Hi Jan, I have quite good skills in Jquery and the way futon is using it. I think your proposal is promising, and should even go a step further with may be a specific CouchDB base dedicated to plugins. The installation of new plugin would then be easy. As jquery can charge and execute script on the fly, scripts and html/images needed by the plugin could be attachement of a document. A view could classify the plugin available (need a to define a format for the documents) based on the documents (plugin) stored in this base.
Also configuration could go to a specific document, letting easily the user to choose his home page for example, or the plugins available on it's homepage. Just some thoughs Regards 2009/2/17 Andrea Schiavini <[email protected]> > > Futon is awesome. It is often the first thing our users see of CouchDB > and > > the > > feedback is unanimously positive. *Futon is slick, it is simple, it is to > > the > > point and it does all (well most) you need.* > > > Yep, this is why I love it :) > > > > index.html: A portal page. At the moment, the first thing you see in > Futon > > is > > the list of databases. I'd like to see (as an replacement or an addition > > needs > > to be discussed), a "welcome" page, a portal if you will, that will show > > the > > first time user a little more information about where he is and what he > can > > do. > > Something like? > > > > 1.) Validate Your Installation [link to the test suite] > > (if it fails, look at [link to troubleshooting wiki page]). > > > > 2.) Learn CouchDB [link to the docs]. > > > > 3.) Use CouchDB [link to list of DBs]. > > > > This sounds good, but what if I want just to check my databases status? The > main use of Futon - as a developer - is to see docs, see why something has > gone wrong, and so on. The "cool home page" can be good and useful for > first-time users, but boring for the developer: he has to click on a link > to > get to the databases. So, IMHO, there should be an option to "disable" the > new home page. > > > > > > News Feed. The Futon home page should display an RSS/Atom feed containing > > latest news items for CouchDB, like announcements of new versions, or > > security > > issues and the like. Whether this should be an opt-in or opt-out thing, > > needs to be > > decided, I can see reasons for both, but I think users should be able to > > disable > > it, again runtime config to the rescue. > > > > Are you sure it should go into Futon? Or better: what should Futon be, in > your opinion? I'd rather prefer it to remain a sort of "control panel" for > my databases. I prefer to fire up a newsreader or gmail to see > announcements. > > > > List of installed apps. With CouchApps shaping up, Futon could show a > list > > of > > installed applications alongside created databases. The way to detect > > CouchApps > > is not yet defined, though there are sensible proposals. > > > > Yes, this is good. I'd make this sort of a "tab" though: welcome page, > databases, installed apps. With an option on the welcome page like "Default > page:" and a dropdown with welcome page, installed apps, databases. Maybe > also news, if you really want to. > > > > > > > More pluggable architecture. Hey, it might even be easy to add new pages > to > > Futon already, but I'm sure we can im prove that. The idea is that users > > can > > write add-ons to Futon that are not of interest for all users but only > > those who > > use CouchDB for a specific purpose (see next item). Futon then wouldn't > > have to > > include all features for everybody but we'd have a repository of Futon > > plugins > > that people can install. The repository of plugins should be a CouchDB > > database > > that users can just replicate the plugins they like from. > > > Mmm I think this would mess up the slick interface of Futon too much. I > dont > want it to be a sort of Facebook, it's Futon, I use it to manage my > databases and it does its work well. > > > > > -- > > > > Cluster management plugin. CouchDB will be deployed in clusters of > CouchDB > > nodes. It'd be really cool if we had a Futon plugin that allows you to do > > all > > sorts of neat things with that cluster. Like monitoring how it is > behaving > > or > > restructuring the cluster at runtime. > > > Agreed! Another tab maybe. > > > > > > > Cheers > > Jan > > -- > > > Good post Jan. I like some of your ideas; however, I'd prefer Futon to > remain a control panel instead of becoming something like "MyCouchDB" or > "iCouch"... > > Cheers! > > Andrea Schiavini >
