Closed Bug 107023 (altss) Opened 23 years ago Closed 8 years ago

[AltSS] Tracker for Alternate Style UI

Categories

(Core Graveyard :: Tracking, defect)

defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: fantasai.bugs, Assigned: fantasai.bugs)

References

(Depends on 5 open bugs)

Details

(Keywords: meta)

This is the tracker bug for the Alternate Styles UI.
It's a replacement for bug 6782, which jumbled discussion on topics
ranging from the Cascade to wording of the 'none' option into one bug.

This isn't a tracker for layout problems related to style switching;
just use the [AltSS] code in the summary field for that.

When adding a dependency, please also comment with the bug's summary.


Bug 6782 began with http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~dbaron/css/ssui/.
Results of the first phase of discussion (until April 2001) have been
summarized below:


Summary of Alternate Style Discussion in Bug 6782 (v2.4)
========================================================

Referencing: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6782

Capabilities of Alternate Author Style Selection
------------------------------------------------

  o User interface must allow user to:
      - disable author styles
          ~ all author styles will be disabled at the same time (not
            separately)
          ~ switch affects:
              > non-CSS presentational hints
              > persistent styles
              > all alternate styles (including preferred style set)
      - use page-defined styles:
          ~ enables non-CSS presentational hints
          ~ enables persistent stylesheets
          ~ allows user to choose from selection of
              > Preferred style set, or, if there is no preferred style
                set, a "no alternate" option
              > any alternate style sets specified by the author
  o A selected alternate style will remain in effect as long as it is 
    available or until the user selects another style.
      - How is the availability of an author style to be determined?
          ~ By title
              > two sites may have different alternates with the same
                title
          ~ By URI
              > keep in mind that a style set can have several 
                stylesheet files and a style set with the same title
                may add or subtract files from page to page within the
                site
      - If the default style has been selected, then the default style
        remains selected (regardless of title or URI) until another
        style is selected.

  o The selection of an alternate style offered by a page will be
    recorded in the History, and that style will be used every time that
    page is loaded as long as it remains in the History.

( o A User Style remains in effect until the user selects another User
    Style.)

Presentation of Alternate Styles
--------------------------------

Re: 'Use Stylesheet' submenu under 'View'

  o rename to 'Use Style'

  o We are using "page" to refer to the document

  o radios among author style choices
      - has equivalent of 'none'
          ~ We need a name for the "none" option in the author
            style section. So far, proposals are:
              > 'none'
              > 'Ignore Page Styles'
              > 'Disable Page Styles'
              > 'No Page Styles'
      - Author Styles option names:
          ~ alternate style sets (including the preferred style set)
            define their own names
          ~ A page without a preferred style set needs a name for the
            default style enabled option. So far, proposals are:
              > 'Use Page Style'
                  - "Use" is redundant with submenu name
                  - inconsistent with alternate style names (which, in
                    general, won't begin with verbs)
              > 'Page Style'
              > 'Page-Defined Style'

Re: User Style Storage Format:

  o stored in a Stylesheet Folder, in which each file becomes an option
      - any directory, whether on the hard disk or on the Internet
        can be used
      - title will be the filename
          ~ default styles (shipped with Mozilla) will have .css
              - readily identified as CSS, not some other language
              - can be associated with an editor by virtue of extension
      - OS file manager can be used to edit user style selection
          ~ users are already familiar with how that works
          ~ Mozilla not required to create a UI for the job

  o Stylesheet Folder and User Style selection are set in the prefs
    dialog
      - which panel?
      - name for "no user stylesheet" option: 'none'

Interaction of Preferences, User Styles and Style System
--------------------------------------------------------

  o visual preferences should be expressed as a user stylesheet or its
    equivalent in prefs code

  o If no colors (background, text, links, etc.) or font face is
    specified by a user stylesheet, it should default to those selected
    in the preferences.
      - This implies that the preferences are not equivalent to the
        other user styles (which are mutually exclusive), but 
        behave similar to persistent author styles (are always there).

  o In accordance with the previous point, the cascade should be:
          1. UA (ua.css, importing html.css)
          2. user prefs + any selected user styles
          3. author non-CSS presentation hints
          4. author style rules
          5. author !important rules
          6. final user say (see next section for details)
      - This does not require that user prefs & user styles be on
        separate cascading levels. They should both apply at the same
        level, with the user prefs listed first.

  o Final User Say:
      - 6. user prefs override + user style !important rules
          ~ style rules will cascade according to specificity (prefs
            will be applied first)
          ~ ambiguity in the meaning of "Always use my..." can be
            easily solved by a rewording of the option.
             ex: "Allow documents to specify other fonts" (from Tardis)
            The user stylesheet is not the document; therefore, it is
            not restricted by this preference and can override it with
            an !important rule.

 [Much of this is covered by existing code and bug 103594; don't track
  style system here.]
Depends on: 83663
Depends on: 103062
Depends on: 45848
Blocks:

bug 68416  W3C CUAP: Implement user style sheets; allow disabling.


Initial Dependencies:

bug 51690  "Use stylesheets": add support to use non stylesheets not
              even inline 
           (depends on bug 32372's implementation)

bug 51688  Use Stylesheet menu: change "None" to "Minimal Page Style"
           (If bug 51690 gets fixed for Moz1.0, then we can WONTFIX this.)

bug 83663  Alternate style sheet setting not stored [AltSS]

bug 103062 Alternate Stylesheets should appear on link toolbar

bug 51848  UI for alternate and user stylesheets for printing

bug 45848  [AltSS] RFE: alternate user stylesheets
Blocks: 68416
Depends on: 51688, 51690, 51848
*** Bug 6782 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
QA Contact: chofmann → mpt
Keywords: meta
bug 32372 should be able to enable/disable style sheets (CSS) via a pref in UI
bug 92589 View Use Stylesheet doesn't work on frames
Depends on: 32372, 92589
Why is bug 179006 not dupe, blocker, or blocked by this?

Can we set a 1.4 milestone on this group of bugs? It would be a real plus to web
developers wanting to use Mozilla (-> Netscape) for both browsing and web
development. For general browsing, nearly every astute user needs a user
stylesheet(s) to handle the overwhelming number of horrible web sites. But, this
conflicts with site development, which pretty much dictates the absence of a
user stylesheet.
> Can we set a 1.4 milestone on this group of bugs?

We can set whatever garbage we want in the milestone field; that will not change
the fact that this bug per se is not a high priority at the moment.  What _is_ a
high priority is architecture work that will make this bug trivial to fix.  It's
a good deal of architecture work, and due to the periodic freezes we go through
it will likely not be finished till 1.5.  Unless some people learn a lot about
this stuff and start working on it, of course.
Depends on: 178161
bug 178161 - Can't use alternate stylesheets in Phoenix
*** Bug 216278 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Depends on: 200930
Depends on: 216278
Adding bug 216537, Alternate stylesheet selection is not sticky
Depends on: 216537
This may be tangential, but speaking as a user, I request at least duplicating
the feature in Safari (Safari/Preferences/Advanced tab) that allows choosing a
global user stylesheet on the fly. I find it frustrating that I cannot
temporarily turn off the UserContent.css file. I use aggressive ad blocks based
in UserContent.css that sometimes interfere with normal browsing or testing; in
Safari I can toggle this file at will and the results are displayed immediately.
This is a tracker for linking up all style-switching-related issues.
Do not post comments about specific problems here; those go in the appropriate
dependent bug reports--like bug 45848 (linked from above).
Depends on: 262290
No longer blocks: 68416
Depends on: 257608
Depends on: 323761
*** Bug 329328 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Alias: altss
Depends on: 153750
QA Contact: mpt → chofmann
Marking all tracking bugs which haven't been updated since 2014 as INCOMPLETE.
If this bug is still relevant, please reopen it and move it into a bugzilla component related to the work
being tracked. The Core: Tracking component will no longer be used.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 8 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Product: Core → Core Graveyard
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