[Qgis-developer] Re: Working on Symbology Improvement for the GSOC

[Tim Sutton]

Hi Arun & others

On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 3:47 PM, aruntheguy at gmail.com
<aruntheguy at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello  all,
>
> Here is a update to the discussion. I have posted a few mockups here <
> http://www.arunmozhi.in/2012/04/a-qgis-symbology-dock-mockup/ > that will
> give a idea of the new UI that I propose. This wouldn't make it completely
> modal-less however.
>
> For some situations like a Line symbol using SVG marker, there will be a
> modal dialog at least to select the SVG symbol. But most cases can be
> handled with just these two tabs.
>
> Considering Anita's warning, the rendering will be made as on-demand using
> the "Apply style" button or we can include a checkbox for the on-the-fly
> rendering.
>
> The mock-up is just to give a rough idea, it can discussed and refined.
>

A couple of general thoughts after reviewing your mockups and also
from discussions we had in the Lisbon Hackfest:

- the mockups look really great! I'm not sure if the dock approach
makes sense for me but I'll watch from the sidelines to see how
discussion on that goes.
- in the tree, each node should have a small preview icon for that
node. So for example if a node is a symbol layer, it would just show
that simple line or whatever. If the node is a symbol, it should show
the composited result of the symbol layers beneath it. If the node is
an aggregate symbol, is should show the composited result of the
symbols beneath it.
- Assuming a tree that works this way:

  - Class Symbol
   - Aggregate symbol
     - Symbol
     - Symbol
       - Symbol Layer
       - Symbol layer

The tree could also include nesting:

  - Class Symbol
   - Aggregate symbol
     - Symbol
     - Symbol
       - Symbol Layer
       - Symbol layer
   - Aggregate symbol
     - Symbol
     - Symbol
       - Symbol Layer
       - Symbol layer

 or even

  - Class Symbol
   - Aggregate symbol
      - Aggregate symbol
         - Symbol
         - Symbol
           - Symbol Layer
           - Symbol layer
    - Symbol
       - Symbol Layer
       - Symbol layer
   - Aggregate symbol
     - Symbol
     - Symbol
       - Symbol Layer
       - Symbol layer

- The gui we had envisaged in Lisbon would provide a tree and to the
right of it would be a widget which would update based on the context
of the node you are on.
- I am not sure if we discussed it in Lisbon, but I also envisaged
drag and drop support where to the right of the tree you could have
your symbol library and you could drag any symbols into the tree, so
adding additional symbols to create aggregate symbols etc.
- There should be a big emphasis on re-usable, custom Qt widgets (see
for example the projection selector dialog) that would be used at a
low level (e.g. colour button) and at a higher level (e.g. simple line
style widget). The idea being that developers could easily use any of
these components in their custom plugins / apps and always receive
improvements to the underlying widgets (e.g. when database binding
support gets added for a property). With that in mind it might be nice
to desconstruct your ideas down into 'what are the widgets we need to
create' as well as looking at the high level gui ideas as you have
mocked up.

Regards

Tim

>
> --
> Regards
> Arunmozhi
> Twitter: @tecoholic
> Website: http://arunmozhi.in
> IRC Nick: teco
>
>
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>



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