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Posted to cactus-dev@jakarta.apache.org by Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de> on 2003/04/26 19:52:04 UTC
New CSS-based site
Hi Vincent and all,
As I tried to write some documentation for the proposed Cactus tasks,
I've run into some severe limitations when section nesting is (possibly
over-) used. So I decided to try and fix the issue and soon realized
that a complete migration to a CSS based layout would probably be "The
Right Way"(tm).
I've put a snapshot up here:
<http://cvs.apache.org/~cmlenz/cactus-documentation/>
I've tried to stay as close to the original as possible, but also added
some goodies like the "Context Bar" directly beneath the logos at the
top, inspired by both Maven and Forrest. The 'breadcrumbs' trail at the
left uses some simple JavaScript copied and slightly adapted from
Forrest. It simply parses the current URL and generates links for each
path segment. For example, when viewing the Ant integration pages, you'd
get a context of
Apache > Jakarta > Cactus > Integration > Ant
if the docs were located at the real location. This has the consequence
that each sub-directory in the Ant documentation should have an
index/welcome file. Also the directories should have names suitable for
display to the user (the only one I don't like currently is 'writing').
Also try browsing using Mozilla or Opera, and tell me what you think
about the "stickiness" of the header and footer. I think it's nice
because you don't lose the context as easily, but I guess that's pretty
subjective.
Of course, the site doesn't look fancy for old generation browsers
anymore. I've tried to make it as readible as possible on Netscape 4.x,
and personally believe it looks better than the Maven or e.g. the Ant
site with that browser, but it doesn't look fancy.
I've tested using:
Mozilla/1.3
Internet Explorer/6.0
Opera/7.1.0
Netscape Navigator/4.8
Lynx/?
all on WinXP.
If anyone can verify with other browsers/platforms that'd be cool.
--
Christopher Lenz
/=/ cmlenz at gmx.de
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de>.
Stefan Bodewig wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de> wrote:
>> <http://cvs.apache.org/~cmlenz/cactus-documentation/js/breadcrumbs.js>
>>directly beneath the 'UTILITY FUNCTIONS' banner.
>
>
> This is too late as the JavaScript parser throws the exception when it
> tries to set up the PREPEND_CRUMBS Array. The snippet has to come in
> front of that.
Ah, you're right. Thanks a bunch!
-chris
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Stefan Bodewig <bo...@apache.org>.
On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Vincent Massol <vm...@pivolis.com> wrote:
> Yeah... sorry about that but the moderator is currently in India on
> a business trip and had some problems finding an internet
> connection!
Hope you can enjoy it anyway. As I'm sure it will happen again in the
future, may I ask you to simply -allow instead of -accept that mail
then, pretty please 8-).
Stefan
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RE: New CSS-based site
Posted by Vincent Massol <vm...@pivolis.com>.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stefan Bodewig [mailto:bodewig@apache.org]
> Sent: 30 April 2003 13:07
> To: cactus-dev@jakarta.apache.org
> Subject: Re: New CSS-based site
>
> On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de> wrote:
>
> > And it should be in the version I posted:
>
> My mail's been sitting in the moderator's queue as I used the wrong
> address when sending (hope it is right this time), so it could very
> well be, that it is fixed by now.
Yeah... sorry about that but the moderator is currently in India on a
business trip and had some problems finding an internet connection! LOL
:-)
-Vincent
>
> Hmm, no.
>
> > <http://cvs.apache.org/~cmlenz/cactus-
> documentation/js/breadcrumbs.js>
> > directly beneath the 'UTILITY FUNCTIONS' banner.
>
> This is too late as the JavaScript parser throws the exception when it
> tries to set up the PREPEND_CRUMBS Array. The snippet has to come in
> front of that.
>
> Stefan
>
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Stefan Bodewig <bo...@apache.org>.
On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de> wrote:
> And it should be in the version I posted:
My mail's been sitting in the moderator's queue as I used the wrong
address when sending (hope it is right this time), so it could very
well be, that it is fixed by now.
Hmm, no.
> <http://cvs.apache.org/~cmlenz/cactus-documentation/js/breadcrumbs.js>
> directly beneath the 'UTILITY FUNCTIONS' banner.
This is too late as the JavaScript parser throws the exception when it
tries to set up the PREPEND_CRUMBS Array. The snippet has to come in
front of that.
Stefan
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de>.
Stefan Bodewig wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Apr 2003, Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de> wrote:
>
>>The 'breadcrumbs' trail at the left uses some simple JavaScript
>>copied and slightly adapted from Forrest.
>
> You may be interested in a little fix Ant has done to that JavaScript
> file in order to avoid JavaScript errors in MS IE 5.2 for MacOS X.
> I've submitted a patch (well, sort of) to forrest-dev so it may get
> incorporated there in the future.
>
> This IE, that some people prefer to use for reasons unknown to me,
> doesn't support the push method on Arrays. The fix is to use
> JavaScript to add it (nice feature of that language, BTW). So you'd
> have to add the code below before you invoke push.
>
> var abc = new Array();
> if (!abc.push) {
> Array.prototype.push = function(what){this[this.length]=what}
> }
Yeah, I've seen that :-)
And it should be in the version I posted:
<http://cvs.apache.org/~cmlenz/cactus-documentation/js/breadcrumbs.js>
directly beneath the 'UTILITY FUNCTIONS' banner.
Don't know why it's not working...
>>If anyone can verify with other browsers/platforms that'd be cool.
>
>
> Checked with Mozilla 1.3 on Linux and MacOS X as well as Safari
> 1.0beta2 on MacOS X. Works and looks fine.
>
> MSIE 5.2 on MacOS X doesn't show the breadcrumbs for the reasons above
> but seems to work otherwise. It doesn't look too pretty, but this has
> to be expected. It's one of the "old" browsers, it says 5.2 but
> really is a IE 4 under the covers.
Thanks a lot, Stefan!
-chris
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Stefan Bodewig <bo...@apache.org>.
On Sat, 26 Apr 2003, Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de> wrote:
> The 'breadcrumbs' trail at the left uses some simple JavaScript
> copied and slightly adapted from Forrest.
You may be interested in a little fix Ant has done to that JavaScript
file in order to avoid JavaScript errors in MS IE 5.2 for MacOS X.
I've submitted a patch (well, sort of) to forrest-dev so it may get
incorporated there in the future.
This IE, that some people prefer to use for reasons unknown to me,
doesn't support the push method on Arrays. The fix is to use
JavaScript to add it (nice feature of that language, BTW). So you'd
have to add the code below before you invoke push.
var abc = new Array();
if (!abc.push) {
Array.prototype.push = function(what){this[this.length]=what}
}
> If anyone can verify with other browsers/platforms that'd be cool.
Checked with Mozilla 1.3 on Linux and MacOS X as well as Safari
1.0beta2 on MacOS X. Works and looks fine.
MSIE 5.2 on MacOS X doesn't show the breadcrumbs for the reasons above
but seems to work otherwise. It doesn't look too pretty, but this has
to be expected. It's one of the "old" browsers, it says 5.2 but
really is a IE 4 under the covers.
Stefan
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de>.
Hi Vincent,
can you recheck now please? I've uploaded a new version that tries to
address your points. I'm not sure about the font size (also because I
didn't find it too small before ;-) ), but I tried to match the font
used by jakarta.apache.org for the main content. The layout in general
is now closer to the Jakarta layout, as I've also added the
"indentation" of the section text to match that of jakarta.apache.org,
and made the content text use a serif font.
Note that I've not hard-coded any font-sizes (except for the <source>
blocks), so the default size of your "user agent" is applied.
Also, please check out the layout in print mode, as it differs a lot
from the screen layout for better printability. Mozilla/Opera do a
better job at this than IE (as to be expected when using advanced CSS
features), but the output is pretty decent even with IE IMHO. The only
major problem with the printed version is when content like images or
<pre> blocks exceed the page width. In that case the entire page becomes
unreadable, so we should always check our documents in print mode too.
-chris
Christopher Lenz wrote:
> Vincent Massol wrote:
>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> It looks quite nice. I especially like the context bar. I would agree to
>> move to your implementation provided we stick closer to the current
>> style. Namely:
>>
>> * Font: I don't like the font/size used. I much prefer the
>> jakarta.apache.org one or the jakarta.apache.org/cactus one. The size
>> you've used is much too small to my taste.
>
>
> Okay. Font sizes vary so much between browsers. I'll try to find a
> compromise that looks better.
>
>> * Left menu: I think the left margin is too big. I prefer the current
>> one.
>
>
> Easy :-)
>
>> * The <section> rendering for the first item is too tall. For example on
>> the main page, the "Project Description" box is too tall. The size is
>> different for the other sections and that looks strange too.
>
>
> An IE specialty, it seems. Didn't notice that before, I'll fix it.
>
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Re: New CSS-based site
Posted by Christopher Lenz <cm...@gmx.de>.
Vincent Massol wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> It looks quite nice. I especially like the context bar. I would agree to
> move to your implementation provided we stick closer to the current
> style. Namely:
>
> * Font: I don't like the font/size used. I much prefer the
> jakarta.apache.org one or the jakarta.apache.org/cactus one. The size
> you've used is much too small to my taste.
Okay. Font sizes vary so much between browsers. I'll try to find a
compromise that looks better.
> * Left menu: I think the left margin is too big. I prefer the current
> one.
Easy :-)
> * The <section> rendering for the first item is too tall. For example on
> the main page, the "Project Description" box is too tall. The size is
> different for the other sections and that looks strange too.
An IE specialty, it seems. Didn't notice that before, I'll fix it.
--
Christopher Lenz
/=/ cmlenz at gmx.de
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RE: New CSS-based site
Posted by Vincent Massol <vm...@pivolis.com>.
Hi Chris,
It looks quite nice. I especially like the context bar. I would agree to
move to your implementation provided we stick closer to the current
style. Namely:
* Font: I don't like the font/size used. I much prefer the
jakarta.apache.org one or the jakarta.apache.org/cactus one. The size
you've used is much too small to my taste.
* Left menu: I think the left margin is too big. I prefer the current
one.
* The <section> rendering for the first item is too tall. For example on
the main page, the "Project Description" box is too tall. The size is
different for the other sections and that looks strange too.
Thanks
-Vincent
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Lenz [mailto:cmlenz@gmx.de]
> Sent: 26 April 2003 19:52
> To: Cactus Developers List
> Subject: New CSS-based site
>
> Hi Vincent and all,
>
> As I tried to write some documentation for the proposed Cactus tasks,
> I've run into some severe limitations when section nesting is
(possibly
> over-) used. So I decided to try and fix the issue and soon realized
> that a complete migration to a CSS based layout would probably be "The
> Right Way"(tm).
>
> I've put a snapshot up here:
>
> <http://cvs.apache.org/~cmlenz/cactus-documentation/>
>
> I've tried to stay as close to the original as possible, but also
added
> some goodies like the "Context Bar" directly beneath the logos at the
> top, inspired by both Maven and Forrest. The 'breadcrumbs' trail at
the
> left uses some simple JavaScript copied and slightly adapted from
> Forrest. It simply parses the current URL and generates links for each
> path segment. For example, when viewing the Ant integration pages,
you'd
> get a context of
>
> Apache > Jakarta > Cactus > Integration > Ant
>
> if the docs were located at the real location. This has the
consequence
> that each sub-directory in the Ant documentation should have an
> index/welcome file. Also the directories should have names suitable
for
> display to the user (the only one I don't like currently is
'writing').
>
> Also try browsing using Mozilla or Opera, and tell me what you think
> about the "stickiness" of the header and footer. I think it's nice
> because you don't lose the context as easily, but I guess that's
pretty
> subjective.
>
> Of course, the site doesn't look fancy for old generation browsers
> anymore. I've tried to make it as readible as possible on Netscape
4.x,
> and personally believe it looks better than the Maven or e.g. the Ant
> site with that browser, but it doesn't look fancy.
>
> I've tested using:
> Mozilla/1.3
> Internet Explorer/6.0
> Opera/7.1.0
> Netscape Navigator/4.8
> Lynx/?
> all on WinXP.
>
> If anyone can verify with other browsers/platforms that'd be cool.
>
> --
> Christopher Lenz
> /=/ cmlenz at gmx.de
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: cactus-dev-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: cactus-dev-help@jakarta.apache.org
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