Any Viewer with Sidebar support out there? (now & future)

[Kaya Kiyori]

When I first saw the new LL SL Viewer 3, I was shocked. Where was my beloved sidebar gone. I searched and looked, but could not discover it again.

But on this time this was not necessary a big problem. Because I used Firestorm at this time to defend me from the ugly HTML profiles. But since Firestorm 4 I must confess that I went offline for a while, because i don't liked it.

I solved the problem, which I moved back just to Firestorm 3.3.0. But secretly I was looking for an alternative Viewer, which would provide Sidebar-Support.

But so far I'm disappointed. I don't find any more viewers, with a sidebar. Damn, I love the sidebar usage. I hate floating windows and dialogs, the sidebar on the other hand was so perfect for my needs.

I can understand the criticisms of the community and yes, i understand the improvements of the new UI. But I miss the sidebar in the new viewers. Currently this is not a big problem, because Firestorm 3.3.0 has Mesh supported.

However, what comes in the future?!

• Do anyone know a Viewer which supporting Sidebar and not stopped his development?

This is a common serious question! So please don't flames how much you hates the Viewer 2 and his sidebar. You are allowed to hate it... BUT don't try to force others what they have to think about it.

[Freya Mokusei]

It's not really a case of flaming, hatred or viewer politics. The Sidebar project was canned mostly because it was never fit for purpose.

You may have luck with some previous versions (Catznip I believe kept the Sidebar going for a while) of modern viewers. For the most part however your best bet might be getting to learn the new 'Flexible UI' and arrange it in a way that almost replicates the Sidebar experience. In most viewers Ctrl+T will give you the toolbar selection panel.

[Coby Foden]

Jessica Lyon (Project Manager & Founder of Phoenix/Firestorm Development Team) has said that sidebar might appear - as an option - in some future version of Firestorm.  Don't hold your breath though... if it is not possible without enermous amount of work, then it's not going to appear in the viewer.

As of now, I don't know any V3 based viewer which would have sidebar. I guess Linden Lab dropped it from their viewer because there were lots of complaints against it.  Well, some got used to it, and even liked it...  Maybe the best solution would have been if it was made user selectable option in the UI.

 

[Kaya Kiyori]

Thanks for the info, but I know that it's avaible in older Viewer version, but I'm interested if any present Viewer has a sidebar feature or planning to implement it in the future.

And yes I know the FUI and i don't really like and understand the hype of it. For me this is a backstep to Version 1 (floating windows), with the difference that we can now controll the position of the avaible buttons. But... now floating windows again and i don't think that LL will implement a Sidebar Feature for FUI in the offical Viewer again.

The sidebar abbility is a easy way to clean the screen with only one click. No toggeling of every window (like your tipp with a: Semi-Sidebar) and really fast recovering the full viewport. I never had problems with the browserlike Design. And since the dialoges in the sidebar was undockable, it was perfect for me.

So my only hope is to find in one of the TPVs, who will bring a sidebar-like function back again or supporting it.

And no... I know that the most old TPV versions has a sidebar. (usning Firestorm 3.3.0) But not in their current versions.

 

[Perrie Juran]

You can find older versions of Firestorm which have the sidebar here:

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/downloads

You want in the 3.xxxxx series.

[Coby Foden]

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Sarah Lunardi wrote:

Thanks for the info, but I know that it's avaible in older Viewer version, but

I'm interested if any present Viewer has a sidebar feature or planning to implement it in the future.

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As far as I know, there isn't any V3 based viewer at present wich would have V2 style sidebar.

So far I have heard that only Firestorm team is considering of adding the sidebar.

 

Ansariel Hiller (developer) commented on FIRE-5308 - please add the SL2 User Interface (Sidetabs) in future updates:

"This will only be added if there is an easy and - most important - non-hackish way to do it.

The old V2 sidebar won't be re-added in its original form."

Firestorm JIRA: FIRE-5308

So, they are investigating is it possible to add the docked sidebar - in some form - to the FUI style viewer.

[Penny Patton]

I always thought of the complete lack of a sidebar in V3 being a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

People hated the sidebar not because it was a bad idea, but because it was used poorly. LL added the sidebar and began shoehorning everything into it, regardless of whether or not it was suited for the sidebar.

I really wish LL would bring the sidebar back as an option, letting us choose what was docked in the sidebar and what floated freely. I love the V3 customizable UI, I don't think it's entirely a step back to V1, but I do think it would be improved with the option of sidebar docking.

 

 Then again, I also like the current web profiles and just wish they hadn't stopped developing them short of adding more useful functionality that they sorely need.

[Pussycat Catnap]

They took Old Yeller, er the sidebar, our for a -loooong- walk when little Timmy wasn't home...

And frankly, that dog ain't missed much.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

While some people liked the sidebar, I think a large majority didn't.  It was the main thing in the V2 format that  I heard people complain about.  V2 was such a fail that it drove the majority of residents to TPV's where people discovered a lot of innovative features that SL viewers never had.  I doubt the SL viewer will ever return to being the most popular now unless they come up with a brilliant design and more useful features than TPV's  have.

I wouldn't mind if a sidebar was an option but personally I'd be happy to never see it again.

[ROB34466IIIa]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

 

And frankly, that dog ain't missed much.

 

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You DIDN'T cry when Old Yeller died ? ... :robotsurprised:

 

Oh .... :robotsad:

 

.... wait ... of course that had to come from a feline ... :robotfrustrated:

[Qie Niangao]

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Sarah Lunardi wrote:

The sidebar abbility is a easy way to clean the screen with only one click. No toggeling of every window (like your tipp with a: Semi-Sidebar) and really fast recovering the full viewport.

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Try Control-Shift-W

If there had been a statement of design principles -- either what LL wanted to achieve with V2, or what 80/20 thought they were doing with their (half-assed) approach -- and how those considerations informed features of the new viewer, I think some sort of sidebar might well have survived.  As it was, the whole rationale for it was a mystery to most users, so they just saw it as in the way, encroaching on their screen real estate, even though I'm now convinced that the thing's whole purpose was to keep some UI-free space clear, through which to see the world.