[indiana-discuss] 2008.11 rc1b Package Manager question/confusion

[Josh Simons]

On Nov 14, 2008, at 11:55 AM, Jenya Gestrin <Jenya.Gestrin at Sun.COM>  
wrote:

> Frank Ludolph wrote:
>>
>> Josh Simons wrote:
>>>
>>> On Nov 13, 2008, at 6:51 PM, Michal Pryc wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Michal Pryc wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Josh Simons wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Why is the Add button on the Manage Repositories pane is greyed  
>>>>>> out,
>>>>>> implying I cannot add a new package source? Is this a permissions
>>>>>> issue or something else?
>>>>>>
>>>>> There two possibilities:
>>>>>
>>>>> - You didn't selected (check box in the list) any package that  
>>>>> can be
>>>>> installed/updated.
>>>>>
>>>>> - You are running packagemanager without sufficient permissions  
>>>>> (run
>>>>> with gksu or pfexec on opensolaris) the Package Manager icon is
>>>>> starting
>>>>> application correctly.
>>>>>
>>>> Hi Josh,
>>>> Reply to myself.
>>>> The question was about Manage Repositories not Add/Update, so the
>>>> possibilities are as follows:
>>>>
>>>> - You already have the same name for the repository
>>>>
>>>> - You didn't specify correct URL address
>>>>
>>>> - Your name for the repository contains incorrect values (spaces  
>>>> for
>>>> example)
>>>>
>>>> best
>>>> Michal Pryc
>>>>
>>> Michal,
>>>
>>> My issue is one of usability from a UI design perspective. Since  
>>> the Add
>>> button was greyed out, I assumed the companion fields were not  
>>> active.
>>>
>>> It is counterintuitive to me that filling in the fields would then
>>> cause the
>>> Add button to un-grey. (And only if I specified a correctly  
>>> formatted
>>> response.)
>>>
>>> I asked a professional UI expert outside of Sun if this type of UI
>>> behavior
>>> was appropriate and she agreed that it would be confusing to users.
>>>
>> Not enabling an add/submit button until the 'form' is completed is  
>> a common UI pattern. However, requiring valid field entries before  
>> enabling the button is not. There must be more feedback to the user  
>> about error conditions than just not enabling the button.
>>
>> I would suggest that the Add button be enabled as soon as both  
>> fields have non-blank content and that clicking Add will report,  
>> via and alert, both the invalid field and what constitutes a vaild  
>> entry.
> this is pretty much what it says in my annotations:
> http://xdesign.sfbay.sun.com/projects/solaris/subprojects/package_mngt/UI_specs/ui_spec_phase2/html-mockup/43_repositories_dialog_2.htm
> but I will rephrase the annotations according to your suggestions,  
> Frank.
>
> jenya
>
>
>
It still is not clear to me how a user is supposed to know the fields  
are usable if Add is greyed out by default. When I looked at the  
dialogue I assumed I did not have privs to add a repository. I didn't  
even think to try typing in those fields.

Josh
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