Blogging Roller: New Roller Editor UI theme.

New Roller Editor UI theme.

In preparation for the March release of Roller 0.9.9, I'm trying to come up with a better looking theme for the Roller Editor UI. I just committed JSP and CSS changes for my first attempt at a new theme. Here is the mockup that I started with:

Dave Johnson in Roller • 🕒 03:39AM Feb 26, 2004

Tags: Roller

Comments:

I've been spinning my mind around how to improve the weblog editor. After watching my wife use Roller for the last few months it has become increasingly evident how hard it is for an HTML-naive user. I've continued this thought on my own blog.

Posted by Lance on February 26, 2004 at 01:06 PM EST #

If I can get my act together, I'll write Canoo WebTests to verify all links/buttons work on the UI. I can do this with the old theme or new.

Are editor themes switchable or users only get one choice?

Posted by Matt Raible on February 26, 2004 at 01:23 PM EST #

Anthony Eden suggested this WYSIWYG editor: <a href= "http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/page/lance/20040226#roller_s_painful_weblog_editor"> htmlArea. On initial glance, looks like the license will allow us to ship it with Roller.

Posted by Dave Johnson on February 26, 2004 at 02:00 PM EST #

Dave, it looks like htmlArea functions the same as our current dHtml version, though it appears to be a better execution of the concept. It uses the MSHTML Editing Platform to generate (lousy) HTML. Once JTidy is ready for integration (I was looking at it yesterday and noticed it still has significant bugs) that will help generate clean XHTML. Matt, I've done some preliminary work on making the editor theme switchable, but it was untenenable with the current UI. From Dave's mockup above it may become possible very soon.

Posted by Lance on February 26, 2004 at 02:26 PM EST #

i know not related directly with the issue, but is it possible to put a theme that allows you to see next, previous months? the current calendar only allows you to go next-previous in daily basis. And please do not use MS only stuff in editing, i would be glad if you improve midas support.

Posted by ahmet on February 26, 2004 at 06:25 PM EST #

I've setup a demo instance of Roller so folks can checkout the new UI. This way, hopefully we can get feedback before it's released.

I'll try to update it (from CVS) as requested.

Posted by Matt Raible on February 27, 2004 at 08:15 PM EST #