launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Christian Robottom Reis <kiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 01:00:19PM +0200, Michael Nelson wrote:
> Issue 1: where to put the builder details
> =========================================
> 
> So the builder details/information section is not the type of info that
> should be in the 3-0 side-bar, but that presents a problem for this
> page, which most people use to find out one specific detail: the current
> status of the builder.

This is interesting; it's the case where the registration information
for the context object is actually not that interesting and what is more
interesting is its current activity. However, I challenge that this is
the exception: I bet that many, maybe most pages for a context /should/
highlight current context over status. In a way, the old page for the
builder is perfect, because it highlights what you want to see -- its
status and history -- and puts in a secondary location the (admittedly
minimal) metadata around the object. 

> You can see how I have tried to accommodate for this by including the
> details in the main content but on the side - I personally think it
> looks too crowded, and it *still* breaks the flow of Current status ->
> Current log tail.

Would it make sense to instead put the Builder Information metadata at
the /end/ of the page, under the status and the logtail?

> Any suggestions as to where the details could go? In this (exceptional)
> case - where the actual usage of the page is usually for one specific
> detail of the context object - the sidebar worked quite well in the past.

If I were designing this page from scratch, I think I would do it like
this:

    Bob the builder                        [ i386 ]

    Current status:
    XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

    Log tail:
    XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
    XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
    XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
    XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
    XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

    Statistics:
    13% idle, 22321 builds since last boot

    .---------------------------------------------.
    | About Bob the builder                (edit) |
    | Added to the farm on 2009-04-01             |
    | Owned by _Launchpad Buildd Admins_          |
    | Builder URL: http://XXX/                    |
    '---------------------------------------------'

with the i386 at the top in big fat letters in a nice font, because it's
the one thing from the details which actually matters to most page
viewers.

> Note: Christian Robottom Reis wrote in a previous thread:
> > is "links in the actions menu are all the links that manipulate
> > something that isn't intuitively identifiable on the page." The page
> > context is one such thing, since it is represented by the page itself.

Yeah, I did say that. Are there other actions related to the builder
that would make sense to put in the menu? OTOH, the details in my mockup
above /are/ identified in a clearly defined space, so I kinda like the
edit link close to them..
-- 
Christian Robottom Reis | [+55 16] 3376 0125 | http://launchpad.net/~kiko
                        | [+55 16] 9112 6430 | http://async.com.br/~kiko