[cups.development] [RFE] STR #3728: Poor usability in Web admin interface (lack of navigation links)

[Ulrich.Windl.rz.uni-regensburg]

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[STR New]

The "new" web admin interface of CPUS is worse than the previous one: For
most administrative tasks, CPUS presents a pag content where there are no
further navigation links. So the user has to use the browser's "back"
button to get anywhere. This also applies when the user changes his mind
while the current page presents some default action.
Therefore I suggest some guidelines for pages:

"Vertical up": Have a link to get back up to the calling page (like from
"http://localhost:631/admin/#General" back to
"http://localhost:631/admin/"). BTW: where did the printer's name go in
the URI?

"Reasonable here": Use URIs that are "bookmarkable" wherever reasonable.

"horizontal with labels": When having changed some specific setting (e.g.
for a printer), the user might want to change the same setting in another
device (like the "next" printer). Therefore there should be navigation
links that allow "horizontal" movement in the hierarchy of commands (as
opposed to "vertical up"). To make clear where the "next" or "previous"
link leads to, a "label" should be added (maybe in the "title" attribute
of the link) that shows where the link will actually go to.

"Reasonable context": Provide some links to "nearby" tasks that a user
might want to perform. Currently the user has to go back to the root of
the configuration item before he can select the next task to perform. Just
an example: When viewing finished jobs
(http://localhost:631/jobs?which_jobs=all), the admin might wish to
display more details about a job, but the only link that is there leads to
the _printer_ that did the job.

"whoami": If you entered some credentials in the browser, the browser will
remember those, but maybe you forgot. So display a hint at every page
whether the user is authenticated or not.

"priviledged": Maybe indicate which links require authentication (or
special priviledges) _before_ the user follows the link.

(I liked the old interface at least as much as the current one)
"link to help": Occasionally it's not clear what an option, button or link
will acually do. As the help system is provided by the same socket, it
seems just natural to add some links to further help to the pages.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L3728
Version:  -feature