Slax author's Blog (RSS)
07
January2009
You can Design the Build Slax feature
As you perhaps know, I am coding the PHP myself, so I will not allow you anybody to do that. But I will be very happy if there could be someone who will design the user interface of the 'build Slax' page. What I'm after is the user interface; not necessarily the graphics design, but mainly the design of how the page should be organized. Perhaps some kind of wizard? I don't know.
What should be there?
An user who goes there should be first able to select base Slax modules (there are 6 of them). One module is always required: the core module 'Slax Core'. It is required in all cases as it is the core of Slax. Then, user should be able to say whether he needs X (graphical interface), if he needs KDE, KDE/office applications and Development tools.
Finally, when user makes that selection, he should be able to choose his language (about 28 languages are available). Perhaps by using some HTML SELECT with flags. His translation will be automatically bundled. Then the user can choose any other modules from the repository, and finally he will see the total estimated size of his download and he can click TAR or ISO links. Also, a small link to 'save current setup' should be there.
I hope you understand what I mean, I will be really happy if there is somebody who can send me some proof-of-concept, as I have no idea now in my mind how that should look like at the build-slax page now.
Thank you!
User comments
Well I know NimbleX, their custom build is there for ages. What we need here is something beyond ... something far better :)
Currently I like the way that the slax building process works. You browse through the modules selecting the ones you want. Then once you arive at the slax build page, it allows for you to check dependencies and dowload the image. (I do like that it does allow for you to download it without the dependencies too)
With the addition of the select element it should be rather functional.
Disclamer: This user has absolutely no idea on what is good design.
Hello,
I could have some remarks... I went through the process and I disliked the overall chaos (neprehlednost). ... I had to look one single section in many separate pages and choose from different software version (I checked for example pidgin ... bud found another version later, so I had to check back to what version did I check previously:) ... huh, that is rather clumsy) ... But these are meant only to make me realize, "how not" in the final version (therefore do not take these as complains Tomas, OK?)
How about s.t. like this:
------------------------
1) Intro page
-------------
-Presentation text and a few commented "howto" pictures. Possibly in the end of the page choice between "simple interface" (for general users) or "geek interface" (with more complex selection options, like older versions of software or specific hardware drivers...? dunno)
2) Software page
----------------
At the top - general selection - Standard / KillBill / Blank/...
Lower - colored boxes (just like here in comments) for a)Environment (Xfce/Gnome/KDE3/KDE4), b)Office (Koffice, OO,...) c)Graphics sw (Gimp, Inkscape,..) and so on... . Each box in different color, transparent picture in lower right corner :D with tiny checkboxes in several rows to select programs.
I would really like to see all picked programs in one page! :)
Programs could have been pre-checked according to the upper-most selection (Standard/KillBill/...) to ease "the build"
3) "Looks page"
---------------
-To select language, bootscreen, KDM, wallpaper, icons, cursors and perhaps color scheme ...whatever possible.
(well, it is very simple to export myconf.lzm and add it to .iso later, but it would still be a nice feature)
-at the bottom - "Download .iso" button
PS: the "size bar" on nimblex is a good feature. I would certainly include that one as well:)
@m1ch4el => thx! :D
...But I would rather hope, my proposal is somewhat ... "not perfect" ... to commence a debate that would be somehow beneficial to Tomas. :)
Regarding the size bar (as one can see it on nimbleX site), what is the benefit of it? I mean, the ISO can be 200MB or it can be 4GB ... what width should I consider to be 100%?
And what should happen with builds which exceed the width? People can add as much modules as they want...
The icons on the build.php page look great.
Once you enable the language module selection menu, I would suggest adding a quick check to select the default.
If it is a logged in user, select their language by default.
If the user is a guest, then select their default language by the translation that they are viewing.
in my opinion your system is beginning to look almost like a shopping system. Why not take advantage of this? make your modules "products" split them down by catergory, sort by supported releases (ie kernel version depended modules: 6.0.6, 6.0.7, etc)
before downloading the modules at the "checkout" screen, give the size of the compilation, list of all modules and the chance to add or remove them. It may also be worth seeing if you can release these modules into torrents and keep your bandwidth costs down.
please could we have a installed files list also? since this would be very valuable if you wanted to ensure that these modules contained the files you needed without downloading them
I suggest that the module icons should be in the front page and maybe a drop down to select from .
Hello webmaster
I would like to share with you a link to your site
write me here preonrelt@mail.ru
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I would be super if there is something like: include all modules like in standard slax 5.x
I am interested in small modification, so for me as linux newbie it would be great :) -> only to remove and add what i know and need.
Thank You Tomas :)
SVK: "No moja anglictina nie je super, ale dufam ze sa to bude dat precitat. A este raz dikes. Prajem vela uspechov."