FreeNAS 11.2 new GUI suggestions and discussion thread

Cocksy

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I also have a GUI thought (although it might kind of be a feature request too):

Would it be possible to provide some sort of user customisation to the GUI? I've got 3 FreeNAS instances running in VMs to test before I commit and move all my data to one, and often have 2 or more open in browser windows at the same time. It would be great to be able to customise the banner / header or footer of the page with either a custom colour, or a string of text, or something so that you can quickly see which server you are working on.

I know its obviously possible to check the IP / URL, but that's easier to make a mistake than the banner being a completely different colour or having some custom text there to describe the instance. Just my tuppence worth!
 
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danb35

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The new UI in 11.2-BETA supports theming and has several color themes pre-installed--would that do what you're looking for?
 

Cocksy

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The new UI in 11.2-BETA supports theming and has several color themes pre-installed--would that do what you're looking for?
That's exactly what I was after - thanks! Maybe I'll add another VM with the beta to do some playing. Cheers.
 

gerry_the_hat

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Not much progress with the new UI, isn't it? Since the start of this thread, the changes were mainly focused on bug fixing and the basic features one needs, I think. Thought this thread would lead to a more general overhaul. Read somewhere about newly hired GUI developers and nice sounding promises...

I wish, I could do more. I'm giving input, filing bug reports all the time, testing things, running on Nightlies all the time. Hey, I just got my Scrum Masters cert. Does someone on IX has some use for this? :smile:
 

kdragon75

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I know everyone will want to shoot me for this but I liked the UI in Corel. It needed work and the system was trash but the UI was better than this incarnation.
 

kdragon75

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Perhaps next time they will produce some concept art and let real admins vote/comment before commiting to something. I know development is not always a democratic process but it never hurts to get solid feedback.
 

Chris Moore

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I know everyone will want to shoot me for this but I liked the UI in Corel. It needed work and the system was trash but the UI was better than this incarnation.
It was nice looking and had some great function .
Part of the reason it died is the development platform died.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

kdragon75

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Bootstrap anyone?
 

danb35

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For those who have suggested that pfSense should be a model of GUI design: the backup/restore configuration function is under the Diagnostics menu. Seriously? WTF does that function have to do with diagnosing anything? Shutdown (marked as "halt system") and reboot are there too.

But as to issues with the GUI in -BETA, I think it's been posted several times (probably including in this thread) that they're currently working on replicating the legacy GUI in the new framework. Once that's done (which should be in 11.2-RELEASE), they're going to work on reorganizing things.
 

Alecmascot

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they're currently working on replicating the legacy GUI in the new framework.
Best news I have heard in months.....
 

danb35

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Best news I have heard in months.....
I doubt it, or you're misunderstanding it. What's currently in 11.2-BETA3 is pretty much replicating the legacy GUI. The look is different, but the structure is very similar.
 

Mixel

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I doubt it, or you're misunderstanding it. What's currently in 11.2-BETA3 is pretty much replicating the legacy GUI. The look is different, but the structure is very similar.

Well, I do miss quite a heck actions in the new GUI, for which I have to switch back to the legacy one. That annoys me very much at this moment. For example: no run this now button with cloud sync.

Please, GUI developers, check if you have all the functionality which we had in the legacy UI also in the new one.
 

Ericloewe

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At this point, you need to file bug reports if anything is missing.
 

garm

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Does anyone know if there is some design guideline or industry standard used for developing the new UI? I’m planning to write up a usability study comparing the two GUIs and I would like to know what the intention has been.
 

kdragon75

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Chris Moore

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Chris Moore

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Does anyone know if there is some design guideline or industry standard used for developing the new UI?
I restrained myself from commenting on this for several days because I didn't want to sound like a rant, so I am just going to say, it appears to me that the only plan was to have a different structure to work within for building the next generation interface. The old construct was too cumbersome and they wanted something better able to allow them to develop the interface. The exact nature of the interface probably will continue to change for the next few versions.
 

garm

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I restrained myself from commenting on this for several days because I didn't want to sound like a rant, so I am just going to say, it appears to me that the only plan was to have a different structure to work within for building the next generation interface. The old construct was too cumbersome and they wanted something better able to allow them to develop the interface. The exact nature of the interface probably will continue to change for the next few versions.
Ya I know that and as I work with similar things I understand the desire to redo a flawed framework even if the user benefit is not entirely clear in the beginning.
Having said that there are a number of things in the new interface that constantly bother me so I wanted to do a study to find out if I was just recoiling because it was new or if there is something else going on.
What we do when we implement a new UI is that we have studies done on the user workload. The aim is always simple, reduce mouse travel and clicks. The issue is that with a leaner UI it sometimes become harder to read the application and the overall task completion time increases.
To do this constructively it would be nice to know the design philosophy adopted, if any.
 

Mannekino

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The aim is always simple, reduce mouse travel and clicks.

Well, the "new" way of managing pools is very cumbersome in the new UI. You constantly have to expand the views after making a change. I find this pretty annoying. Just have an overview of all the pools or an "expand all" button. And keep the UI in the state it was in when editing something.
 
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