Panel User Interface

User Interface
There are a number of things that will require new interfaces:


 * Multiple panels. Taskbar and iconbox will simply be other instances of the panel. This means configuration can no longer  be global. So, how do we differentiate between different panels? How  do we access each panel's configuration.


 * Better multihead/Xinerama support. An extension of the first point; the  multiple panels can be arranged over multiple monitors. How do we expose that in the user interface?


 * New external plugins require a new interface for adding and removing items. My current idea is to use an interface like the toolbar editors  for firefox or Terminal, i.e. a dialog with the available icons that  can be dragged to the  panel. In the same way .desktop files may be added to the panel to create a launcher.

User interface ideas and suggestions go here.


 * I will be happy if the panel were beautyfull, having something like osx one. using cairo and glproto (if the x server provide it, if not falling in the old panel style) for having something very smooth, fast (the graphic card do nearly the whole job) and usefull. You could have a tinyer panel, but usable with the mouse over zoom. This solution could be made transparent to widgets, allowing any changes on the api. i think that would be a great and smooth idea.

Settings Dialog

Here is a glade mockup of what I had in mind for the settings dialog. Suggestions are very welcome. [Here] is the glade file.

http://xfce.loculus.nl/files/panel-settings-1.png

http://xfce.loculus.nl/files/panel-settings-2.png


 * I think that the list of items in the panel is probably redundant. I think that it would be nicer if that tab was just lost, and management of panel items could be handled roughly the way it is now - right-clicking on the item/panel.

It is not a list of items in the panel, it's a list of available plugins, where you select the one you want to add. Hmm, so perhaps that should be separate dalogs... -- Jasper 08:47, 27 Aug 2005 (CEST)


 * Personnally, I think that something like this would be better and more consistent since this dialog is made for configuring a panel. This is always possible to have another separate dialog who show the available plugins only.

http://futurvideo.free.fr/images/panel-config3.png

Bountykiller
 * Personnally, for add an item, I prefer use a dialogs like Mozilla does with firefox. A dialog with all the possible plugins, then you drag and drop where you want on the panel that you want. It's I think a good choice and very simple too. With one dialog you can drag and drop all the possible plugins on all the possible panels -- MT_Raf 12 Dec 2005


 * Also, a setting I'd like to see is a delay for autohide (maybe hidden, I don't know). Right now, I have autohide off because even though I barely even use the taskbar, it toggles too easily and gets in my way when selecting window titles against the top of the screen. Ori


 * Here is another attempt:

http://futurvideo.free.fr/images/panel-config1.png

http://futurvideo.free.fr/images/panel-config2.png

Here is the glade file.

Bountykiller

Thanks, that's interesting. I don't think I can actually implement 'Use monitor: all'; I would have to replicate the panel.


 * Hmmm, i'm afraid this can be problematic for the task bar for example. Or we would have to launch another panel (one per monitor)... And BTW, do you mean workspace when you say monitor or is it different?

The option for the autohide delay doesn't look so bad. Currently there's a different delay for hide and unhide, but I'm not sure I'd want to expose that in the user interface. Any ideas?
 * I agree with you, the user does not need to know that there is 2 different delay. Also you can always use a progress bar if you don't want number to be visible...