[quote=“sigmike, post:39, topic:2293”]It looks good. Just a few things:
Actually the XML files describe the UI elements and their hierarchy. So we’ll keep them.
They contain the elements that should be stylized by the stylesheet.
The QT XML files are somewhat similar to the HTML of web development.[/quote]
Sigmike, this is a little difficult for me to understand. Are you saying both sentences are wrong here? I realize the second sentence needs to be removed, because you’re saying you need to keep the XML files, but are you saying the first sentence is wrong as well? For example, the current styling of the Peerunity client is not specified in the XML files, rather the XML files contain the UI elements that need to be stylized by the style sheet. Does that sound more accurate or is it totally off? Whether I’m right or wrong here, would it be possible for you to take my quote above and edit in the changes you think that need to be made? That would be really helpful. I’d feel more comfortable with the wording if somebody more knowledgeable than me did it.
Yes that’s accurate. The XML describes what elements exists and where they are put. One can do some styling inside the XML too, but most of the elements just use the default style.
Maybe something like this:
The UI elements are described in the XML files in the https://github.com/Peerunity/Peerunity/tree/master/src/qt/forms directory. A new .qss stylesheet should be used to stylize these elements. The XML files can also be changed with Qt Creator if you feel it’s necessary (for example to change the layout or to add identifiers), but you will have to rebuild the code to test the changes.
The Peercoin community at [b][url=http://www.peercointalk.org/]http://www.peercointalk.org/[/url][/b] is holding a competition to create a theme for its upcoming community wallet, Peerunity. We're currently offering a bounty of 300 PPC, which is around $627 as of this posting date (Check [b][url=http://coinmarketcap.com/]http://coinmarketcap.com/[/url][/b] for current Peercoin prices.) The type of people we're looking for that would have the skill set to complete this would be web developers who have used cascading style sheets for web sites. C++ skills are not needed.
Instructions: Entrants will be required to design and submit a .qss style sheet. The UI elements are described in the XML files in the https://github.com/Peerunity/Peerunity/tree/master/src/qt/forms directory. A new .qss stylesheet should be used to stylize these elements. The XML files can also be changed with Qt Creator if you feel it’s necessary (for example to change the layout or to add identifiers), but you will have to rebuild the code to test the changes. When your entry is complete, a pull request should be made containing the style sheet. Please place the style sheet here: https://github.com/Peerunity/Peerunity/tree/master/src/qt
Testing Custom Style Sheets: You can easily load up and test a custom style sheet using a parameter without having to compile the whole client. Just follow this example: http://www.peercointalk.org/index.php?topic=2648.msg24092#msg24092. If you changed the layout, you may have to rebuild the code to test the changes.
An entrant may submit multiple entries if he/she wants to.
All entries must be submitted by the end of May 28th, EST.
All .qss style sheet entries must be submitted to the Peerunity Github Repo.
We reserve the right to not hand out the bounty reward in the case of small turnout or low quality entries. The Peercoin community will vote on their favorite style sheet after the submission deadline ends. If the community is dissatisfied with the end results of the competition, no reward will be handed out. As long as people submit quality work, this shouldn’t happen.
Let me know if you have any questions, good luck!
I have a couple more questions before I start posting this around…
1. Do I need to provide links to download the Windows, Linux and Mac versions of the Peerunity client, or are the current links sufficient? If I need to do that, can you please provide me the correct links? 2. I still need an answer about the Peerunity Logo. The extra section I added states that they need to implement the Peerunity logo into their style sheet, meaning the logo should be visible somewhere on the client. Does this even make sense, or is the logo incorporated into the client through another means and not the stylesheet? If this section doesn’t make sense, I’ll remove it, but if it’s something they need to do I want to make sure what I have there is accurate.
Well, given that we recently rebranded the Peerunity build I don’t think they should have to worry about icons/logos. It already has the Peerunity icons/logos in the source (you can see it here https://github.com/Peerunity/Peerunity/tree/master/src/qt/res/icons). They currently show up in the application where they should. I don’t think the qss sheet would even allow someone to alter them. I don’t think you have to make any mention of the logo. You can probably just leave out the section regarding logos.
That makes sense, so I’ll leave out the mention of the logo.
I went to this wiki page and downloaded and installed the Windows version, but it appears to just be the ppcoin wallet and not Peerunity. I opened up the app and didn’t see any Peerunity logo. Did you give me the wrong link or am I missing something?
Whoops. Good call on checking the links. I don’t think that page has been updated… I’ll talk with the guys about updating the wiki. For now it looks like the only links to the download are from this other thread. http://www.peercointalk.org/index.php?topic=2785.0 Only the linux and windows builds are available at the moment, but I think Ben has a OSX build working. Not sure when we’ll have something to distribute though.
On second thought, I think I might leave in something about the logo. I installed the app and expected to see a larger version of the logo in the bottom left area of the overview tab, but it was empty. It seems there is currently only a tiny version displayed in the upper left corner. I won’t tell them that they need to incorporate the logo into the style sheet, but I’ll tell them to keep in mind that a larger version of our logo could be added to the app in the future and that it would be best to keep that in mind when selecting their color scheme. I just want to make sure their color scheme goes together with the logo in case it is added in later. Also, thanks for those links. Hopefully they don’t need the Mac version as well to complete this.
Here is the final version. If nobody else has anything else to add, I’ll probably post it tomorrow morning here, Reddit, Facebook, BitcoinTalk and I’ll get David to post it on Twitter. Let me know now if anything else needs to be changed…
The Peercoin community at [b][url=http://www.peercointalk.org/]http://www.peercointalk.org/[/url][/b] is holding a competition to create a theme for its upcoming community wallet, Peerunity. We're currently offering a bounty of 300 PPC, which is around $627 as of this posting date (Check [b][url=http://coinmarketcap.com/]http://coinmarketcap.com/[/url][/b] for current Peercoin prices.) The type of people we're looking for that would have the skill set to complete this would be web developers who have used cascading style sheets for web sites. C++ skills are not needed.
Instructions: Entrants will be required to design and submit a .qss style sheet. The UI elements are described in the XML files in the https://github.com/Peerunity/Peerunity/tree/master/src/qt/forms directory. A new .qss stylesheet should be used to stylize these elements. The XML files can also be changed with Qt Creator if you feel it’s necessary (for example to change the layout or to add identifiers), but you will have to rebuild the code to test the changes. When your entry is complete, a pull request should be made containing the style sheet. Please place the style sheet here: https://github.com/Peerunity/Peerunity/tree/master/src/qt The latest versions of Peerunity for Windows and Linux can be downloaded here: http://www.peercointalk.org/index.php?topic=2785.0.
Testing Custom Style Sheets: You can easily load up and test a custom style sheet using a parameter without having to compile the whole client. Just follow this example: http://www.peercointalk.org/index.php?topic=2648.msg24092#msg24092. If you changed the layout, you may have to rebuild the code to test the changes.
Logo & Color Scheme: Peerunity has its own logo. Currently there is only a tiny version of the logo displayed in the upper left corner of the app, but it’s possible a larger version could be placed somewhere on the app in the future. There is an empty space on the bottom left corner of the overview tab where the logo could fit nicely, but we have no plans to do this yet. That could change in the near future though, so it would be best if you were to select a color theme that meshed well with our Peerunity logo. The logo is a P with ring around it, both of them gold. The inner space is transparent, so whatever color theme you choose will show through the inside of the golden ring. To see what I’m talking about, please download the Peerunity logo files here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/0b8nrv2dbkbdno3/Peerunity_Logo_Files.rar. There are different versions in that download with the logo laid over top of light and dark colored backgrounds. Looking at these should help give you an idea what color theme would best match the logo and the Peerunity client.
Rules:
An entrant may submit multiple entries if he/she wants to.
All entries must be submitted by the end of May 28th, EST.
All .qss style sheet entries must be submitted to the Peerunity Github Repo.
We reserve the right to not hand out the bounty reward in the case of small turnout or low quality entries. The Peercoin community will vote on their favorite style sheet after the submission deadline ends. If the community is dissatisfied with the end results of the competition, no reward will be handed out. As long as people submit quality work, this shouldn’t happen.
I don’t have any experience with stylesheets but I’m almost tempted to have a go as a learning experience, doubt I’ll have the time. I looked through your description of the bounty though and the tutorial which is quite nice.
One thing I would’ve liked to know if I were to try this though is: are you looking for a unified theme across all platforms, or a distinct “native” theme for each platform? In other words, should the client look the same on all platforms or not?
Just a comment regarding the timeline, less than 2 weeks feels a bit short. Maybe extend a few days and include the weekend of 30th? Just a thought as I don’t know why it should be 28th.
You mean Windows, Linux and Mac? I believe it should look the same across them all. I imagine the changes will also be brought into Peershares and the official Peercoin client as well.
Well we had 2 weeks, but I kind of delayed too long because I was busy with work. I guess I could let it go until Sunday. We’ll need a couple days for voting too though.
Yes, that is where people would post their pull request. Some might also raise an issue if they have questions or just want to let us know that they are working on it. Issues would be raised here: Issues · Peerunity/Peerunity · GitHub.
When you sign in with an account, you can also get notifications in your email.
Yeah, like this one that was posted earlier. It looks sexy and I think a darker background would go best with the Peerunity logo, rather than a lighter background…
While advertising, many designers seemed disinterested in speculative work like this and wanted to be paid for any work they do, which I don’t blame them. I was thinking maybe we’re asking too much from them. Ben sent this to me via email…
"I think it's worth addressing the speculative concerns by only asking for a mockup of what it could look like, rather than completed work. The designer will need to know what's possible, but I think it's reasonable to ask for a couple of samples that show off the intent of the design, rather than expect a completely finished one that is ready for implementation."
I’m thinking maybe Ben is right here. Maybe we should change up the rules and only ask for mockup designs, rather than fully completed work. Mockup images would be much easier to create. Doing it this way would take all the technical challenges out of it and we’d hopefully get a lot more entries. Once the competiton is over and we have a winning design, we could then have somebody else take that design and make a style sheet out of it. Does anybody think this might be a better solution than what we’re expecting people to do now?
One question I had was about what Ben said. He mentioned the designer will need to know what’s possible. How can they know this? I need feedback as soon as possible if I’m to try and turn this around.
Mockups are made to choose the layout. Here the layout is fixed. Many layout changes will require the code to be changed. Maybe we want to change the layout too, but I think we mostly want a new design.
It’s hard to know what’s possible with QT stylesheets. I think it’s similar to web development but more limited.
I think the best solution would be to choose a designer who already knows how to work with QT and pay him to work on our client the same way we’re doing with overkillcoin. We could collaborate with him on the code changes if any. But it may be hard to find someone. We can try to contact people who created QT themes or who designed beautiful QT applications (if any).
Another solution would be to pick a (web) designer and ask him to improve our current design in Photoshop. He takes our screens and change colors, icons, borders, font, etc. He may also change some layouts. Then we take what he did and try to integrate that in the client. We may hire someone else to do that job.
Splitting designer and integrator jobs is very common in web development.
