Re: [Usability] online/offline design

[Bryan Clark <bclark redhat com>]

Hi Luis ~

Good questions, I had done something similar to this a while back.  It's
not really the perfect design, but it was more to show how you could get
away from dialogs that offer somewhat blind choices instead of just
laying out the options.

This was just a quick idea for getting rid of the popup dialog for a url
not found
http://www.gnome.org/~clarkbw/designs/url-not-found/url-not-found.html

Similar to this "not found", if you queried NetworkManager for network
status and available network options when the system is offline you
could give options for getting online and continuing to a link that
someone was trying to open.

So like your scenario, the last bit is 
	* $APP shows your connection status via the menu
		- This status menu also allows you to connect
	* $APP then goes ahead and does what you were trying to do

There are two types of systems to consider here, active and background
connections.  

Active case:

This is the epiphany scenario, or when you're trying to IM someone in
Gossip.  You need active feedback and a way to fix network connections
that are not working.  This case is primarily around when you're
actively using a system that relies on the network, whether it be IMing,
Browsing, or Emailing (i.e. what's expected to happen isn't happening).

Background case:

This is the evolution scenario, checking for email while you're doing
other things.  You don't want active feedback, you want the application
to just keep trying and notice when the network goes up or down.  This
case is primarily around just being aware of network status and doing
whatever possible to do the right thing in light of the volatility.

Applications need to understand if their network activity are active or
background connections and react appropriately.

For the active connection I would suggest giving the networking options
somehow in the dialog instead of simply the "Try Again"/"Configure
Network".  This isn't to say that those might not be valuable options,
but they are really manual switches when we have enough context
information to be more automatic.

Being more automatic would mean when the Epiphany network problems page
appears and you choose a network that works, ephy just goes to the site
automatically once the connection is established without you asking you
to "Try Again".

Anyway, that's how I see it right now.

Cheers,
~ Bryan

On Thu, 2005-05-19 at 13:56 -0400, Luis Villa wrote:
> Let me put it another way by describing the scenario I'm envisioning.
> * I go offline for some reason.
> * I don't realize it. (You're right that this part is probably
> NetworkManager's and/or a good notification framework's problem.)
> * I go to Gossip and try to use it. What happens then?