[Question] How out of sync should be notified?

[Danielo Rodríguez]

Hello,

I was going to post a question in TW-Dev and I just realized that I would prefer to have the opinion of the community first.

I have been investigating about couchdb, and I learned a lot thanks to the couchdb adaptor. So I decided to create a pochdb adaptor for tiddliwiki.

Basically this means: Having an offline database locally (inside the browser) that syncs to an online database whenever you have internet connection.

My question is: How the sync state should be notificated? I mean, you lost internet connection, then you lost sync to the server, Internet comes back, sync starts again.

Possible states are:

• Connected and synced
• Connected but syncing 
• Offline

My first idea was to use the state color of the "save button". Leaving it red when you're offline, but this can be confusing, because you will not know if the changes have been saved locally. I think the best approach is to notify with an alert when you lost sync. I choose alert because they last until you remove them, so there is no chance to not be aware of it. Then, when connection comes back, that alert can be removed automatically. Any other notification just use a notification (toast)

What do you think?

[Andreas Hahn]

Hi Danielo,

I could imagine an extra indicator either in the toolbar or in the TopRightBar, where it just says:

- Synced (in green)
- Syncing... (in orange)
- Offline mode (in red)

I would assume that people notice when it changes the color from green to red, also it is not too intrusive. I feel like alerts are extremely intrusive to your concentration when you are working. (And it just feels like something went terribly wrong)
Therefore, I would say a little indicator is all that is needed and when you use the mechanism actively, you will probably look at the indicator when you are done working and are about to close the wiki, which sounds like the right time that you should be informed about the state of the changes you've made.

/Andreas

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[Mat]

IMO the interface should not be cluttered with unnecessary information, so my question is: What information is desired? Is it relevant to show the connection status all the time or perhaps only when the user is "asking"?

For example, even a permanent color dot draws attention. One that switches colors even more so. Traffic lights are for looking actively at, but I our case here is not (I assume).

If (if!) it is not desired to see the activity all the time, maybe it could show when you hover some place? ...or, if it affects when you should click Save, maybe it could appear as an infopopup when hovering Save. Or, if it is only a problem if it is Offline AND during Save, then the info comes up only then.

Also, I would guess that different icons but all in same size/color/weight, are less attention drawing than different color spots. I mean if you want something slightly subtler than colors.

<:-)

[Danielo Rodríguez]

Hello Andreas and Mat,

Thanks for your feedback.
At first I also though about something like Andreas have pointed. But then I realized that since this is a button it could be hidden by the user (deselect it in the toolbar). I don't know why but at first I saw this like a disadvantage, now with Matt's feedback I see it like a plus. With my first idea, just two states, synced and not synced, I realized that in fact I was replicating TW save button,that's why I thought about using it. Now I see that idea like an error.

Today I have remembered that I did something similar for tiddlydrive before. So here is what I think it's best:
* having a button with a cloud ☁ icon that mimics TW stylesheet.
* Different states are represented with different small icons over the cloud icon.
* two arrows in a circle for sync in progress, a tick ✅ for sync complete, something else for out of sync (💔?) and maybe an X in a circle for version collisions.

With this setup it does not attract your attention and you decide if you want to hide it or not in the control panel. Also it provides more information than just three colors.

What do you think?