OCWS Settings Panel Design¶

Philosophy¶

Inspired by DankMaterialShell and Noctalia, adapted for OCWS's C and zigshell-cairo-pango architecture. Uses GTK3 native widgets with OCWS CSS styling for glassmorphic appearance.

Architecture¶

ocws-settings (GTK3 app)
  Sidebar navigation (icon + label)
  Content stack (scrollable cards)
  Header bar (title + actions)

Tabs¶

1. Appearance (Theme Engine)¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Active Theme	Card + Grid	Current theme name, color dots for quick switch
Theme Category	Button Group	Generic / Auto (matugen) / Custom / Browse
Color Palette	Color Grid	10 theme colors with live preview
Matugen Scheme	Dropdown	Tonal Spot, Vibrant, Content, etc.
Wallpaper Preview	Image Card	Current wallpaper with color extraction
Custom Theme	File Picker	Load custom JSON theme file
Icon Theme	Dropdown	Papirus-Dark, Papirus-Light, etc.
Cursor Theme	Dropdown	Catppuccin-Mocha-Dark, etc.
Cursor Size	Slider	16-48px
Font Scaling	Slider	50-200% for UI elements

2. Bar Configuration¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Bar List	Card List	Up to 4 bars with position/size info
Add/Delete Bar	Buttons	Create new bar configs
Position	Button Group	Top / Bottom / Left / Right
Display Assignment	Toggle List	Which monitors show this bar
Size	Slider	Bar thickness (24-64px)
Spacing	Slider	Edge spacing (0-32px)
Transparency	Slider	Bar opacity (0-100%)
Corner Radius	Slider	Round corners (0-24px)
Auto-hide	Toggle + Delay	Hide when not hovering
Scroll Behavior	Dropdown	Workspace switching / Column scroll

3. Widgets¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Widget List	Toggle List	All available widgets with enable/disable
Widget Presets	Button Group	Standard / Full / Minimal / Custom
Per-widget Settings	Expandable	Individual widget configuration
Widget Search	Search Bar	Filter widgets by name

4. Workspaces¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Workspace Count	Slider	Number of workspaces (1-12)
Naming	Toggle	Show workspace names vs numbers
App Icons	Toggle	Show running app icons in workspace
Scroll Switching	Toggle	Switch workspace with scroll
Follow Focus	Toggle	Bar shows focused workspace

5. Keybinds¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Preset Selector	Dropdown	Default / Custom / Vim / Emacs
Keybind List	List View	All keybinds with search
Edit Keybind	Dialog	Modify key combination
Export/Import	Buttons	Save/load keybind configs

6. Notifications¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Daemon	Dropdown	Mako / Dunst / Disable
Position	Dropdown	Top-right, Top-center, etc.
Timeout	Slider	1-30 seconds
Max Visible	Slider	1-10 notifications

7. System¶

Feature	Widget	Description
Health Check	Button + Results	Run ocws-health, show results
Validate Config	Button + Results	Run ocws-validate
System Info	Card	OS, kernel, compositor, shell version
Memory Usage	Progress Bar	Current memory usage
CPU Load	Progress Bar	Current CPU load

8. About¶

Feature	Widget	Description
OCWS Version	Info	Current version
Build Info	Info	C compiler, flags, date
Contributors	List	Project contributors
License	Info	MIT License

CSS Styling¶

Glassmorphic Card¶

.settings-card {
  background-color: rgba(30, 30, 46, 0.85);
  border: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.08);
  border-radius: 16px;
  padding: 16px;
  box-shadow: 0 8px 32px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}

Toggle Switch¶

switch {
  background-color: rgba(69, 71, 90, 0.8);
  border-radius: 12px;
  min-width: 48px;
  min-height: 24px;
}
switch:checked {
  background-color: #89b4fa;
}

Slider¶

scale trough {
  background-color: rgba(69, 71, 90, 0.6);
  border-radius: 4px;
  min-height: 6px;
}
scale slider {
  background-color: #cdd6f4;
  border-radius: 50%;
  min-width: 18px;
  min-height: 18px;
}

Implementation Notes¶

Settings Storage¶

Settings are stored using the ocws-kv binary:

char *value = ocws_kv_get("bar.transparency");
ocws_kv_set("bar.transparency", "0.85");

Live Preview¶

Theme changes apply immediately via theme-engine.sh apply
Bar changes use zigshell-cairo-pango-cmd or IPC for live updates
Widget changes toggle visibility via CSS class

Dependencies¶

GTK3 (already required)
json-c or cJSON (for JSON parsing)
ocws-kv (existing binary)

Comparison with DMS and Noctalia¶

Feature	DMS	Noctalia	OCWS
Theme Engine	Matugen + JSON	TOML palettes	INI themes
Bar Config	4 bars, drag reorder	Single bar	Up to 4 bars
Widget System	QML plugins	C++ widgets	.widget files
Live Preview	Instant	Instant	Instant
Multi-monitor	Full	Basic	Full
Memory Usage	~80MB	~50MB	~15MB