Re: [Evolution-hackers] Visual indication of online/offline?

[Jules Colding <colding omesc com>]

Hi Srini,


On Wed, 2006-12-06 at 17:20 +0000, Srinivasa Ragavan wrote:
> Hey Jules,
> 
> I have some plans on the intrusive error dialogs stuff. I dont think I
> can work on the current release time frame. May be post 2.10 is what I'm
> looking at. Basically cancel-able should be tasks, with a 'x' button in
> the status bar. If any errors occur, a '!' next to the status bar text
> and a visual cue to indicate error, which user can click and see the
> respective errors. The user can choose to  see or cancel all
> tasks/errors and no more intrusive popups. All background/foreground
> tasks will have a visible entry in the status bar. This is an initial
> idea I had, but Im sure, there could be lots of improvements to it. 

Sounds like a good way to do it. Please tell me when you have something
that I can test so that I can give you some constructive feedback.


> The idea of having a visual indication at the store level is good. This
> idea will also add more value if we can have store level online/offline
> state. 

Exactly. I've recently put a great deal of work into getting
evolution-brutus to handle various offline situations gracefully and it
is really annoying to see the "Sorry the folder is offline" popup every
time I click on an offline folder. 

Please do remember that there are tree kinds of offline mode at the
store level:

1) A store level version of the current offline mode. This mode
basically say "Please do not attempt to pull mail from the server,
thanks". It is therefore not an error but merely a user request. The
present implementation lack the ability to put the store in real offline
mode. All it does, as far as I can see, is to disable the periodic mail
check. Which lead us to:

2) A store level voluntary offline mode. This is more than the current
offline state. A user requesting to be put in voluntary offline mode
knows that he will be truly offline. This could be a user which is about
to disconnect his laptop. This is therefore not an error condition
either.

3) A store level hard offline mode. This mode indicates that the
provider can't communicate flawlessly (if at all) with the remote
server. It might be down or something. It is therefore a true error
condition.

1), 2) and 3) should therefore be signalled differently to the user. The
user will have to deal with 2) or 3) every time he clicks on a voluntary
or hard offline folder.  It is therefore not always convenient to throw
an exception (with will show a popup window) each and every time. I will
propose the following scheme:

Voluntary offline
-----------------

   The user can choose to go into voluntary offline mode. This mode is
not an error condition, so it should not be signalled as one. The store
and all of its folder should look like a disabled UI element, like a
disabled button.

Hard offline
------------
   The store is technically incapable of communication with the remote
server. This is a true error condition and should therefore promptly be
presented to the user with a popup windows (CamelException) the first
time the error is encountered. No other popup windows should be shown in
subsequent store operations, but the store should make it very clear
that the error persists by showing some dramatic visual indication of
the error. The store might be blinking in bright red or something. The
user can choose to put the store in voluntary offline mode while his
admin fixes the problem.

Much of the above is store level implementation tasks, but the ability
to do the proposed signaling to the user is something that must be
supported by up-source e-d-s code.


Best regards,
  jules
 


> -Srini.
> 
> On Wed, 2006-12-06 at 12:06 +0100, Jules Colding wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Is there any way to signal a visual indication that a specific
> > CamelStore is offline? I'm thinking that making the account blink in
> > bright red or maybe just a little store specific offline icon next to
> > the account in the side bar would be much better than a CamelException.
> > 
> > An exception is presented as an error to the user in a popup window. I
> > would rather like to gently show a warning to the user. A popup is
> > really disturbing...
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks,
> >   jules
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Evolution-hackers mailing list
> > Evolution-hackers gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-hackers