Can a gnome3 extension be developed with a ms office ribbon like/ a very customizable HTML interface which uses dbus for communication with libreoffice applications ??
It can have a dropdown thing like drop down terminal extension of gnome3,
a drop down should open whenever libreoffice is opened.
It can also have tabs using sourcecode from the taskbar gnome3 extension
interested in filing a feature request. But also willing to help
I like this idea very much. If I understand correctly, it would be a great opportunity to implement an improved document navigator and style editor using Web technologies. If done right, it could add value to LibreOffice on Gnome and prove the potential of Gnome extensions.
The problem is I am good at html and cant understand much technicalities. But i have good ideas about how the design should look. I am looking for someone who will take forward my idea. I would love to see such a customizable libreoffice
Hi @megh, If you’re not sure about how you might implement this feature, you could try filing an enhancement bug. At that point, you might try finding a developer who would be interested in partnering with you on the project.
Do you know anyone in the Gnome community who would be interested in working on a gnome3 extension like this?
Personally, I would be interested in contributing to this, but I do not yet know JavaScript. My programming skills right now are limited to LibreOffice Basic and a bit of Python, and I am familiar with HTML and CSS. I use Linux Mint regularly and I am familiar with Ubuntu. After filing an enhancement bug and getting a dev interested in the idea, perhaps we could make a GitHub repository or something? By the way, can GNOME extensions be written in Python?
GNOME3 extensions are in Javascript using clutter and GJS and St. Just Learn some JS from w3schools.com and install some GNOME extensions and read their source You will automatically understand (Use Fedora for best GNOME3 experience)
Thanks for the tip, though I think I will try to learn JavaScript with the Mozilla Developer Network’s resources and also the W3C Web Education wiki. w3schools.com can help in a pinch, but this website has many issues and is not the most recommendable, as demonstrated by w3fools.com (an excellent article showing the pitfalls of w3schools.com).
In the GNOME environment, such a toolbar extension could be the final answer to the dilemma “do we radically change a dated interface while risking user confusion and loss of productivity in those who are used to the UI, or only make incremental changes that might not be satisfactory”. If we implement an extension that communicates through D-Bus, we don’t touch any part of LibO and only do our own thing (but we would have to develop a LibO extension to ensure communication on the LibO side).
The gnome idea was dropped as this could be done in GTK. I posted a drawing of a new UI at https://www.libreoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=64184 . This is a good UI according to me making it more accesible
If I get this right, it’s not necessary to make the UI extension outside of the application, it could be done in GTK+ in LibO itself, and making an external toolbar that communicates through D-Bus is not a good idea. Is it because D-Bus would introduce a performance overhead?
It is worth noting that the D-Bus idea has been dropped. The bug now cites using GTK.
Hi @megh,
Awesome! I’m not sure that this would be a feature-request for LibreOffice core, but might be a separate helper-package. If you’re interested on hacking on something here, I’d stop by the dev’s IRC channel on Freenode or perhaps ping the dev list and ask for pointers on how you might implement this change:
A UI-upgrade is a good thing. However, fashioning it after MS-Office ribbons will be a grave mistake. Perhaps we can start with designing something intrinsic and more functional before discussing implementation.
That is a good point you’re bringing up; however I want to make clear that what I’m excited about is not a ribbon, but the opportunity to make a UI extension module outside LibreOffice itself, a so-called “HTML5 app” that communicates with LibreOffice through a D-bus interface. Indeed, MS Office’s ribbon is poorly executed, but its underlying principle is good: to expose little-known functionality and make it easier to access (discoverable).
In LibreOffice’s case, I think there are three areas that need more discoverability and would benefit greatly from a UI extension: style editing, outline numbering and object navigation. Overall document properties are also a good candidate.