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@Rylern Rylern commented Mar 21, 2025

Address #10 by:

  • Updating the combobox to reflect the currently-open page.
  • Putting the top bar on one horizontal line.

@petebankhead
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petebankhead commented Mar 21, 2025

I like the saved space (current screenshot below, for 'before' see #10 ) & especially how the selected jar updates to match the page.

javadoc-single-line
  • Should the search bar be on the right, not the left? I was thinking left, to make it the most prominent input control.
  • The min width seems quite larger - could this be reduced?
    • I think an HBox is being used for the title bar currently; did you compare this with a ToolBar? A ToolBar should make it possible to shrink further and add extra buttons to access options that don't fit, but I'm not certain if this would be a good or a bad thing.

Pinging @finglis and @alanocallaghan for their thoughts.

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Rylern commented Mar 24, 2025

Here is how it looks with the search on the left:
image

And on the right:
image

I agree with Alan and I prefer the search on the right, as I see the Javadoc viewer a bit like a web browser, the combobox like the URL, and yes Firefox got me used to having the search on the right.

I switched the Hbox to a Toolbar but the behaviour is the same, what should change?

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I agree with Alan and I prefer the search on the right, as I see the Javadoc viewer a bit like a web browser, the combobox like the URL, and yes Firefox got me used to having the search on the right.

I also see it as a web browser, which is why I prefer it on the left + center... the big inviting space to type in. Generally I use the URL bar to search.

But in that case, the search bar should be the one that fills as much extra width as is available - to make it the most prominent control. It also doesn't need 'Search' as a label - since URL bars don't say this - and instead the prompt text of the text field could be used.

My thinking is less about right and left, but more about nudging the user into paying attention to the control that they are most likely to want to use... and I think searching will be more common than selecting a jar.

But if the combo box needs to be as wide as it currently is, then I agree that the search bar looks better on the right... because placing it on the left, but narrow, creates a confusing message about which one the user should focus on.

So from your two screenshots, I do prefer the second one. I'm ok if the consensus is that we stick with it.

I switched the Hbox to a Toolbar but the behaviour is the same, what should change?

If you can decrease the width of the window, I'd expect the toolbar to behave differently when the components don't all fit.

@Rylern
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Rylern commented Mar 24, 2025

Something like this?
image

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Rylern commented Mar 24, 2025

The viewer in the last screenshot was implemented in the last commit.

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Thanks, looks good, let's merge!

@petebankhead petebankhead merged commit 8dcc9ec into main Mar 24, 2025
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@Rylern Rylern deleted the top-bar-improvements branch March 24, 2025 17:16
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3 participants