Brainstorm/Survey on welcome screen plugin
Hello everyone!
A number of times, a welcome screen has been proposed for our favourite sheet music editor :)
While learning QML it appeared to me that such a thing would be easily doable as a musescore plugin of type window!
A number of mockups have surfaced since.
By me:
And by tinman:
My question for you: What would you consider useful in a welcome screen, like previous scores or website links? You could just list suggestions or maybe even make a graphical mockup.
Eager for the ideas :=)
Comments
I rather like the basic idea in your first mockup. The choices are clear and logical and map well to the most likely choices.
In reply to I rather like the basic idea by Marc Sabatella
I am working on it :)
Now that I am looking around, I have discovered QtWidget. Would it be better to use this for the window and then let the plugin itself open it?
I have now finished a rather complete ui for a welcome screen in qml.
It took me some while, because I am not a coder and have not done much with qml yet. I'll upload it and maybe someone can have a look at it...
Can I start the score creation wizard directly from within a plugin? Also, have access to the recently used files? Or open the "open" dialog at a specified location?
thanks for the help...
In reply to Call score wizard/access recently edited documents from plugin? by TromboRafi
The good news about the new plugin framework is that it is not yet set in stone, and it was designed to be relatively easy to extend to provide access to more of the MuseScore core data structures and commands that operate on then. So I while I have no idea what's currenbtly possible, I would say that if you have a specific list of things you need, and if there is consensus amongst the core development team that this welcome screen is worth doing and that doing it as a plugin makes sense, it can probably be made to happen.
In reply to Call score wizard/access recently edited documents from plugin? by TromboRafi
The list of open questions I have is:
1: How to access recently used files by a plugin
2: How to launch musescore dialogs like "open" and "new score"
3: How to restrict the window size(i can find that out by myself)
4: And, myvbe someone can look at the code and tell me what i did wrong :) I am still new to this.
welcome.qml
BTW, presently I only knew how to access the ubuntu sdk button elements, i didnt know how to access the qt ones and had no real internet to research.
1st
![Zeichnung.png]( "Zeichnung.png")
![Bildschirmfoto vom 2013-02-02 23-40-39.png]( "Bildschirmfoto vom 2013-02-02 23-40-39.png")
![home.png]( "home.png")
2nd
3rd
In reply to The pictures: by TromboRafi
I am wondering why there is no further help/reaction from you guys. Iss there something fundamentally wrong with my approach to the plugin? If yes, please tell me then... I can't continue the work because the necessary dependencies for qt layouts arent installed with the linux nightlybuild, (I asked that question in the tech preview forum) but we could at least discuss.
In reply to Whats up now? by TromboRafi
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the new plugin framework, so I have no idea if it's capable of doing these things or what would be required to implement this design.
In reply to Whats up now? by TromboRafi
why there is no further help/reaction from you guys
Mainly because we are all busy... Sorry for the delay.
I like the idea of a welcome screen. The current nightly does have a minimum one, coded with QWidget and not QML. Using QML is a good move. I prefer QML because 1/ the QML could easily pull content from the internet. 2/ the QML could be updated from the internet.
Using a plugin to prototype is a good idea but I'm not sure it's a viable solution in the end. We will need access to several functions of MuseScore UI and it would be better if the plugin framework is more an interface to the score than on the MuseScore functions (like recent files). The plugin framework would then be more "compact". So in the end, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to integrate the QML in the code and not use a plugin. Thoughts?
Regarding the Ubuntu components, you can just replace the import by
import QtQuick.Controls 1.0In reply to why there is no further by [DELETED] 5
I didn't see the minimal welcome screen at all! How can I see this?
So, I think having the welcome screen in musescore and not as plugin seems more likely also because we wouldn't have to extend the framework.(and no plugin could phone home and tell its creator what scores you've been working on :D )
Ubuntu components: I am still struggling with dependencies. For one, I can't seem to use qtquick controls because my qtcreator can't import it for some reason, and the linux nightlybuild doesn't come with the dependencies like the windows one so the plugin creator cant import it there either.
What am I missing?
and, thanks for the "reaction". :)
In reply to OK - sorry for being impatient :) by TromboRafi
You can check the minimal start dialog if you select "Start Empty" in Edit ->Preferences ->General.
We will have to somehow extend the interface between C++ and QML but only for this particular case of start screen. So it will not be a "public" API. That means it can be less documented and can change more easily.
Regarding ubuntu components and Qt creator... I don't know how it works on Linux but maybe it's time to start compiling MuseScore yourself :)
In reply to You can check the minimal by [DELETED] 5
Thats a cute dialog! I would like to extend that instead of doing a plugin, because some work was already done! However, first I need to get the source code. I am a bit intimidated, where can I find the bits and pieces that make up this dialog? I will try to achieve something
In reply to Minimal start dialog and compiling by TromboRafi
Where can I find up to date information on compiling for Ubuntu? I couldn't find it in google...
In reply to Also, compiling instructions by TromboRafi
All relevant info on development is found via the Development link in the menu at right of this page, then Developers' Handbook. I don't know how up to date the Ubuntu compilation instructions there are, but that's as up to date as probably exists/
In reply to All relevant info on by Marc Sabatella
ok-I have looked at the .ui file for the current dialog. what would I have to do to make musescore read a .qml file instead?
I am sorry if this is becoming a noobie-asks-questions thread, but hey, I am trying to improve and help musescore :)
In reply to startdialog.ui by TromboRafi
I missed this conversation for the last 5 days, sorry. You can take a look to what is done here https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/blob/master/effects/effectgui.cpp
The effect dialog in Display -> Synthesizer -> Effect is done using QML.
Reading now.
In reply to awesome! by TromboRafi
Hi every body,
I find the idea awesome ;)
Finale has one, without copying it, we could inspire ?
I like the idea of different things to do, open recent score,
but I think also often used instumentation , and a personal option should be usefull to some poeple ...? ;)
Larmardelmy,
In reply to Hi every body, I find the by Zynette
Unfortunately, I havent been improving the prototype welcome screen because my abilities simply arent sufficient. I did try to learn some things from the link posted, but I didn't get it.
I am waiting for the qt5 dependencies bundled with the nightly build for linux so I can use the plugin creator. Compiling musescore has been really hard, I couldn't get it to work, there were errors but i couldn't find help.
So, when the qt5 thing improves, i will continue my work.
In reply to Unfortunately, I havent been by TromboRafi
What Qt or compilation problems are you having? Where and when did you ask for help? Lots of people build on Ubuntu, so I know it basically works, and there are plenty of people who should be able to help with whatever problems you are having. The developer's mailing list and also IRC are good places to get help.
EDIT: I see you you asked here on the forum. That's not bad either. But if you don't get a response soon, try the other places.
In reply to What Qt or compilation by Marc Sabatella
I've asked on IRC some times, but my problems always seem to be specific to Ubuntu 14.04.
Right now 'make' fails with:
/home/rafael/MuseScore/build.release/all.h:35:20: fatal error: QWebView: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden (which means 'File or directory not found')
I have Qt 5.2.1 (GCC 4.6.1, 64 bit) and gcc 4.7 is installed as well.
All commands in the 'Compile instructions' up to the make command have not shown errors.
Maybe you can help. Sorry for misusing thread.
EDIT: I changed my makefile to point to my qt5 installation, now it works. Thanks to jschwalm and Jojo-Schmitz for pointing it out!
In reply to Problems by TromboRafi
What should the button in the lower area do? Currently it closes the screen, but there are 2 problems with that:
1: One might think that it quits musescore
2: More importantly, it closes the screen and nothing happens; there is only the empty musescore window.
What are your thoughts on this?
In reply to Design question by TromboRafi
In reply to Update by TromboRafi
Hi!
![welcomeScreen.png]( "welcomeScreen.png")
I had a discussion with other people and they suggested that I could try to use a design like this:
What do you think, is this an improvement over the previous design?
In reply to Another suggestion by TromboRafi
I think so.
In reply to I think so. by Marc Sabatella
Sorry, I don't understand how to include a .qml file. I have gone through the example effectgui.h, however didn't understand how it works. Its hard because I don't know much C++. Maybe you can show me a more simple implementation? All I understand:
There needs to be a .qrc file which is loaded by a .cpp file.