New Admin Style for phpBB 3.3?

[Marc]

I've actually been working on reworking the overall ACP UI and UX in the past months (goal is for 3.3 obviously). The general setup is not final and I'll talk about it soon in a separate topic.

What I'm currently using for the ACP is a Bootstrap base. There are two SCSS files that are compiled using Gulp, combined with the bootstrap scss file, and minified into one stylesheet CSS. You can find a current working copy of that in my repository:
https://github.com/marc1706/phpbb/tree/ ... p_redesign

Most of the ACP style files are actually here: https://github.com/marc1706/phpbb/tree/ ... yle/assets

GIF giving an overview of the general views and the top menu:
http://imgur.com/5pgtVQo

Current repsonsive view with sidebar:


I do also agree that we should try to move forward from prosilver, something we probably should've already targeted for 3.1. There are a lot of new tools and design approaches out there nowadays. We should take these opportunities and improve the usabilitiy and overall look of phpBB on the frontend. hanakin has already put some thought into this and I think with the community we'll be able to create something that will put phpBB into the current times.

[hanakin]

I have split this from https://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopi ... 31&t=49241 to make it easier to find and there was really no useful discussion in that topic.

[david63]

Why does there have to be an Admin style that is different from the "front facing" style?

In my opinion the two should use the same framework/colour scheme - change colours on one and they follow through the to the other giving a unified feel/look.

[hanakin]

There is noting saying that we can't use the same framework, but the theme itself is vastly different and requires components that the front-end does not. This would over complicate the css.

We can still use the same core from the new framework, but the components would have to be its own as well as the theme.

There has been no really discussion about how we want the admin theme to function. More focus has been put on the front-end as thats what users see first

[DavidIQ]

Why does there have to be an Admin style that is different from the "front facing" style?

In my opinion the two should use the same framework/colour scheme - change colours on one and they follow through the to the other giving a unified feel/look.

I don't think it was ever intended for style authors to have to worry about styling the ACP, which can add a whole layer of complexity to an already complex style on the user side since there are tabs, sub-tabs, side menus, etc.

[david63]

I don't think it was ever intended for style authors to have to worry about styling the ACP, which can add a whole layer of complexity to an already complex style on the user side since there are tabs, sub-tabs, side menus, etc.

Just because it was not intended does not mean that it should not.

If I understand the concept of the "new" framework correctly then once the structure is set up changes can be made to any part of the style without it affecting all of the style - therefore a style author would be able to give the ACP the same colour theme as the front facing files without affecting anything else.

[DavidIQ]

In almost all web software I've ever used the administration area is not styled the same as the user-facing area. Those that do this sort of thing (only Coppermine comes to mind) end up failing quite a bit with usability. We will not be adding a requirement for styles authors to also style the ACP even if it's just colors. It's not really needed.

Having said that I would not be opposed to the idea of adding to the admin style a reference maybe to an admin.css file from the in-use style so that the style author could then optionally override admin colors if they wish. But then we'd be adding some sort of logic to include said file if it exists as I'm not too keen on the idea of even requiring such a file be included in all submitted styles.

[hanakin]

@DavidIQ I believe he is more refering to build process...

As with the front-end the Admin interface will be coded and managed the same way as the front-end meaning it will be leveraging the same build process (gulp, scss, etc...).

In that regards you will have the same ability to easily customize your admin template using the development version of the theme.

As previously mentioned what underlying framework is still up in the air weather we use the same framework as the front-end or a more main-stream framework such as Marc has done here in the above example with BS3(I would suggest we use BS4 if this route as it will be final most likely prior to 3.3 as its in stable alpha now) Its also fairly compatible with the core of the front-end framework I have been working on.

[DavidIQ]

Well that's not exactly what was said:

Why does there have to be an Admin style that is different from the "front facing" style?

The straight-forward answer to this is that nobody really cares to make an ACP style when they're making a user-facing style because they don't want to have to develop it or support it and I don't see that changing much, even if there is a framework put in place that is similar to the main style. Case in point: since phpBB 3.0 came out almost 10 years ago there has been 1 ACP style submitted.

[david63]

What I am saying is - "Why invent the wheel twice?"

If we are intent on changing the "framework" for styles then let's try and make life easier for extension developers. Currently there is one "framework" (using the term very loosely) for front facing templates and another for ACP templates

Case in point: since phpBB 3.0 came out almost 10 years ago there has been 1 ACP style submitted.

I agree, but there is no reason why that would need to change, but there are some who would at least like to have the option to give the ACP the same look as the rest of their board.