Google Chrome-like Navigator?

[Judah]

Google's Chrome web browser has a minimalistic look and feel to it:


Out of curiosity, can this be done with the Navigator? I see some difficulties:

The tab style can be accomplished, but the rounding of the corners isn't something that's possible.
The close button on the tab doesn't appear to be possible.
The "new tab" button that appears after the tab doesn't appear to be possible.

Any other issues/observations?

[Chris Porter]

As the Navigator sits right now, you will have issues with the points you posted. If you own the source code you should be able to custom design the Navigator as you see fit.

That said, Phil has discussed adding support for buttons on the tab (the close button) and could probably be convinced to create a new Navigator style like Google Chrome. Phil, what would a new Navigator style entail?

We also might be able to talk him into a form tab list trailing ButtonSpec for creating new tabs. This functionality is in both Chrome and IE and wouldn't be much of a change from the Navigator ButtonSpecs that you can add in right now. I tried using Near for the Edge property but it prefixes the Tab list. Phil, could we get some additional control so the ButtonSpec could be "Far" but aligned left?

This topic made me think about drag and drop of KryptonPages between KryptonNavigators. I don't know if this is documented somewhere or if someone has posted on this before but I did get it working. If it hasn't been posted before, let me know and I'll write up a short document on how I made this work.

[Waescher]

Hi,

try using the SmoothEqual-tabstyle (plus OneNote) to get your tabs look a little bit like the chrome ones.

If you make them a little bit wider they look pretty similar. Perhaps you can play with the palette designer to get the perfect look

The closebuttons are on the wishlist for the navigator and currently not implementet.

@Chris: Drag&Drop of pages is currently not supported, but if you check the blog, you'll see, that Phil has done that in the KryptonWorkspace (and so I think with the underlying KryptonNavigator).

[vesuvius]

You can get the slanting, just look in the tab boder style example in the toolkit



you can also add button specs



I don't think it'd be too difficult to have a "NearTab" option that allows the button spec to be left or right

Only other thing is to draw a close button in the tab that can handle events. I think you are halfway there Judah (wiht the present toolkit), if people ask nicely enough, maybe this may be added to the wishlist. I think it'd be cool!

[vesuvius]

while I'm at it, Google Chrome theme Waesher?

[Judah]

vesuvius,

You can get the slant style, but it's not rounded.

As for button specs, we'd need them on the tabs themselves.

[Chris Porter]

@Chris: Drag&Drop of pages is currently not supported, but if you check the blog, you'll see, that Phil has done that in the KryptonWorkspace (and so I think with the underlying KryptonNavigator).

I have been reading on the workspace since Phil initially posted on it. In the interim or if someone just wanted to move a page between 2 navigators without the full workspace setup, my code would do it. Its really wasn't too difficult and was a proof of concept for me while I was typing my reply in this thread. I'll try to format out the code a bit cleaner and make a post in the Snippets forum.

while I'm at it, Google Chrome theme Waesher?

I would LOVE to have something like this as an available theme. I might even break into the source code a bit to see what it would take to do rounded+slanted tabs. Google Chrome has me pretty excited and I think it would be a cool theme for the Krypton components to be able to use. If you guys group up to work on something like this let me know and I'll try to contribute.

[Phil Wright]

I have not played with the Google browser yet but looking at the picture I would say...

1, There is no tab style that exactly matchs it at the moment but it should be fair easy for me to add a new one that looks about the same. I have added this to the wish list for the Navigator.

2, You cannot add per-page button specs at the moment but I have it on the wish list and it is certainly a doable feature.

3, You can already get a tab that is used to add new pages. Check out the 'Krypton Explorer/Navigator/User Page Creation' sample. It shows the last page which is used to create new pages each time it is clicked.

Issues 1 and 2 will not be possible for the next release as I am now feature complete and writing the documentation for it. I expect a Beta for version 3.0 of Krypton in a couple of weeks.

[Chris Porter]

I started building a Navigator TabBorderStyle to emulate the Google Chrome tab design. It still needs some work but I think it is looking pretty good:



And to show its not a modified screenshot:

[Waescher]

Wow Chris! This style looks fantastic!

while I'm at it, Google Chrome theme Waesher?

Let's see what I can do. Please give me some time - I'm very busy at the moment ...

[Waescher]

I AM busy ... but I just can't keep my hands off ...

Just a little approach with the Krypton-drawing-routines - not exactly what I wanted to get (the colors (pressed) aren't perfect by now).


This will look better - I promise

[vesuvius]

Very exciting, I cannot wait for the fuller versions. Remember that Chrome is still beta so some thing s may change.

Sterling work

[Waescher]

first improvement ... still not good enough


*UPDATE* -> I made a comparison with the same buttonsize and -icon (my icon does not light up when tracking in this sample)

[Chris Porter]

Wow Chris! This style looks fantastic!

Thank you, I've only played with GDI graphics one time years ago so I was very pleased when this worked.

I AM busy ... but I just can't keep my hands off ...

I hear you on that. I don't know what it is, but Google Chrome is such a warm UI that I feel drawn to it, and it is so exciting to be able to create something so close in such a short time.

The buttons are looking wonderful and I can't wait to see what you are able to get them to do.

[David35]

GO CHRIS, THIS IS FANTASTIC!!!

[Judah]

Chris and Waescher, brilliant job both of you! I love it!

[David35]

GO WAESCHER! I'd use this as soon as its done, this is awesome!

[rfrancisco]

Same here. Keep up the good work

[David35]

It was all going to so well and then this post went quiet, guys please finish your amazing work and let us have the code, thanks.

[Waescher]

One thing I learned with my Chrome-Palette is that it'll be very difficult to create a outstanding UI with it. Just replace a Palette to the Chrome-one won't result in the best UI ever, I'm afraid
You may very come close to the Chrome-Browser - if you use it the way Google does. But I don't think that this palette will fit in every case. Just think of the rounded buttons, etc.

We'll see ... in near future