UI components standardization

Actually:

  • Webapp uses Blueprint (customized).

  • The framework integrates jQuery UI.

My suggestions:

Suggestion A

  • Keep jQuery UI.

  • Add jQuery Mobile.

  • Remove Blueprint.

  • Use jQuery UI and jQuery Mobile for webapp.

Suggestion B

  • Move jQuery UI to an external extension (remove it from the core).

  • Remove Blueprint.

  • Use Bootstrap 2 http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ (version 2 is under development https://github.com/t...ap/tree/2.0-wip and it will have some responsive/adaptive goodness, it could be ready for the Yii 2 release) for webapp (it could also be added as a 3rd party component to the core framework, just like jQuery UI is actually part of the framework).

My personal vote is for B.

I agree Bootstrap can make the default appearance much better and modern. There is already a nice extension for it. Especially I like flash messages ::)

Foundation http://foundation.zurb.com/ could be an alternative and it’s already responsive, however it looks like Bootstrap is going to be a “de facto” standard, so I would use Bootstrap 2 as it could/should be stable by the time that Yii 2 will be stable.

My vote is on Foundation.

Bootstrap is too limiting IMO.

Makes web apps look too similar. :)

Foundation is more flexible.

However, what I would really like is the ability to easily make ‘blueprint’ applications in Yii (no, I don’t mean the framework BluePrint).

I mean: custom webapps.

Then people could contribute custom starter apps, based on Bootstrap, Foundation, with extended auth, one-page jQuery UI, etc.

Starter kits?

Currently, what I do is copy the contents of yii/framework/cli/views/webapp and the webapp command to make my own custom starter app.

Because I don’t want to change the same things each time I start a new app.

bootstrap is indeed great and I have been looking at it for some time. Will consider using it for the webapp in yii.

@jacmoe: do you have a link to Foundation?

Look at my previous post

Here it is:

http://foundation.zurb.com/

It’s simply a better solution IMO. :)

But do take each one for a spin.

The problem with Bootstrap at the moment is that it’s geared towards the same type and style of apps.

Which is internal Twitter apps.

Foundation has more built into it.

And it seems more actively maintained.

https://github.com/zurb/foundation

But just try them out. :)

I think you’ll find that the Foundation grid is more enjoyable to use than the Bootstrap one.

Besides, I think Zurb is a cooler entity than Twitter. :P

They do some cool things.

One important factor in favor of Foundation is that it doesn’t limit your theming options as much as Bootstrap does.

Take a peek at the Foundation Case Studies to see what it can do. :)

http://foundation.zurb.com/case-soapbox.php - 5 different apps.

I will say I would like to see jQuery taken out of the core in a certain respect. The reason for this is that jQuery release schedule is alot more frequent that Yii’s and waiting for a new release of Yii doesn’t always work out (for widgets). Moving it to maybe the package manager but keeping the core integration would be a simple solution.

A proper solution would to move the whole thing into a adapter type interface still within the package manager so people can pick and choose what they want to use. This would give access for people to switch other libraries easier and extensions that use existing libraries could integrate better. I’m a jQuery junkie though so can’t see why anyone would want to use another library!

How about http://www.52framework.com/

+1 for bootstrap and we also have jQuery UI Bootstrap (http://addyosmani.github.com/jquery-ui-bootstrap/)

Please, check out this topic:

http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php?/topic/24455-skeleton-instead-of-blueprint-self-rejected/page__st__20__gopid__131710#entry131710

If yii team consider keeping, migrating from blueprint, please, keep semantics in mind.

You can easily work around this if you use Sass or Less.

By using semantics I can change the underlying grid as I like.

So plus one for that. :)

I am not sure if Foundation supports it out of the box, but it wouldn’t be much of a problem to make a wrapper for it.

+1 for Foundation, simple for a demo webapp and is more "mobile ready", i think.

but Bootstrap is great too.

Well, how many people use the default Yii layout anyway? I use it only for a backend part and I don’t really care how does it look. Bootstrap looks nicely, but I’m pretty satisifed with the current appearance. Of course, Yii 2.0 should bring a new “style”, but one can always adjust the default look or use own design. Yii is a framework, not a CMS ;)

+1 for foundation, it’s really pretty awesome and I think it fits with Yii’s philosophies: lightweight, optimized for speed and rapid development.

i agree, but since you can transform it in a cms or whatever in five minutes, it is nice to have a good style setup to work with. as you say you can keep Yii style for some modules, like backends and some forms maybe.

If you care about completeness, Bootstrap has more UI components than Zurb Foundation (navigation topbar with dropdown menus, breadcrumbs, tables with optional zebra style and column sorter etc.)

Bootstrap already has everything that Yii needs, while Zurb Foundation would require some custom UI components for menus, breadcrumbs, forms, tables column sorting etc.

Obviously, I’m talking about Boostrap 2.x (which is WIP), as the current 1.x version is not responsive.

foundation does have navigation menus with flyouts, tables with alternate coloured rows, form styles etc. Also (and I know this is a matter of taste) it just looks better and feels nicer to use than bootstrap.