Forum Discussion

AngelaIp's avatar
AngelaIp
Ideator I
4 months ago
Solved

R35/R2025 toolbar redesign: Simplified Icons + Labels = Usability Nightmare – How can we revert this quickly?

Hi community,

in general I am happy with most of the UI/UX improvements in R35/2025. Many of them are great ideas and we are happy that Aras added them.
BUT: There is one "improvement" that I don´t like and I am searching for options to revert it as fast as possible. I am looking for a solution that I can reuse on every Innovator instance that doesn’t want to follow the new 'simplification' design trend.

Aras has simplified the toolbar CUI buttons, aligning them more closely with the current - but questionable - trend of overly clean design. As a result, the icons have become harder to distinguish. To compensate, labels were added, but they take up a significant amount of space. The situation worsens when using the German or French language pack, where labels are typically 30- 40% longer. In that case, there’s hardly any pixel left for custom elements, often forcing the toolbar to wrap into a second row.

This is the default search grid in Release 35/2025:

This is a common layout that I use in I12/14: 

Many of my ItemTypes have one or two custom buttons in the toolbar. They often use labels so people can easily see that the custom buttons are unique and important for the specific ItemType. In the shown sample I even removed one default element ("Today") to save some space. 

Fun detail: Aras now uses the upload icon to represent 'share,' which doesn’t fit the context at all. This is especially confusing when custom buttons next to it actually perform "real" upload actions (like in my image)! 

How can we bring back the previous design fast?
- I assume the additional labels can be removed in the language pack?
- Update the icons via AML? 

What is your opinion regarding the design update? 

Angela

Release 35
UX UI
  • eli_donahue's avatar
    eli_donahue
    3 months ago

    Hi Angela, here's how you can configure the style and label behavior of the default toolbars through CUI. I've only made these changes for one button, but you could easily use the same process to make any changes you'd like.

    1. In your old code tree, copy any icons you want to keep in Innovator/Client/images.
    2. Paste the icons into the same location in your new code tree. I'd recommend updating the names so you don't overwrite the R35 icons - just in case you change your mind.
    3. Navigate to Administration > Configuration > Client Presentation in the TOC and run the search.
    4. Click Global to open the main configuration item.
    5. In the CommandBarSection tab, open itemview.relationshipscommandbar.default and click Edit. 
    6. In the CommandBarItem tab, open commonitems.commandbar.sharemenu and click Edit. 
    7. For the Image property, select the icon you want to use via the Internal Files tab in the image selector.


      Note: Don't pick the file through the External File option because it will upload the icon to the vault instead of referencing the relative path in your code tree (which makes packaging a pain).
    8. Clear the value for the Label property to hide the text label. 
    9. Add any other styling changes you want to make in the additional data field. This string will mimic the style of the old button's shadow.
       [embed:dc8ab71f-3b98-42d9-b0f6-e21e02a0f8e2:09e3071f-f83b-4a5a-9fe3-59ba6c395017:type=json&text=%7B%0A%22cssStyle%22%3A%22border%3A1px%20solid%20transparent%3B%20border-radius%3A4px%3B%20box-shadow%3A0%201px%203px%20rgba%280%2C0%2C0%2C.16%29%2C0%201px%202px%20rgba%280%2C0%2C0%2C.56%29%3B%22%0A%7D]
    10. Save the commonitems.commandbar.sharemenu item
    11. Save the itemview.relationshipscommandbar.default item. (you need to change both for your changes to appear)
    12. Open a new item and check out the relationships toolbar. The share button will use the icon you select, with no label, and the styling you specified.

    These changes will all be reflected in the default CUI package when you export it.

    Hope this helps!

2 Replies

  • eli_donahue's avatar
    eli_donahue
    New Member
    3 months ago

    Hi Angela, here's how you can configure the style and label behavior of the default toolbars through CUI. I've only made these changes for one button, but you could easily use the same process to make any changes you'd like.

    1. In your old code tree, copy any icons you want to keep in Innovator/Client/images.
    2. Paste the icons into the same location in your new code tree. I'd recommend updating the names so you don't overwrite the R35 icons - just in case you change your mind.
    3. Navigate to Administration > Configuration > Client Presentation in the TOC and run the search.
    4. Click Global to open the main configuration item.
    5. In the CommandBarSection tab, open itemview.relationshipscommandbar.default and click Edit. 
    6. In the CommandBarItem tab, open commonitems.commandbar.sharemenu and click Edit. 
    7. For the Image property, select the icon you want to use via the Internal Files tab in the image selector.


      Note: Don't pick the file through the External File option because it will upload the icon to the vault instead of referencing the relative path in your code tree (which makes packaging a pain).
    8. Clear the value for the Label property to hide the text label. 
    9. Add any other styling changes you want to make in the additional data field. This string will mimic the style of the old button's shadow.
       [embed:dc8ab71f-3b98-42d9-b0f6-e21e02a0f8e2:09e3071f-f83b-4a5a-9fe3-59ba6c395017:type=json&text=%7B%0A%22cssStyle%22%3A%22border%3A1px%20solid%20transparent%3B%20border-radius%3A4px%3B%20box-shadow%3A0%201px%203px%20rgba%280%2C0%2C0%2C.16%29%2C0%201px%202px%20rgba%280%2C0%2C0%2C.56%29%3B%22%0A%7D]
    10. Save the commonitems.commandbar.sharemenu item
    11. Save the itemview.relationshipscommandbar.default item. (you need to change both for your changes to appear)
    12. Open a new item and check out the relationships toolbar. The share button will use the icon you select, with no label, and the styling you specified.

    These changes will all be reflected in the default CUI package when you export it.

    Hope this helps!

    • AngelaIp's avatar
      AngelaIp
      Ideator I
      2 months ago

      Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation! You even recreated the border around the CUI elements!!!![emoticon:1435ff2429184e17bc948e4f19178e1e][emoticon:44a8a53ad3364ea78a16c5a3229f75bb]
      I can’t wait for an optimized Open Release version of Innovator where I can finally use this kind of customization in practice!

      And before everyone thinks I’m just roasting everything about the R35 design - there are definitely a few things I actually like:

      1. This one looks odd at first, but it’s surprisingly helpful!

      2. The new “clean” design in the grid right-click menu looks quite decent!

      3. Innovator finally supports colors in the grid!

      4. The LifeCycle dialog and new main page.

      5. The loading spinner is no longer "Synthwave purple." I mean… purple? Seriously?

      6. ...

      Many of the aspects I dislike about the design aren’t actually due to Aras’s design changes themselves, but rather because they don’t work well when using the German language pack.
      In many cases, the German translation is simply overdone - it translates everything too accurate or unnecessarily.

      Here are some screenshots that show what we’re dealing with:

      Situation: Standard Part grid on a laptop or small office monitor. There is no space left for custom buttons.
      Bonus: Some grammar errors in the tool tips make Innovator sound like a German with East European background. Which sometimes sounds quite funny btw. 

      So don´t even think of working with laptop. For German get a 27" screen if possible.
      This is a standard German Part relationship tab:

      This is the English version (customized)

      The translation for "AML" really reflects Aras´s struggle to explain the term to a German audience, so they ended up using two long words for AML. So  But I confirm that the German translations are very accurate. Far to accurate!!! Nobody needs it that accurate. [emoticon:6d505171faa4497c85c5ca27290c555d]

      To German audience (feel free to translate with any browser tool):

      Ich hab selber in der Vergangenheit nie das Ganze Sprachpaket genutzt, sondern immer ein stark vereinfachtes, so dass nur Enduser-relevante Sachen übersetzt werden. Gerade bei Admin Begriffen wie "ItemType" oder "LifeCycle" macht eine Übersetzung oft keinen Sinn, da fast nichts mehr mit den Handbüchern übereinstimmt und man sich immer einen Wolf sucht. Auch die Übersetzung allgemein gebräuchlicher Begriffe wie "BOM" kann man sich oft sparen.

      Vielleicht findet sich ein paar Interessenten an der regelmäßigen Entwicklung von "Lightweight-German" Sprachpaketen. 
      Da kann man vieles Skripten. Aktuell habe ich die Dinger immer nur bei Bedarf erstellt. 

      Meldet Euch bei Interesse!