Firebird Theme - a "light-weight" Theme

[aaron]

I don't notice any oddities with the stop, cut, copy, or paste icons.

If I'm understanding this correctly, all you'd need to do to make this theme compatible with the next version of Firefox would be to bump the maxversion number in the install.rdf file?

If so, I'd like to take a serious look at this method and see how far I could push it, to see if I could get my themes to use this sort of framework.

[ShareBird]

Hi aaron,

Aronnax! is at Mac... I've already expected some issues on mac, I need only to check this area on pinstripe.

If I'm understanding this correctly, all you'd need to do to make this theme compatible with the next version of Firefox would be to bump the maxversion number in the install.rdf file

That is the idea! Of course this method is very, very limited and just can work with style overlays. It means you can style some windows, but not make globally changes (although I can imagine what we could do if, e.g., content/xul.css would make a call to the "customskin" package).

Cheers

[aaron]

So that's why you only covered the browser window and not the Tools=>Options window or the Places window then huh? Too bad that it can't work for everything. This really would be a load off my shoulders not to have to re-write my themes from scratch each time there's a Firefox release.

[ShareBird]

So that's why you only covered the browser window and not the Tools=>Options window or the Places window then huh? Too bad that it can't work for everything. This really would be a load off my shoulders not to have to re-write my themes from scratch each time there's a Firefox release.

All those windows can be skinned as well. You just need to declare a skin overlay for them (chrome://browser/content/preferences/preferences.xul for Options and chrome://browser/content/places/places.xul for Places), e.g.

Code: Select all

style      chrome://browser/content/preferences/preferences.xul              chrome://customskin/skin/preferencesOverlay.css
style      chrome://browser/content/places/places.xul                        chrome://customskin/skin/placesOverlay.css

The only real limitation from this method is to style widgets globally (something like button {whatever;}), as I said before possible with just one line added to content/xul.css

[aaron]

Good to know Sharebird!

Sorry if I'm a little dumb on understanding.... so since we can't add the line to content/xul.css, and since all my themes use native buttons, scrollbars, radio buttons, etc -- do you think I'd be able to convert one of my themes over to this "light-weight" method and keep all the same look and feel for my theme? Haven't had any time to test it out yet (my 'real' job plus a 6 month old son keep me very busy).

[ShareBird]

I guess yes, aaron. I'll be here if you need me

[WildcatRay]

It makes perfect sense! Thanks for clarifying

Hi Triton, I've figured out something important. We need to register the skin for the default theme before we register our skin... (I've edited my post)

On the new file, I don't even see the altered icons in the 'Customize' window. So this is a step back from the previous file.

Hmmm... Thanks, I guess I've figured out what was wrong. Could you please test it again? (Thank you very much )

http://www.tudobom.de/xpi/firebird_1.0. ... nk_r34.jar

Kudos, Sharebird!

[patrickjdempsey]

I got it running on Win 2000, but only after turning off my extensions and restarting. The buttons do not show "hover" states, which needs work... especially since the back and forward buttons do not get the button surround like the others. It's a good start though. I'm not up to speed on all of the technical aspects... but does this mean it's possible to swap out toolbar icons in the same way Personas swaps out background graphics?

[WildcatRay]

An FYI regarding this approach. It also means that the Ctrl-Tab and All Tabs previews are not adversely affected like they are with the more "traditional" approach to writing/coding themes. (Those need to be addressed or they do not appear as they should or need to to be "useful" when using a 3rd party theme.) I can and have been using this in both the Namoroka (Fx 3.6pre) Branch and Minefield (Fx3.7pre) Trunk nightlies with no evident issues.

[ShareBird]

An FYI regarding this approach. It also means that the Ctrl-Tab and All Tabs previews are not adversely affected like they are with the more "traditional" approach to writing/coding themes. (Those need to be addressed or they do not appear as they should or need to to be "useful" when using a 3rd party theme.) I can and have been using this in both the Namoroka (Fx 3.6pre) Branch and Minefield (Fx3.7pre) Trunk nightlies with no evident issues.

Yes, this is exactly the expected behavior. With this approach you should be able to take just once care of modifications: when you change the toolbar icons or something other you want. The theme self will automatically "be updated" together with the default theme...

[patrickjdempsey]

Any new progress on this stuff ShareBird?

[ShareBird]

I needed to concentrate on other projects... Anyway, any suggestions for a progress?

[WildcatRay]

I needed to concentrate on other projects... Anyway, any suggestions for a progress?

Possibilities include making available a choice of icon sets within the theme or to "clone" this and use different icon sets.

[aaron]

Sharebird, I'd also like to see this expanded as a template. Would it be possible to get a copy of this light-weight theme that overlays all windows, and applies custom icons to all icons in the default theme?

[ShareBird]

The original idea is exactly this. To make a template that could be cloned to build new themes.
We can insert more overlays to skin even more windows. As I said before, the only limitation on this is to style global objects, widgets. This can be very frustrating.
I would like to end up with a template that contains a large level of customization and explanations, maybe including some graphics like this:
http://www.guiadohardware.net/comunidad ... ost4579681

I will try to work further on this, unfortunately I don't have much time at this moment...