Re: Theme for GNOME Bugzilla

[Andre Klapper <ak-47 gmx net>]

Hi Tom,

On Sun, 2015-04-05 at 18:16 +0300, Tom Tryfonidis wrote:
> I'd like to inform you that i've adjusted Mozilla's theme to GNOME
> Bugzilla. Below is a test instance in case you want to take a look
> (latest version from master branch [1][2]):
>
> http://snf-652774.vm.okeanos.grnet.gr/

That looks very interesting, thank you for your work!
> So what do you think? I'm not a designer, but all the colors are from
> HIG [4], apart from the blue submit buttons.

Personal opinions: I like the header bar a lot because it's consistent
with other GNOME sites! Generally, most text looks pretty small to me in
FF37 and the grey background makes me miss enough text contrast. :-/

> I would like to hear some feedback before i open a bug report for
> that.

Some background for other readers of this thread: 
1) There is the upstream Bugzilla code base. 
2) There is GNOME Bugzilla (running that upstream code base version 4.4
with some local customizations; see the
"bugzilla-gnome-org-customizations" repository in GNOME Git). 
3) There is Mozilla Bugzilla (running that upstream code base version
4.2 with a lot of local customizations, one of them being the custom
"Sandstone" theme/skin.]


We have https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=722155
I wrote there that "I won't backport such a massive change until there
is official support in upstream." But others may have different opinions
of course and may support such a change. :)

Furthermore, Mozilla Bugzilla is running Bugzilla version 4.2. GNOME
Bugzilla is 4.4. If/when we upgraded GNOME Bugzilla to 5.0 (once 5.0 has
been released and some time has passed) but if Mozilla decides to run
4.2 for a bit longer, who would port that theme to 5.0 (which should in
theory happen in the code base of Mozilla Bugzilla)? Clearly I would not
want to block upgrading GNOME Bugzilla on a theme.

It took GNOME years to make GNOME Bugzilla run a recent and supported
Bugzilla version because of heavy customizations. With that history in
mind I am currently rather reluctant to accept the maintenance costs of
bigger changes like a completely custom skin not supported by upstream.

I do support gradual changes (and we've made some as can be seen in
https://git.gnome.org/browse/bugzilla-gnome-org-customizations/tree/ ).
For example, having a GNOME-style top bar would be awesome.
I would love to test and help with CSS patches against GNOME Bugzilla's
current theme!

But to generally push Mozilla's custom Bugzilla theme forward and make
it potentially available in GNOME Bugzilla (with customizations), the
best way is to first help upstream Bugzilla developers to include
Mozilla's custom theme in the upstream Bugzilla code base.

Cheers,
andre
-- 
Andre Klapper  |  ak-47 gmx net
http://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/