[SOLVED] How to test theme's radio buttons and check boxes? [Cinnamon]

[blueberrymint]

Hello! I'm working on a cinnamon theme currently and can't find any applet to test the styling of radio buttons and check boxes. If anyone knows such an applet or any other way of testing, please share.

Many thanks to anyone who can help .

[sebastjava]

Install gtk-3-examples to get this Widget Factory. Available from your Software manager and Synaptic. Widget Factory is a part of this gtk-3-examples package. Once installed, you may still have trouble finding it. You may need to add it to your menu by yourself. It's easy. All the details here: viewtopic.php?p=2163767#p2163767

Command to launch or add to your menu: gtk3-widget-factory

Widget Factory, a part of the gtk-3-examples package

[sebastjava]

P.S.: I may be slow to respond. I am subscribed to this forum, but sometimes i don't get notifications about new posts on my email !? That's a new problem i found lately. Investigating...

EDIT: I looked at my notification options

I checked this: Someone creates a topic in a forum to which you are subscribed

It should be okay from now on ? We'll see.

[blueberrymint]

Install gtk-3-examples to get this Widget Factory.

Maybe I misunderstand something, but isn't it for testing gtk themes only? My theme is not a gtk one, it's for Cinnamon desktop itself (which is stored in cinnamon.css file): panels, applets, desklets and so on…

There are style classes for check boxes and radio buttons that can be found in /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/checkBox.js and /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/radioButton.js. Standard mint themes include their styling, so I was wondering where to actually see those elements in action. Or are they obsolete?

[sebastjava]

There are style classes for check boxes and radio buttons that can be found in /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/checkBox.js and /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/radioButton.js. Standard mint themes include their styling, so I was wondering where to actually see those elements in action. Or are they obsolete?

Sorry, at first i didn't understand you were specifically talking about the "Cinnamon Desktop": panel, menu, calendar, etc. I never saw those radio buttons and checkboxes, and i have no idea where to see them... Maybe they are obsolete, i don't know...

[blueberrymint]

Sorry, at first i didn't understand you were specifically talking about the "Cinnamon Desktop": panel, menu, calendar, etc. I never saw those radio buttons and checkboxes, and i have no idea where to see them... Maybe they are obsolete, i don't know...

No worries. Thanks for trying to help anyway.

[Drugwash]

@blueberrymint: You can install my betterlockPlus applet and enable checkboxes and radio buttons in the settings window - there's a button there called 'Radio buttons'. Close and reopen Settings after that.

[blueberrymint]

@blueberrymint: You can install my betterlockPlus applet and enable checkboxes and radio buttons in the settings window - there's a button there called 'Radio buttons'. Close and reopen Settings after that.

Radiobuttons do not appear, unfortunately. I downloaded the 1.4.1 version. Maybe I'm not doing something right? I even restarted the Cinnamon.

[Drugwash]

Maybe you are confusing the idea of radio buttons with something else. All those "circles" next to default and custom are radio buttons.
Are you somehow referring to bullets and checkmarks in a menu maybe?

There is no need to restart Cinnamon, changes are applied immediately when changing the Controls subtheme in Themes.

By the way, if you look closely you'll see the radio buttons are misaligned vertically - they should be centered but instead they are top-aligned. There are a few Windows Longhorn-inspirated themes that have them correctly aligned (Aero, Jade and Plex; Slate has them misaligned).

[blueberrymint]

Maybe you are confusing the idea of radio buttons with something else.

I'm talking about:
1) /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/checkBox.js and /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/radioButton.js
2) In cinnamon.css they have their own styling under .radiobutton and .check-box classes.
3) Take a look at the standard cinnamon theme's svg images: checkbox.svg, radiobutton.svg.

You were talking about gtk theme. That context settings menu of your applet is a part of a gtk theme. I'm talking about Cinnamon theme exclusively. It's a pity that I don't know any applet or other element of Cinnamon dekstop that uses the aforementioned buttons. I think that they're probably deprecated, but I can't say for sure, that's why I created this topic in the first place.

[antikythera]

Cinnamon is a GTK desktop despite using a Java Script engine from Mozilla too.

[Drugwash]

I'm talking about:
1) /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/checkBox.js and /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/radioButton.js

Found you one example code using the checkBox import: Developer's Tools.

For me it looks like this:

devtools_checkboxes.png (15.07 KiB) Viewed 289 times

And it turns out I was about right thinking of the menu ornaments bullet and checkmark; apparently the popup menu (/usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/popupMenu.js) uses both checkBox.js and radioButton.js for the menu item ornaments.
See PopupIndicatorMenuItem > setOrnament(ornamentType, state).

The Spices Update applet by claudiux uses bullet/radiobutton ornaments in its menu when updates are available but as far as I remember they are symbolic-like.

Couldn't find any more useful information on this on my 19.2 system.

[blueberrymint]

For me it looks like this:

It looks the same to me too. (Desklet settings also gave me a warning that this desklet might crash Cinnamon.)

And it turns out I was about right thinking of the menu ornaments bullet and checkmark;

I thought bullets were for emphasizing lists, not for radio buttons . And yes, of course, I meant popup menus as well, I just wasn't excluding any other element of Cinnamon desktop that might potentially use check boxes and radio buttons.

In any case I thank you very much for helping me .

For now I'll stick to my theory that the discussed topic is obsolete. I really don't want to waste my time and energy on styling something that is hardly in use anymore.

[Drugwash]

Desklet settings also gave me a warning that this desklet might crash Cinnamon.

Never happened to me and I've had it enabled since forever. Those warnings are there just as a heads up because of certain functions that could maybe screw things up.

I thought bullets were for emphasizing lists, not for radio buttons

It's just the naming. I'm used to how they were/are called in Windows. Menus can use them as radio buttons to show the selection in a group of similar items, just as in a normal GUI.

For now I'll stick to my theory that the discussed topic is obsolete.

As you wish. Personally I can't say anything for certain, best would be to install all available x-lets (without necessarily enabling them) and perform a text search for the respective imports (imports.ui.checkBox and imports.ui.radioButton) to see precisely how many of them still use those elements.
Either way someone might still use them in their local x-lets and if you publish your theme and they use it there may appear problems.

And... you're welcome.

[sebastjava]

Personally I can't say anything for certain, best would be to install all available x-lets (without necessarily enabling them) and perform a text search for the respective imports (imports.ui.checkBox and imports.ui.radioButton) to see precisely how many of them still use those elements.

Maybe there is a faster and safer way to do this ? All applets and desklets can be found in https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-spices-applets and https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-spices-desklets

I would try to download them all at once, without installing: click on GitHub's green Code button > Download ZIP

And then do this text search in there...

[Drugwash]

Yeah, that's a more... compact way of doing it. Found three for checkbox in applets: bible@nodeengineer.com, qredshift@quintao, sticky@scollins, and also first two of them for radiobutton. Only same devTools@scollins in desklets for checkbox; no radiobutton in desklets.

[blueberrymint]

Either way someone might still use them in their local x-lets and if you publish your theme and they use it there may appear problems.

Potentially yes, but technically I don't think so. As far as I understand it the default cinnamon.css is applied for any element that doesn't have custom styling. I realized this while I was still working on my theme: a lot of elements that didn't have custom images or css applied had the default styling. You can test it yourself (if you want), just comment out a section of css code for a certain element, reload the theme and see what happens .

[Drugwash]

You can test it yourself (if you want)

Nah, I'll just take your word for it.

[blueberrymint]

Personally I can't say anything for certain, best would be to install all available x-lets (without necessarily enabling them) and perform a text search for the respective imports (imports.ui.checkBox and imports.ui.radioButton) to see precisely how many of them still use those elements.

Maybe there is a faster and safer way to do this ? All applets and desklets can be found in https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-spices-applets and https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-spices-desklets

I would try to download them all at once, without installing: click on GitHub's green Code button > Download ZIP

And then do this text search in there...

Thank you very much . I used grep -r "checkBox" and grep -r "radioButton" for all those downloaded applets and desklets.

As a result some of them do indeed import radio buttons and checkboxes. However, none of them actually use radio buttons in their programs. devTools@scollins and sticky@scollins do use check boxes which in turn have their own styling defined by their respective developers; for devTools@scollins it has .devtools-checkBox css class and for sticky@scollins it has .sticky-checkBox css class.

Phew, now I really know that there's nothing to worry about .

Thanks again.

[blueberrymint]

Thank you to everyone who helped me .

I think it'd be best if I mark this topic as solved.