Re: Simple backend UI enhancement proposition

Posted by David E Jones on Jan 21, 2007; 8:13pm
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/Simple-backend-UI-enhancement-proposition-tp143920p143943.html


So, how do we decide which fields are required (mandatory) or not?

-David


On Jan 21, 2007, at 4:28 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:

> After an exchange with Ian McNulty about UI clarification, I  
> thought a bit for a solution (actually I did not thought a lot, the  
> idea was there, clear, when I waked up ;o)
>
> Ian is not the 1st to complain about backend complexity. Yes, my  
> propostion is only about backend. Because IMO eCommerce and POS  
> (and handheld now) are more there for demo and POC purposes. They  
> are not intended to be used as is but are ready to be enhanced,  
> proposing a way to go. They are meta-templates actually. On the  
> other hand and that's why backend is mostly build with screen and  
> form widgets : it does not need to be too sophisticated (that does  
> not mean that you can't build sophisticated UI with widgets ;).
>
> From my experience when it comes to backend, even big companies (I  
> mean multinational corporations) are not inclined to put a lot  
> money in. They will perhaps want some enhancements here an there  
> but they do no want to re-create it all. This to said that we may  
> try to ease its use even for them.
>
> My proposition : some screens (for instance Catalog/Product,  
> Catalog/Store, etc.) are always showing all the possible fields to  
> use. We may add (and generalize everywhere possible) a way to hide  
> (or show) not mandatory fields or maybe not important fields  
> (because in most case showing only mandatory fields make no sense).  
> For instance we may put 2 buttons near language set zone at top of  
> screen : "show (or hide) required fields" or something like that.  
> This is easy to achieve and will reassure users about the backend  
> usability (ergonomy). We only have to create 2 set of fields for  
> each screen. If a screen is not concerned the sets will be the same  
> and the buttons will have no action, simple isn' it ?
>
> What do you think ?
>
> Jacques