Equinox/p2/User Interface

This page captures user scenarios in the p2 User Interface and discusses problems and issues in the workflow.

Original Goals

Most of the goals were derived from problems observed/reported in the previous UI (Update Manager). See Equinox p2 UM workflows for the equivalent scenarios.

• Automatic updating should not interrupt workflow
• Make it easier for users to get content they find on the web
• Integrate "what do I have" with "what can I get"
• Integrate "what do I have" with "what updates are available"
• Separate repository management from browsing available content
• Remove unnecessary detail regarding required software libraries
• Automatic dependency resolution
• User-oriented error messages, higher level explanations
• Code structured for multiple levels of integration (pluggable policies, different host dialogs, building blocks)

Scenarios

Check for updates

Help > Software Updates... > Installed Software > Update...

Problems

• Implementation has same performance problems as UM did (user may have to wait a long time for content to fill in or for resolution to take place).
• Original modeless ("dashboard") design forced modal due to implementation problems with progress reporting, keyboard handling, inconsistency with rest of Eclipse
• Too much repo management forced on user
• We haven't improved error reporting (some find it worse) - need to decipher resolution errors and report in user-friendly way
• We removed detail about software requirements/underlying libraries. Some users want to know. Inconsistencies remain due to late-breaking issues (need to show licenses for all things even though user doesn't see those things anywhere else).

Questions

• tweak the problems or step back?
• unfolding of detail

Milestone plans

UI planning information has moved to Equinox p2 UI Plan