New UI Concept: Please comment!
Christoph Dorn
I have been receiving about screen realestate issues with the separate
Companion Window I am thinking about a new UI Concept I wish to
implement for DeveloperCompanion. It is actually closer to the original
design I had in mind for FirePHP in 2007 but back then lacked the
codebase to implement what I wanted to do. I can make it work this time
around!
The new design (very crude mock-ups!):
1) Page Context: http://twitpic.com/7yzxcn - Work with an application on
a page level
2) Request Context: http://twitpic.com/7z0035 - Work with an application
on a request level
There will also be an Application and System Context and a few more.
You switch between the contexts by clicking on "Inspect" and choosing
from a selector in the companion bar above Firebug. Contexts may also be
switched based on various context menus and actions.
The left part resides in the sidebar (or I can add it beside the sidebar
view of the browser) and devcomp will overlay Firebug and the
Application Page with various tools and views based on what you are doing.
Would such a UI arrangement improve on the current separate window
setup? I would initially get rid of the separate window and later bring
back the ability to launch various tools and views in separate windows.
I expect these changes to come online early 2012 at which point I will
be working on opening up the tool plugin system so you can write your
own JavaScript/CSS/HTML tools and widgets.
Any objections to getting rid of the Companion Window and attaching the
UI to the browser window?
Christoph