[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN][FEATURE] 3G modem support

[Gary C Martin]

On 27 Jan 2010, at 15:25, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 16:06, Eben Eliason <eben.eliason at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 6:54 AM, Simon Schampijer <simon at schampijer.de> wrote:
>>> I had a chance to apply the latest code that is attached in #1622 and played
>>> a bit with a gsm-device. I think we discussed this already in some parts
>>> before but I am still not sure about the following:
>>> 
>>> With my device attached I see the modem and hit 'connect' in the device
>>> palette. I get no feedback when that action was not successful and what went
>>> wrong. And I have no hint that I should set options in the Control Panel.
>>> 
>>> I know we wanted to keep it simple but maybe someone has a smart idea how
>>> one could enhance the feedback and a hint to use the control panel to set
>> 
>> This sounds like a good time to revive the global notification idea.
>> The design intent there was to each corner of the screen with one edge
>> of the Frame (lower-right would be devices), and to have notification
>> icons (the device icon itself, usually) slide in and out of the
>> corners to grab attention in various cases, such as a failed
>> connection attempt.
>> 
>> We also had thoughts about adjusting the contents of the palette in
>> these cases, to contain the error message, and also provide options to
>> resolve the issue. For instance, the GSM device might indicate a
>> failed connection and offer "try again" and "change settings" options.
>> 
>> I think nailing this in a way that's useful system-wide and in all
>> edges of the Frame will take a bit of thought, but this is a good
>> opportunity to discuss it.
> 
> I also agree there, but I think that for 0.88 we need something
> simpler to implement.

Struggling to think of a friendly alternative, best I have just now is to keep the palette open until the successful connection is made, you'd be looking at a "connecting..." message or spinner of some kind (hopefully with an option to cancel); once an error/timeout is reached you are left looking at that message in the palette (until you click away).

If the GSM device is not yet configured via the CP, should the device palette just report that as the error (ideally with an entry to jump to the CP, but that can be a future feature).

Keep in mind we'll have similar UI needs for other devices needing configuration (i.e. certainly the printer device GSOC project, if it ever make it in to Sugar). Could be nice to offer a jump to the CP option for other devices as well in the future (battery device could provide a jump to the CP energy saving module; wifi device could provide a jump to the CP network module).

>>> the options? Didn't Eben suggested once to add an option to be able to
>>> launch the CP from within the device?
>> 
>> Yeah, I think hot-linking directly to the CP module for variouos
>> devices would be a logical addition.
> 
> Excellent feature for 0.90.

+1 That seems very sane and useful.

Regards,
--Gary