UI development question & issues with deploying WebUI

[thatonearchguy]

Hi there!

This isn't really an issue, more of a question.
I've been using Volumio for my DIY smart speaker for some time on a 3.5" touch screen. The UI is really well optimised for the sort of basic interactions like pausing, playing and selecting a different song on the queue at 800x480 resolution so kudos for that!
I've added a custom clock interface to make it feel more like a radio with a fourth tab on the bottom of the screen. This required the addition of a new clock-ui controller+html+css, and several edits to existing files within the Volumio 2 UI (not made for 3 as it's much harder to use on small screen, although principle should be the same).
I'm not 100% sure if it is possible to change UI elements like the tabs and swiping behavior using the plugin interface, what would the best way be to have these changes persist across updates and maybe even get them merged?
I can't really patch files with a plugin because I'm aware all the relevant files are "compiled" and aren't spread out in those lovely folders, although perhaps some way to read value of json config file and some if statements could work?
Not the most experienced with this kind of thing so any suggestions welcome!

Kind Regards
Yuvraj

[thatonearchguy]

Update:
EDIT3 - Issue fixed, WebUI rendering correctly after editing package.json and adding "gulp":"gulp" under scripts and running npm run gulp build ...
I have now run into an issue where after deploying the changes via FTP to the Pi, WebUI renders perfectly fine on external Chrome/Firefox systems but it's not working correctly on the Pi's internal chromium kiosk.
First the WebUI was stuck on the loading animation, this was fixed by editing local-config.json and adding port 3000 but now all the images which are not in the /volumio/http/www asset folders do not appear.
So this means that the album art, every icon in the browse interface and the wallpaper do not show only on the Chromium kiosk.
Images come back if I switch to Volumio 3 interface. Could it be something permissions related, as I have not edited anything that would impact referring to the assets in /data.
I uploaded the files to /volumio/http/www as instructed by documentation via FTP connection as I could not see any of the files under that directory when I read that directory in the dyn folder on SD card.

EDIT - Misclick sory!

[xipmix]

Did you need the 'gulp' change you mention in EDIT3 to make the un-modified project build and render correctly?
If so could you please send a pull request for that?

Personally I rather like the clock idea. Have you thought about making it an optional feature (configured off by default but addable via the customise UI dialogs). That might have a chance of getting in.

I'm afraid I don't have much to offer on the current issue you are facing. I assume you've had a look in the logs to see if anything is reported differently in the classic vs volumio3 interface?
EDIT: There may be a clue for you in #758