[jmchilton]

I think it looks really great. Thanks for the hard work.

[ausername?]

new skin - feedback

Looks really great.
Agree about the scrollbar looking unfinished / out of place.
But overall this is really a great work and it will greatly help moving applications from GWT Ext to smartGWT as the look are now similar.

[Skjalg]

Looks really good, great work.

The font is fine, but I think you should use a more blue scheme for the scrollbar as well (just the buttons), kind of like you have done on the combobox.

[Isomorphic]

New skin design - first sample

Hello All,

See below for the first sample from the new skin design. We're looking for feedback BUT please read the list of planned changes below before responding.



The following are all known issues or things we will likely still change:

1. scrollbars are still a work in progress. We might go with some more similar to the default light blue Windows scrollbars

2. you can see some aliasing issues on some components, for example, each opener control in the tree is slightly different, and some other items (like the border around the Window and SectionStack controls) are fuzzed out to 2px instead of 1px. This is due to conversion from vector to pixel format and won't be present in the final design - those will all be sharp 1px lines.

3. the width of the gap around the splitbar will be much smaller (similar to current BlackOps gap)

4. the splitter has a directional "V" in the middle because all splitters are also snapbars in SmartClient (they can hide the adjacent component).

5. tab scrollers aren't actually always visible (they wouldn't be in this screen of course - there's plenty of space).

6. tab scroller will be slight rounded.

7. we're going to do something for the ComboBox down state, it didn't work out.

8. font is still undecided. Shown is arial; we might go to Tahoma or Verdana. If you don't like the choice, switching is a trivial search and replace on the skin_styles.css file.

We're also pursuing a parallel design in blue - it will have substantially the same "shapes" for components but will be recolored in the light blue range.

Both designs will be ready in the 2-4 weeks range (the gray one sooner than the blue). If you are either starting a new application or porting an existing one, these designs should be ready well in advance of your ship date. You will not need to do anything to your code to use the new skin other than change the skin you are including in your SmartGWT modules file.

Let us know what you like and don't like. There's still time for tweaks.

[Skjalg]

Hi we are also interested in switching from GwtExt to SmartGwt but we need the color scheme first. We need management to see that it will look the same before we can switch.

Thanks again for the great framework,

Nigel

Seconded. Any chance we can get a sneak peak of what you've got so far or perhaps a % wise progressbar on completion and/or a timeframe where you foresee when this will be done?

[nigelheywood]

GwtExt Skin

Hi we are also interested in switching from GwtExt to SmartGwt but we need the color scheme first. We need management to see that it will look the same before we can switch.

Thanks again for the great framework,

Nigel

[juan.medin]

@nlotz
Nimbus looks really nice! Professional, clean, stylish. Great ! Its license is LGPL (https://nimbus.dev.java.net/) so maybe something can be taken from it.

The widgets fit in the panels smoothly (I can't stress this enough: it improves the LnF dramatically and it also decreases the development time)

jGoodies on the other hand looks really outdated. It's more like a Windows 3.1 LnF today.

@SmartCiient
Thank you for being so responsive and taking this issue so seriously. I really want to introduce SmartGWT to my client (I think there are many people in this situation)

The question, of course, is: can we see it ? when will it be released ?

[Eric Taix]

Thanks a lot for this good news and for your great job !

When the 7.0 final will be available ?

[nlotz]

Something Aqua-esce would be nice, indeed. but that again would work for 'casual' or 'lifestyle' apps only.

What about Nimbus ?


I also like jGoodies Looks (gives swing-apps a consistent look and feel across platforms):

[mike.art1]

I like the mac os x/ itunes look. Something different and clearly very popular.









With the miller column grid the layout of the last image can easily be done and will rock.

[Isomorphic]

Quick update: we've had the design team working on an Outlook-like skin (in gray) since before this thread started. We expect that at least a gray, if not also a blue version of this skin will be in 7.0 final (if not, then it will be available shortly thereafter). We'll post samples here as we get closer.

Thanks for all the feedback so far (even the harsh feedback :)

A further question: has anyone ever seen a design that they like aside from Outlook clones, and that believe would be fairly universally acceptable in business applications?

We're committed to supporting an Outlook-esque look and feel, but for future designs we'd like to understand what people would like to see. BlackOps is design for developer tools and TreeFrog is popular in life sciences companies, where else do we need to go?

[Eric Taix]

New skin

I completely agree with juan. We need a 'wow' L&F !

Actually we are using GWT-Ext to prototype our applications, and we have to make a decision between GWT-Ext, Ext-GWT and SmartGWT. Event if the core is better than other frameworks, it will help me to have a 'wow' interface (to convince my management)

It seems a lot of users are waiting for the blue / gray Ext like theme ! Is there any plan to release this kind of L&F ? Please let us (aka the community) know if you plan to release such kind of theme and when it will be available, as it can influence our decision.

PS: I was not be able to find any roadmap on your web site !

[mihai007]

I could not agree more with the post above! You said it all!

[juan.medin]

- For me it's not about having the same look & feel as the desktop applications. It's about getting the 'wow' factor from the client. GWTExt gets the 'wow'.

- SilverWave looks non-professional and poorly designed

- The gradients are too strong
- The scroll bars look like as if they were designed for children. Moreover, they don't match the rest of the design at all.
- Window borders and tables are really ugly. The forms are worse. Well, maybe it's better to say that there is no design behind the forms.
- Components don't match each other
- You can choose between uber-strong gradients and no gradients at all. They don't mix ! Where is the designer's touch selecting the right amount ?
- The completely rounded minimize / close buttons don't match the square buttons and squared-everything. In Mac's Aqua the window buttons are rounded but so are the normal buttons, the tabs, etc, etc. And all of them share a common design.
- Tables and borders use strong belevels. It's like the beginner designers who are discovering Photoshop: there are a lot of standard Photoshop effects (belevels, gradients, embosses, etc) but no real design.
- It looks poor and feels cheap. It has no harmony or real design

*If you can port the GWTExt Gray / Aero Glass theme, that'd be fantastic.* My current employer as well as the rest of the development team saw it and loved it (in fact, that's going to be a problem if I want to switch to SmartGWT now -and I want-). I think this is typical from people who see GWTExt for the first time..

Can you imagine this forum with SilverWare ? Would you prefer it to use SilverWare or the simple, clean and fast (to download) design it uses ?

One important thing: in GWTExt if you just take a lot of components -starting with forms- and place them in the panels, they look great with a minimum of common sense. To get just an acceptable result with SilverWare -even accepting it's L&F- is really hard and time consuming.

So, my wish list would be:

a) A clone of the GWTExt theme
b) A different theme with rounded corners and smoother components, clean, light and professionally looking.

As Steve Jobs said "for the end user, the interface IS the system"

Sorry for the strong opinions. I often find that they are more useful that just soft ones (and I really appreciate them too about my work). In no way I'm trying to be rude, just to be useful.

[Isomorphic]

You must mean "standard" from the normal SmartClient package. Yes, all of the SmartClient skins will also be available for SmartGWT, as separately downloadable .jars.