[Ovirt-devel] Re: oVirt server wui console integration

[Michael DeHaan]

Mohammed Morsi wrote:
> Jeremy Perry wrote:
>   
>> I've posted the mockups and descriptions mentioned here to the the
>> ovirt.org wiki:
>> http://ovirt.org/page/Terminal_UX
>>
>> one more comment below...
>>
>> On Jan 8, 2009, at 10:04 PM, Jason Guiditta wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> On Thu, 2009-01-08 at 18:23 -0500, Jeremy Perry wrote:
>>>       
>>>> On Jan 8, 2009, at 5:37 PM, Mohammed Morsi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>         
>>>>> Currently the idea for the console interface in the wui is that a user
>>>>> can navigate the the 'virtual machines' tab under a vm pool, click
>>>>> on a
>>>>> specific vm, click on 'console' in the details pane and will be
>>>>> presented with a console to that vm. There were a few ideas as to
>>>>> where
>>>>> the console should appear,
>>>>>
>>>>> * in a minimally themed popup window, most likely the first
>>>>> implementation as it is simplest, but may result in many popups when
>>>>> connected to several vms
>>>>> * in the dialog / popup box interface we have now, we will want to
>>>>> introduce a tabbing mechanism for access to multiple vm consoles
>>>>> * in another tab in the main content area, same vm-tab concept
>>>>> needed here
>>>>> * a rollover, eg the user rolls over 'console' in the vm details pane
>>>>> and the console appears so long as the user holds his mouse over it /
>>>>> the link
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>> I've taken the liberty of mocking some of these ideas up.
>>>>
>>>> I didnt mockup the new themed popup window yet, since its simple to
>>>> imagine. I think its a decent approach, but wondering if we can
>>>> eliminate the multiple popups issue by targeting our popup once there
>>>> is at least one open. Subsequent terminals would nest via tabs in the
>>>> one terminal window, so all you deal with is one window with tabs for
>>>> each vm terminal.
>>>>         
>>> I like the idea of the popup window, then adding tabs to it as needed,
>>> and like the pop-out (thanks google!).  My first choice is the design
>>> with the initial console on the right of the details in the same pane.
>>> The other with them stacked felt too squished.  The tabbed one could
>>> work too, but I kind of think the terminal being in the detail pane is
>>> not super usable, since you can't see that much in the space allowed.  I
>>> agree on the modal dialog thing, no need to force them to have only that
>>> accessible, but another idea could be a non-modal dialog that you could
>>> minimize somewhere w/in the application.  If done right, I think this
>>> could be pretty slick, but perhaps not worth the effort, as the single
>>> popup window seems like a perfectly good way to go.
>>>       
>> I agree on the popup window, and will take a stab at it. As for the
>> non-modal idea, this would be pretty cool to look at. Well executed
>> examples in the wild is Google chat in gmail and the alerts/etc bar in
>> facebook.
>>     
>
> I also agree that the terminal in the details pane seems a bit squished.
> I'm not sure if we'd be able to do this immediately, but I'd think we'd
> also want to support terminal resizing at some point  in the future
> (size saved in the user preferences system when we have it). I also like
> the idea of the non-modal dialog, perhaps we can 'minimize' it to the
> dashboard so that a user can maintain active terminal sessions between
> uses of the ovirt wui.
>
>
>   
>>>>> Its currently looking like the console frontend and apache-proxied
>>>>> backend daemon will be driven by anyterm http://anyterm.org/ . We will
>>>>> use anyterm to launch ovirt-viewer or the virsh console to connect to
>>>>> the vm and then present the anyterm html / js / css ui to the user. A
>>>>> rough layout of the setup can be found here
>>>>> http://ovirt.org/page/Image:Anyterm.png
>>>>>           
>>>> I based my mockups on their demos - let me know if the actions I
>>>> included (like copy, paste) make sense or not.
>>>>         
>
> Ya thats totally fine for the mockups, I might remove some of that stuff
> from the anyterm html that gets added to the project (its all gpl)
> depending of how it works and what we need.
>
> In any case 'Close' will definetly be staying, 'copy' and 'paste' might
> be removed depending on if we can get that functionality without it,
> 'Control Keys' will most likey be removed as they work without needing
> the drop down. I do like the 'pop out' action you added, and I'll look
> into seeing how the terminal location can be parametrized so that we
> could put it in multiple locations.
>
>
>   
>>>>> Looking for thoughts / feedback / suggestions as to the interface
>>>>> placement of the console or the backend.  Thanks alot,
>>>>>
>>>>>  -Mo
>>>>>           
>>>> Finally, I wanted to propose we settle on the term "Terminal" instead
>>>> of "Console" - at least in the UI - since that is what is used in
>>>> Fedora. I know terminology consistency is a challenge for us, is this
>>>> a place we can make a choice in the UI and be consistent?
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Seems reasonable to me, matches more closely with the 'anyterm' name
>>> too.
>>>       
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> - Jeremy
>>>>         
>
> Sounds good to me too.
>
>    -Mo
>
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>   

How about a link to just the terminal (no-popup) so someone can just do 
"New Tab" in Firefox and get a nice large terminal?

Tabs across the top may also not scale if a user has a bit too many VMs 
open (perhaps a drop down to select the VM, or multiple firefox tabs?)

--Michael