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· Apr 28

Let's talk about the new UI for Interoperability and Data Transformations editor

#DTL #InterSystems IRIS

It's been a while since the new UI for Productions and DTL was published as a preview and I would like to know your opinions about it.

WARNING: This is a personal opinion, totally personal and not related with InterSystems Corporation.

I'm going to start with the Interoperabilty screen:

Production screen:

The style is sober and without frills, following the line of cloud services design, I like it.

But, always a but...or maybe two:

In my opinion there is too much information, the left menu is superfluous, it's true that you can collapse it, but I don't want to do it each time that I use the screen. I don't need to see all the time all the productions in my NAMESPACE, the Production Items, Rule Sets and Data Transformations. I feel that the designers have suffered a case of "horror vacui"

About these menus, looks like the options are too close:

And displaying Rule and Data Transformations editors in the same screen for small screens like a laptop it's a scrolling nightmare:

 A pop-up window with the editors would be more "clean" for the common user. A positive point is that we can select how we want to open the editors.:

But maybe we have too much options.

DTL Editor:

Well, I like it, the design is simple and clear, maybe, as in the Production screen, the lines are too close together and we have lost the drag and drop to link fields.

Conclusion:

The design has been modernized and looks nice, but in my opinion as a former web developer "less is more". I would like to work with simpler screens   with a well defined behaviour, I don't need to access from the same screen to all the interoperability functionalities.

My two cents, we need to balance functionalities and a friendly and modern user interface, the new design seems to go in that direction. Thank you to all the team involved in the development!

Do you like the new UI?
Results:
0%
(0 votes)
I love it, it's just perfect.
50%
(2 votes)
I like it, we are in the right track.
25%
(1 vote)
Not great, not terrible.
25%
(1 vote)
I hate it, blow it up!
All votes: 4.
Discussion (5)4
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Robert Barbiaux · Apr 30

Absolutely. The new nomenclature does not reflect the conceptual differences between services and operations : the origin of the initial event that triggers processing. This could cause confusion for beginners.

I like ‘Services’ and ‘Operations’ better. The words also keep the link with the actual class names and wording in the documentation.

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Carmen Logue · Apr 28

Thanks for checking out what we have done so far with the new screens and providing your comments.  We are working to improve the functionality that existing customers expect AND create a simpler experience.  We posted this article to describe what has changed and several different ways to engage so please continue to provide feedback there, particularly on the ways you think we can simplify.   https://community.intersystems.com/post/20251-modernizing-interoperability-user-experience
 

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Laura Blázquez ... · Apr 29

Totally agree. One of the points that botherer me was the small size of all the elements, and the same colours in all the interface. I have the same opinion: less is more. And I think the new UI has too much information.

Like Jeffrey, I can't understand the rename of Services and Operations. And I don't understand neither why now you can disable or stop an element (maybe this option existed before, but I didn't realize until know 😅).

There are other points that I don't like:

  • I can't see when a production is ON or not. Neither the elements inside the production. In the current version, you can see this with strong colours, but now, at least in my case, I can't see it
  • In right menu, I can't distinguish configurations. They are all with white background, and too together, so I can't see when a config starts and when ends. The same happens with dropdown menus. They are white too, so it's difficult to see things correctly.

As a developer, changes are difficult to me, but I know that they are necessary. I'm not against this change, but I think with a few little improvements, it would be much better.

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Ashok Kumar T · Apr 30

That's correct. I’ve explored the new UI feature, and it appears to be a commendable initiative. The following observations have been noted.

  • The shortcuts for Rules, DTL, and Production at the top of the page, along with their options (Partial/Full/Open in New Tab), greatly improve navigation and allow for quick access within a single page.
  • The file paths (File Path, Archive Path, and Work Path) within the File Service configuration are not selectable, and the target configuration name is not rendered correctly.
  • The absence of the target configuration results in improper rendering of the connection arrows.
  • In the new user interface, the Production Settings—specifically Queues, Logs, Messages, and Jobs—are not displaying any data, and the Action tab is missing. These elements function as expected in the standard interface.
  • While small Data Transformation Layers (DTLs) and mappings display correctly, larger DTLs and mappings exhibit instability and are not consistently reliable in production configuration Singe page application.
  • The popup displayed during the start or stop of a business host or production instance is helpful for identifying errors; and the 'Update' button is absent.
  • And The dots appear feels somewhat unusual.

It takes some time to adapt to the new UI; however, it is quite effective and well-designed.

Thanks! 

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