First, despite all my previous objections, the clear button being stationary is a good idea. So I'm going to throw out all that bad UI stuff and put the clear button in the same spot all the time. Ease of use outweighs making sense. Also, the clear button gets a little too small when you stuff it into the "Notifications" bar.
Second, the carrier "advertisement" is actually useful for roaming and letting you know when you're connected to a femtocell. So I'm going to put that back too.
So, bigger, stationary clear button, and keep the carrier name, but make it suck less. I can do that:
I'm very interested in hearing any objections to this design. I think it should cover everyone though.
I've also fixed a big drawback of the first version: I don't have to murder the stock keyboard for framework resources anymore, the new location allowed me to do it with all stock UI widgets.
It's all down to just 1 XML file now. (like it should be!) So porting should be easier. In fact I bet it can be deployed to any CM6.1 rom as is.
Here's the source if anyone is interested. It's from /system/framework/framework-res.apk/res/layout.
If you are really, REALLY brave, AND YOU HAVE A NANDROID BACKUP: you can try this update.zip over your CM6.1 install. It will ruin anything that isn't CM6.1.
If the update.zip actually works, and your carrier name is black instead of white, go to Settings, CM Settings, User Interface, Date and Provider, and change Carrier PLMN Label Color and Carrier SPN Label Color to white (#ffffffff).
My only big problem is that it doesn't work with UOT Kitchen.... help?
Feedback welcome.
Update: It doesn't work with MDPI devices (G1, Hero, MyTouch, etc). Right now I'm focusing on getting it built into Cyanogenmod. Wish me luck!
Worked on my Milestone with CM 6.1-RC5. Awesome idea, thanks!
ReplyDeleteBut is it possible to replace the "clear" with an "X" or something? The german word "Löschen" is too long and looks horrible when more than 4 buttons are visible.
This is awesome. Would love to see this as an option in CM. I really think you should submit it on their gerrit.
ReplyDeleteShould try to get this commited to cm.
ReplyDeleteCM integration is my next step. I have to make it work with CMparts so you can switch between the new and old design. So I'm trying to figure that out.
ReplyDeleteYeahbert: It's possible to make the clear button say whatever you want. I never thought about it being a word other than "Clear". Gingerbread is going to be in 50 some languages. What a headache.
Thanks for the answer. Well, the "X" would solve this problem, but I'm not sure, everybody will like this. Is it possible to use an image?
ReplyDeleteMoving the clear button up into the area with the toggles associates with those toggles.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, placing the carrier string in the Ongoing title section associates it only with Ongoing notifications.
It definitely looks prettier, but it's a little scary from a usability perspective.
I'm messing with it a bit myself. Once I saw what you were trying to do, I took a crack at it. Problem seems to be that its all hard coded right now, there must be an elegant way of doing it without hardcoding the positions.
ReplyDeletei made a meatamorph for it it should work on more roms now http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=867502
ReplyDeleteI understand the importance of the carrier string now but why did you move the clear button? It seemed to fit well into the Notifications subtitle bar area. Like it was in one of your previous screen shots (on the right):
ReplyDeletehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NSHnzNsAUqM/TPsqCQ4UnMI/AAAAAAAAAFY/haHGYCdU5k0/s1600/Clear-intro.png
Another idea, a gesture across the widget area (or whatever area you choose in the notification area) to function as clear.