comments below
On Feb 17, 2009, at 6:53 AM, Jan Lehnardt wrote:
--
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]).
I like this idea.
2.) Learn CouchDB [link to the docs].
3.) Use CouchDB [link to list of DBs].
Just as a general idea, details can vary. The idea is to show the
first most
likely actions a user wants to take and permanent links to the
documentation,
user mailing list, issue tracker (with BOLD LETTERS that for general
questions,
user@ should be used).
Thinking of it, the 'validate your installation' step should not
show up after
it has been run E.g. runtime config could set a new flag:
[futon]
tests_passed = true
Nah, no need to do that. Validating the install is something people
will want do at other times, as a sanity check.
You see, a lot of the details need refinement, I hope to kick this
off here.
--
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.
I don't like this idea, other software products do this and I've never
found it useful. I think I learn to block it out and never actually
notice things I might be interested in. Maybe it's just me.
--
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.
I don't dislike this idea, but this seems more like an end user
feature? Like a start menu for CouchApps? I think most end users (as
opposed to devs and admins) should never need to use Futon.
--
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.
I like this idea.
--
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.
Yes.
--
Insert your plugin idea here.
--
Again, I don't see how feasible all this is, but I've been carrying
these ideas
in my head for about a year now and I really like to see something
to get done
about it, even if it just getting shot down for being silly :)
In my opinion, Futon should remain an admin and utility client for
admin and developers. End users really shouldn't be using Futon,
applications should provide all the UI necessary for users. Not just
to make it easier for users but so they don't go fiddling with the
wrong things.
Also, I worry a little that it will expand into some sort of big IDE
like environment, like a web-based Eclipse. Not that I think that's a
bad idea, I think it's a really interesting idea. But I think it
shouldn't be Futon, but rather a separate sub project. The Futon core
should remain small and focus on making common admin tasks simple.
Being able to use it from a wide range of browsers (like from a phone)
is a big benefit to admins.
My 2 cents.
-Damien
