Pre-populate wallpaper drop-down from directories

[bitigchi]

Backgrounds should get the name of the image files in data/artwork folders. This way, the user can just select a different entry from the drop-down menu, and not search for specific folders.

It should get all three data/artwork folders, system, non-packaged, and user.

[miqlas]

I found the Background preflet strange even in the BeOS time. The dropdown menu is not efficient at all, but it is compact, thats true. I however like that it stores only the recently opened files, and it keeps it till the user closes it. Prepopulating could helt the user to find/explore the artwork folders, but it would break/interfere with the idea i described earlier. Something must be changed, but prepopulating not necessarily the best idea.

[Starcrasher]

For now, the best solution is to make Tracker Open window default to data/artwork folder. The problem is that your wallpaper won't be forcibly there either.

I think the idea is to make Tracker Open window more sensitive to the app it is called from. As it is, if you add a folder to favorites it is shared everywhere so you can't add a lot otherwise it is counter productive. So, I imagine a kind of additional favorite section that will appear depending of the mime types that the app supports. We could have then different favorites folders for images, sounds, music, videos and other documents.

Maybe a better option would be to propose to the user the choice between different queries results depending of what they are looking for. Ie. for Backgrounds different sizes of pictures (we would need at least one for wallpapers and another for patterns that can be used as mosaïc.), it would be even better if results had thumbnails or icons. The problem is that wouldn't work as good for sounds.

And as soon as we will have different sound schemes, we will also have that problem for Sounds preferences.

[humdinger]

The more background image packages become available over time, the more crowded the pop-up menu can get.
I see no reason to change the current implementation of the "Other..." entry, that opens a file dialog at /system/data/artwork/. That folder should be used by backgrounds packages, for the users own images, they'll have to navigate manually as is the case for any personal file.

A nice query tab in the file dialog to tap Haiku's query power would be nice, but that discussion doesn't belong here.

[bitigchi]

Except no one will know that there are other wallpapers to choose from unless they click "Other". And they will have to repeat the process over and over again just to see what the other wallpapers look like. :)

Plus the list does not even persist between reboots (at least for non-packaged folder).

This is one of the areas that the simplicity aspect of Haiku falls short on UX. Wallpapers are meant to be graphic and visible as easy as possible.

[humdinger]

The first thing users do when they want to set another background is click "Other...". Then they see a list of all installed wallpapers. Instead of the small preview in the dialog, selecting a background could temporarily set it, a kinda fullscreen preview. Not sure if that's fast enough for 5k...

[bitigchi]

Replying to humdinger:

The first thing users do when they want to set another background is click "Other...".

I'm not sure if that's a good process, it should be only for custom user backgrounds. I don't know if BeOS offered system-provided wallpapers, but if Haiku's gonna do that, the current implementation ought to be modified. To me, easiest option would be pre-populating the menu with system wallpapers, unless someone wants to rewrite the whole thing to a nice graphical collection view with previews like most modern operating systems do.

[Starcrasher]

BTW, it is worse with wallpapers from themes i.e /boot/system/data/UIThemes/Stargate_Atlantis/Stargate Atlantis Base/SGA Wallpaper folder is not really intuitive and cherry on cake, it will be default folder shown by Background if you use one of these Stargate themes. I personaly added /boot/system/data/UIThemes/ as favorite folder. from here you can navigate through all system themes but it isn't ideal.

I think Haiku should only provide Haiku relative wallpapers. There are some nice contributed on the forum. It would already be better than only the logo.

Other wallpapers, people know how to get them. We can always have few more in HaikuDepot like the unsplash_wallpapers package. Maybe have a special category "Customize Haiku" in HaikuDepot to ease finding themes, wallpapers, sounds etc

[humdinger]

Seems to be a matter of opinion. IMO, we only should ship a handful of unique Haiku wallpapers and put them in /system/data/artwork. If more packages come along that put them there as well, so be it. Personally, I wouldn't get a pack of wallpapers, most of which I won't like and cannot delete.

I find a wallpaper online, download it somewhere to /boot/home/ and set it. I would've thought most people do that when they're unsatisfied with the bundled images. I also use ShowImage to browse a folder of images an set the background from there.

I do think we could have the preview of the Backgrounds file dialog bigger. The current size probably dates back to resolutions of BeOS days (max 1024x768). Preview size could even be resolution dependent.