RFC: Beatifying the plugin updates page/workflow
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:48 pm
Note: I don't have any code yet, I'm trying to phrase my ideas and maybe get some feedback before I start coding... especially as I don't have a current source checkout on this machine 
After checking my plugins (via spartacus) and updating them today I once again was a bit annoyed by the look and feel of the update strategy (only the display of it)
So here's my workflow:
- I go to "manage plugins"
- I open "sidebar" and "event" plugins in new tabs (total 2 tabs)
- I open up every update of every plugin in a new tab (total gazillion+2 tabs)
- I'm presented with X tabs with centered huge text that takes far too long to check if something went wrong. If I see a "oh shit!" icon, it takes a bit to decipher the error warning
So here's some brainstorming
- left align instead of center (easy, no impact)
- unbold and smaller fontsize (easy, no impact)
- split it into collapsible divs (not so easy, might annoy non-JS users, needs evaluation of JS used in the admin interface and fallbacks)
- AJAX - the cure for everything
(probably unneeded, same as above)
So - any more ideas?
Am I really the only one that's a bit puzzled everytime? Did I overlook something (besides some "upgrade all" button, that misses my point - I want to check what's going on)
After checking my plugins (via spartacus) and updating them today I once again was a bit annoyed by the look and feel of the update strategy (only the display of it)
So here's my workflow:
- I go to "manage plugins"
- I open "sidebar" and "event" plugins in new tabs (total 2 tabs)
- I open up every update of every plugin in a new tab (total gazillion+2 tabs)
- I'm presented with X tabs with centered huge text that takes far too long to check if something went wrong. If I see a "oh shit!" icon, it takes a bit to decipher the error warning
So here's some brainstorming
- left align instead of center (easy, no impact)
- unbold and smaller fontsize (easy, no impact)
- split it into collapsible divs (not so easy, might annoy non-JS users, needs evaluation of JS used in the admin interface and fallbacks)
- AJAX - the cure for everything
(probably unneeded, same as above)So - any more ideas?
Am I really the only one that's a bit puzzled everytime? Did I overlook something (besides some "upgrade all" button, that misses my point - I want to check what's going on)