Call for an official Mozilla Sunbird theme

Discuss application theming and theme development.
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Sipaq
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Call for an official Mozilla Sunbird theme

Post by Sipaq »

Hi guys,
the Mozilla Sunbird lead developer Mostafah Hosseini has asked me to organize the quest for a new default theme for Mozilla Sunbird, the standalone calendar application.

At the moment we are still using the old suite classic theme for Sunbird and we want something, which looks more modern and more appealing to users. For those of you who do not know anything about Mozilla Sunbird, information can be found under <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html">this link</a>.

We want to do ask the community because in our opinion there a lot of very talented themers out there and we believe Mozilla Sunbird to be a project where the community can actively participate.

So here are the requirements for participating:<ul><li>The theme must be available under the MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license</li><li>The theme should adhere to the Windows, Gnome, and Aqua HIG as far as possible (this isn't necessary in the first draft)</li><li>The theme should use the nsITheme interface as do the default themes of TB and FF</li><li>The theme should use the new XUL toolkit used by FF and TB</li><li>The person wanting to participate should commit himself to continually improving the Sunbird look and feel. This shouldn't be a one-time assignment</li><li>A first rough showcase of the theme should be available within 28 days (we are aware of the fact, that a fully-fleshed theme can hardly be developed in that timeframe so we aren't expecting that. But from the showcase one should get a good impression on how the theme will look when it's finished</li><li>The showcase will be a modified calendar.jar file (get this file from a recent sunbird build available from the <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird_download.html">Sunbird download page</a></li><li>The URL of the showcase should be posted as a reply to this thread</li></ul>Thanks in advance.


[If it is possible I would ask one of the moderators to make this a sticky post for the next four to five weeks]
Last edited by Sipaq on June 16th, 2004, 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
gerv
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Post by gerv »

> The theme must be available under the MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license or at least the MPL

Just to clarify: it must be available under the tri-license, or it can't be checked into the mozilla.org CVS tree. See the licensing policy for more details: http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/license-policy.html

Gerv
Sipaq
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Post by Sipaq »

gerv wrote:Just to clarify: it must be available under the tri-license, or it can't be checked into the mozilla.org CVS tree.
Thanks Gerv, I updated the post.
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Piel
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Re: Call for an official Mozilla Sunbird theme

Post by Piel »

Sipaq wrote:<ul><li>The theme should adhere to the Windows, Gnome, and Aqua HIG as far as possible (this isn't necessary in the first draft)</li></ul>


So does this mean you will or will not want some variation of "Winstripe"?

Sorry - couldn't help myself.
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Post by Greg K Nicholson »

It'd make sense to go for a Winstripe-esque theme, given that Tb will be getting it soon and consistency is the main aim of Winstripe.
Sipaq
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Re: Call for an official Mozilla Sunbird theme

Post by Sipaq »

Piel wrote:
Sipaq wrote:<ul><li>The theme should adhere to the Windows, Gnome, and Aqua HIG as far as possible (this isn't necessary in the first draft)</li></ul>

So does this mean you will or will not want some variation of "Winstripe"?

The contest is completely open.

We asked Kevin Gerich and Stephen Horlander if they could also work on a default theme for Sunbird and the reply was basically: "Sorry, not enough time!"

So that means, that we will accept anything which looks and feels nice. The new theme may look totally different than Winstripe/Pinstripe. But of course if someone wants to do a theme based on Winstripe/Pinstripe we're totally fine with it. Almost anything looks better than the current classic theme :)

I hope that clarifies it.
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Post by Kevin »

Yeah I wish I had more time to devote to Mozilla themes but Stephen and I have our hands full with Firefox and Thunderbird. I would be willing to give advice/consult with anyone who wants to create a theme that harmonizes with Pinstripe or the Windows Firefox theme.
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DiscoBoy
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Winstripe

Post by DiscoBoy »

As it seems that Winstripe will be the default look and feel for TB and FF, also SB should fit into the same look & feel provided by TB and FF. I thought Winstripe was an attempt to create a new unified look for all the standalone mozilla apps and I hope it will be (although i don't like it very much yet)
jeffhot
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haven't done themes yet ... what about icon/logo

Post by jeffhot »

Has anyone done any work to come up with a Sunbird logo or icon to match the stylish new ones for Thunderbird and Firefox. That's something I could help with immediately, while I haven't yet tried my hand at themes. I'll post again when I learn how to do themes.
Sipaq
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Re: haven't done themes yet ... what about icon/logo

Post by Sipaq »

jeffhot wrote:Has anyone done any work to come up with a Sunbird logo or icon to match the stylish new ones for Thunderbird and Firefox. That's something I could help with immediately, while I haven't yet tried my hand at themes. I'll post again when I learn how to do themes.

No there hasn't been any work on better artwork. We could use some help there, too. You also try to build a team with an experienced themer, where you will do the artwork and the icons and the themer will do the css stuff. Any help on improving Sunbird's look and feel is greatly appreciated.
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Sipaq
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Post by Sipaq »

As an incentive I'm willing to give up to 5 Gmail invites for people coming up with a theme showcase for Sunbird.
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FlashBanG
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Post by FlashBanG »

Wow.. strange.. from the calendar forum, i figured sunbird was at least popular enough to get some themes, so either it's still not as popular as i had imagined, or people are hard at work on their themes, w/o time to post ;)

I wish i could help, but my theming skills are next to 0.

Maybe it would help if this thread was stickied either here or in the sunbird forum (other moz.org apps forum) , if any mods are listening :-)
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markcarson
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Post by markcarson »

How about an icon/logo which is similar to the Thunderbird logo, but with a calendar instead of an envelope and a yellow/gold colored bird? I mocked up a quick graphic.

<img src="http://65.61.16.97/Images/Sunbird.png ">

Probably best done by whoever as the original vector art for the Thunderbird logo.

Aloha

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jhirshon
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Post by jhirshon »

markcarson wrote:How about an icon/logo which is similar to the Thunderbird logo, but with a calendar instead of an envelope and a yellow/gold colored bird? I mocked up a quick graphic.

<img src="http://65.61.16.97/Images/Sunbird.png ">

Probably best done by whoever as the original vector art for the Thunderbird logo.

Aloha

Mark Carson


I like this! :)
Sipaq
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Post by Sipaq »

markcarson wrote:How about an icon/logo which is similar to the Thunderbird logo, but with a calendar instead of an envelope and a yellow/gold colored bird? I mocked up a quick graphic.

<img src="http://65.61.16.97/Images/Sunbird.png ">

Probably best done by whoever as the original vector art for the Thunderbird logo.

Looks cool. I really like that. Now if you could give the wings a little more wing-like appearance and put some numbers into the calendar sheet, it would be perfect.
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