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Standardizing icons

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Tycho de Waard (SU)

Veteran Member

Posts: 745

7/8/2019 3:35 AM

There are a lot of modules but it looks a bit of a mess. For a large portion this is due to the variety of icons.

Some look very dated. When a module was built for DNN 4.8 it looked fine but nowadays, it just amplifies how old it is.
Some are images
Some are icons but it does not help me what functionality it stands for
Icons that mean in module A someting different than in module B

Is it a good idea to start a list that consolisates this somehow? It could be as simple as a table with icon name, htlm code, link to the repo (like Fontawesome) and function. It would not be a mandatory prescription IMO but if you are working on the look & feel of a module, there would be a reference.

Curious to hear/read what your opinion is on this one.

Michael Tobisch

Veteran Member

Posts: 1158

7/8/2019 3:43 AM

Tycho,

I think this is a good idea - maybe the "Developers" area on DNNDocs is a good place for it!

Happy DNNing!
Michael

Francisco Pérez Andrés

Growing Member

Posts: 59

7/8/2019 4:22 AM

I think that's a great idea, but we should consider same action for DNN Platform itself. If we're gonna standarize, let's do it from the base ;-)

Best,
Francisco

Timo Breumelhof (40F)

Veteran Member

Posts: 1143

7/8/2019 1:28 PM

I agree that it would be good if this would be somehow standardized and I agree is a bit of a mess right now.
But I'm not sure picking an existing "fixed" icon set is the best option as in that case you will have the same issue in a few years.
I would to make those icons token based so you could eventually change the icon set.

[Icon:Edit]
[Icon:Save] Etc.

But it should be super simple to implement or else developers will keep using their own solution IMO.

Will Strohl

Senior Member

Posts: 1374

7/9/2019 1:57 PM

We already have a built-in icon set and API in DNN. It's extensible too, so it can be replaced. I've used it ever since inception in my open source extensions.

Unfortunately, some extensions were built before this existed, and those that have been built since either have decided to not use this feature or didn't know it existed. :)

Olly Hodgson

Growing Member

Posts: 52

7/9/2019 4:47 PM

Posted By Will Strohl on 09 Jul 2019 01:57 PM
We already have a built-in icon set and API in DNN. It's extensible too, so it can be replaced. I've used it ever since inception in my option source extensions.

Can that API support SVG graphics or is it just for raster formats? (GIF/PNG/JPG)

Timo Breumelhof (40F)

Veteran Member

Posts: 1143

7/10/2019 4:28 AM

Posted By Olly Hodgson on 09 Jul 2019 04:47 PM
Posted By Will Strohl on 09 Jul 2019 01:57 PM
We already have a built-in icon set and API in DNN. It's extensible too, so it can be replaced. I've used it ever since inception in my option source extensions.

Can that API support SVG graphics or is it just for raster formats? (GIF/PNG/JPG)

AFAIK only bitmap, also I'm not sure a lot of developers actually know about it.

Will Strohl

Senior Member

Posts: 1374

7/10/2019 10:56 AM

So far, there isn't SVG support, but that could be changed in the future. :)

Daniel Valadas

Advanced Member

Posts: 223

7/16/2019 10:55 AM

We could certainly make it support svg. One concern though is that raster images and svgs work a bit different when consumed. For instance svgs have no size, so just swapping the set wont work unless the consumers know it is an svg and sizes them.

One thing that always bugs me is when I see stuff loading a whole big font and css to consume 3 icons. Same could be said for many other frameworks like bootstrap and even jQuery. I have no problem when it is an offered option, but I frown when it is forced.

Olly Hodgson

Growing Member

Posts: 52

8/10/2019 12:27 AM

Yeah, that's why I have a preference for inline SVGs for icons (as opposed to icon/dingbat fonts).

As you say, you need to know / set the sizes in advance, but most icon sets I've used tend to supply a square SVG image, so as long as you supply the width/height in the HTML and/or the CSS you're golden.

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