#39 Improve UX and layout
Closed: Fixed 2 years ago by polcak. Opened 2 years ago by nirvinm.

I appreciate the efforts of JShelter authors in combating web fingerprinting. I was thinking, if improving UX and layout of JShelter can help users understand the extension better and help in adoption thereby.

Both the popup and options page needs layout fixes, slider based protection configuration, better whitelisting controls etc.

Consider adopting Bootstrap CSS library for implementing responsive UI. It will take away the pain of writing raw grid and flex rules. It is also very slim in terms of bundle size.

I'm not an UI developer but know enough to implement a better UI if not best. I'm willing to contribute if the authors are okay with using Bootstrap.


I see Bootstrap is MIT licensed which is compatible to use with GNU GPL software if that is a concern.

I am not against using bootstrap's CSS. There is also PureCSS as an option.

If you draft up a proposal, we'll definitely review.

Can you please provide me an example of what do you mean by draft?

I can add description of what UI improvements we can make or point out code that can be simplified by using UI toolkit like Bootstrap/PureCSS, if that is what you mean.

I'm already working on some UI improvements and can give a PR for your review in few days.

By draft, I mean either a picture of what the final layout might look like or some CSS that we can test on our machines.

The current layout is the best that we have so far, but it is still considered a work in progress.

Yeah I can send screenshots in a few days. Also, I'm not proposing a new layout, just tweaks and more polish to make it easy to understand and interact with.

Thank you very much for volunteering.

If you want to polish the UI, it would be much better and have much better chance to being accepted if you do not bring additional dependencies.

  1. I do not want to track security fixes of another project. Every release takes about 30 minutes
    that is a lot of time for each security release of Bootstrap.
  2. If you're going to port, you will likely rename the elements. That will break test cases. Who is
    going to fix them?
  3. A person will be needed for maintenance, later additions etc.. Are you going to stick with the
    project?

The UI is already responsive.

Do not fix what is not broken. No dependency on Bootstrap is a benefit, not an issue.

That is understandable. Adding one dependency comes with it's own issues. I'll then try to patch some minor issues in the UI with good old CSS.

To clarify, I am not against Bootstrap CSS, but I am against Bootstrap's JS. Bootstap CSS would not have any security implications. Less dependencies is better though.

I never proposed to add Bootstrap's JS. That might sure have security implications as it has it's own dependencies.

The reason I proposed Bootstrap CSS was that I see so many coding efforts spent on just writing CSS rules. That could be spent on anti-fingerprinting measures instead of reinventing the wheel.

But I agree with the maintenance concern. Bootstrap comes with it's own upgrade lifecycle (though it can skipped as it's just CSS library) and I don't want to add burden to the authors.

The contribution was merged, see #40. If you have additional improvements, we will be happy to consider for merging.

Metadata Update from @polcak:
- Issue close_status updated to: Fixed
- Issue status updated to: Closed (was: Open)

2 years ago

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