

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Posted by Jeremy Monnet on
Wow ! Haven't you found more complicated guys ?
I found the install very hard, but the upgrade has nothing to envy to it !
As I stay with only 1 month more, I will not upgrade my current (working) install. So I'll continue with catalog files (Anyway, I have only 5 or 6 messages to translate ...)

How much important are windows (IE) bugs ? Should it become a priority, or are you all using others browsers, and I can do it later ?

Jeremy

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Posted by Iñigo Medina García on
I thank you very much for all your information and discussions. I am the person in charge at Innova (http://www.innova.uned.es) to develop themes for .LRN and I learn a lot from your work. 😊

I started with this job just three weeks ago and during this time I have worked not only on the standard themes but also on Selva, in which I am at this moment developing the CSS for SelvaFlex.

For me it is a good way of understanding a site to sketch its logical and navigation design. And I have made it for .LRN too, gathering its Information Architecture optimum possibilities. It is a little long documentation but I think it can help to develop a very clear and usable theme, in which the .LRN's complexity and dynamism has not to be lost for the final user by a too confused navigation.

You may download it at: http://luther.innova.uned.es/AI_Lrn.zip

(Sorry for the weight of the document¡. As soon as I can I am going to try to make it lighter.)

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Posted by Rafael Calvo on
Hi

Jeremy who was working on the theme-selva package has left so we need to find people to help continue the Work. Iñigo (at UNED), Malte, Andrew and Rocael have all expressed interest and done some contributions. Iñigo did the CSS for selva-flex, a design Dorian did that does not require images so it will be very easy to change color palettes. Malte did work in porting this to openacs 5.2.
Regretably we still haven't got around putting the pieces together.

I uploaded a revised version of the package at:
http://www.weg.ee.usyd.edu.au/people/rafa/openacs/theme-selva.0.7.tgz

Hopefully Malte or Joel will upload it into CVs this week and then we can work from there.

I made small changes from Jeremy's 0.6:

1) renamed subnavbar and navbar procedures that had the names wrong.
2) added the admin link that was missing in the communities folder
3) added some docs
3) did some testing, and the following issues

Since the package is still not in bugtracker I document some of the problems here. We then need to divide the work between the people above (or others who so wish):

Some of the bigger tasks would include:
1) styling the calendar and other applications (using CSS),
2) adding some new default text and portlets and
3) organising the preferences information into portlets (or maybe static code that looks like portlets).

Some of the smaller:
- Reduce the margin on the portlet tabs (so that their left side beccomes closer to the left side of the portlet box - see mock up). The margin are distractingly big at the moment. They should be at about 12px. Maybe if you just add this to the portlet-title class:
margin-left: 12px;

- Remove log out as a tab. It should be a link at the top right (next to "welcome, username"). The tab is bad usability-wise because log out is an action not a section, and many of us keep hitting it accidentally to check the section and logging themselves out without wanting to.

- Eventually, each tab section, when clicked has its own colour. Not sure how best to implement this.

- The top and bottom border overlap the shadow on the right side of the page. This could perhaps be remedied by adding right margins to the top and bottom borders so that they don't stick out as far.

Functional changes:

- The tab currently titled "home" should really be titled "MySpace" and the subnavigation link beneath that now says: "MySpace" should be "home". Communities and courses tabs will also have a "home" link in the subnavigation pertaining to them so we don't want to get confusin by having more than one home on the page. There are course homes and community homes and therefore, the user's MySpace section also has a home.

- The subnavigation "My Space, My Calendar, MyFiles" should not remain under each tab. Each tab has it's own corresponding subnavigation. The subnavigation that is now visible everywhere, should only pertain to the MySpace tab, and should only appear when you are in the MySpace tab. The others will have their own.

Default text

- When you are not enrolled in a class the corresponding portlet should have some default text: "You are currently not enrolled in any courses. Click the link above to join a course." Then the link should say "Join/Drop a course" rather than "Join/Drop a class or community group"

- When you are not enrolled in a community the corresponding portlet should have some default text: "You are currently not enrolled in any communities. Click the link above to join a community." Then the link should say "Join/Drop a community" rather than "Join/Drop a class or community group"

CSS additions

For heading styles and text styles, I will edit the CSS directly and upload the new version.

cheers

rafael

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Posted by Dorian Peters on
Mock-ups for the Selva theme can now be found here:

http://coco.edfac.usyd.edu.au/Members/dpeters

Or just click here:

My Space
Courses
Class
Communities
Preferences
Tools