Grouper Developers Forum

["GW Brown, Information Systems and Computing" <>]

--On 27 June 2012 14:03 +0000 Michael Girgis 
<>
 wrote:

> Hi everyone.
>
> I'm interested in collecting some feedback regarding your thoughts on the
> need for multiple Grouper UIs. As you know, right now we have two UIs,
> the Admin UI and the Lite UI. As we move forward with a UI redesign,
> we'll need to decide if we're going to redesign both UIs, enhance just
> one or the other, or integrate them into one.
>
> I'm going to take the optimistic route, and suggest that if we design a
> single interface effectively, maybe we can successfully combine both into
> one, and even reduce some overhead along the way.
I think that is the right approach.
> As I understand it, the
> most important features of the Lite UI are:
>
> * removes excess clutter for intermediate users
> * provides ability to deep link directly to a group's management screen
>
> So perhaps as we redesign a single UI, we can pay special attention to
> providing the ability to "hide" advanced features (which is already done
> to some extent in the Lite UI). For example, we could include a tree for
> navigating folders and groups which could exist in a collapsible left
> column - since lite users may not need to access more than one group,
> they can leave this collapsed at all times. And maybe it would be
> possible to save some of those UI settings in a user's preferences or
> session so that she doesn't need to adjust things everytime she accesses
> the site.
Probably a combination of user preferences (better stored in the database) 
and entry point (or passed parameters)
> Regarding deep-linking, is that not an option in the Admin UI, or is it
> mainly that the page you would link to is just not as user-friendly as in
> the Lite UI?
That was an oversight on my part. If you are not already logged into the 
admin UI the login process always takes you to the same start page 
regardless of where you were trying to get to. That wouldn't be difficult 
to change
> As I'm still very new to this project, perhaps I'm over simplifying. But
> I'm interested to know what everyone thinks.
The Admin UI pre-dated AJAX and I deliberately avoided Javascript due to 
cross-browser and accessibility issues. Things have moved on and the use of 
a tree widget and AJAX dialogs should make for a better experience. Some 
tasks are suited to a wizard like approach and they are definitely better 
achieved through dialogs.

Gary


> Thanks in advance,
> Michael Girgis
> University of Chicago



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GW Brown, IT Services