-
1. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
tom.baeyens Nov 18, 2006 9:24 AM (in response to dmlloyd)i would put them all in one line, i think.
-
2. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
tom.baeyens Nov 18, 2006 10:01 AM (in response to dmlloyd)one more thing. in my environment, while testing the alpha2 release, the "More Info needed" button still doesn't work.
no prob. i'm going to release anyway, but please have a look at it so that it's fixed by next release -
3. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
dmlloyd Nov 18, 2006 12:03 PM (in response to dmlloyd)I fixed the problem. It was a combination of the transition buttons "forgetting" their transition between rendering and form submission, and some invalid transitions in the forms themselves. Also, the process instance summary page had a bug in it that caused you to get dumped into a broken screen under some conditions. Anyway the whole websale process works for me now. I do have some unrelated local changes, so let me know if anything is broken. I think I got it all.
-
4. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
dmlloyd Nov 22, 2006 9:57 AM (in response to dmlloyd)Putting all the context menu items on one line isn't going to work - there's just too much information to make it look nice.
I think that the red "swoosh" is going to have to go. Just having the logo on the left side, I can make a nice heirarchy of horizontal menus that are above the "main" content area. I'd like to do it one of two ways: either have the high-level items across the top (process, process instance, task, task instance), with the next layer switching to the appropriate submenu on mouseover or click; or I can have one row per high-level item, with menu options extending to the right.
Personally I think that DHTML menus are annoying because it is rare that they work properly in all browsers (and in this case, I'm willing to settle for IE and Firefox). But I'd rather do the two-level menu I described above than DHTML/javascript dropdown menus. Dropdown menus are difficult to implement correctly and can be very obnoxious for users. -
5. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
tom.baeyens Nov 22, 2006 11:38 AM (in response to dmlloyd)actually i wouldn't use DHTML menu's either.
the idea that i had was that you just have one link per context menu. and that all the actions are in the page content. meaning that when you click on the task instance link, you get to see the task instance form + links like reassign and other task operations are available somewhere in that page. -
6. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
kukeltje Nov 25, 2006 8:43 AM (in response to dmlloyd)Hmm.. no dhtml menus? We use lots of them and never had any problems. I'd be happy to try something if there are some directions given.
One other remark, I (and I'm not alone in this) hate jumping items on the screen. e.g. the message that is displayed if you just save some form, makes the form jump down.
I agree with Tom that some page related actions are in the page. Reassign could be one of them that is accesible directly. Some of the others might be in a single dropdown menu (look at alfresco) or even a context-sensitive right mouse button. People are not realy used to that in webpages, but in the apps that I've encountered this, I got accustomed to it real quickly -
7. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
dmlloyd Nov 27, 2006 10:39 AM (in response to dmlloyd)Ok, maybe I have a solution that works for everyone.
On the left the menu items will look like:
Task: start
Definition View
Instance View
Process: simple
Definition View
Instance View
Main
System View
User "bert"
User View
Log Out
The indented items are menu items, and the other items are headings (they cannot be clicked).
This menu is always the same, nothing moving, disappearing, or reappearing. If no task is available, the corresponding menu items are disabled and the heading reads "No task available".
The views contain all the information and actions for the object it represents. The User View would have the things like the user task list (I heard someone refer to that as the user's "Inbox"; I like that notion) and group task list, and ultimately possibly some identity management stuff.
System View is all of the global information, including searching for processes and any other global maintenance.
Task Definition View can give information about a task definition, as well as statistical information or reports that are specific to a task definition.
Task Instance View would let someone work with a task instance, including updating the task form, reassigning the task, viewing comments, etc.
Process Definition View would give overall information about the process and any reports relevant on a process level.
Process Instance View would allow you to look at the process instance and its constituent tokens, to examine the state of a process and possibly to deliver signals to a token that is blocking on a node.
I modeled it up in the menu and content areas and it looks better, or at least I think so. Does this work for everyone? -
8. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
kukeltje Nov 27, 2006 11:17 AM (in response to dmlloyd)I would put the user view first, task second, process third and main last.
Besides that, is there some difference betweeen what is seen if you are in different roles (admin, participant, manager??) -
9. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
dmlloyd Nov 27, 2006 11:51 AM (in response to dmlloyd)No difference right now. However, I think it might be very reasonable to restrict the "participant" role to limited versions of each view (for example, User View might only contain the task lists, System View could only contain a process list, and Process Definition View might contain only the ability to view summary information and start the process running).
This is easily accomplished by using the standard disabled="#{identityBean.participant}" kind of mechanism on any component that is to be rendered inaccessable to a role. I've left that task as something that can be put off, because it is simpler to do. At some point (soon) I want to be able to say, "this is the functionality that will be in 3.2.0". If roles don't make it in, I see this as less detrimental than if key content is left out. -
10. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
kukeltje Nov 27, 2006 12:18 PM (in response to dmlloyd)could not agree more ;-)
-
11. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
tom.baeyens Nov 27, 2006 2:14 PM (in response to dmlloyd)i would still would not use fixed context menus that are most of the time disabled.
i think that 4 links can be easily fitted on one line as the first line in the content.
but all arguments pro and con have been discussed. so you should just decide what you think is best and go ahead. -
12. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
kukeltje Nov 28, 2006 3:31 AM (in response to dmlloyd)Tom, I agree, I misinterpreted David's 'disabled'. MyFaces also has a 'rendered=true/false' which would do the job. You should not have lots of disabled menuitems if you are a regular user.
-
13. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
dmlloyd Nov 28, 2006 8:32 AM (in response to dmlloyd)Yes, that is what I meant - though like I said, it's trivially easy to switch back and forth. They should only be visible if there is some chance that they would become active.
-
14. Re: Web Console: Context Menus and Navigation
dmlloyd Dec 1, 2006 7:43 PM (in response to dmlloyd)I've committed the bulk of these changes. Currently searches look really ugly, but that's a temporary situation.
Also the System View is pretty much turned off until the search changes are made. Because of this I've left some of the links as they were.
As always, direct abuse to me via the forums.