Modernizing the Debug Toolbar UI

[federicobond]

Hi! I am a longtime user of the Django Debug Toolbar and an open-source contributor to several Python packages, including django-openfeature, which implements a custom panel for feature flags powered by OpenFeature.

Over the years, the Debug Toolbar has been an invaluable tool for me. Still, some of its functionality and design choices have not aged as well as others. When I compare it to similar offerings like the Vercel Toolbar or the Astro Dev Toolbar, I can’t help but feel that there’s room for improvement.

Besides working on a more modern look, I’ve noticed a few areas where enhancements could make a big difference. For example:

• Certain panels, like the Cache and Templates panel, could benefit from UI upgrades (I have further ideas on this).
• Others, such as the Headers panel, might be redundant given modern browser tools.
• There’s potential to introduce new panels, such as an Accessibility Audit panel, that could be a valuable addition to the default setup.

I’d like to gauge community interest in exploring updates to the UI and layout of the built-in panels. If there’s enthusiasm for this, I’d love to discuss the best way to approach these changes.

The Django Debug Toolbar is a workhorse of Django app development, and I believe we have a great opportunity to improve the developer experience for the Django community.

[tim-schilling]

I'm in favor of improving the UI. I think an accessibility panel would be neat to include too.

I would recommend whatever is done, that it's done incrementally.

[matthiask]

Thanks! I totally agree with Tim, let's improve things and let's do it incrementally.

That being said, if you have a larger vision feel free to discuss that as well.