[Project] Package Generator #189
Description
I'm sure other people have different ideas; these are just mine. Feel free to tell me which ones you think are good and which you think are bad.
I started laying out the skeleton of a package builder. I've used Bootstrap's download builder, and jQuery UI; so this is my attempt at learning from their mistakes.
The basic premise:
- people process visuals easier than words
- people want to use the builder again with the same settings; for when new versions come out
- people don't know everything
With that in mind...
The Interface:
(Any bullet with 2.0 means not likely to be in the initial functional release.)
- Pick a MVC/MVVC framework
- I'm working on a Knockout Plugin (which the build page is using)
- There's been talk of a AngularJS plugin, which will happen at some point
- some people insist jQuery is enough, but we should explain why it doesn't...
- TODO: let people choose the version they want, but only highest bug release per minor version
- Pick a jQuery Version
- explain the difference between 1.X.X and 2.X.X
- only show highest bug release per minor version
- (the dropdown knockout plugin is TODO)
- Pick a Preset
- These will just be themes made with this tool
- for example, a default, dark, medical, food, low contrast, etc.
- These will just be themes made with this tool
Elements / Components
- each is toggleable, but default to on
- buttons to quickly turn all on or off (e.g. I only want two elements)
- show all visibly
- right click to change settings, including colors, borders, etc.
- it will be a medium-large contextmenu with inputs and buttons
Views
- should have more elaborate examples
- only show one at a time (tabs?)
Style (TODO)
- color pickers for various things
- pick page fonts
- modal with info borrowed from cssfontstack if we can get permission
- preview button opens a modal with an iframe
Metadata
- title, description, and tags/keywords
- this ends up in the
<head>section of the page.
Extras
- CSS Resets
- search CDNJS for libraries/plugins you plan to use (2.0)
Build
- Download Button
- show a modal with a loading bar
- pulls resources from the server
- builds an index.html file containing examples of all chosen selections in the selected framework
- Create common files such as an AngularJS controller, a Knockout ViewModel, or just a main.js
- jszip everything together
- build LESS
- Permalink Button
- Save as JSON Button
- saves a JSON representation that we can simply load with a FileReader or text input box; and update the ViewModel with it
Some other todos:
- make the toggles look less terrible (I'm a developer, not a designer)
- Write version files, like jquery.json
Thoughts? Critiques? Complaints?