I've released the changes associated with this bug, so those of you running
the admin and/or end user UI will notice differences in the way errors are
handled, not just for automatic updating, but for any provisioning
operation.

In the admin UI you will now get an install/update/uninstall wizard even if
the computed provisioning plan was invalid.  Old behavior was to get an
error dialog.  New behavior is you get the wizard with the error details
reported there.

In the end user UI, the handling of invalid plans is controlled by
preference.  The first time you try to provision something with a non-OK
plan, you'll get a prompt as to whether you want to open the wizard anyway.
If you say yes, you'll get the wizard.  If you say no, you'll get the
normal error dialog.

In the automatic updater, if you have the preference set to prompt when a
plan is bad or to always show the wizard, the updater will notify you when
bad updates are found.  The status bar icon will have the error overlay and
the hover text tells you that it may not be compatible but that you can
click to browse/review.  If you have set your preference to "never open a
wizard on a bad plan" then the updater won't bother telling you when
updates don't compute a good plan.

One nice thing for power users is that you can now select many versions of
something, say "Install" and then check/uncheck boxes until you find one
that works for you.

Please read the bug for detail:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=217927

susan


                                                                                
                                                              
                      Susan Franklin                                            
                                                              
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[prov] How best to help the user    through     incompatible/bad
                      eclipse.org                  provisioning plans           
                                                              
                                                                                
                                                              
                                                                                
                                                              
                      02/13/2008 08:57 AM                                       
                                                              
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John said:
> It would be nice if there as an unobtrusive way to let the user know
though - such as a trim widget that gets an error overlay added.

this is similar to the path I am exploring.
To clarify - you'll never get told of an update if you don't have the pref
on. The pref guides how often we check, whether we download before
notifying, etc. But if you have the pref on, I was thinking of:

- for updates with no problem - notify the user with the usual popup and
status bar affordance
- for updates with a failed plan - the status bar affordance has a red X,
the popup is worded differently (the trick is the wording, a way to inform
without scaring, and to make sure the user knows that clicking the popup
just lets them browse the updates, nothing bad will happen automatically).

Either case, clicking on the popup gets you the update dialog, and in the
second case it has an error condition (bad as a general rule, but more
informative than not telling them).

Are you suggesting that you'd rather see the update icon/red X without the
popup in the second case? Interesting....

For the manual checking for updates, install:
Today we report the error if the plan fails. I was considering reporting
the error with an option to "launch the wizard anyway" (and a toggle to
remember the pref).

Pascal said:
>don't let the user click the install button until the proper things have
>been selected. This means that the validation is done as the user selects
>and unselects things in the UI.

This is what we do once inside an update or install wizard (as you check
and uncheck items, the plan is recomputed).
But if what you mean is to compute the plan while making selections in the
"available features page," I don't think that really helps. It is
expensive, and noisy (you have to show progress somewhere). And if we just
gray the update/install button, there is still all the same questions about
how to show what's wrong.

So my thinking is that the ability to launch the wizard anyway gives the
user a place to try checking/unchecking things and recomputing the plan,
rather than going back and starting over. And it keeps the basic workflow
of browsing for what's available less cluttered by not doing full
resolution all the time.

susan
Inactive hide details for John Arthorne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>John
Arthorne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

                                                                       
                                                                       
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This is definitely a tricky problem. A likely scenario is that they have
installed some additional plug-in, and that plug-in has a constraint that
is not compatible with constraints in the updates (The extra plugin
requires version 1 of "foo", and the update requires version 2). The
problem is, our solver might not be able to come up with a simple
explanation that makes any sense to the user (they likely know little about
the various IUs they have installed). Until we can come up with an
explanation that allows us to guide the user through correcting the
problem, I would opt for keeping quiet in the automatic update case (just
log it). Personally, it drives me crazy when applications have uninvited
and unsuppressible modal popup dialogs about updates. If the update can
proceed silently it's fine. If I explicitly asked for an update, it's ok to
prompt me about problems. But if I didn't ask for it, don't bother me about
it. It would be nice if there as an unobtrusive way to let the user know
though - such as a trim widget that gets an error overlay added. In the
updates dialog, we would presumably still show the updates, and the user
can try the update from there if they want to.

John


                                                                       
 Susan Franklin McCourt                                                
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                                    [equinox-dev] [prov] How best to help
                                    the user through incompatible/bad  
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Hi, everyone.
I've been struggling with how to handle the case where the user has
automatic updates on, we find updates, but the resulting provisioning plan
for those updates is not OK. Meaning, there is some
incompatibility/problem. Do we tell the user? Do we let them try to update
anyway? etc. etc...

This issue also applies to provisioning actions the user selects. They
select A, B, C and say "Install..." but the resolver can't find a plan that
satisfies everything. What then? We currently just report the (often
cryptic) error. Should we let them try anyway, or at least open the wizard
and let them check/uncheck things until they get a good solution?

If you have any thoughts in this area, could you please read and respond in
this bug?
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=217927

thanks,
susan_______________________________________________
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