Choosing the 'right' icon for an application
 

Hi,

So I've been looking at importing the icons for applications for the
Fedora Applications web site [1]. We'd like to show an icon next to a
given application, preferably the one the user would see in the menus
after installing said app. This is, of course, complicated. I can
currently look for icons inside each rpm in Fedora, specifically the
rpm providing the application we're interested in, and the various
*-icon-theme rpms. My current thinking is, for each application:

o Get the icon name from the application's .desktop file.

o Look in /usr/share/icons for icons matching that name from the
various default Fedora themes.

o Pick an appropriately-sized icon png (probably 48x48).
- We could also store svg instead of png.

o Create a map that looks something like this:
OS -> Application -> Theme -> icon

With a 'generic' theme for icons provided by the application.

o Save the above map and icon data in the web application's database.

o When picking an icon to show the user, pick the one from their
currently-selected theme and OS (if we know it), falling back to an icon
from the Fedora or 'generic' theme.


Does this sound sane? I don't know enough about how icons work to know
if I've missed something.

[1] https://fedorahosted.org/amber/

Thanks,

-RN

--
Robin Norwood
Red Hat, Inc.

"The Sage does nothing, yet nothing remains undone."
-Lao Tzu, Te Tao Ching

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Choosing the 'right' icon for an application
 

Robin Norwood wrote:

So I've been looking at importing the icons for applications for the
Fedora Applications web site [1]. We'd like to show an icon next to a
given application, preferably the one the user would see in the menus
after installing said app. This is, of course, complicated. I can
currently look for icons inside each rpm in Fedora, specifically the
rpm providing the application we're interested in, and the various
*-icon-theme rpms. My current thinking is, for each application:

o Get the icon name from the application's .desktop file.


This seems sane


o Look in /usr/share/icons for icons matching that name from the
various default Fedora themes.

o Pick an appropriately-sized icon png (probably 48x48).
- We could also store svg instead of png.


I don't think there is a need to store the SVG, there is no
straightforward way to embed in in a web page (and have it rendered
correctly by all browsers).



o Create a map that looks something like this:
OS -> Application -> Theme -> icon

With a 'generic' theme for icons provided by the application.

o Save the above map and icon data in the web application's database.

o When picking an icon to show the user, pick the one from their
currently-selected theme and OS (if we know it), falling back to an icon
from the Fedora or 'generic' theme.


I am curious to identify which icon theme is the user using. The browser
does not know this info, the only way I can imagine it working is to
have smolt reporting the theme and link data from smolt with amber. I
don't think you want to go this route (complicated, privacy issues,
smolt is off by default)



Does this sound sane? I don't know enough about how icons work to know
if I've missed something.


I want to add that we are not sure at this time which icon set will be
used in F10 as default, we try to have Echo but we may end staying one
more cycle with Mist (but this should be easy to solve, both themes are
using the same naming structure).



[1] https://fedorahosted.org/amber/


--
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

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Choosing the 'right' icon for an application
 

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:22:57 +0300
Nicu Buculei <nicu_fedora@nicubunu.ro> wrote:

> Robin Norwood wrote:
> > o Pick an appropriately-sized icon png (probably 48x48).
> > - We could also store svg instead of png.
>
> I don't think there is a need to store the SVG, there is no
> straightforward way to embed in in a web page (and have it rendered
> correctly by all browsers).

Cool. I was thinking perhaps convert to png's at the desired size on
the server side, but that doesn't seem as straightforward as I'd
hoped. png's should be fine.

> > o When picking an icon to show the user, pick the one from their
> > currently-selected theme and OS (if we know it), falling back to an
> > icon from the Fedora or 'generic' theme.
>
> I am curious to identify which icon theme is the user using. The
> browser does not know this info, the only way I can imagine it
> working is to have smolt reporting the theme and link data from smolt
> with amber. I don't think you want to go this route (complicated,
> privacy issues, smolt is off by default)

Ah. Well, to do the actual package install, we'll be using a browser
plugin (probably) which will probably send us some limited information
- like what version of Fedora the user is running, for instance. It
might be possible to include the current theme in this info.

> > Does this sound sane? I don't know enough about how icons work to
> > know if I've missed something.
>
> I want to add that we are not sure at this time which icon set will
> be used in F10 as default, we try to have Echo but we may end staying
> one more cycle with Mist (but this should be easy to solve, both
> themes are using the same naming structure).

OK. I'll keep an eye out on this list for updates.

Thanks,

-RN

--
Robin Norwood
Red Hat, Inc.

"The Sage does nothing, yet nothing remains undone."
-Lao Tzu, Te Tao Ching

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Choosing the 'right' icon for an application
 

Robin Norwood wrote:

Nicu Buculei wrote:

I am curious to identify which icon theme is the user using. The
browser does not know this info, the only way I can imagine it
working is to have smolt reporting the theme and link data from smolt
with amber. I don't think you want to go this route (complicated,
privacy issues, smolt is off by default)


Ah. Well, to do the actual package install, we'll be using a browser
plugin (probably) which will probably send us some limited information
- like what version of Fedora the user is running, for instance. It
might be possible to include the current theme in this info.


So you will probably make available in the application icons from Mist,
Echo and Tango (the icon sets are most likely to be installed at users,
maybe add here the default KDE theme) and fall back to whatever is
Fedora's default for any other set?


--
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

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Fedora-art-list mailing list
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Choosing the 'right' icon for an application
 

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:27:44 +0300
Nicu Buculei <nicu_fedora@nicubunu.ro> wrote:

> So you will probably make available in the application icons from
> Mist, Echo and Tango (the icon sets are most likely to be installed
> at users, maybe add here the default KDE theme) and fall back to
> whatever is Fedora's default for any other set?

Yes, exactly. I should have the data imported and displayed in a day
or two, except for the part where the webapp knows what theme the user
is using.

Thanks,

-RN

--
Robin Norwood
Red Hat, Inc.

"The Sage does nothing, yet nothing remains undone."
-Lao Tzu, Te Tao Ching

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