Add support for Bootstrap in MeshCentral, along with a theme switcher

[marclaporte]

"Bootstrap (formerly Twitter Bootstrap) is a free and open-source CSS framework directed at responsive, mobile-first front-end web development." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_(front-end_framework)

We started working to add support for Bootstrap to MeshCentral.

The plan:

• Add Bootstrap support and make it possible to have multiple themes, such as https://github.com/thomaspark/bootswatch
• Encourage capacity for community-contributed themes (documentation, support, etc.)
• Pick an existing Bootstrap theme or create a new one destined to become the new default
• Have a theme picker so users can opt in to the new themes
• The non-Bootstrap themes will go in minimum maintenance mode (so we focus our energies on the future)
• When the community feels it's good enough, a Bootstrap theme will become the new default (and users can still switch back to legacy themes, use their existing custom theme or pick any other Bootstrap theme)
• In a few years, when almost everyone is using the Bootstrap themes, for a major version, we can remove non-Bootstrap themes (We will rediscuss this as a community in a few years)

The code so far: https://github.com/Ndaboom/MeshCentral

[cfoellmann]

I am with you. Time is sparse and I am in no way a node dev but I will support this effort as best as possible

[kambereBr]

A few screenshots of the MeshCentral Bootstrap version in progress. I will regularly provide updated screenshots as the work progresses.

Repo: https://github.com/Ndaboom/MeshCentral

[cfoellmann]

@kambereBr this looks very promising!!

When bootstrap is the foundation it will be far easier to theme. @si458 Is it possible to split the template files for the UI? I am totally oblivious how the nodejs app uses the templates but these mega files are very hard to handle.

[si458]

@cfoellmann The idea at the moment is to have another default.handlebars called default-bootstrap.handlebars

Then, when u specify like ui=1, it will use the new bootstrap ui or ui=0 and use the old one

I do believe the guys are looking at separating the ui into different .handlebar files then people can change certain parts to the hearts content rather than struggling with just a single .handlebar file!

[marclaporte]

We are making progress and we will be looking for testers in about 3 weeks.