notes on testing Firefox themes

[patrickjdempsey]

Weird, maybe depending on who "built" the specific copy of Noir it shows up differently? I wonder what the heck windows-theme-generic is for?

[ShareBird]

Weird, maybe depending on who "built" the specific copy of Noir it shows up differently? I wonder what the heck windows-theme-generic is for?

I've got mine here: http://www.askvg.com/download-official- ... -required/

This is indeed a good question: what the heck is this "windows-theme-generic" for???

[mcdavis]

I'm wondering why you don't use anymore the native approach you used to... I've got inspiration on you

glad to hear it, i like what you did with it

and made my themes go with native titlebar without problems....

I'll answer over here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1953371&start=45 , in a sec. (If that estimate is as good as my estimate for how long it would take to do titlebars, that means it'll be there in an hour.)

[mcdavis]

Here's a summary of results of desktop theme detection

http://home.comcast.net/~username54321/ ... 110216.txt

Updated again to include ShareBird's version of Royale Noir and to include Windows Embedded Standard for XP (mentioned in bug 615890).

I'm not sure what to do about having different versions of Royale Noir running around. This isn't a problem for NNL because I don't change any colors based on XP desktop themes, and all my sizes and positions are the same for all the XP desktops other than classic.

As far as multiple desktop themes all claiming to be Luna Silver, I would just assume that if they say they're Silver then they are. That way the actual Luna Silver (one of the default XP desktops, and therefore important to get right) gets taken care of. And if anybody complains because they're using the false-flag version of Royale Noir, we can tell them to uninstall it and start using the one from askvg.com (the one ShareBird pointed out) instead.

It's also still possible I didn't install the one from istartedsomething.com right, although it was styling the windows, so ...

Also, I'm vague on the details, but I seem to remember you could say something like

:-moz-system-metric(windows-theme-XXXXXX) { ... }

where XXXXXX was anything you wanted, and if it matched the string returned by the desktop theme in use then it would match. Or maybe that was for one of the media queries.

[patrickjdempsey]

I've already noticed a few places I'm going to use the Zune selector for sure. And I've never seen the Windows Embedded theme before, it's quite lovely. I don't think it's really a big deal about the Royale Noir selector... the version I had generated a blue Highlight color like Royale even though the titlebars are black. The only real problem I could see is if someone wanted to create window controls specific to each Windows theme family, in which case it would look like Luna while really being Royale.

[mcdavis]

I've never seen the Windows Embedded theme before

Yeah, that was new to me too. The first time I ever heard of that was in that bug. I was like ****, another one?!?. Hehe. But a good-looker.

[ShareBird]

As far as multiple desktop themes all claiming to be Luna Silver, I would just assume that if they say they're Silver then they are. That way the actual Luna Silver (one of the default XP desktops, and therefore important to get right) gets taken care of. And if anybody complains because they're using the false-flag version of Royale Noir, we can tell them to uninstall it and start using the one from askvg.com (the one ShareBird pointed out) instead.

Hmmm... Now I can understand this: viewtopic.php?p=10413005#p10413005
Thank you mcdavis!

[mightyglydd]

It's also still possible I didn't install the one from istartedsomething.com right, although it was styling the windows, so ...

Hmmm, AFAI remember that's always been the 'main' link for Royale Noir, been using it for years with no problems. Is this just happening on post B12 versions ?... because the other FF4 themes (FXChrome/Nuvola/MacOSX/QSQ ) I'm using with b12 work/update perfectly.....so far.

[mcdavis]

Hmmm... Now I can understand this: viewtopic.php?p=10413005#p10413005

Fantastic. Always great to mark another one solved.

Hmmm, AFAI remember that's always been the 'main' link for Royale Noir

OK thanks for confirming that.

As far as your other question, it looks like ShareBird's got you taken care of in his Silvermel thread.

[jez]

Thoroughly testing a theme is a huge undertaking, at least for a single developer like me. I don't even have a Mac, so that aint getting tested.

You know how there's a Babelzilla for translations? Maybe there could be a Testzilla for people who would be kind enough to help people test out their extensions for functionality, and across different platforms. That'd be cool.

[Zigboom]

@ jez,

It's quite easy if you have a support forum (you can open one here if you don't have one).
All you have to do is to ask in the support forum who likes to test Beta versions on a Mac, normally there will be few kind people (with some spare time).
With a bit of patience, I'm sure you'll find your tester. If you do, you can add their names to the contributors of your theme (in install.rdf and in the release notes).
Hope it helps.

[mcdavis]

Maybe there could be a Testzilla for people who would be kind enough to help people test out their extensions for functionality, and across different platforms. That'd be cool.

Yeah, I could really go for something like that too.

All you have to do is to ask in the support forum who likes to test Beta versions on a Mac, normally there will be few kind people (with some spare time).

I've gotten really good support from my beta testers this time around. I guess it helps that the release cycle has been so long ... they're all ready for something new. They keep jumping in and thinking "this beta is the last!"

[patrickjdempsey]

@Zigboom, that's assuming you've had *any* contact at all with your user base. I guess my entire user base must be 100% satisfied to hang out in Firefox 3.6 because I've gotten literally virtually zero feedback, and absolutely zero personal contact to where I could engage in a conversation. Even when I was getting regular feedback (over a year ago) it was almost impossible to convince my users to send me screen shots of what was happening. So basically I've been flying blind since before Firefox 3.6 came out. I've actually been surprised to see people still downloading my themes according to AMO statistics because the silence is maddening!

Eventually I had to beg an old college friend in Hawaii who runs a Mac to install Firefox and one of my themes just to send me screen shots. From there I worked out some of the fundamental issues and just applied those lessons to my other themes and crossed my fingers. The big one was learning to not use the OS button colors like ThreeDShadow and ThreeDHighlight but use opacities of pure black and white: rgba(0,0,0,.5) rgba(255,255,255,.5) instead. Not that it matters much with dark themes, but they render vastly different on the various platforms. Once I figured that out I stripped all of those OS button colors (which the Windows default theme is in love with) out of my themes. I also switched from OS scrollbars to completely custom scrollbars because of OSX issues. You can also learn a few things by cracking open the OSX default theme and giving it a look around (yes I know it's technically not very simple to do) but peeking in there you realize that there are some modifications that happen in their browser.css you need to carry over like killing off the dropmarkers for the back and forward buttons.

[ShareBird]

The source be with you...

[Zigboom]

I agree the feedback is very tiny comparing with the download stats.
I also had a hard time finding Mac testers and asked friends but the Windows and Linux feedback was always there.
Maybe it's the snobbish Mac users' fault (or maybe they're just always too busy)
I totally agree about the design decisions, I believe firmly in absolute colors and fully skinned elements.
To blend with the OS is the job for the default theme and it does it brilliantly.
For us 3rd party themes developers I think it's better to go for a fully styled unique look.