streamline the task interface
anarcat - May 5, 2009 - 17:16
| Project: | Hosting |
| Version: | 6.x-0.4-alpha1 |
| Component: | User interface |
| Category: | feature request |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Unassigned |
| Status: | closed |
Description
Right now, the tasks show up as menu tabs. While this is useful and quickly configured, it has its limitation. First, there is a limit to the number of tabs we can have before the interface degenerates. Once you enable the devel module (with the dev render and dev load tabs) on a hosting install, the Verify task on a site will wrap around under the left column in a Garland. I attach a first screenshot for that.
What I think is that we should have the "Tasks" listing on the right to not be a "queue" list but more like a "tasks" list. All the latest tasks should be listed there, even if they never have been executed. Here's an ugly mockup of the potential interface.
+-------+----------+--------------+
| TASK |Last run |Status |
+-------+----------+--------------+
|Install|5 days ago|Success |
+-------+----------+--------------+
|Verify |3 days ago|Success |
+-------+----------+--------------+
|Backup |3 days ago|Success |
+-------+----------+--------------+
|Restore| |Never ran |
+-------+----------+--------------+
|Migrate|1 day ago |Failed [retry]|
+-------+----------+--------------+
|Disable|Never |Never ran |
+-------+----------+--------------+Clicking on the task would go to the regular menu...
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| snap-2009.05.05-12.54.22.png | 29.41 KB |
#1
[Dupe edited out.]
#2
Another mockup, this time with a cancel button.
+-------+------------+--------------------+| TASK |Last run |Status |
+-------+------------+--------------------+
|Install|5 days ago |Success |
+-------+------------+--------------------+
|Verify |3 days ago |Success |
+-------+------------+--------------------+
|Backup |3 days ago |Success |
+-------+------------+--------------------+
|Restore|Now |In progress [cancel]|
+-------+------------+--------------------+
|Migrate|1 day ago |Failed [retry] |
+-------+------------+--------------------+
|Disable|Never |Never ran |
+-------+------------+--------------------+
#3
The attached patch does part of this. It's not quite up to speed with the mockups (it shows the creation date and the action is not as intuitive), but it's a good start, I think.
I'd like to get feedback of what people think of the proposed interface.
One thing that's missing from the patch /or/ commits is a way to access the task itself, since the task links now to the confirmation dialog itself. I was thinking of adding a "history" button...
#4
Upload failed, trying again.
#5
Nice, I like it. The second mockup with a cancel button for task waiting in the queue would be a great improvement when implemented.
~Grace
#6
Yep I like this too.
Attached is an updated patch, I am just fixing some trivial stuff (spelling mainly, we had references to #weigth instead of #weight.. though it wasn't making anything 'not' work as far as I could see)
#7
So i worked further on all the tasks stuff on my laptop, but it's stuck there. I'll try to extract that tonight or tomorrow.
#8
So I consider this fixed. Some usability concerns were raised in #422970: have one task type per site node but I consider those warrant extra work outside of this patch and separate issues should be opened about it.
#9
See also #600350: provide a nice "history" of ran tasks.
#10
Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.