"System Tools" section redesign to be more intuitive

[Alexander Obuhovich]

We got pretty useful (during In-Portal development) section called "System Tools". Currently it has many buttons, called "Run" and description near them. It doesn't look pretty friendly and sometimes I even had to read all description to know what to press.

I think, that we should reorganize this section to have dashboard like style (like in many columns and buttons grouped in logical groups). Also adding "effect area" description to each function on the screen could be quite useful as well.

For example we have "Clear Template Cache" function. So how do I know, that this is function I must use right now? In case if template contents was changed, but it's file last modification date wasn't changed on file system, then it's right function to use. And so on.

I've also noticed, that some developers are pressing all buttons to make some newly developed part of In-Portal work, without fully understanding what function does what.

--
Best Regards,

http://www.in-portal.com
http://www.alex-time.com

[Phil -- wbtc.fr --]

Hi Alexander,

I fully agree, I asked before about showing tools report, but a dashboard is even better.
I'll be happy to translate hints that would be used here.

Phil.

2010/7/28 Alexander Obuhovich <aik....@gmail.com>

[Phil]

I forgot to add that actually, system tools actions's names are not
translated in core\admin_templates\tools\system_tools.tpl, we need to
add labels instead of hard coded names, but I bet this will be
improved with the refactoring of this section.

Another thing, I propose to change in admin event handler the function
_deleteCompiledTemplates, to delete all cache.

Actually it deletes only php files, and if you do any change to a css
file included in compression tag, you cannot see the result without
manually deleting compressed files into cache.

On Jul 28, 3:36 pm, "Phil -- wbtc.fr --" <p...@wbtc.fr> wrote:
> Hi Alexander,
>
> I fully agree, I asked before about showing tools report, but a dashboard is
> even better.
> I'll be happy to translate hints that would be used here.
>
> Phil.
>

> 2010/7/28 Alexander Obuhovich <aik.b...@gmail.com>

[Alexander Obuhovich]

Compressed files are deleted, when you use "Rebuild Theme Files" function.

[Phil -- wbtc.fr --]

ok, then as you said in this post, we really need a more intuitive design :)

2010/7/30 Alexander Obuhovich <aik....@gmail.com>

[Alexander Obuhovich]

Task: http://tracker.in-portal.org/view.php?id=865

Dmitry, please take a look at my draft version of system tools dashboard. Please also take care of fixing my English (if any). Then, after my approval we'll be transforming all new text into phrases.

[Dmitry A.]

Hi guys,

Reviewed and attached a new patch with corrections (see the task).

DA.

On Sep 16, 2:40 pm, Alexander Obuhovich <aik.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Task:http://tracker.in-portal.org/view.php?id=865
>
> Dmitry, please take a look at my draft version of system tools dashboard.
> Please also take care of fixing my English (if any). Then, after my approval
> we'll be transforming all new text into phrases.
>

> On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Phil -- wbtc.fr -- <p...@wbtc.fr> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > ok, then as you said in this post, we really need a more intuitive design
> > :)
>

> > 2010/7/30 Alexander Obuhovich <aik.b...@gmail.com>

>
> > Compressed files are deleted, when you use "Rebuild Theme Files" function.
>

>  system_tools_dashboard.patch
> 23KViewDownload

[Dmitry A.]

Hi team,

I have applied final corrections and translated everything so new
phrases will be available in English language pack.

Please visit the task to see new patch.

DA.

[Phil -- wbtc.fr --]

Hi guys,

I've also added a comment about a request for success indicator, do you have any opinion on this?

p

2010/9/20 Dmitry A. <dand...@gmail.com>

[Alexander Obuhovich]

That reset buttons delete cache and refreshes the page. Then check is made, that nothing is cached and cache is built automatically (this is late binding approach). So basically this will always work. Because of that late binding specific cache will only be built, when there is a request for it.

I could just display a message on top of all sideboxes, that will say: "Last performed operation completed successfully" (will be styled like "search filter is in effect" message above the grids, when search is made). Also maybe after a button is pressed some sort of infinite progress bar indicator should appear to show that something is performed. Not sure about the place to show it, maybe near pressed button.

Some operations, like "recompile templates" have their own success/failure screen and progress indicator and they don't refresh parent window upon finish.

Mantis (our Issue Tracker) is great in all cases, expect proper emailing. So basically all emails look the same and you will never receive email, when expected. That's why it's recommended to ask anything in groups, not in tasks in issue tracker. Basically task is only for attaching patch and indicating completion stage. All other talks should happen in groups.

[Phil -- wbtc.fr --]

alex,

ok about mantis :)

about task status, I focus on user's interface. we are all used to have an answer from a system when we press a button, either on a phone, a website, your TV... These button are described to perform important things (as described in their related text), but nothing outputs, it's really not "user's friendly".

your idea of a confirm on the top of the page would be good for all config pages (which actually don't say anything about the saved status too), but for these button, I'd naturallu suggest an indicator right to them, and not on top of page, as we don't validate anything on the top. You idea for endless progress bar is good in addition - may we can use an endless circle to have a modern thing :)

2010/9/20 Alexander Obuhovich <aik....@gmail.com>

[Dmitry Andrejev]

Hi guys,

I believe the "message in red" that operation is successful placed in the top portion of the System Tools page after the execution is more then enough similar to the message we see when a Filter is applied in the Grid. 

Phil, it's a good idea to actually pay attention to the messages in red when you see them :)

About the progress bar - it's fine with me.

Thanks.

DA

--

Best regards,

Dmitry A.

[Phil -- wbtc.fr --]

Hi Dmitry!

if it was only for my personnal use, I won't ask anything more :)

But for any new user, who already uses other websites, it'd be good to have an intuitive interface, it doesn't cost a lot of coding and make user's feeling more confortable and confident with the software. The user can't see how it's coded, but he can feel if it's well done or not, just using the interface.

A red message to say "everything was successfull" is not very intuitive (at least for me), and being at the top while we didn't pressed anything at the top is weird. Why not putting the indicator bar at the top? Because we pressed a button elsewhere on the page :) then why should progress bar would be shown in a place and result of this progress in another one?
Nothing logic here, and while it's just a menu lost in Tools section, I think this should be as well done as the background code is.

p

2010/9/20 Dmitry Andrejev <dand...@gmail.com>

[Dmitry Andrejev]

Hi Phil,

I understand your concerns, but this is the page for Developers and not for Users - please don't mix 2 together. Most of the regular Users will have a hard time to understand terminology on this page.

In any case, please provide the exact designs as you think it should look and the messages that should shown if any. Make it look as soon as you can.

Just to let you know we are short on time here since currently need to release 5.1.1 in Beta1 and if you consider this as A MUST you can't work without you need to provide this by tomorrow or better today so we can approve and implement. Otherwise, it can wait until next bug fix release 5.1.2.

Let us know.

DA.

[Phil -- wbtc.fr --]

Hi Dmitry,

here is my proposal :

http://domicilis.biz/test/index.htm

you can test by pressing the "Run" button, and you can repress it on complete step :)

phil.

[Dmitry Andrejev]

Thanks Phil!

Alex - what you think? Looks like we need to convert all of non-ajax to ajax requests on that System page. Also, there are some pages that actually require page refresh in order to update Left/Top frames - am I right?

DA.

[Alexander Obuhovich]

Unfortunately ajax conversion can't be made due asyncronious nature of almost all functionality described by me earlier in this discussion. I'll see what can be made to implement Phil's proposal.