GWT 1.5 look and feel

[mwaschkowski]

I have seen that some of the look and feel item have already been
completed in the 1.5 Milestone1 release like:

Add styles for rounded corners in TabBar
http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/issues/detail?id=1929&q=milestone:1_5_RC%20status:FixedNotReleased

This also relates to a previous discussion here that had comments
made, but doesn't appear to ever have been finished:
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit-Contributors/browse_thread/thread/d6cbd616a4042c72/b4faa86ffc564822?lnk=gst&q=rounded+corners#b4faa86ffc564822

I'm really hoping for a significant jump in the quality of the user
interface widgets L&F for 1.5, so was hoping to try out some of the
new look widgets from the milestone, but can't see in the patch or in
the milestone itself the css that would be needed to see the
improvements.

Furthermore, I've tried the decorator panel (with its associated css)
just for kicks, but the effect is underwhelming, and I'm sure there is
more work to be done on it before release...

So, would someone be able to post the css for the updated L&F for the
tabbar? As well, I would really appreciate any insight into how far
the interface improvements are going to go in the next version. I
haven't seen too much said yet, just wondering if its going to knock
our socks off or just be a minor tweak? Any screenshots that can be
released?

As an alternative, MyGwt is coming along nicely and I'm now at a point
of being done with the tech that I've been developing and need to
shortly make a decision on the UI/widgets to use going forward. Any
help in this decision is much appreciated!

Mark

PS. I heart GWT!

[Adam T]

Mark,

Have you tried checking out the trunk, compiling everything and then
launching the new Showcase application? It is still GoogleBlue in
colour, but takes another step forward in looks as well as animations
on certain widgets (fades, moves, grow etc). I'm sure you will also
the CSS needed in that application too.

//Adam

On Mar 17, 1:30 pm, mwaschkowski <mwaschkow...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have seen that some of the look and feel item have already been
> completed in the 1.5 Milestone1 release like:
>

> Add styles for rounded corners in TabBarhttp://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/issues/detail?id=1929&q=m...

>
> This also relates to a previous discussion here that had comments

> made, but doesn't appear to ever have been finished:http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit-Contributors/browse...

[mwaschkowski]

Thanks Adam,

Did that and can't honestly say that I was impressed, but did have
some nice features and was better looking than the org widgets. I was
kinda hoping to avoid other frameworks like gwt-ext or mygwt, but both
those frameworks do have a leg up on the showcase demo with a ui that
more reminds me of flex than gwt's widgets (meaning they look sexier
to me).

Can anyone with the 'inside scoop' give me an idea if gwt 1.5's look
and feel will be able to compete with that of gwt-ext/flex?

Thanks alot!

Mark

[Ping]

I'm guessing that gwt will *never* compete with mygwt/gwt-ext/etc,
since it's not the main purpose. Besides, other projects that sits on
top of gwt are better suited to provide a more polished L&F. However,
I agree that some of the default widgets could be polished to provide
a more elegant L&F without compromising performance and code base.

Somewhere in the incubator there was a post about some css styles that
could be the default of gwt, go ahead and search for it, that might
give you an insight.

[mwaschkowski]

Well, I heard that there were going to be *two* new look and feels for
1.5, a plain (but updated) one and a fancier one. Can one of the dev's
please let me know if the fancier one would compete with the L&F of
MyGWT or Flex? Would help me out greatly. I know its somewhat
subjective, but a definitive 'No' would certainly mean that I start
looking at alternatives...

Thanks,

Mark

[Sumit Chandel]

Hi Mark,

You heard correctly! We will be releasing two new look and feels, a default look and feel, some of which you've already seen in the Showcase sample application, and a much prettier look and feel which we're still working on.

Our goal is to knock people's socks off with the second look and feel. Unfortunately it's too early at this point to offer screenshots of what it may look like, but we'd like to have something that gives that "ahhh, that looks nice" feeling.

I also wanted to mention that we're also actively thinking of ways  to make the default Showcase style more appealing and we're definitely open to suggestions. Our current philosophy for the default style was to keep it simple and elegant, while the second style will be more higher-tech and visually stimulating.

If you'd like to give some feedback on what left you feeling particularly unimpressed with the current look and feel, we'd love to hear it! Although the appeal of a style can be suggestive, there may be something universally obvious that we've missed, so feel free to post up.

Cheers,
-Sumit Chandel

[mwaschkowski]

Hi Sumit,

Thanks so much for the reply, its very helpful. I'm happy to hear that
google wants to knock people socks off! I've always seen GWT and Flex
as competitors, and I know that Google wanted to make the framework
stable before worrying about eye candy. That being said, with 1.4
being out of beta I always thought that 1.5 would be a good iteration
to make it pretty (ier). I would rather see eye candy come built in to
the framework (like Flex) rather than having to use external widgets.
I think external widgets are great for specialized tasks, but I'm
hopeful to hear (unlike Ping's assertion) that gwt will compete with
the L&F's of ext or flex.

I don't have any great insight to L&F and would simply suggest
comparing gwt to the alternatives. MyGwt/ext/flex all have nicer
looking widgets than the showcase, IMHO. I looked specifically at the
tabs and table widgets, but do view it more as a general issue.
However, I am loath to say very much knowing that its something being
worked on.

I know originally 1.5 was looked at/estimated as being a first quarter
release, I'm assuming more of a second/third quarter perhaps?

Thanks!

Mark

On Mar 18, 11:32 am, "Sumit Chandel" <sumitchan...@google.com> wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> You heard correctly! We will be releasing two new look and feels, a default
> look and feel, some of which you've already seen in the Showcase sample
> application, and a much prettier look and feel which we're still working on.
>
> Our goal is to knock people's socks off with the second look and feel.
> Unfortunately it's too early at this point to offer screenshots of what it
> may look like, but we'd like to have something that gives that "ahhh, that
> looks nice" feeling.
>
> I also wanted to mention that we're also actively thinking of ways to make
> the default Showcase style more appealing and we're definitely open to
> suggestions. Our current philosophy for the default style was to keep it
> simple and elegant, while the second style will be more higher-tech and
> visually stimulating.
>
> If you'd like to give some feedback on what left you feeling particularly
> unimpressed with the current look and feel, we'd love to hear it! Although
> the appeal of a style can be suggestive, there may be something universally
> obvious that we've missed, so feel free to post up.
>
> Cheers,
> -Sumit Chandel
>

> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:07 AM, mwaschkowski <mwaschkow...@gmail.com>

[mwaschkowski]

Hi Sumit,

Ok, just saw the schedule from Bruce (ie. ~ more than a month, less
than 3 months):
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit/browse_thread/thread/4cc9bfdac5522a8e/39dbbd9a9ad6290f#39dbbd9a9ad6290f

Would love to know what you have cooking, but I'll wait patiently. I
do have a few weeks yet before I _have_ to make a decision.

One suggestion I have would be to see similar features in each L&F,
but have the fancier one with more animations/ui feedback, as well as
more of a 3d look. The simpler L&F wouldn't have as much animations or
3d attributes, so would actually look and be simpler and 'lighter'
from the perspective of a client (ie. would actually use less
resources). Not sure if would really payoff in practice, but a
thought.

Cheers,

Mark

[Sumit Chandel]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the input!

We're definitely going to inspire ourselves from existing look and feel styles that work and produce that "wow, nice" effect as well as add some of our own UI design skills to the mix. We'll try to keep the community in the loop as much as possible as this develops. As usual, the GWT Contributors list is the place to look for the latest updates including the second style set we're going to apply to the Showcase sample application.

Cheers,
-Sumit Chandel