Skins / Theme Development

[kbaker]

We are thinking of migrating our mail services to Zimbra. I will need to reskin the web gui though to match our required look and feel.

I thought the best place to start would be to make a yahoo or google clone interface for Zimbra that could be easily downloaded by anyone for an updated look-and-feel. This could also be used as a template for future "skins".

Would anyone be interested in assisting with this?

If so is there an area we could post new skins on the Zimbra site to help out the community?

I was thinking something like http://skins.nucleuscms.org/

While I like the brushed metal look, I think it would be best for Zimbra to use a default skin that is less "trendy", more neutral so it can match more sites. Something like Google would be great.

Thanks

[KevinH]

The best place to post new skins for now is the forums. Once there are a few going we'll open up a seperate forum and maybe a rating/voting site. Similar how the new lang packs started off small and then moved to the their own forum.

I've seen a couple other posts an re-skinning so seems there is some interest. Keep in mind the Open Source Edition doesn't allow you to remove or modify the Zimbra logo on the web UI. To make these changes you'll need to become a network subscriber.

[kbaker]

Originally Posted by KevinH

The best place to post new skins for now is the forums. Once there are a few going we'll open up a seperate forum and maybe a rating/voting site. Similar how the new lang packs started off small and then moved to the their own forum.

Sounds good

Originally Posted by KevinH

I've seen a couple other posts an re-skinning so seems there is some interest. Keep in mind the Open Source Edition doesn't allow you to remove or modify the Zimbra logo on the web UI. To make these changes you'll need to become a network subscriber.

So I have to say this is very disappointing. I would urge you to reconsider the specifics of your license. I understand the need to have the logo on the web UI, however for any skin to work well the logo will need to be adjusted to fit with the new design. This would just require that anti aliasing be fixed using a "clean" version of your logo.

Of course I'd lean much more towards a required powered by "zimbra" logo or link at the foot of the web gui. This would provide you with the needed marketing for your excellent product without being overly obtrusive to any design changes. This is the sort of "brand" requirement for most other open web projects I have used.

Anyway, my thinking is that in the spirit of open source, you would benefit greatly from allowing developers to improve on both the application and the web interface.

[KevinH]

Sorry maybe I wasn't clear. The requirement is that you have the logo and that the size is the same. You can move it if the skin requires.

The Zimbra Inside logo is here:

http://www.zimbra.com/license/zimbra_inside_logo.html

From the ZPL

However, in addition to the other notice obligations, all copies of the JavaScript User Interface Covered Code in Executable and Source Code form distributed must, as a form of attribution of the original author, include on each user interface screen (i) the "Zimbra Inside" logo and once for each user session (ii) the copyright notice in the same form as the latest version of the Covered Code distributed by Zimbra, Inc. at the time of distribution of such copy. In addition, the "Zimbra Inside" logo must be visible to all users, must appear in each user interface screen, and must be at least as large as the Zimbra logo is within the original Zimbra user interface. When users click on the "Zimbra Inside" logo it must direct them back to http://www.zimbra.com.

[kbaker]

Thanks Kevin, I read through the license. This seems reasonable.

I'll get crackin on a new skin.

Thanks for all your hard work.


- Kevin Baker