Recently i switched my GuI and programming to fit Javafx and use the new JavaFx scene builder! These new tools (atleast new for me) has opened alot of doors when it comes to creating user interfaces and i want to learn more and get better at it. Therefore i wish to learn CSS for JavaFx.
So far i have been unable to find any online tutorials for beginners and because of this I want to ask you guys; do you know any sites, books or video tutorials where i can learn to write CSS for JavaFx projects?
For learnIng JavaFX CSS, work through the following tutorials:
The JavaFX Getting Started tutorial on CSS.
The JavaFX CSS tutorial.
When using SceneBuilder, review:
Using a Style Sheet in SceneBuilder.
SceneBuilder Style Sheet Support.
When developing your own apps, the two most useful resources are:
The JavaFX CSS Reference Guide.
The (essential) JavaFX 2.2 Caspian Style Sheet which contains the default styling for all JavaFX controls.
If you search the web you will find many resources on CSS and HTML. Be careful using these resources. JavaFX CSS is not the same as the CSS you use to style a web page. While the file format is the same, JavaFX CSS has it's own set of attributes and allowed values, includes few layout processing specifiers, uses it's own syntax for effect processing, background and border specifications, etc.
You might easily find many good resources simply by Googling.
Here are recommended ones
MDN
www.w3.org
Note:Stay away from w3schools.com.
Reason to avoid w3schools
The best way to learn CSS would be to learn it by doing.
Create some web pages and style them no your own.
Related
Is there a sort of css framework which i can add to a gwt project, and this will completely set a new UI to my gwt application. Sort of changing the look and feel.
I love GWT, but others like Vaadin are so good styled, if there were a complete set of css librarys that would make my app a lot nicer would we great.
I think we can be great developers but not so good designers.
Thanks!
I would recommend starting with http://gwtbootstrap.github.io/
As well as: https://developers.google.com/web-toolkit/doc/latest/DevGuideUiCss
I would then dive deeper into the GWT docs to get a good handle on creating your custom themes. At some point any styling theme/framework will fail your needs and you will need to have some fundamentals for styling yourself.
Personally, I highly recommend using UiBinder and ClientBundle:
https://developers.google.com/web-toolkit/doc/latest/DevGuideUiBinder
http://granitode.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/gwt-uibinder-using-a-clientbundle-with-cssresources/
#fguespe, I'm not aware of something such for example twitter bootstrap that you 'just' plug.
Eventually the 'web designer' needs to know about specific gwt CSS classes that impact the look and feel. If importing the GWT 'non plain' themes, you'll need to write customizations.
Yes indeed Vaadin and GXT provide a default nicer look and feel... Let's just fire all Google devs for a lack of focus :-)
Sorry about longer context before question itself!
I am developer who is fairly new to UI and never had to work extensively on HTML/CSS in past. But my current project I am working on GWT, being aware of Java and basic GWT. I managed to pick up get GWT stuff quickly, but getting stuck from time to time in getting a good UI with CSS for example
I created Menu using Lable and Tree, but later after few questions on SO realized that Anchor was better choice
Though I achieved my objective partially with anchors, the UL/LI came in picture in Style
So with that, and my limited current knowledge of CSS,
Can you suggest me a good tool which can automate style application to GWT elements with a preview?
Would fundamentals of CSS application be different in GWT as compared to HTML (Specially assuming my usage of whatever-I-Wished-in-GWT!
From my experience, learning a HTML/CSS basics and using UIBinder for declaratively creating the UI works best. This way, its quite easy to separate the View and the Controller.
If you're really not into GUI development, try GWT Designer, which is quite a powerful GUI designer (it let's you design the UI, and then generates UIBinder Files + Java sources for you).
I would ask if anyone has had experience in integrating a grid based CSS system (960 or similar) with a GWT uibinder application.
Our application is done with GWT 2.1, UIBinder and the latest GWT CSS capabilities, which have been really great to work with and enabled us to have a modular and flexible styling system. Our design team has returned a HTML layout with the corresponding grid css files and we are supposed to integrate them with our GWT code.
If we were to integrate the grid styles into our uibinder xml files we would have to wrap all our GWT widgets with divs with the right grid class names.
Personally I don't like the idea of mixing a completely separate grid css concern with the modular uibinder system, but I do understand the benefits the grid system can provide.
Any opinions or experiences? Pros and Cons for either approach?
We found ourselves in a similar position, having the app built around gwt, MVP and uibinder. This is great for developers, but it turned out to not be so great for designers. At the begining we gave them a html snapshot of our app + css and asked them to design it. They did't like this. It became a nightmare when customers wanted custom designs done by their designers.
The question is will simply wrapping you widgets in div be enough? Our designer provided custom buttons, tables, links, etc.. It was quite a task to force gwt widgets to look like the design.
So what we did was:
Replaced gwt-centric app design with html-centric one. This means we avoid generating html in code. We use classic html+JS+jQuery apporach, just instead of JS we have gwt and instead jQuery we use gwtQuery. We use only a few gwt widgets. Instead, in out Views we use gwtQuery to copy&expand example html that designer provided. GwtQuery can be externalized: all selectors can be put in one (or many) external interfaces, if a design changes (customers want changes or even bring in their designs) this intersection of html and gwt is all in one place.
Ditched gwt 2.2 mvp (activities, places), for our own which is a simplified version of gwt 2.1 mvp architecture. We no longer have to add 2 new classes and update others (place, tokenizer, update place factory) to have a new place.
Also, where do you start if you want to create a complete Flex 4 skin? Is there a list of all the "pieces" (component parts) you need to create graphics for somewhere, or some complete, example skins out there to use as a template? And do your skins render correctly in Flash Builder Design View? (including embedded fonts)
Most people will point you to Flash Catalyst, but the last time I looked it was not all-inclusive in terms of creating a complete skin/theme, not to mention other issues inherent to 1.0 software. I start by copying the default skin files and modifying them, as well as creating a new CSS file based on the defaults.css file that comes with the SDK. The trickier part is that not all components (Tree, DataGrid, DateChooser, ColorPicker, etc) are available as Spark components, which means to have a complete skin/theme you need to create a bunch of mx skins as well. Bottom line: If you are serious about doing this properly, you'll need to spend a lot of time understanding defaults.css and the skin classes it refers to.
To answer your original question, my personal workflow is to create a mockup of the skin in OmniGraffle, then use that as a guide to modify copies of the default skin files (look in spark.skins, and mx.spark.skins) by manipulating the mxml directly (as opposed to using a graphical tool such as Illustrator or Catalyst.)
Hope that helps.
Basically, you have many options when skinning Flex 4 apps :
Using "general" styles (chromeColor, selectionColor, focusColor, ...). This is usually called "Styling" instead of Skinning because you only change the overall look of the application. It's by far the easiest way to change the appareance of your application quickly without knowing anything about FXG, MXMLG, ... The drawback is it will still look like a Flex app, but with different colors/fonts
Using Adobe tools to produce FXG files. These tools can be Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash CS5. You design each of the spark component with these tools and export the result in .fxg format. FXG is great because it's optimized, but you can't use things such as Data Binding in it
Write your skin in MXMLG , by hand (starting from scratch or copying the default spark skin) or with the help of Flash Catalyst. Catalyst can take your Illustrator or Photoshop design and convert it to MXMLG. Experience shows it's still painfull, even with the last version. And you often end up doing things like this.
In our team, there is no such thing like designer/developer workflow with Flash Catalyst. The next version looks better but it's still far from what Microsoft is doing with Visual Studio/Blend.
That being said, the new Spark architecture is awesome. Skinning is much easier, flexible and readable. With this architecture, a developer codes the component and the designer skins it only by knowing the contract (skinparts, skinstates, data)
This also true for views if you use the Presentation Model pattern.
There is no "template" skins as the one available in Flex 3 because skinning doesn't use symbol anymore. What could be done though is a Flex 4 style explorer.
A final word, it has already been said here, but don't forget that with the current version (4.1), there is no spark equivalent for all of the components, so you will still use Flex 3 skinning techniques for components such as DataGrid, Tree, ...
This is where I normally "start"
http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/inproduct/sdk/explorer/explorer.html
Once I figure out what components I have to skin, and I can't change what I want to change in Flex with CSS, then I go into Flash and start breaking the components apart and tweaking them.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/skins_styles.html
(Also, I've never had anything render "correctly" in design view)
I am building a new WebSite based on Grails technology.
Concerning the graphical design of my website, I plan to use services from a professional web designer but meanwhile, I need to do some basics graphical design myself in order to have a "user-friendly" beta-version.
I have read through the stackoverflow.com site but couldn't make up my mind. Here is what I have found out:
how-do-you-choose-a-css-framework
what-is-the-best-css-grid-framework
can-someone-recommend-a-bells-and-whistles-css-framework
what-is-the-best-css-framework-and-are-they-worth-the-effort
But unfortunately there are many contradictory answers.
First, some say that using CSS framework is backwards authoring and not a good thing. Others advice YUI Grids, BluePrint, 960 gs, YAML...And many say that Compass allows to develop CSS layouts easily and reusable.
So considering that:
I am new to the CSS world and I do not intend to be a web designer
My layout should be user-friendly (but not necessary awesome L&F)
It should be maintanable and easily improvable (by a professionnal web designer)
Easy to implement (in order to have something quickly)
What do you advice me for getting started with the web design of my site?
Thank you for your advices.
Fabien
First, if you don't intend to be a web designer, I'd suggest outsourcing your CSS. There are several websites where you can supply HTML or a Photoshop design and have it coded up for well under a grand (1k). Or get HTML/CSS designs free.
Then there is one thing you need to know and another two you need to work out:
all HTML should be written in a semantic and valid manner: semantic = properly ordered headings, lists, no excessive divs etc.; valid = will pass WC3 validation tests. None of this is rocket science, but is still a skill that needs to be learned. Andy Clarke's Transcending CSS is a great book on semantic HTML/CSS. For ease of maintenance, the HTML and CSS should be tidy and consistently indented, etc.
you need to determine whether you'll be needing an admin backend and database for managing content, or if you're just building a site consisting of static pages (i.e. html and css files, images and other media etc.). If it's the former, that's a whole other learning curve :-)
what are your best skills? If you're a good designer, get other people to write the HTML/CSS, or use a ready-made template (there are many on the web) and customise it. Here's a good start for multi-column layouts. If you're a programmer, learn to use a framework like Django (Python), Titanium (Perl), something smaller in Ruby (because Ruby on Rails is a bit big to start with) or one in your favourite language.
Good CSS is a craft, and simplicity is the essence, but if you want to learn enough to get started, my advice would be to:
understand inheritance (the 'cascade' in CSS) and the fact that anything can be a 'block', so don't use lots of nested divs just to apply a style. Instead, apply the style to the HTML element itself, or to the element only when it appears in a parent block (like a menu unordered list contained in a sidebar div);
learn about block and inline elements (Web Design from Scratch is a great learning resource and I'd recommend it), and that CSS can change this behaviour;
test in Firefox, then test in Internet Explorer. >= IE7's not so bad (but look out for HasLayout). What you can't tweak to get right in IE, use conditional comments to add CSS that only IE can see - never use CSS hacks - .htc files that add missing IE functionality (e.g. rollover styles on any element) are available;
learn about CSS positioning, and use 'fixed' sparingly;
put all your CSS in one file (for starters), and don't use inline CSS in the HTML;
styling forms and form fields is almost a separate skill :-)
Use background images to add style, but also understand that you can offset and overlap images using positioning. You'll need to use PNGs for nice transparency, though. Oh yes, and opacity looks nice, but requires non-standard CSS for now. although the more flexible rgba (a=alpha) method is widely-supported. As do rounded corners, but both worth using.
I'd avoid CSS frameworks and resets for now - they'll complicate things at this stage by adding yet another DSL to learn (but read the arguments and the pros and cons). To avoid annoying default margins and padding, I always reset everything by doing html *, body * {margin: 0; padding 0;} then build padding and margins back in wherever needed - never been a problem so far :-)
What do you advice me for getting started with the web design of my site?
Get Firebug plugin for Firefox now!
Primary CSS uses:
See which CSS rules apply
Change CSS in real time and see the affect
Inspect other websites to see how they do things
I would not be able to develop CSS (and other web related technologies) without this tool
Take a look at YUI CSS reset/base/font/grid
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/3/cssreset/
And Grid 960 also has some nice layouts (search for their site in google)
I don't know what OS you are running, but if you are a Mac user, I suggest a great free tool for CSS: Xyle Scope. It's not an editor but a CSS viewer/scanner, it let you browse easily the CSS code of any web page so you can learn better how css works and you can analyze any well done layout on the web.
CSSEdit (Mac Only) is a good solution for writing Cascade sheets, easy to use, not expensive, and reach of features.
Fireworks: I think is a great software to draft your layouts and make some good graphical works!
Dreamweaver: it's an all in one solution for web developing ... it's a really great tool to easily maintain synched your remote version of the website with your local one.
Coda (Mac Only) is a very good alternative to Dreamweaver, even if it don't let you manage and edit the .htaccess files!
For coding your web site I suggest dreamweaver or Coda, but an other good alternative is BBEdit (Mac Only).
Bootstrap, Its the best css framework i can suggest, there is another one called foundation also but i prefer bootstrap more since it is popular among developers and is extendible. There are few more other frameworks, I wrote a blog about that, Here Read it too if you want http://www.andwecode.com/freebies/5-responsive-css-frameworks :)