Improving the about: page
Chris Ilias
Firefox (I can't seem to find the post. Knowing him, he probably deleted
that post). One of the suggestions I really liked was the idea that the
about page should provide all the info a user needs.
It should list:
- version
- user-agent sting
- installed add-ons (and their version numbers)
- installed plug-ins (and their version numbers)
- profile location
- and maybe the cache location
He suggested making it about:browser, but I don't see the reason for
that, unless there's a technical reason it can't be about:. I was going
to file a bug, but thought I'd throw the idea in this newsgroup first,
to see what opinions are.
--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
List-owner: support-firefox, support-thunderbird
mozilla.test.multimedia moderator
(Please do not email me tech support questions)
Tony Mechelynck
> A while ago, Rebron posted some suggestions on his blog to improve
> Firefox (I can't seem to find the post. Knowing him, he probably deleted
> that post). One of the suggestions I really liked was the idea that the
> about page should provide all the info a user needs.
>
> It should list:
> - version
> - user-agent sting
> - installed add-ons (and their version numbers)
> - installed plug-ins (and their version numbers)
> - profile location
> - and maybe the cache location
>
> He suggested making it about:browser, but I don't see the reason for
> that, unless there's a technical reason it can't be about:. I was going
> to file a bug, but thought I'd throw the idea in this newsgroup first,
> to see what opinions are.
I prefer having "about:" display a not-too-cluttered page that can easily fit
within a browser tab, without scrolling. The current page (browser logo,
version, user-agent string and copyright, plus a few links), seems OK to me.
About:plugins (which already exists) and, let's say, about:addons or maybe
about:components (which could be added) deserve IMO their own pages. Cache
location is already shown on the about:cache page. I'm not sure what the ideal
location would be to display the profile location.
Best regards,
Tony.
Peter Kasting
>
> Chris Ilias wrote:
> > A while ago, Rebron posted some suggestions on his blog to improve
> > Firefox (I can't seem to find the post. Knowing him, he probably deleted
> > that post). One of the suggestions I really liked was the idea that the
> > about page should provide all the info a user needs.
>
> fit
> within a browser tab, without scrolling.
What about just making about: have (appropriately titled) links to the other
relevant about: pages? "3 plugins installed (click for more information)"
could link to about:plugins, for example. This would make the detailed data
a little easier to get at, while preserving the smaller size of the about:
page.
PK
Tony Mechelynck
Yes, that would be nice.
BTW, IMHO the version number is printed in too small type in about: pages for
Fx2 but that can be corrected, e.g. with the following code in userContent.css:
/*
* Style rules for the about: page
*/
div#aboutPageContainer
{ font-size: 10pt !important
}
div#aboutLogoContainer
{ text-align: center !important
}
p#version
{ font-size: 2em !important
; font-weight: bold !important
; text-decoration: underline !important
}
ul#aboutPageList
{ font-size: 10pt !important
}
Best regards,
Tony.
RAV
In FX 2.0.0.1, one of the entries in about: reads "Read the release
notes for this version" but it's not clickable. p
Robert Kaiser
> In FX 2.0.0.1, one of the entries in about: reads "Read the release
> notes for this version" but it's not clickable. p
I guess that's because of
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=349985
Robert Kaiser
Gervase Markham
> A while ago, Rebron posted some suggestions on his blog to improve
> Firefox (I can't seem to find the post. Knowing him, he probably deleted
> that post).
> One of the suggestions I really liked was the idea that the
> about page should provide all the info a user needs.
Needs for what? :-)
> It should list:
> - version
> - user-agent sting
> - installed add-ons (and their version numbers)
> - installed plug-ins (and their version numbers)
> - profile location
> - and maybe the cache location
What user needs all of this at the same time?
With regard to improving about:, the following (although now a bit out
of date and overtaken by events) might be relevant:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Gerv/UnifiedLicensingPlan
Gerv
Peter Weilbacher
> Chris Ilias wrote:
>> One of the suggestions I really liked was the idea that the
>> about page should provide all the info a user needs.
>
> Needs for what? :-)
>
>> It should list:
>> - version
>> - user-agent sting
>> - installed add-ons (and their version numbers)
>> - installed plug-ins (and their version numbers)
>> - profile location
>> - and maybe the cache location
>
> What user needs all of this at the same time?
I guess at least the four item at the top would be very useful for user
support, something they could easily cut and paste into a mail or a
news/forum post.
Not sure I would put this into the about: page, though, it would have to
increase its size significantly.
Peter.
Chris Ilias
> Chris Ilias wrote:
>> One of the suggestions I really liked was the idea that the about page
>> should provide all the info a user needs.
>
> Needs for what? :-)
Support. According to Rafael "This feature would be useful for support
purposes, so a user running into a problem could use this profile info
to trouble shoot whatever he/she is having." I would add to that: user
support discussion. Most users don't provide enough information about
their setup, and we need to fish it out of them. In many cases, we need
to know what extensions are installed, and there's no way to simply copy
and paste that info into a support post. (They would need the
info-lister extension) If I need a user to do something in their profile
folder (eg. restore a bookmarks backup file), I can point them to a web
page that lists the default locations, but the web page can't list the
exact path for that specific user.
I guess you could consider this part of Chris Hofmann's discussion for
improving support: <http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=494282>.
This way, when a user doesn't provide enough info, we can just tell them
to go to URL [fill in the blank], select all, copy, and paste into their
reply. It may even help with bug reports.
pcab...@gmail.com
Chris Ilias wrote:
> This way, when a user doesn't provide enough info, we can just tell them
> to go to URL [fill in the blank], select all, copy, and paste into their
> reply. It may even help with bug reports.
I guess it wouldn't be hard to add a button "Copy my support info",
users could press and have it ready in a format more suitable for a
support forum (no tables, images) than the used for web presentation
(logos, tables,).
Also, since plugin information can be overwhelming (about:plugin), I
would suggest making its presentation progressive ith some DHTML.
Perhaps they may want just to see title of the plugin and not all the
specific files and versions and MIME types at least at first sight,
something like this, but then they could expand as necessary, like:
[-] QuickTime Plug-in 7.1.3
[-] File name: npqtplugin7.dll
The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view ...
[- ] MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
image/tiff TIFF image tif,tiff Yes
image/x-tiff TIFF image tif,tiff Yes
image/jp2 JPEG2000 image jp2 Yes
image/jpeg2000 JPEG2000 image jp2 Yes
image/jpeg2000-image JPEG2000 image jp2 Yes
image/x-jpeg2000-image JPEG2000 image jp2 Yes
+ File name: npqtplugin6.dll
+ File name: npqtplugin5.dll
The copy button could copy the complete information anyway.
Percy
Chris Ilias
> Chris Ilias wrote:
>
>> This way, when a user doesn't provide enough info, we can just tell them
>> to go to URL [fill in the blank], select all, copy, and paste into their
>> reply. It may even help with bug reports.
>
> I guess it wouldn't be hard to add a button "Copy my support info",
> users could press and have it ready in a format more suitable for a
> support forum (no tables, images) than the used for web presentation
> (logos, tables,).
FWIW, I just filed bug 367596 for this:
<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=367596>
Gervase Markham
> This way, when a user doesn't provide enough info, we can just tell them
> to go to URL [fill in the blank], select all, copy, and paste into their
> reply. It may even help with bug reports.
Then let's have about:diagnostics. We can then even format it for easy
copying and pasting. We already have about:buildconfig; it's not a
controversial idea.
about: has historically had a particular type of content. Given that we
can add new about: pages at will, let's not change this one into
something it's not.
Gerv