FreeNAS 11.2 new GUI suggestions and discussion thread

diskdiddler

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I can't even right click paste either to be clear, the option is missing from the context menu.
 

Ericloewe

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I can't even right click paste either to be clear, the option is missing from the context menu.
Yeah, that part hasn't been implemented yet.
 

danb35

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I guess it's just another reason to be glad I'm using a Mac--Command-C and Command-V work just fine. Not that I ever use the shell through the web GUI, or understand why anyone else does...
 

diskdiddler

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The shell through the webgui is quick and easy to use.

Since I'm doing a test VM of freenas, with test plugins and jails on DHCP, I can't be bothered configuring a proper terminal client to connect to it.

Yes, I know how to do it, but besides, many users unfortunately wouldn't, they'll follow a tutorial to set something up and just use the web version.
 

danb35

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The shell through the webgui is quick and easy to use.
...except that it's never handled control characters of any sort sensibly, so it's never been usable for more than a quick command or two--certainly any kind of text editing is out. And "configuring a proper terminal client" is no more than ssh root@freenasip. Oh, that's right, Windows. Well, for anyone else it's only ssh root@...
 

diskdiddler

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I can't believe someone is pulling the Mac elitism card in 2018,,.... Cmon Dan, you're more mature than that.

(and no it hasn't handled them sensibly in the past at all, but the current UI is still worse than the old one, for this one aspect)
 

danb35

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Well, MacOS ships with a terminal app and an SSH client. Linux generally ships with SSH (though with so many distros, I'm sure there's one that doesn't). FreeBSD ships with SSH. Pretty much every OS except Windows, in fact, ships with SSH. Granted, my iPad doesn't, but there are plenty available for free, and adding a target host in the app I use takes all of about 30 seconds. It's not so much Mac elitism as "Windows sucks"--which in this regard, it objectively does.

And a lot of my position, no doubt, results from the workflow I'm familiar with. I just can't understand why so much attention is being paid to a misfeature that, IMO, would be better off if it were removed from the GUI entirely. But it's been 8 years since Windows was my main home OS, so I forget how some things work there.
 

diskdiddler

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Any reason we don't have a restart jail button?
 

Jailer

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Any reason we don't have a restart jail button?
Because as it's been stated several times it's in beta and not complete yet. The nightlies has start and stop buttons. If you want a restart button put in a feature request.
 

danb35

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Because as it's been stated several times it's in beta and not complete yet.
...though I'm sure there's some concern iX will pull another FN10 and release it that way. Who needs disk replacement in the GUI, anyway?
 

diskdiddler

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Because as it's been stated several times it's in beta and not complete yet. The nightlies has start and stop buttons. If you want a restart button put in a feature request.
Relax, I was just asking.

This UI still has a long way to go.
 

diskdiddler

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Anyhow, whines aside, they're making progress. I've decided to start reporting the issues I find.

I was reluctant because I hate to inundate software developers with meaningless trash and since I'm not a 'pro tester' I set mine to low priority but they do seem to be taking my UI suggestions to heart.
I wish they took my far more serious submissions more seriously.
 

diskdiddler

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I keep testing it from time to time in the VM, it seems snappier now, it also isn't doing the odd "just stops rendering" issue (I'm surprised, I thought that doozy might be some weird fundamental design issue)

They're fixing stuff I'm reporting. It's kinda half ok at the moment.
(I do notice 11.2 nightly is crashing if I leave the VM for days at a time,.... we'll see if that's ongoing or what)
 

kdragon75

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Just took a look at the latest (FreeNAS-11.2-MASTER-201805060407) and I hope they are just playing around with some of the design concepts.
Barf.JPG

This whole color blending on the graph is... It makes it hard to read...

NotBarf.JPG

This seems much easier to read. Also hovering over each item in the legend adds a thickness to the line making it stand out on demand.

Also note how much easier it is to read black on white. No light gray on white. If you want a soft aesthetic that's fine but keep readability in mind. like fancy dashboards in my NOC as much as the next person but I also like to be able to read them. Another thing that would be immensely helpful are human readable units on both axis at all times. Things like "disk_octets" while clear to some are Bytes, just label it as Bytes perhaps with automagic scaling.

Just looked at my "production" server an noticed that when looking at disks in reporting I cant goto the next page without scrolling back to the top, not sure if address in the latest but that would be nice too.
 

Prasanth

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Honestly is the uptime graph really useful on the new dashboard. It would be much better as text just showing the amount of time. As a graph all it shows is a horizontal line as time passes.
Not sure if it is more useful for people managing multiple systems?

Dashboard___FreeNAS_Material_UI-2.png
 

Bungo

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Is it possible to have a service restart button in the GUI, as the toggling of the stop and start buttons leave a lot more time for iSCSI or other services offline while we wait for the services and the UI to respond to stop and start services.

Regards

EDIT: Oh, vote +1 on a compact mode, there's too much whitespace taking up limited screen real-estate.
 

diskdiddler

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Compact mode very much needed, this 'tablet mode, for dummy managers, material design' thing. I wish more things would stop going that way.
 

Damianos

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I thought I'd chime in real quick with a little update about the dashboard. There is quite a lot of work in general that is sitting in a PR queue that didn't make it into Beta1 but is coming into the next release (RC1). One of the items is a dashboard redo that is almost complete (just needs the Network Info widget and it's finished).

The general approach to the new dash is to have each widget provide a simple metric in the chart and link to the reports page if more in depth data is needed. Do notice in the screen shots below, the more efficient use of space and smaller fonts. I can get 4 completely unobstructed widgets up with the sidebar present and 6 with a minimized sidebar.

Lots of other stuff to come after 11.2 is out including special attention to the reports area.

PS. To the person asking about uptime, it can be found at the bottom of the System Information widget as a string (that chart is gone now)

PPS. Sorry it's been so long since my last post here. I'll try to be better about getting on here in the future

dashrc1_load_widget_ix_blue.png dashrc1_load_widget_dracula_hover.png
 
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kdragon75

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I thought I'd chime in real quick with a little update about the dashboard. There is quite a lot of work in general that is sitting in a PR queue that didn't make it into Beta1 but is coming into the next release (RC1). One of the items is a dashboard redo that is almost complete (just needs the Network Info widget and it's finished).

The general approach to the new dash is to have each widget provide a simple metric in the chart and link to the reports page if more in depth data is needed. Do notice in the screen shots below, the more efficient use of space and smaller fonts. I can get 4 completely unobstructed widgets up with the sidebar present and 6 with a minimized sidebar.

Lots of other stuff to come after 11.2 is out including special attention to the reports area.

PS. To the person asking about uptime, it can be found at the bottom of the System Information widget as a string (that chart is gone now)

PPS. Sorry it's been so long since my last post here. I'll try to be better about getting on here in the future

View attachment 24751 View attachment 24752
This looks a million times better! I still think it look a bit sloppy to have the graph overlap with the axis labels. :rolleyes:
EDIT1: Also do we NEED the "REPORTS" button? I would rather have the graph use the height than have the "CLICK HERE" feel.And just to nit-pick... Do the graph lines need to be so thick? I feel like there is a 5 year old drawing graphs with a crayon in the background!:D
EDIT2: Also the graph smoothing seems to be adding artifacts to the graph line. Just look at the memory on your screen shot.
 
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