Rounded Corners and plugins, anyone?

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Member
Registered: Jan 2009
Posts: 24
Umm I know that you don't really like to bloat things up, but I am still proposing this idea.

How about adding modules/plugins/extensions floatbox? The reason that I am proposing is that I would love to have rounded corners in the floatbox, but I am afraid that will make floatbox too bloated and slow. So how about calling another .js file when you need it? Such as rev="roundedCorner: True"? That way, we can give the users choice if they want to use the .js file or not and not bloat things up!

I think rounded corners look much better. Example: LightView I am not saying that LightView is not bloated, it's definitely bloated! But it looks really good.

So my idea is to create a separate js file that users have the ability to import that will round the corners.

Another idea that I have is that we can overlay playblack controls right on top of image (not the next and previous links, but actual buttons). Example: TripTracker. That would make it more intuitive than reaing "next" and "previous"

What about creating something like FancyZoom (With close button on top and nice shadow)??

So, admin, do you like this idea? I can help out with whatever you need.
Administrator
Registered: Aug 2008
Posts: 3382
Well, I think rounded corners are part of my future. I agree - they look good. In floatbox's case they are complicated by the outer border, colour themes, and shadow effect, but everything is solvable. The first challenge will be to choose the best approach from the perspective of behaving well and the same in all browsers and platforms. (Images, stacked divs???)

Load on demand? Maybe. Others have suggested "compiled" downloads where you select the features you want at download time and get just the code you need. I'm still pondering this from both bang-for-the-buck and supportability perspectives.

Playback controls over top of the image? No. I have strong dislike for these. The display should be about the content. IMO, it's rude and anti-aesthetic to overlay my interface over top of someone's (presumably beautiful and well-composed) images. Lightbox clones that do this generally have a look-at-me-aren't-I-cool feel to them. I want floatbox to display content elegantly and unobtrusively.

If you don't want the text controls for English language users ("close", "prev", "next", etc.), set graphicsType to "international".

I really appreciate the offer to help out, but will decline that offer. For now, I want to keep control of and write everything in floatbox. It's my baby and my hobby, but mostly it is so much easier to extend, test and support when I know all the details about exactly how it hangs together and the subtleties of some of the odd code choices that were made to avoid obscure one-off browser problems. When I grow weary of it, or am not putting sufficient time in to keeping it alive, supported and evolving, I'll figure out a way to release it to the collective.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts....
Member
Registered: Jan 2009
Posts: 24
Thanks for reading this long post. :)

About the rounded corner - can't we just use rounded corner gifs and place them in each corner and load the content in the middle? Sure, it's complicated, but when we use that, we need to disable any sort of border and offer the users less options (such as themes only, nothing else). That way, we can keep the work to minimum.

Load on demand vs compiled downloads. Hard choice, but compiled downloads come in handy when we have too many plugins. As of right now, we have none. So it's up to you.

About the graphicsType - That's fine. I am going to stick with auto :)

All right, it's your baby, so you take care of it. I am just afraid that this project won't receive a lot of attention and it will die. And I don't want floatbox to die.

Thanks again.
Administrator
Registered: Aug 2008
Posts: 3382
I dunno about gifs for the corners. The pixels are all on or off so you get jaggies, you get stuck with a preset radius, and the colors are fixed. I'm leaning towards stacking a bunch of strategically based divs. You can then vary the radius, colors can be picked up from the css (good for customized color themes), and dithering can be done in all browsers by playing with the opacity.

Certainly you don't get an outside border if you want rounded corners, but I'd like to try to keep the drop shadow if I can. I'll see. It probably depends on how crappy the weather is in February. Also depends on what other rounded corner implementations I can find to steal, err, I mean, leverage.

Don't worry about floatbox dying. I'm currently travelling (now in Loei) but still seem to be doing an acceptable job of support (some may disagree). My enhancements do-list is growing and will be attended to when I finish playing.

Cheers...
Member
Registered: Jan 2009
Posts: 24
I have tried stacking a bunch of divs on top of each other. That can produce various results. My method was close to SpiffyCorners. If the setting is low, then we can get jaggy corners. Though, this method is better than using the .png or gifs.

UPDATE: I think this one works better:RoundedCornr
« Last edit by ainstushar on Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:54 pm. »

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