Today on the IRC channel we where discussing some ways we could improve Jenkins' UI.
We think it's been pointed out by many as a weak point in Jenkins, and it just so happens
that I might be able to get hold of some user experience designer to spend some time
on this.
So we'd like to collect ideas from you about what kind of things you'd like to see changed
in the Jenkins UI. We'll try to consolidate them, and run them by UX designers to make
sure we can get informed decisions.
Please also be reminded that the changes we can make is constrained by the compatibility
requirement.
Some of the thoughts that came up during the meeting are:
But let's brainstorm!
· Add config link to core UI in job list (one less mouse click)
· “Advanced” plugin button expanded in config page by default if master config param set
· Add the ability to custom order job list tabs (currently it seems to be alphabetic)
1) Whatever change happens, it would be nice to have the option to configure
it ourselves. Some sort of UI that allows users to change colors, fonts,
maybe even layouts, maybe even icons, etc.etc. would be nice.
2) Currently, the webpage does a good job at maximizing its real-estate.
Meaning that banners and graphics don't take up too much space. But, when
the amount of views/jobs/etc grows, jenkins has a hard time displaying that
information. I remember that Dean Yu gave a presentation on how to handle
displaying 100+ views, but it would nice if that sort of functionality is
built into jenkins. (I don't remember if there is plugin for this or not) Or
at least take this into consideration when re-doing the graphics.
3) This is minor, but I posted a question a while back about changing the
icons of the view folder. Here is the
http://jenkins.361315.n4.nabble.com/Different-Icons-for-Different-Views-td3649489.html
link
4) I'm not a big fan of having tabs in the config page, since I'm always
finding myself hitting "Ctrl + f" to find things on that page. With tabs,
I'll have to visit each tab to execute my search...
5) Overall, IMHO, the layout does its job quite nicely, so if changes are
coming, hopefully they will not be too disruptive (The microsoft Ribbon
comes to mind... I don't think I met anyone who liked that UI...)
--
View this message in context: http://jenkins.361315.n4.nabble.com/Jenkins-UI-enhancements-tp4196887p4196997.html
Sent from the Jenkins users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Better plugin support for multi jobs. Can you summarise the multi job data better within a plugin?
“build now here” option (for testing new slaves).
Slave info page – have a “your slave.jar is not up to date” message. And probably in the connection string “connected via XXX, with version YYY, on arch (x32|x64).”
“run elsewhere” option/button for queued builds.
Regards,
Terry
How about an easy way to convert a working single target job to a matrix build?
--
Les Mikesell
lesmi...@gmail.com
I hear you, but that's not really an UI change, isn't it...
--
Kohsuke Kawaguchi | CloudBees, Inc. | http://cloudbees.com/
Try Nectar, our professional version of Jenkins
Strange – I have to say I think the Jenkins UI is a strong point!
I’ve used nexus (I dislike – overly complex can’t see what’s saved vs what’s in progress – due to the mix of tabs & tables)
I’ve use CruiseControl (ok a long time ago but well ‘nuff said)
I think depending on who you ask you will get conflicting reports of what works/doesn’t – I haven’t herad anybody at work complain about the UI in Jenkins.
(apart from where its’s broken or displays badly in IE – plugin descriptions I’m looking at you!)
But having said that there are areas for improvements – such as
1) View tabs – having a lot makes them less useful (moving to folders instead has helped here – but removed the dashboard views L)
2) Load performance (certainly in IE8 is not brilliant in a few pages)
3) Graphs – IMAPs don’t work in IE8 but do in chrome (JENKINS-6879).
But only one of the above is really for a UI designer. Sure there is always pixel pushing and colours that a UI designer would be good at – but that’s not throwing the baby out with the bath water J
/James
From: jenkins...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:jenkins...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of domi
Sent: 14 December 2011 20:33
To: jenkins...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Jenkins UI enhancements
Today on the IRC channel we where discussing some ways we could improve Jenkins' UI.
I would throw into the mix in IE8 the matrix based security – the groups and names of permissions are printed vertically which is much better than on chrome where they are printed horizontally taking up much more real estate forcing you to scroll left/right to see the full list.
/James
-P
I am against tabs myself - please keep everything on one page.
And I second Slide's proposal about floating "Save" button.
On 12/14/11, grayaii <georg...@rsa.com> wrote:I am against tabs myself - please keep everything on one page.
> I only have a few ideas (but I did send this question to the rest of my
> team,
> so I may have a few more later on)
>
> 1) Whatever change happens, it would be nice to have the option to configure
> it ourselves. Some sort of UI that allows users to change colors, fonts,
> maybe even layouts, maybe even icons, etc.etc. would be nice.
>
Why are people so afraid of <ctrl>+<end> (works on Linux and Windows – surely Mac has an equivalent) ;-)
Personally I find floating buttons annoying as they always end up getting in the way of something (which leads to more scrolling, subverting the original reason for it), or grabbing focus when they shouldn’t. I’m yet to see one done well, where a fixed button would have worked just as well.
/James
From: jenkins...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:jenkins...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Slide
Sent: 15 December 2011 13:05
To: jenkins...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Jenkins UI enhancements
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 5:57 AM, Daniel PETISME <daniel....@gmail.com> wrote:
Why are people so afraid of <ctrl>+<end> (works on Linux and Windows – surely Mac has an equivalent) ;-)
Personally I find floating buttons annoying as they always end up getting in the way of something (which leads to more scrolling, subverting the original reason for it), or grabbing focus when they shouldn’t. I’m yet to see one done well, where a fixed button would have worked just as well.
+1 on floating save buttons
+1 on expand/collapse sections in job config with lazy load and expand/
collapse all options at the top for those that use ctrl-F to jump to
what they need
I'd like to see "Advanced" sections expanded by default if they
contain non-default configs.
I'd like to be able to re-collapse an Advanced section
I'd love to be able to configure on a job-by-job basis what the
"build" link said. We have many jobs that are pure "deploy" and this
sometimes causes confusion.
I can set a description on a view-by-view basis, but sometimes I need
to be able to set a system-wide message that would appear on every
view (and project and build?) It would be really spiffy if the area
reserved for this message did an auto refresh - on a configurable time
limit - the same way the build queue does.
Well, you'd have to add something visible to enable it. As for
overall UI, I'm probably unusual this way, but I really hate things
that hide sections behind tabs or don't expose options until you push
the right button. Would much prefer a way to see every option in one
big page so I can use the browser's search feature instead of having
to google for instructions on which tab to open or which button to
click to get a screen with the option I want to change. Color coding
active/non active sections would be nice, though. And when I see a
bunch of stuff at once, then I want a way to enter a regexp to make
changes across everything instead of having to move to every form
field and repeat it - this might be particularly useful after copying
an existing job to a new one.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmi...@gmail.com
I'm perfectly fine with expand/collapse (maybe even better than tabs), my main
point was lazy loading as waitng for a page to load is quite annoying for me
Today on the IRC channel we where discussing some ways we could improve Jenkins' UI.
We think it's been pointed out by many as a weak point in Jenkins, and it just so happens
that I might be able to get hold of some user experience designer to spend some time
on this.
2. Consistent and nested bread crumbs. The Jenkins bread crumbs are
all over the place. And especially for the Manage Jenkins part, they
should be nested.
For example:
http://jenkins.bc.corp.adobe.com/manage -> "Jenkins" should be:
"Jenkins -> Manage"
http://jenkins.bc.corp.adobe.com/pluginManager/available -> "Jenkins >
Plugin Manager" should be: "Jenkins > Plugin Manager > Available
Plugins"
Want more? :p
My biggest peve is stale pages. The job has been finished for 1 hour
and the build page button is still blinking!
I configure a job and the page is stale, I refresh, it's good, I save
and get the dreaded can't find class error, do it again
and hope it works. If you turn on auto refresh (I have mine set for 7
seconds) you can't read reports as a refresh takes you to another page.
This is the only application I use that has this problem. Is this a
java thing? (I don't code in java).
+1 for fixing the save button, I don't care what method is used as long
as I can easily find it with out a lot of scrolling.
The ability to define your own report page. For example, my users want
colored indicators next to reports. My reports may report errors in the
run, so those reports get 'red'. Reports that show a clean run get
green, reports that have some other problem show yellow, modules with no
tests show orange. I can to this now by creating a directory with my
own index.html in it with the reports, but it would nice to have some
sort of template system that could be used.
+1 for fixing the admin page, it is an issue to have to got to manage
jenkins to get to manage plugins, etc...
+1 for making it easier to delete a job using the shelved projects plugin.
Overall the UI is a good first cut as is. It's not bad, but it's time
to consider the next iteration as the product now has a lot of use and
some scaling issues in the UI are starting to surface. This is a great
community. Looking forward to the next UI.
--
---
Mark Donohoe
OSPO, HP
FOSSology.org
A better way to manage views would be helpful.
This is an extension point, so all we need is a plugin that offers more
controls to the user.
Anyone knows how to do this easily with CSS/JavaScript?
The same problem exists with the update center.
One example I found [1]. I believe that trac does this with the toc as well.
[1] - http://www.fiendish.demon.co.uk/html/javascript/layerfloat.html
Thanks!
> (apart from where its�s broken or displays badly in IE � plugin
> descriptions I�m looking at you!)
This is good to know. We encourage more people to report these issues.
We seem to have more problems with IE than with any other browsers...
> But having said that there are areas for improvements � such as
>
> 1)View tabs � having a lot makes them less useful (moving to folders
> instead has helped here � but removed the dashboard views L)
>
> 2)Load performance (certainly in IE8 is not brilliant in a few pages)
>
> 3)Graphs � IMAPs don�t work in IE8 but do in chrome (JENKINS-6879).
>
> But only one of the above is really for a UI designer. Sure there is
> always pixel pushing and colours that a UI designer would be good at �
> but that�s not throwing the baby out with the bath water J
>
> /James
>
> *From:*jenkins...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:jenkins...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *domi
> *Sent:* 14 December 2011 20:33
> *To:* jenkins...@googlegroups.com
> *Subject:* Jenkins UI enhancements
>
> Today on the IRC channel we where discussing some ways we could improve
> Jenkins' UI.
> We think it's been pointed out by many as a weak point in Jenkins, and
> it just so happens
> that I might be able to get hold of some user experience designer to
> spend some time
> on this.
>
> So we'd like to collect ideas from you about what kind of things you'd
> like to see changed
> in the Jenkins UI. We'll try to consolidate them, and run them by UX
> designers to make
> sure we can get informed decisions.
>
> Please also be reminded that the changes we can make is constrained by
> the compatibility
> requirement.
>
> Some of the thoughts that came up during the meeting are:
>
> �splitting config to multiple tabs, using more AJAX to update data in
> the page without reload
>
> �make fonts bigger and use less borders
>
> �background color changes in different regions to group things together
>
> �the handle in the config page that lets you reorder steps is apparently
> very hard to find
>
> �I find the "delete" button to be confusing where it belongs to, for
> certain build steps
>
> But let's brainstorm!
>
>
>
> **************************************************************************************
> This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you
> have received this message in error, please immediately notify the
> postm...@nds.com and delete it from your system as well as any copies.
> The content of e-mails as well as traffic data may be monitored by NDS
> for employment and security purposes. To protect the environment please
> do not print this e-mail unless necessary.
>
> NDS Limited. Registered Office: One London Road, Staines, Middlesex,
> TW18 4EX, United Kingdom. A company registered in England and Wales.
> Registered no. 3080780. VAT no. GB 603 8808 40-00
> **************************************************************************************
This "I want to reduce the number of clicks" seem to be a common theme.
Maybe some kind of drop-down menu or something to provide quicker
nagivation or something.
This is because we draw from the Tango icon set and hence the choice is
limited. I still think it's better than us pulling icons that feel
different from all over the place.
But if we have someone interested in writing icons in the same theme,
that's entirely different story...
> -On the main configuration page settings should be grouped together and
> put in better order (eg. settings related to plugins should be in one group)
> -Navigation between jobs could be improved. (If you select a job which
> is part of a view or a matrix configuration, links to the next and
> previous job of the same view/matrix would be nice.)
>
> Here some comments on the already proposed ideas:
>
> @Nathan Perrier
> A config link in the job list is already available if you use the
> "configure project column" of the Extra Columns Plugin
> <https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Extra+Columns+Plugin>. If
> this is what you want
> and more people find it useful maybe it can be pulled up to the core.
>
> @Salim Fadhley
> Have you tried out the DropDown ViewsTabBar Plugin
> <https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/DropDown+ViewsTabBar+Plugin> yet?
> It replaces the view tabs with a drop down menu.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Fred
Could look at the famfam silk icon set, its very nice and has a very large set of icons. Not sure on the available format though.
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Slide <slide...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Could look at the famfam silk icon set, its very nice and has a very large
> set of icons. Not sure on the available format though.
http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/
The license looks right, but the icons appear to only be in 16x16 format.
-Jesse
--
There are 10 types of people in this world, those
that can read binary and those that can not.
Personally I find floating buttons annoying as they always end up getting in the way of something
Inspired by JIRA (where the issue caption stick to the top of the page),
I've added the sticky bottom botton in
http://ci.jenkins-ci.org/job/jenkins_main_trunk/1366/
In this build it only does this for update center. Does this pass the bar?
>
> /James
>
> *From:*jenkins...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:jenkins...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Slide
> *Sent:* 15 December 2011 13:05
> *To:* jenkins...@googlegroups.com
> *Subject:* Re: Jenkins UI enhancements
>
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 5:57 AM, Daniel PETISME
> <daniel....@gmail.com <mailto:daniel....@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> As said, with a lot of plugins the job configuration page can be very
> long. The save button is really far far away every time !
> Tabs are a good idea, but if we use it in jobs config, they must be used
> in every config pages.
>
> What about a expand/collapse sections mechanisms ? The sections could be
> lazy loaded (Load a section if the user ask to expand it).
> The configurations are XML trees, why not use Tree views as UI ?
>
>
> This is why I thought a "floating" save button would be nice. In
> reality, something like the floating ToC in some Wiki implementations
> might be nice to, so that you could quickly switch between different
> config sections, and have the save button handy. I think that Trac has
> the floating ToC option.
>
> slide
>
>
>
> **************************************************************************************
> This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you
> have received this message in error, please immediately notify the
> postm...@nds.com and delete it from your system as well as any copies.
> The content of e-mails as well as traffic data may be monitored by NDS
> for employment and security purposes. To protect the environment please
> do not print this e-mail unless necessary.
>
> NDS Limited. Registered Office: One London Road, Staines, Middlesex,
> TW18 4EX, United Kingdom. A company registered in England and Wales.
> Registered no. 3080780. VAT no. GB 603 8808 40-00
> **************************************************************************************
On 12/14/2011 01:07 PM, Slide wrote:Anyone knows how to do this easily with CSS/JavaScript?
Would be very nice if some of the "Save" buttons "floated" as you
scrolled the page so you don't have to scroll all the way to the bottom
of a very large config page to save something you changed at the top.
The same problem exists with the update center.
https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/secure/CreateIssue
?
Recently saw discussed in some other tool the ability to "View
as" [user/group], which I have craved in Jenkins but didn't know how
to say it. As an admin I often have trouble understanding what other
users can/can't see without hanging over their shoulders. It would be
nice if I could verify their experience before I told them to "go look/
do..." Ditto as a plugin writer w/r/t the view/execute perms I put on
features.
didier
Today on the IRC channel we where discussing some ways we could improve Jenkins' UI.
We think it's been pointed out by many as a weak point in Jenkins, and it just so happens
that I might be able to get hold of some user experience designer to spend some time
on this.So we'd like to collect ideas from you about what kind of things you'd like to see changed
in the Jenkins UI. We'll try to consolidate them, and run them by UX designers to make
sure we can get informed decisions.Please also be reminded that the changes we can make is constrained by the compatibility
requirement.Some of the thoughts that came up during the meeting are:
- splitting config to multiple tabs, using more AJAX to update data in the page without reload
- make fonts bigger and use less borders
- background color changes in different regions to group things together
- the handle in the config page that lets you reorder steps is apparently very hard to find
- I find the "delete" button to be confusing where it belongs to, for certain build steps
But let's brainstorm!
+ 0.5 for the nifty idea.
You'll get my other 0.5 if you can explain why this feature would be
useful to you.
-- Sami
Many people want to see tabs take less space. Someone already
suggested installing the
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/DropDown+ViewsTabBar+Plugin.
It works.
My personal wish list for Jenkins usability improvements would be:
1) Find ways to pack more information into the browser window. A
serious Jenkins site with lots of jobs and slaves requires one to
scroll too much. Make sidebars shrink when mouse is not over them
(like Gmail's label list). Make executor list smaller.
2) More keyboard shortcuts for faster navigation: E.g. I'd love a key
to take me to the Jenkins search box at the top. The search box should
allow fuzzy matching for job names. It should search for job
descriptions too. It would be great it if allowed me to jump directly
to a certain build of a job too.
In other words: I want to see more without scrolling and I want to
navigate without reaching for the mouse.
-- Sami
2011/12/14 domi <do...@fortysix.ch>:
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Nord, James <JN...@nds.com> wrote:
Why are people so afraid of <ctrl>+<end> (works on Linux and Windows – surely Mac has an equivalent) ;-)
Personally I find floating buttons annoying as they always end up getting in the way of something (which leads to more scrolling, subverting the original reason for it), or grabbing focus when they shouldn’t. I’m yet to see one done well, where a fixed button would have worked just as well.
you can also click into an input field, and hit enter, at least this is what I'm doing, when I too lazy to scroll.
--
Ferenc Kovács
@Tyr43l - http://tyrael.hu
I don't think that this is a standard if you select from a drop down
list. It only is a standard if the text in the textbox has focus.
E.g. in Jira if you select from a drop down box with ENTER then the
selected value is chosen but the form is not closed.
Or in any login dialog (e.g., gmail), when selecting your user name from
the auto-completion in the user field then that value is copied to the
user field on RETURN. The form is not submitted with an empty password
if you press ENTER in the user auto-completion.
Ulli
-- Sami
I submitted a patch a while ago, which will jump to the console
immediately. Clicking on the status icon (blue, yellow, red) of a
build will go directly to the console output (see
https://github.com/jenkinsci/jenkins/pull/93).
Regards Mirko
Jenkins users and CI professionals:
MSC Software is seeking a Senior Builds Engineer with "continuous integration" background to analyze, design and automate processes to improve our Builds and Release environment. This is a unique career opportunity, based in Santa Ana, California..and a chance to work with some of the best SW Engineers in the world..Description is attached
Refer someone we hire for this Santa Ana, CA. based role and we will be pleased to donate $2,500, in your name, to the charity or cause of your choice..
Who should we be speaking with regarding this unique opportunity?
Johnny Prewitt
Senior Recruiter
MSC.Software Corporation
2 MacArthur Place, Santa Ana, CA. 92707
Tel. 415-608-4442
"LEARN MORE" link above is temporarily disabled. Use:www.nastran.mscsoftware.com
MSC Software is the worldwide leader in multidiscipline simulation
solutions that help companies improve quality, save time and reduce
costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products. MSC
Software partners with hundreds of companies worldwide to develop
better products faster by applying our tools and services. MSC
Software is a global company with 1,200 employees and offices in 20
countries.
These are exciting times for MSC Software. Now in the second year of a
five year turnaround we are profitable again.
From: jenkins...@googlegroups.com [mailto:jenkins...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Lee Meador
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 10:44 AM
To: jenkins...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Jenkins UI enhancements
It would be nice to indicate a particular view that was able to be viewed by everyone (without them logging in). It would be up to you to make sure that view didn't include any options you didn't want exposed to the world.
>Jenkins users and CI professionals:
>
>
>
>MSC Software is seeking a Senior Builds Engineer with "continuous
>integration" background to analyze, design and automate processes to
>improve our Builds and Release environment. This is a unique career
>opportunity, based in Santa Ana, California..and a chance to work with
>some of the best SW Engineers in the world..Description is attached
>
>Refer someone we hire for this Santa Ana, CA. based role and we will be
>pleased to donate $2,500, in your name, to the charity or cause of your
>choice..
>
>
>
>Who should we be speaking with regarding this unique opportunity?
>
>
>
>Johnny Prewitt
>
>Senior Recruiter
>
>MSC.Software Corporation
>
>2 MacArthur Place, Santa Ana, CA. 92707
>
>Tel. 415-608-4442
>
>www.mscsoftware.com
>
>
>
>
>
This is not with appropriate for the mailing list.
--
Sent from my ASUS Decepticon