The UI should allow for advanced customization

[bsclifton]

Carried over from https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/246

The idea would be to allow users to customize the location of features like the URL bar, bookmarks toolbar, tabs, etc.

Original issue details:

The concept of Brave looks like it will be a real browser for power users again. Would be nice to have advanced customization features aka a full status bar or being able to combine urlbar elements with the tabs if possible, or more advanced elements movement in the UI.

Thanks for considering :)

Some other requested functionality:

• Change size of tabs
• Change font used in tabs
• Customization similar to Atom; a simple doc you can edit

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/bkgmyp/say_hello_to_several_new_folks_who_just_jumped/emjklqf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

[Sa-Ja-Di]

Will there ever be progress - as you see many users show interest in features like that or do you plan to stay a generic simple user only browser?

At least you could make the black theme fully covering all UI elements, also the right-mouse context menu or the Brave settings menu - Even Chrome is able to do that in the meantime.

Or at least to be able to put the tab row beyond the address/url bar - that are very limited basic functionalities, which should at least be considered.

[Brave-Matt]

Several +1's from Community -- 4 different users requesting in following thread: https://community.brave.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-move-the-bookmarks-button-to-where-it-is-in-chrome/48785/4

[Sa-Ja-Di]

Several +1's from Community -- 4 different users requesting in following thread: https://community.brave.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-move-the-bookmarks-button-to-where-it-is-in-chrome/48785/4

What would also be nice - and fits to this topic as it belongs to advanced customization - would be an optional REAL status/menu bar - Vivaldi features both. Same like a side-bar.

Almost no other Chromium browser features this, would be great if Brave would follow Vivaldi in that way, would also bring over many frustrated(ex-) Firefox power-users towards Brave. I personally use Brave as backup browser after i dumped recently Chromium because of the upcoming Google plan to restrict ads-blocking capability.

Would be for sure nice to use Brave a little bit more often, but in that bare-bone kind of way - this makes it impossible for me to do. And there are for sure other potential Brave users which are driven in the end away because of this very same reasoning.

So, it would be great if you guys could put stuff like that a little bit under higher priority - and why? Because it benefits in the kind of way that your user number is only growing more :)

[Arandhras]

I don't know if the info contained in the issue referenced by the OP is still relevant, but if Brave's UI is still largely HTML/CSS/JS code, it should be easy to allow for some heavy customization. Alternatively it would make sense for me to give at least some degree of flexibility to the power user.

It would not have to be "easy to use", as most regular user wouldn't care for it anyway, but it should be still accessible if one has the time and patience to hack it a bit. I miss the possibility to make my browser truly my own, like it was possible to do with older versions of Firefox.

[bsclifton]

@Arandhras unfortunately the UI is not HTML/CSS/JS anymore- it's all C++ using Chromium views. It's quite a bit harder to edit, but definitely doable (we want to do it- work hasn't been prioritized, as far as I know).

[Sa-Ja-Di]

@Arandhras unfortunately the UI is not HTML/CSS/JS anymore- it's all C++ using Chromium views. It's quite a bit harder to edit, but definitely doable (we want to do it- work hasn't been prioritized, as far as I know).

@bsclifton Why not making a compromise and delivering priority in a fair share to all elements Brave related?

A real menu or full status bar would be good for a start ;)

[Arandhras]

@bsclifton It could be worked out like what wxWidgets does with its XRC system ( https://docs.wxwidgets.org/3.0/overview_xrc.html ): the whole UI is defined as a set of scripts (in Wx's case, XML... but it could be anything) that each describe a hierarchy of panes, dialogs and widgets. You don't have to redefine behavior, just size, positioning, color etc.

Once you have this system in place, all you need is to modify such scripts. Using non-executable file formats such as XML or JSON has the benefit of not allowing potentially malicious stuff being run in the user's browser.

[crawlgsx]

Yes please for the love of all let us move or remove the bookmark button! Terrible placement!

[Leon0402]

@Arandhras unfortunately the UI is not HTML/CSS/JS anymore- it's all C++ using Chromium views. It's quite a bit harder to edit, but definitely doable (we want to do it- work hasn't been prioritized, as far as I know).

Really, where do I find the ui code? There is an ui repo with reusable elements, which is written in typescript ... and in brave-core I find js, css and html code in the ui folder https://github.com/brave/brave-core/tree/master/ui It seems like I have not understand completely how you structure the project? At least to me all seems a little bit messy (for example having like 300 branches)

By the way, is it possible (or do you appreciate) help from the community like pull request regarding new ui features/changes. And if so, is there a guide to get started showing things like the project structure etc.

[bsclifton]

@Leon0402 the parts that are in JavaScript/TypeScript are part of the Brave UI library. These are basically used on Web UI pages (settings, rewards, etc) https://github.com/brave/brave-ui

For the browser chrome itself (back/forward/refresh buttons, etc), you'll have to go through the code to find the appropriate view to edit. A good example to look at is how @petemill and @mkarolin did the Lion and Rewards icons inside the omnibox:

• https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/343
• https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/431

There are some advanced command-line options you can use like --enable-ui-devtools that let you inspect the view structure visually. More info here (article may be dated, but process should be similar still): https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/inspecting-ash

I created a task a while back to setup proper documentation for onboarding new developers. I'll try my best to make some progress on this over the weekend 😄 https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/108

Help is DEFINITELY appreciated and welcome from the community 😄 Apologies that I or others haven't gotten to write much past what is in the wiki: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki

[Leon0402]

@bsclifton thanks for your answer! To be honest, I haven't really realised yet that settings, rewards etc. are web ui pages. Is there any reason for this? Don't know much about this, but I guess consistency is always a good thing and therefore everything should be created in C++?

It's great that you want the community to help with the project! I guess, setting up a wiki post is a good first start :) Furthermore it would be of course great to have something like a Telegram group, irc channel, mailing list ... for questions. Because as far as I can see, the forum is more user-oriented and not for developers. And another idea: The kde project has a site, where it lists feature requests, bugs etc. and how hard they will be to fix/implement (presumably). That's also a good way for new devs to slowly get started with developing for the project. Would be great to have something like this in the (far) future.

Brave personally seems a very good project to invest some of my time in. Although I'm not sure if I'm experienced enough for this as I never worked with the chrome ui, but with qt instead (and also do not have 20 years of experience in programming). But everyone has to start somewhere ;)

[geekley]

Yes please for the love of all let us move or remove the bookmark button! Terrible placement!

Yes! There's a reason for this! Location matters! We subconsciously expect UI concepts like buttons to be grouped by some sort of category. The way I see it, it's logical to expect browser buttons to be arranged like this:

browser-menu TABS... tab-handling other-browser-buttons navigation [page-security/privacy URL page-specific-actions] more-actions page-menu

All other buttons before the address bar are NAVIGATION buttons. This makes the bookmark button out of place there. Also, having less than 4 buttons together is better to make you immediately find what you want, since those are the most important buttons in a browser. Having the bookmark inside the address bar is better because it's an action that applies to that specific page. And you won't click it that often.

Note that I would even go further and split up the menu into browser-menu and page-menu. Then you'd have all page-independent actions in the tabs row, and keep only page-specific actions in the page row. Think about it. Having less together is better to find things, and splitting things up in a logical way is even better. Having 2 menus may not seem intuitive at first, but it actually makes more sense because "the page" is a concept very different from "the browser/window/session".

So, even if you don't allow customization, at least this would be a way better layout. In fact, I have used Opera for years without bothering with the lack of customization - until they added a stupid out-of-place "easy settings" buttons in the page row that I can't disable. Also, I liked when some page-specific extensions could be inside the address bar, but now they can't anymore...

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from Community: https://community.brave.com/t/can-i-hide-the-bookmark-this-tab-button-on-the-toolbar/98140/4

[bsclifton]

+1 from @mohistmen via https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/7386

The buttons should be customizable

Well, what I want to do is just hide the "Bookmark this tab" button between the "Home" button and the address bar. Actually I almost don't use bookmark functions. I just need the "Home" button besides the address bar, without any buttons between them. Thanks

[Sa-Ja-Di]

You see, quite a lot of people want more customization abilities. So the question is, will you guys implement them or will you ignore this request?

[mohistmen]

Nope, I will never ignore it.

------------------ 原始邮件 ------------------ 发件人: "Sajadi"<notifications@github.com>; 发送时间: 2020年1月17日(星期五) 凌晨1:15 收件人: "brave/brave-browser"<brave-browser@noreply.github.com>; 抄送: "496173298"<496173298@qq.com>; "Mention"<mention@noreply.github.com>; 主题: Re: [brave/brave-browser] The UI should allow for advanced customization (#774)

You see, quite a lot of people want more customization abilities. So the question is, will you guys implement them or will you ignore this request?

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[Sa-Ja-Di]

When is Brave finally starting to deliver customization features which are meant for power users? So far Brave serves only the simple users.

[eljuno]

+1 from Community

https://community.brave.com/t/edit-brave-toolbar-remove-spaces/129594/3?u=eljuno

[paulwaldmann]

Just need to be able to get rid of that Bookmark icon, it's driving me nuts, so many times I've accidentally bookmarked a page instead of just returning to Home which I actually wanted to click. I bet I'm not the only one thinking that way 😄

[AsyaTheAbove]

I actually like where the bookmar button is, I just want it in the url bar next to the http/s lock icon. Obviously more customization is better 😃

[zenkarsha]

Just escape from Chrome => Brave, the position of bookmark button makes me unfit.

[geekley]

For those that haven't noticed, the bookmark button position is less annoying when the address bar is not expanded, because at least it's separate from the navigation buttons. But yeah, still a bad place. And I don't like having to expand the address bar, because that makes me expect symmetry between the buttons on the left and the extensions on the right, and, without that symmetry, it's ugly.

[beatschubser]

+1 for the possibility to remove the bookmark icon. I'm a new user, and that's the only thing that bothers me.

[sam-spain]

Hoping the bookmark icon can be hidden. I don't plan on using the browser specific bookmark solution so unless it could integrate with something like Raindrop it's just wasting a small amount of space.

[bsclifton]

Thanks for the feedback RE: the bookmark button - maybe this is something we can change or make configurable 😄 cc: @rebron

[rafakob]

So I've started using Brave couple of weeks ago and the one thing that I hate is the Bookmark This button on toolbar. I keep mislicking it when I want to click Home or Refresh. A simple toggle switch in Appearence settings would enough (no need for full customization of toolbar).

[paulwaldmann]

It's been 2+ years and still no progress. What you guys doing over at Brave, play ping pong all day?

[bsclifton]

@paulwaldmann compared to Google, we're a pretty small org. There are only a small handful of desktop developers and a massive queue of 2,700 issues. Definitely no ping pong here 😂

We're trying our best to prioritize and solve the issues. Is there something specific you'd like to see? This overall issue is kind of vague and as it stands (what would need to be done to solve it?), implementing a whole "customize the browser" UI is lower in priority than fixing crashes, staying up to date on Chromium, and other feature work

[angrybacon]

Is there something specific you'd like to see? This overall issue is kind of vague and as it stands

@bsclifton I think a lot of people here would be happy - for now - with the following

RE: the bookmark button - maybe this is something we can change or make configurable

Where a toggle makes it hidden, like for "Show home button".

[paulwaldmann]

@bsclifton I think a lot of people here would be happy - for now - with the following

RE: the bookmark button - maybe this is something we can change or make configurable

Where a toggle makes it hidden, like for "Show home button".

Was about to say the same. Just please add the toggle, that would be awesome!

[Fayiette]

You were able to get "Home" button hidden, isn't it the same concept? FYI: I'm by no means an expert.

[nerdyman]

Is it worth breaking this ticket down by creating a separate ticket to cover the toggling of the bookmark button?

Advanced cutomisation of the UI seems like a much larger, more loosely defined task but a lot of people are looking to be able to toggle the bookmark button in the same way they can toggle the home button.

[bsclifton]

@nerdyman that would be a great idea actually- would you be able to do that?

[ukheather]

This would be great! Just spent ages trying to find out if I could do that to find out I can't but would be great if we could! The font size in tabs, address bar, bookmarks bar and other UI is much too small for me, I can barely read it! I would love to be able to increase the size. This is possible in firefox and is something that is quite important for a lot of people.

[Yocairo]

Customizable tab height would be very welcome.

[ristein]

complete black top and bottom bars for android would be awesome on oled screens

[avelino]

@bsclifton how is the roadmap for implementing this feature? I confess that not being able to customize provisions of the items bothers me a lot (mainly that comes from another browser has this feature, almost all popular)

[rebron]

@avelino What specific UI customizations do you want to make? There are already some customizations to show and hide certain icons on the toolbar.

[avelino]

@avelino What specific UI customizations do you want to make? There are already some customizations to show and hide certain icons on the toolbar.

@rebron

[harshithmohan]

@avelino The empty space can be removed by turning on the "Use wide address bar" option in the settings

[xlollomanx]

@rebron I just came here sometimes to check works status and noticed the updated post. For me the only thing that stop me to use brave is the lack of a bookmark button, like firefox and edge have. I attached two screenshots to show better what I mean. The first one is firefox, the second one is edge. I know you can enable the bookmark bar but I really don't like it and on small screen is pretty annoying.

click here

 ]

EDIT: I forgot to mention it be lovely to hide or move the add bookmarks icon too and maybe generally re-arrange all icons just like firefox let you do.

[AmkiTakk]

Definitely would love the ability to customize my bookmarks so that only icons show, without having to manually remove the bookmark title, much like in Vivaldi or a modded Firefox. =)

[PhilipJohnBasile]

I want to be able to hide the bookmarks icon. Its useless for me. I use raindrop.io

[kaphula]

Please consider adding support for changing the scroll bar color. Since most modern web sites now offer a dark theme, the forced bright white scroll bar on Brave is very distracting.

[mnhrsngh]

I want to switch from Firefox, but i would like to be able to move buttons around. For example, I prefer the refresh button to be right of the URL, I want to hide the bookmarks button, would like a drop down for recent downloads and history as well (rather than needing to open a tab). Would also like for option to have wider tab as I cannot read them when I have more than 20 open (as a more than often do). My last request is for the addition of a "Page Info" option where I can view all media on a webpage to assist with downloading/saving content.

Thank you for your consideration!

PS also please look in to fixing the stop auto-play video issue, I cannot adjust the volume of any playing video without inadvertently stopping the video -- very very very annoying. Issue exists on youtube facebook instagram vimeo reddit etc etc virtually all video playback.

[ygoe]

Something specific I would like to see?

1. Hide the bookmark button. A specific option for that is fine.
2. Replace the icon symbols. The stroke width is a bit too wide for my taste, the triangle arrows look strange and the reload icon is incomprehensible. I really like the new Firefox 90 icons (but that's about all I like at Firefox anymore, that's why I'm considering the switch to Brave now). Providing the new icon images in a theme extension would be fine for me.

[racile]

please add an option to show or hide the bookmark button like the home button option in the appearance settings, thanks

[gssakash]

This feature would literally be a god send for the Brave Browser. Please let me know if it has been already implemented. Feature

P.S. I am well aware of the fact that an extension exists which will let the users do this. But, It doesn't seem to work always and I think that a native browser implementation should be a better option.

[jimmcclintock]

Was looking at moving from Firefox to Brave and the lack of customization options brought be to a dead halt. Will not be revisiting this decision until Brave includes UI customization options similar to those available in Firefox.