openerp-expert-framework team mailing list archive

[Raphaël Valyi <rvalyi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Fabien and all,

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:13 AM, Fabien Pinckaers <fp@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I think it's important to discuss ONLY usability issues in this mailing
> list. A usability issue is something that helps the software to be more
> easy to use, to understand and to configure.
>
> This does not includes:
> * Enhancements/improvements of the application
> * Improvements that makes the software be better (more features) without
>  simplifying it.
>

Right, didn't knew that, sorry if I stretch somebody's mind out of his
comfort zone.
However, I think it's great people taking care about usability to be aware
of the
framework implications in the overall usability. We are about to release a
new major version,
that's the rare opportunity to make the software better indeed, everybody
should be aware of what would
make it better and how.

So, I propose to send suggestions about the framework or the clients to
> the framework team.
>

Yep, that's exactly why I also sent it to that framework list!
I propose to discuss the detail of my points in that list then from now on
(so don't forget to delete Aline and the openerp-expert-ergonomy list please
if you where to reply)

>
> > 10) Finally I think it's important to make sure the OpenERP clients can
> > easily display third party DHTML widgets in place of OpenERP widgets
> > (like iGoogle or Netvibes portals).
> > I think we could reuse the url widget for that. Indeed, currently it
> > would be hard to have a clean cross platform implementation of a webkit
> > DHTML widget on thye GTK client (and in any case it's not done), that
> > means that
> > probably only the web client would support it.
> > My idea was we add an extra "height parameter on the url widget: in the
> > GTK client, an iframe widget would degrade to the URL of the iframe
> > (that would require to view the widget outside in a browser but would
> work)
> > while in the web-client, we could display the iframe with the width of
> > the URL field and the specified height. Thus if an URL is actually a
> > third party DHTML widget, we just need to specify the height to display
> it.
> > Not that I have a working prototype of this on V6. If OpenERP S.A.
> > agrees with the idea, then I can propose a merge.
> > Please log progress/comments about this feature
> > here:
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/openobject-client-web/+spec/embedd-custom-dhtml-gadgets
> > Notice that the more native OpenERP widgets are limited (see previous
> > points) the more that last feature is required. Thus we could
> > implement advanced interactive widgets using for instance OOOR or any
> > language framework we want
> > and also play nice with the rest of the world (example: carrier tracking
> > widget, social widget etc...).
>
>
> For this latest point, the web modules allows to do this very easily.
>

Fabien, I know that.
However, I think you missed my point here: I think we need something that
degrades nicely inside a GTK client.
For several reasons (some listed in my points), some users will still prefer
to use the GTK client.

To my knowledge, the OpenERP server still makes it impossible to simply
introduce new widget or views in a web module because
the server RNG views validation will fail, see my bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/openobject-server/+bug/595783
And even if this were to be fixed, the GTK client would simply blow up or at
least not do something smart if presented a standard form
with such a new web client specific widget (probably just drop it).

On the contrary, my proposal which I believe is very simple to implement is
that:
embedded DHTML iframes in the web client degrade seamlessly into external
URL links to the widget in the GTK client.
For instance: in the web client you see the Google map of your partner
location right into the partner form, while in the
GTK client you can click and visit a page where the Google map is displayed.

I think we would simply need an extra option to set the iframe height if URL
is to be an iframe and then the trick is done.
"Framework experts" thoughts?


Regards,


Raphaël Valyi
Founder and ERP Consultant
+55 21 3010 9965
http://www.akretion.com

<http://www.akretion.com.br/>