[ztheme_favorite] Favorites and great new BE Theme

[thyon]

I've had this idea for a while now, and with a little bit of work. I've created quite a nice BE theme.

The basic idea was:

• Favorite system, where you can add/remove your module/table/id deep links to a favorites section, so you can work solely in that section, without having to switch between "Content" "Layout" and "File Manager" [/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Favorites work on default theme as well (not just new theme), you can also lock and disable favorites.[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Create a USER-focussed template with large icons and drop-down/switch/tab menus.[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Create a BE template that matches the brand of the current website.[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• You can still switch back to the original theme for you as admin, if you don't like the new menu.[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Move the nav to the top. OK, I didn't test it for every possible browser, but you can easily make changes.[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Add a new Help Viewer to replace the existing nav section that disappears. This shows, Pending (clipboard), Global and Item actions.[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Custom icon override so your deep-link favorite can have it's own icon (resized to 32 for this theme)[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]
• Icons for most built-in extensions and also Catalog, Taxonomy, Gallery, Isotope (top levels only)[/*:m:gj2dxwmy]

Download and manually install the files in the correct places.
Favorite System + Tabbed BE Theme - v1.0.0 on Extension Repository

Favorite Detail
[attachment=0:gj2dxwmy]be-interface.jpg[/attachment:gj2dxwmy]

Uncluttered Screenshot
[attachment=1:gj2dxwmy]be-favorite.jpg[/attachment:gj2dxwmy]

[thyon]

If you downloaded it before this time. Note that I have updated a few icons that were incorrect in the uploaded bundle, fixed minor mistakes and also made it possible to still use the original template (as there isn't a way to switch templates in Contao in the BE).

Download the new updated version, so you can try it out on your user/admin, without affecting other users, and then you can switch them over if you want to, one at a time.

[lucina]

Nice one! That rocks.

One big drawback I just found is that if there are any extensions creating an unique backend section in left bar there will be no icon for that at the top for that section after activating the theme. Maybe its a good idea to provide some kind of fallback (should be no mess according to the changes already done in be_* templates).

Uhmm, even if I'm definitely not a big fan of CSS images scaling, in this case you should render all icons by giving them a specific size via {background-size: 30px auto;} for level 2 elements, so small icons of extensions will have nearly same size as the ones you provided with the theme.

Thanks a lot, anyway. I think this one could be a big step forward in usability.

Carolina.

Edit: Should be like that in main.css:

#tl_navigation .tl_level_2 a {
	font-weight:normal;
	display:inline-block;
	vertical-align: bottom;
	padding:45px 10px 10px 10px;
	background-repeat: no-repeat;
	background-size: 30px auto;
	background-position-x: center;
	background-position-y: 10px;

[thyon]

All the icons are provided using the override file config.php. There I am specifying the overridden icons.

My next task is to do the main icons for things like isotope and some of the popular extensions. If you want an hour or so, I've completed the "Favorite" system, and I'm just figuring out a few niggly bugs and then I'm testing it to work on the default theme as well.

[thyon]

I've changed the theme name to favorite, as it's pretty much a bundle. Now you get the Favorites (works in default theme too !!) and the new stunning tabbed BE interface and also the ability to customize any icon for modules, or tables. The new BE Favorite Theme also integrates a Help Viewer that parses the DCA to obtain automated help information (with some DCA's it's not 100% perfect).

Hope you enjoy as I've going to love using this to develop my next site, and show the client the interface. They will be blown away.

What's also nice, is that you can create a favorites menu for your client and then lock it, so they can't manage it. Then they can just stop using the normal interface.

Next up, I might add in the ability to override the description and icon from the manage interface. I wanted to provide an interface for this, but I can't seem to do it uncoupled from the User module (you need access rights, etc.) as it's a child table. Because I'm installing this (unimplemented in the release) as do=favorites without a id or table, the DCA doesn't initialize, as the CURRENT_ID is a defined variable, which I can't override, even with a session. Any ideas?

[thyon]

Found a few bugs and the one lucina was talking about. I actually kept the icon, but my array into the BE_MOD was pointing wrong. Now it will display the old small icon.

[thyon]

Again, I've updated the above link to v1.0.0. This is now a more production ready version. The favorites work correctly, icons now inherit correctly. I've also included special table icons for use in the HelpViewer and also in the Favorites. This allows you to have down-link level icons for things like editing a particular news archive (the news module icon differs from the news items icon, when you on the page)

Also, the HelpView is now really exhaustive to replicate the full Global and Local operations as help actions. I've also highlighted out the Clipboard operations into a special section that appears at the top of the Help, to indicate that you have a pending action. The Pending (clipboard) and Global operations are also clickable. Of course we can't make the Item actions clickable, as they are attached to an item.

Icon Override
You can now also override an icon. The use would be to have a deep link saved as a favorite, e.g. do=repository_manager&key=update_database, but not wanting to use the rep manager icon, instead you can specify an icon, which will be automatically resized to 32 (for favorite theme, or 16 as default).

PS. lucina, the background-size doesn't seem to work if you also specify a background position. Well I couldn't get it to work.
I haven't heard any other feedback, but let me know.

[thyon]

I've added some spit and polish to the release to get it ready for the Extensions Repository. I've found more incorrect icon assignments and also a few installation bugs when dealing through the ER. Also when you switched themes you get problems, which I've rectified by purging the scripts and html folders (to get rid of combiner stuff and also cached html templates).

Let me know if anyone has installation or usability issues.

[thyon]

The new version 1.0.1 includes a persistent active favorite.

This means that if you are somewhere editing UNDER Styles (where you added a bookmark from), the STYLES will remain active under your favorites, even if you are editing a style sheet and/or editing a style definition. This prevents favorites from jumping around and keeps things nice and clean.

Also, I’ve added another clean-look be_referer.html5 custom template, however, I think this one you have to copy to /templates, to make it work, or at least that’s how it appears.

[thyon]

The latest build:

• Fixed permissions[/*:m:1ngl9pjo]
• Fixed manage favorites button to only show for own user (unless admin)[/*:m:1ngl9pjo]

[harley77]

Just thought I would mention that the extension "Easy Themes" will break this style.
Of course, if your using this, you probably don't need that extension anyway .

[thyon]

I'm going to develop a version 3.x version that still uses the normal layout, so it won't break, in that I want to include a themes shortcut as well (so you don't have to make favorites for it). This is pretty easy to do.

[thibodeaux]

Hey Thyon,

I really love this BE theme and Favorites capabilities - are you going to update it to work with Contao 3.0?

Thanks,
Greg

[thyon]

I did say it above that I'm working on updating to 3.x ;-)

The plan is to go back to the existing Contao LEFT NAV, but use larger icons for that, I've found over time that the top navigation won't scale very well for many items. I'm surprised that Contao has almost ALL icons hardcoded, instead of placing them in a DCA location.

From version 3.0, I'll release the favourites as a separate extension, so it won't be by default as part of the "theme", so people can still use it without.

The "Theme" will them only overlay and change the look of the icons, text sizes and maintain a nice looking version of the previous theme. I think I'll just call it large theme.

[thibodeaux]

DOH! I guess I could've read that ops:

Looking forward to seeing your updated version. Thanks for your hard work on this!

Greg

[Big_Berny]

I' looking forward, too. Specially the favourite extensions seems to be very interesting.

A question (or feature request): Would it be possible to add a button which shows the last (let's say 12) backend-pages you've visited? So we could easily move back and forward between different pages. That would be very handy because we didn't need to add all pages to favourites that way. And often I have to change between a specific module and a css for example.

[Big_Berny]

I'm looking forward, too. Specially the favourite extensions seems to be very interesting. Thanks for your work!

A question (or feature request): Would it be possible to add a button which shows the last (let's say 12) backend-pages you've visited? So we could easily move back and forward between different pages. That would be very handy because we didn't need to add all pages to favourites that way. And often I have to change between a specific module and a css for example.

Thanks again and merry christmas!