In the near future, I have to update a bigger XPage application (development time more than three years) now running on a Domino Server 8.5.3 FP6 to Domino Server 9. In this application I am using IBM OneUIv2.1 but I am unsure if I should use it further. Unfortunately I have no experience with Bootstrap, however in one of the last Extension Library releases an essential part of the update was for Bootstrap:
This release is the sixteenth IBM Notes Domino 9.0.1 version of the
XPages Extension Library (ExtLib) to OpenNTF. This release contains a
significant Bootstrap upgrade to 3.3.6.
So for me it seems to be the XPages CSS Framework of the future?
Am I right?
Thanks in advance for sharing your experience!
I use oneUI at the day job. There are some very good things about it. However, I'm trying to get my company and all my personal work migrated to Bootstrap. OneUI is not really responsive. Even if that's not a big issue for you the biggest reason to avoid oneUI is the lack of documentation and materials for it. There actually is documentation for oneUI But nothing like Bootstrap - the most popular framework going as far as I know. Heck right here on StackOverFlow over 59,000 questions have been asked on Bootstrap. There's tons of resources like bootsnipp.com. In my opinion it's almost a no brainer that Bootstrap should be used over oneUI if at all possible.
As long as IBM won't deliver us the new "Verse" UI (which I'd refer to as OneUI Next) I'd prefer the Bootstrap UI as it is responsive. I wouldn't say that it's IBM's future UI framework as departments seem to develop indepently IMHO. The Ireland guys are proclaiming Bootstrap but the IBM Design team propagate their own styles. As always: not a straight strategy here.
But when it comes to application modernization I'd prefer Bootstrap. The next iteration will include Bootstrap 4, too (the final version).
Anyway, using Bootstrap instead of OneUI will deliver more straight and simplified CSS classes other than the "LotusUI" stuff in OneUI.
Just my 2 cents.
Yes, I agree you are right. IBM is staying in front of the curve in supporting Bootstrap for the future. I don't believe that they are investing any more resources in OneUI at this point in time. (Good news, IMO)
On the surface, your question appears opinion based, but really you need to be concerned with the level of support/investment by the IBM XPages team.
If you haven't view it already, I would recommend the TLCC webinar given this month (Feb 2016) by Brian Gleeson and Martin Donnelly on Responsive Design using Bootstrap with XPages. The team is being extremely proactive in preparing to support Bootstrap 4 which isn't even released yet.
This is the link to the webinar which is very well done: https://youtu.be/0ylbKHyiFyY
a big advantage with Bootstrap in comparison with oneUI is that there are many sites where snippets for controls / layouts / panels are being shared.
if you stick close to the oneUI defintion you are limited in your presentation options.
also Bootstrap is targetted against multiple clients (mobil / desktop / large) which oneUI is not. so if that is a requirement I definitely recommend bootstrap above oneUI.
there is a learning curve with Bootstrap but manageable.
with Bootstrap I hardly use dojo anymore and disable it in xpages whenever possible.
there are also limitations with bootstrap, e.g. motion awareness but you can overcome them with plugins. you would probably experience the same limitations with oneUI.
once you go bootstrap, you can't get back (to oneUI).
I have little experience with other front-end frameworks so I can not advice on that.
Related
I would like advice on how best to move my company toward using VMWare's Clarity system, or something very much like it. Should we use it as a template? Fork it? Integrate parts of it over time?
By Q4 of 2018 we would like to:
have a decent Design System
develop in Angular 2
use Bootstrap 4
Currently we are here:
No Design System
Bootstrap 3.3.7
AngularJS
Any suggestions will be helpful!
The Clarity Design System is composed of several parts.
There are Design resources - sketch templates for the light and dark themed components as well as documentation and guidelines for using them. In addition, we publish three packages
#clr/icons - an icons library that can be used standalone. The icons are web-components and can be used like any other element in a project after you integrate it into the app
#clr/ui - standalone html/css for clarity themed components. For obvious reasons more advanced components like the datagrid or wizard are not part of this
#clr/angular - Clarity components for Angular applications.
To answer a few of your questions.
Q. Should we use it as a template?
A. No, Clarity (#clr/angular) should be integrated into your Angular application so you can use the components to build up the application with them.
Q. Fork it?
A. you are welcome to fork the code, its open source software (MIT License). If you want to stay up to date with the latest bug fixes and enhancements though I would suggest integrating it into a project and keeping up with the incremental releases. We generally try to release once a week and callout breaking changes at least two versions with deprecations.
Q. Integrate parts of it over time?
A. I (as a Clarity UI Engineer) would recommend adopting it fully from the beginning when you start your next Angular app. If not, you run the risk of competing design systems and conflicting styles and UX patterns.
We do not recommend using Clarity with Bootstrap 4. Even though our grid is based on an earlier beta version of Bootstrap 4. We would like to remove that as a dependency in the future.
I'm enjoying the Bootstrap tutorials here, but after the first two, I realize that it's working off a V1 version of Bootstrap, where the layout worked as a 16-column grid and things like the span-one-third class were still active.
I know I could download and use an old version of Bootstrap, but (a) I'm not that smart, and (b) I'm trying to adopt best practices early on by using a github fork.
I'm not sure what else this tutorial will differ on. I can kind of figure out the differences between a 16- and a 12-column grid, but is there anything in Bootstrap between 1.4 and 2.0 that will completely screw me up while I follow these tutorials?
Super crucial. There were a significant amount of changes from 1.4 to 2.0, as summarized here: http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/upgrading.html
I would highlight being almost fully responsive as the most important change, but just about any other component has changed, providing better support for mobile devices and keeping up to date with new standards and changes in the industry.
By not upgrading to 2.0 you are limiting yourself from future updates to your framework, as most of the changes will break your current progress. Some of the tutorials are good to follow as a "get the idea and implement yourself" tutorial.
Don't stay behind technology just because you are comfortable. You won't be when you have no support for the issues you run into, which are probably fixed in 2.0 or some later version. Save your time now!
We've been using html5 boilerplate with blueprint css for the last couple of projects. With some tweaks, we were able to make blueprint "responsive". We like blueprint, but are concerned it may be a bit "dated", from what little we know about gui trends. We've been hearing a lot of buzz about twitter bootstrap 2.0. From what we saw, we liked bootstrap's simplicity and the fact that it provides responsiveness out of the box. However, we're concerned that it's too heavy-duty for our purposes.
So, what I'm wondering is:
We know the look of bootstrap can be customized without limit. But, is it more work than it's worth
to completely overhaul the default look and feel of the framework? (Our designers will never design web apps/sites based on bootstrap).
Also, I'd love to hear about what experiences, in general, other people have had with switching from blueprint to bootstrap.
My 2 cents:
I am a fan of twitter bootstrap. I've used it for an internal application at work. I basically used it to convert a ordinary looking application to a responsive application with a much needed user-friendly user interface.
I did make some customisations to the default twitter bootstrap css library. I did not find this particularly difficult, and neither should a developer/designer if they know their way around html/css/browser web dev tool.
I think it is designed well enough for a developer/designer to still have some serious gains even after making their customisations.
I have to present a prototype of an web app in the following days to one of my clients, the thing is I'm not so good at CSS and worst of all I'm almost never happy with the results I get.
Coding the business logic poses no challenge to me, the UI design however takes more than 80% of my time. I don't need nothing breathtaking, just a clean, nice and presentable environment, an example:
This is a recurring problem I've been having, I wish web UI development could have a less naked default style, an approach similar to Visual Studio or iPhone SDK would be very useful to me.
The above mockup created with Balsamiq Mockups is a great example, all the most common "components" are available to use, and best of all: there is only one good-looking style to choose from.
Is there something like this for the web? A neutral yet nice CSS or Javascript UI framework?
Options so far:
Bootstrap
Qooxdoo
jQuery UI
jQuery Tools
MochaUI
Ext JS
Yahoo! User Interface Library
BlueTrip
BluePrint
Uki (Demo)
Napkee
YAML
Baseline
iPlotz
Sproutcore
ForeUI
I'm interested in knowing if there are any CSS-only UI frameworks.
I found this page with a very nice list of Web UI Libraries, but most of them (at least the good ones) seem to be specific to Java, are there any equally good alternatives in pure CSS or JS?
PS: I'm not interested in AJAX, effects, behaviors and so on... my main (only) concern is style.
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!
After a very careful consideration of all the UI libraries suggested, I've come to the conclusion that ExtJS and Qooxdoo are the ones that most closely fit my needs. jQuery UI seems promising but only offers a reduced amount of elements.
As far as CSS-only libraries go I've found BlueTrip / BluePrint and the themes suggested by tambler to be the best. Aside from that, Flex and Napkee also seem to be worth exploring.
Time to learn ExtJS now! =)
A combination of 960gs for layout and jQuery-UI for styling is probably what you are after.
You could also consider the blueprint CSS framework instead of 960gs.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned:
http://www.extjs.com/
Its a commercial js frameworks, but pretty affordable, and makes putting together a nice UI a breeze. There's a much more complete set of elements then jqueryui, and its designed to make an entire app. I've only played with it a little, but I really love it so far. Free for personal use.
If you really want to get a feel for a complete UI developed with EXT, try this url:
http://docs.sencha.com/extjs/4.2.1/extjs-build/examples/feed-viewer/feed-viewer.html
What about using dojo and dijit?
Dijit is a fast way to create widgets and elements. It also comes with 3 default themes which are easy to modify.
A good list of different widgets here
Pair up with someone who specializes in UI design.
If you are better at dealing with business logic, your time is better off spent exclusively coding business logic so you can master it. This will require you to learn how to interface with someone else who excels at presentation. (xml and json are common means)
Business logic and presentation are very different. Designing a system that not only looks good, but is intuitive and easy to use is quite difficult. Equally as difficult and time-consuming as establishing the inner workings of a complex application.
A good interface is not as simple as including a css framework.
I consider myself to be a more 'creative' programmer who does excel in presentation. I happened to be lucky enough to cross path's with someone who was, first of all... very motivated, and second of all very good at 'business logic'. He had a lot more experience planning and implementing complex systems, while I mainly have been focusing on interface design.
If you are more productive doing system architecture, planning, developing, whatever... you should push yourself in that direction. While solo development projects can be rather fulfilling, I view it as inefficient. It is very rare that someone possess skills to develop top-level applications solo.
The challenge is finding someone who you work well with.
Check out Google Web Toolkit. It has a pretty clean default look. They have examples . In particular, their Showcase example demonstrates all of the available widgets and the css styling used to achieve the look.
There are a few frameworks aimed at (G)UI Design; Qooxdoo, JQuery UI and MochaUI being a few of them (although the last is more a proof-of-concept than a usable framework). These frameworks usually offer a variety of JS-powered elements (form elements, such as input fields and submit buttons, but other elements like tabs as well). However, it will still be up to you to position these elements, and perhaps style them, to your liking.
Perhaps familiarizing yourself with a CSS framework (such as 960GS) might complement the above JS UI Frameworks.
(As a personal disclaimer; I have very little experience with any of the frameworks mentioned above. But I'm sure either Google or SO can provide answers I can't.)
This won't help you out for your current project, but it's worth considering for future projects. After spending many years creating GUI applications in HTML 4 and constantly wrestling against the limitations of CSS and HTML, I thought I'd try out Adobe Flex. What an improvement!
Rather than faking a tabbed page control or data grid, with Flex or Silverlight, your markup can simply specify a tabbed page control or data grid. And the frameworks come with default styles that are boring but not at all bad. I'm not saying these completely replace HTML, but if you need widgets and GUI layout, I believe they're a much better alternative.
You might consider browsing the following site:
http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates/admin-skins
There are several "Administrative" themes available for purchase here that may suit your needs.
wireframe mockups like that are a brilliant way to start.
Having used most of the UI framewroks discussed here, I'd liek to steer you towards jQueryUi for the following reasons:
jQueryUI CSS framework takes care of the consistent and cool looking CSS for you (it's really easy - just make some markup and apply the classes)
jQueryUI has tabcontrol, and heaps on neat quick easy ways to style forms.
If you are targeting modern, non IE, browsers, then you should check out Sproutcore. For mockups I use mockingbird.
A relatively new PHP framework specifically designed for development of UI-focused software. Elements you have here including Tabs, Filters and Grids are included and will take you about 20 lines of code to implement.
http://agiletoolkit.org/
Have you tried Axure? It's a tool for rapidly creating wireframes, prototypes and specifications for applications and web sites.
It works in a similar way to Balsamiq, but it allows you to export your wireframes/prototype as HTML, CSS and Javascript.
You can then upload this to a server or run it on your computer as a working example.
You can create forms, links, tabs, rollovers, Javascript effects.
If you are already using Balsamic Mockups for your prototypes then you should consider Napkee. To quote the website "Napkee lets you to export Balsamiq Mockups to HTML/CSS/JS and Adobe Flex 3 at a click of a button."
I ran into this awhile ago, and couldn't find anything, so I took it as an opportunity to learn css. But since then it seems great strides have been made towards this subject.
Summarizing your problem, there is a wikipedia page.
There is yaml-css, which takes yaml and turns it into css
There is baseline, but it assumes some css knowledge.
I'd also suggest looking at Adobe's Dreamweaver. They have a lot of css and style generation tools which produce very readable and w3c compatible code.
I hope that helps.
A combination of 960gs for layout and jQuery-UI or Jquery tools is great
i use them almost in every project but i'd like to add to http://easyframework.com/
although its not a business friendly so
make sure to check out its license
but i like it
I recently discovered a nice website called iplotz.com where you can create a mockup of your application/website/project online without installing anything.
It also has most of the common controls, along with much more features for managing thw whole project and sharing it with others online.
I must admit, i didn't try it yet myself, but i looked at it a bit and it seems pretty cool. I'll probably be using it soon enough.
Sass looks like it has potential as a way to mitigate some css headaches.
I like to add Bootstrap it's intuitive, and powerful front-end framework for faster and easier web development.
I like RocketCSS. Nice clean design, give it a go.
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
We don’t allow questions seeking recommendations for books, tools, software libraries, and more. You can edit the question so it can be answered with facts and citations.
Closed 6 years ago.
Improve this question
As a little side project, I am starting to build a new website for a certain organization I am affiliated to, which current site is simply outdated.
I am regularly a Java developer, and last time I really did some web development was back in the late 90s, when <p> was still more popular than <div> and Javascript was cutting-edge technology (JQuery is for lazy bums these days :) ).
Anyway, I feel really outdated. The website basically is going to be:
Django based
mostly serve static information pages
it will have a dynamic news and updates page (based on Django admin capabilites)
and some basic apps I'll develop myself (polls, small registration app, etc...)
My problem is designing the whole thing. I found some nice web-based CSS layout generators that got me going, but I still feel I'm wasting my time smoothing out the CSS files and aligning <div>s.
Are there any tools - the simpler and faster, the better - that you recommend I can use to speed up the design part of the site so I can concentrate on the real work?
I don't need anything fancy, just a nice looking layout and design that I can tweak a bit so the site will look presentable.
I second Brandon's suggestion to use a CSS framework. It won't give you 100% freedom to design anything you like, but it can speed up your design process greatly and free up your hands to do the coding you really want.
Suggestions Updated July 2013:
Twitter Bootstrap http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/ - complete grid, typo, UI widget prototyping framework
ZURB Foundation http://foundation.zurb.com/ - responsive grid, type, UI widget prototyping framework (similar in scope to Twitter Bootstrap, but feels 'cleaner' in some ways)
960 http://960.gs/ - grid layout system
Tripoli http://devkick.com/lab/tripoli/ - really good typography, but no grid system
YUI Grids http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/ - very customizable (to the point of overkill) grid system
Blueprint http://www.blueprintcss.org/ - grid system and basic typography
BlueTrip http://www.bluetrip.org - a hybrid system, mixing the best of the Blueprint grid with the best of the Tripoli typography
I won't lie to you. This website isn't the best place to go if you're looking for reliable Web Design advice. Stack Overflow is a programming community and programmers rarely know anything about design. If you want to get some real advice then I would strongly recommend the main Web Design/Development forums on the Internet, especially SitePoint.
That being said, as a former freelance Web Designer/Developer I'll offer my input on the issue. Not that you should value it, of course. After all, this is a programming website.
NEVER EVER SAY CSS LAYOUT GENERATOR EVER AGAIN! If you're going to seriously get into designing web pages then you need to learn semantic XHTML and CSS first. Whilst many people tout W3Schools as the definitive resource I see it as a programmers answer (i.e. not very good) and would prefer that you read up on the subject using...Google. There are countless examples of great websites to pick up the basics of Web Design/Development that Google is probably the best website for the job. Also, with a plethora of new websites offering this information you know it's going to be more improved than W3Schools. You'll seriously want to get clued-up on writing your design because it'll be much harder to fix things later on in the project.
If you're going to be designing web pages it would be a good idea to learn what actually makes a good design. Check out CSS Vault for a fantastic resource of some of the best-designed web pages around, of course with all the source code intact so you can have a play around with their code and see how they've managed some of the wonderful effects they've produced. I've learnt more than a thing or two from websites that have been featured on CSS Vault. On top of that you should read up on Web Design from the big Web Design/Development sites. Two of my favourites are SitePoint and A List Apart, two names that you'll near time and time again when you hear people talk about resources. Browse those websites, check their forums, see what REAL Web Designers/Developers are using, not what programmers are using.
On the subject of CSS Frameworks; they do help! The problem with using them is that you'll often spend so much time looking for a worthwhile framework that you could have finished most of the CSS for your website yourself. You'll either love them or hate them, but many people will say that they're not necessary.
Once you've got your mind set on what a good design looks like and you've got the resources you need to make something of value I suggest that you get to work! In reality when you're designing a web page all you really need is a text editor with a save function, an image manipulation program, a browser window and FireBug. An IDE helps a lot of people, but if you do use one then you'll definitely want to work in its text mode. I use NotePad++ or Emacs exclusively but a lot of people like to use Aptana Studio, so it may be worth a look.
When you're getting to actually building the code behind your website you can't really go much worse than your favourite IDE/Text Editor and a source control tool. As a Java programmer you're better suited to talk about programming so I won't lecture you on a subject you already know.
In the end, Web Design is going to take time and many of the tools that we choose to use that we claim will "save time" save very little in reality. If you're not a design guru then it will take you a substantial amount of time to create a great-looking website. It's a fact of life. Call me old-fashioned (a funny word coming from a 21 year old) but I still think that the quickest way is to sketch a design out on a piece of paper (a image program if really necessary) and to just get out there and make the damn thing! Again, I'll have to take this hunting for the silver bullet mentality as a programmers trait, one that really won't help that much when designing, because designing a web page is vastly different to writing a Java program.
In short, ignore everything you read here, read what REAL designers are doing and just make the damn thing!
There's one piece of advice that saves more time than any other when it comes to rapid development of CSS styled sites and that's KEEP IT SIMPLE
Use an attractive simple layout that doesn't require pixel perfection and that can 'gracefully' degrade in less compliant browsers (IE6). Minimise the amount of CSS and fix the basic bugs mentioned by meouw above. Then get on an concentrate on content and functionality...the real work
In my previous employment I created dozens of templates for websites.
The most useful too I ever discovered is the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar.
It has a wealth of small useful tools. My favorite feature is the ability to edit the CSS and see the results in real-time. This saves on the whole edit - upload - refresh cycle. Watch out for ie CSS inconsistencies though!
Off the top of my head, these are the most important gotchas.
double margin bug [google: double margin bug]
incorrect (but more intuitive) box model [google: box model]
incorrect (but more intuitive) float clearing [google: clearfix]
FireBug is another really usefull Firefox plugin for more in depth analysis.
I've always found Open Source Web Design to be a good resource when looking to get started trying to design something.
- http://patterntap.com/
- http://www.dotemplate.com/ (interesting concept of customizing template)
- http://www.templatemonster.com/
- http://www.freelayouts.com/websites/html-templates
- http://www.templateyes.com/
No idea what the site is going to be, but have you thought of using a pre-build CMS like Drupal, Joomla etc etc.? You can then tweak templates etc, rather than worrying about making it from scratch.
This question is pretty old, but since we're in 2012, it's only proper that I answer my own question with the exact thing I was looking for, back in 2009.
Twitter Bootstrap
Have you looked into any CSS frameworks? If you are competent enough with CSS something like a framework could help speed things up.
Don't forget firebug :) if you're worried about tweaking the design it's really great. With the inspect feature allowing you to real-time edit the CSS of your page.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
I second Jens Roland's list of CSS frameworks.
But I would also suggest you have a look at websites such as Smashing Magazine. You might find this article of interest, amongst a lot of others. They tend to do a lot of nice and long mash-ups for the web developers that will at least give you inspiration if not a direct solution.
A colleague of mine has been trying to convince me all week that Dreamweaver, 5 years after I was last forced to use it at gunpoint, is actually now worthwhile for knocking up a design quickly and painlessly, and is also now competent at producing the HTML for that design.
I refuse to invest the 10 minutes it would take to find out based on my previous experiences of it, but you might like to give the demo a quick run around the block :)
I'd recommend finding a CMS package, since you're using Django, look into django-cms. It has TinyMCE and Markdown Support so updating your pages should be easy. Also django-cms integrates well with the Django admin interface.
A piece of paper to sketch your design
A text editor (preferably set up to save directly to a development server local or otherwise) to write up the initial HTML/CSS
FireBug/IEDeveloperToolbar to inspect each element that looks wrong and edit its CSS directly in the browser until it looks fine, followed by commits with the text editor
If you're doing any JavaScript development, use an advanced editor that highlights errors and warnings as you type. This kind of functionality has until recently been the province of static language editors only, but the free NetBeans 6 achieves this amazing feat. Traditionally, you first discovered JavaScript typos and simple bugs when first loading the parent page into a browser. The speed-up you get from being able to short-cut these iterations is profound.
NetBeans 6 also highlights CSS errors and is a more than capable editor for most all languages a web developer is likely to use these days.
You can also use www.zbugs.com - it will help you speed up a process of compressing and gzipping your CSS and Javascript files