Customizing your experience - Let us know your thoughts

[Dave Pfeiffer]

One of the more highly discussed features we hear and see being discussed in the industry today is the ability for users to customize their experience. There is a pretty strong desire in the tools we use in our every day lives to make it look and work the way we want to fit our own preferences. It makes it feel more personal and frankly more usable when it feels like our own. We are looking for some of your own personal thoughts on this subject with respect to tools you use for work. Is personalization something that's important to you? We want to know.

[David Beagan]

I've been using WebFOCUS 9.1 for over a year now. I went into an old WF 8.2.07 installation to check for something. On the 8.2.07 Hub for workspaces,  list view, I was immediately struck by what seemed to be the superior interface. The different icons for .fex and .htm and .sch files etc. had a little color making it much easier to differentiate them. There was a search bar right on that page. The tree structure of the Workspaces and subfolders was clearer with + sign icons to click for folder expansion.

I'm interested to hear if any one else has observed this or agrees or disagrees. 

Edited April 4 by David Beagan

[Clayton Peacock]

I was in the same situation where I had to view some content created in WF 8.2.07 and agree with you the old design was much better, easier on the eye. 
In the tile view we had custom images for our portals, in WF 9.2.1 the image is so tiny on the tile it not viewable. Many of our business users created thumbnails(camera button) in InfoAssist which they really liked. 
When you click on workspaces on the home page in our env for split second when it loads you see the very old navigation with "Ask WebFOCUS" on the menu.
On the plus side, in WF 9, we finally have custom white labelling - still some CSS issues(bug logged on TechSupport) like in admin console/security center with purple pngs and padding - I dont use Hub still use admin console link.

[Dave Pfeiffer]

Thank you @David Beagan  and @Clayton Peacock for this feedback. Yes we did need to make some necessary updates to the UI and we planned for it to be a phased approach with the next wave of enhancements still to come in the near future. We're currently exploring these enhancements that we think will be great improvements and I'm really thankful you've shared your own perspectives.  If I understand correctly, having the ability to customize a few of these elements such as the icons and size they appear in the tiles would be desirable. Is that right? Are there other specific areas of the experience that if you had the ability to customize it to your own preferences it would improve the way you use WebFOCUS? Are there any other enhancements you feel would streamline your workflows?

[Clayton Peacock]

Pleasure @Dave Pfeiffer think there are a number of things that could be considered and might ask some clients to view and give their options in a beta release to get some feedback eveyone uses WebFOCUS a little differently that's the beauty. 

Some more off the top of my head:

WebFOCUS Default landing page: 

• Ability to select default landing page for all users and the views on the landing page - Our developers access the WebFOCUS home page and need to select Workspaces menu item each time after the page loads currently by default the Recents/Favs view loads.
• List of portals on the landing page would be great - ability to customise - I would remove recent, only show favs and portals(collaborative) for all our end users but developers able to set preference.
• A portals(collaborative) button would be helpful - ability to select by default as per above

White labelling: 

• Theme/CSS needs to be applied to all client pages, navigating to security center, admin console(sub menu's) all look different - icons purple and padding. Clicking on <server>/admin you cant see some of the labels and options to select including save button.
• Navigating to the server console directly :8121 ignores white labelling only get white labelling via client navigation

Metadata: 

• Opens Designer after creating content, annoying developers as they close this window each time - we dont use designer as yet.

Search Workspaces(client home): 

• Ability to right click and open the location of the searched item found in Workspaces. At the moment you need to right click and select properties and copy the path so you can find the exact location of the searched item - tedious.
• Ability to search for content inside procedures etc would be really helpful.

Text Editor:

• Most of our developers spend their time here, the icons not always explanatory - need to onHover to find out what the button/icon does.
• Additional shortcuts and commonly used functions etc here to enhance developers experience compared to other editors would be appreciated 
• Including functions references etc here 

[Dave Pfeiffer]

Thanks for the additional comments @Clayton Peacock. Just wondering if you could share the version you are currently using. This way I can provide the best response where appropriate. Thanks

[Clayton Peacock]

Pleasure! We are on WF9.2.1.

ReportCaster and Change management also interfaces could also do with a nice refresh 🙂

 

 

[Dave Pfeiffer]

Thanks for this feedback @Clayton Peacock. Of course you should continue to open cases to resolve defects and also work directly with your support teams for new feature requests so we can ensure they go through the proper channels and vetting process. That said, I can respond to a few of the items you've noted here:

• Report Caster - We are planning to introduce the first phase of ReportCaster enhancements in the Hub in 9.3.0 with additional features rolling out in the next few releases as well. We will be sharing more information about RC enhancements in our upcoming events so please stay tuned
• Hub Navigation - While we are considering more customization/personalization that will add value in the Hub, some of what you've mentioned should already be there. The Hub should remember where a user has left off and return you back to that spot the next time you log in. It remembers so that you can pick up and continue in that same area. But there are some limitations for what the system can cache. So we will look further into this as we consider more personalization options to improve the user experience
• Portals - Portal assets show in their own plugin area of the Hub today but we are considering the possibility of consolidating some of these areas for better accessibility. Until then I would continue to use the Portals plugin area for those items
• White Labeling - Some areas of WebFOCUS, particularly in the Admin area are not yet connected to White labeling. Some legacy areas and are still in the planning phase for what can be enhanced and when. But we are currently working on more white labeling features. If you have a list of specific items that are important to you, you can reach out to myself and PM along with your support rep. We'd love to hear your thoughts. 
• Metadata - I'd like to better understand your workflow for what you mention in the MetaData bullet section so we can see if the experience can be improved upon. If you'd like to share those details with support then they can send it through the channels for our review and consideration
• Search - We are currently working on new enhancements in search. One feature we are exploring is the ability to search content within certain file types. So the good news is we are currently exploring that for an upcoming release. But you should already be able, from the search results, to right click a result and see an item in the menu for "Locate item". This will take you directly to the location in the repository where it's saved. You should not have to go to the properties panel to get that path. This saves a few clicks and makes it super easy to get right to that directory. It was introduced in one of the previous releases so you should see that in your view today
• Text Editor - for the text editor I understand the comments you've provided. We have been focusing on other priorities, but the Text Editor experience is something we will definitely keep our eye on and address whenever possible

Again I sincerely appreciate the feedback Clayton. We're working hard on many of these items already and hope to apply as much feedback from yourself and others as we can. Keep submitting your feedback through the support channels so we can address them when possible. Thank you again.

[Clayton Peacock]

Hi @Dave Pfeiffer,

My pleasure, if we don't actively request and log NFR's IBI won't know what can be improved on - just logged a NFR for RC task to link to a CM export scenario.

Thanks for the above comprehensive response, we hope to see these enhancements will be implemented soon, especially the legacy, RC, CM, Security Center and admin pages updated.

Our developers still prefer to use /ibi_apps/home(Home) vs /ibi_apps/start(Hub). We have 70+ workspace, Home loads a lot quicker...

The search and locate item is great, I see this is only in the Hub and not on the Home page search. 

Kind Regards,
Clayton 

[Dave Pfeiffer]

Thanks again @Clayton Peacock I'll be sure to share your feedback with Angie and the rest of the PM team.