Can I make a request to add an extra Custom list item to the long list of FA icons in the list of available FA symbols in ever FA Foundry stack. The current system is workable but there are many FA symbols missing or labelled differently and it can be an overly long a time consuming task when you are using several FA icons. I.e. the process of selecting icons is usually , go to the FA site, choose an icon, go back to Foundry, scroll up and down the FA list to see if it’s there, etc. You might as well just copy the fa-code in the first place.
Yesterday I made a list of fa-symbols I wanted to use and had to abandon using Icon Font (FA) when the first 4 were not in the list, i.e. share-alt, share-alt-square, picture-o and file-image-o. In fact many of the -o and -alt icons are missing. There are 477 fa-icons in the Foundry list out of the 675 total. I.e. 198 are currently missing!
Also, some icons use a different name, so for example, star-o is called star outline in the list. All of this is a shame because Icon Font and Icon Bar are the best Icon stacks available for RW - except for the FA selection process.
So rather that make a suggestion to add the 198 missing symbols, it would be far more intuitive, powerful, inline with how everybody else does it and more end user friendly, to add an additional custom entry in the list and allow users to use any of the 675 fa-symbols they want.
Also maintaining all of the FA stacks in the current way must be huge time consuming task. By adding a custom option, everyone can be catered for and the ongoing update of Foundry made easier. With FA5 just around the corner, …
Adding a custom text field for user typed icon names opens up the stack(s) to problems. Currently it isn’t something I wish to add at this time. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t come about later on, just that I’d rather put more thought into it.
As for adding in functionality to Foundry for users to manually setup their personal licenses – I’m not sure that is a good idea. That being said, I’ve been looking at some Font Awesome alternatives.
Any new thoughts on this? I just wanted to add my voice that the dropdown of hundreds of items is really awkward, and has been stated, some are often missing.
I’m sure you have your reasons for resisting the input field, but I’m hoping there is a compromise somewhere. I know that some developers have included a toggle, a visual ‘cheat sheet’, that shows the icons and then you type in the one you want. Would you consider that?
It would still be very new-user-friendly and it would also alleviate the problem if some of the icons are missing. If Stacks has it loaded and you type in the name it would still load.
Now that FA5 is released and has 893 free icons, that is going to be one extremely long dropdown list using the current system and just reinforces the request for an input field.
PS There is no setting up of licenses required for the free FA5 which behaves exactly the same way as FA4.
@Bioguy: I have not given it further thought as of now. I do have my reasons for not wishing to implement the text field for manually entering the individual icon names by the end user.
@webdeersign: As for Font Awesome 5 – that is not supported by the Stacks API at this time.
@elixirgraphics It must be going to be implemented soon I would think. It’s just a few lines of code to implement it but of course the issue is going to be how to stop FA4 being loaded which would be an unnecessary download.
When it will be implemented in Stacks falls to Isaiah. There is a lot more to take into account than just enabling the library in the API, unfortunately.
After it has eventually been implemented in the Stacks API, and depending on the implementation, and any compatibility problems it may or may not create, I will take a look at incorporating it into Foundry. That said, I will not be rushing into things. My goal is ease of use, and making sure things work well, and while FontAwesome 5 maybe cool, I will not disrupt other parts of Foundry for a few new or updated font icons.