Search…

X3 Photo Gallery Support Forums

Search…
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 8
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

New Imagevue X2 Admin Panel undertaking ... Comments?

11 Jun 2009, 08:28

Ladies and Gents,

We are planning to make a new Imagevue X2 gallery admin panel, taking lessons in the experience we have had from our current admin. In regards to this, we would like to invite any comments or requests in regards to the new admin we are undertaking. We already have a lot of plans ourselves without going into detail, but we are curious if there are any functionality we have been blind towards.

Generally speaking, I think we want to work towards a re-structured admin that looks better, is easier and faster to navigate, that is generic to support multiple gallery interfaces, and preferably with a minimal amount of cross-platform bugs. At the same time, I think we can introduce a few new features.

Please add any request or comments below!
 
eissap
Experienced
Posts: 67
Joined: 22 Dec 2006, 09:49

11 Jun 2009, 08:43

Maybe not directly a view or ad-don but more explanation on the different settings would be great.
For example when you choose to place the menu / image on a different location:

now the options are na, nd, sa ,sd etc etc....
When choosing an option there there should be more info about that particular setting.

second: try to look at the latest wordpress i think they made a very nice backend system which works pretty well.

greets.
Eissap
 
anytime732
Experienced
Posts: 112
Joined: 02 Aug 2008, 16:44

11 Jun 2009, 12:04

im still holding out for the idea of being able to manually sort the gallery photos and menu.. alougth in my case they are products not are. :D
things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise
 
gadgetologist
Experienced
Posts: 123
Joined: 06 May 2009, 18:48

11 Jun 2009, 19:25

anytime732 wrote:im still holding out for the idea of being able to manually sort the gallery photos and menu.. alougth in my case they are products not are. :D
So, this is a good example for me to ask... would this be considered an enhancement to the admin control panel, or is it new capability? I assume the latter.

Assuming that's the case, the only important item is the note/documentation/popup info (mentioned in a couple notes up) to help understand the settings. Other things for the admin control panel may be nice to have, but for me there are way more important things that would make this product soar. The groundwork is there. Just my 2cents.
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

12 Jun 2009, 06:36

eissap wrote:Maybe not directly a view or ad-don but more explanation on the different settings would be great.
For example when you choose to place the menu / image on a different location:

now the options are na, nd, sa ,sd etc etc....
When choosing an option there there should be more info about that particular setting.

second: try to look at the latest wordpress i think they made a very nice backend system which works pretty well.
One of our ideas is to redo the settings structure, and make it easier to navigate ... And then there is no reason we can ´t add extended tooltips/instructions. Thanks for the tip on wordpress! Ofcourse, it ´s not an image gallery of any kind, but it is an admin interface ...
anytime732 wrote:im still holding out for the idea of being able to manually sort the gallery photos and menu.. alougth in my case they are products not are. Very Happy
Yes, manual sorting of images and folders is pretty high on our list also. This is another reason we need to redo the admin from bottoms up. I ´m not saying the interface will be revolutionized, but it will change.
gadgetologist wrote: So, this is a good example for me to ask... would this be considered an enhancement to the admin control panel, or is it new capability? I assume the latter.

Assuming that's the case, the only important item is the note/documentation/popup info (mentioned in a couple notes up) to help understand the settings. Other things for the admin control panel may be nice to have, but for me there are way more important things that would make this product soar. The groundwork is there. Just my 2cents.
I don ´t think it is that important to separate the two right now. The reason we want to rebuild the admin is not only for speed and efficiency, but also to be able to integrate certain highly appropriate features like dhtml/ajax manual sorting. This function for example, is admin-specific, and doesn ´t depend on anything in the frontend.

Thanks for all the feedback so far! Any comments are welcome, even if the are "inappropriate" =)
 
User avatar
carter2
Experienced
Posts: 206
Joined: 13 Oct 2008, 13:00

12 Jun 2009, 18:11

mjau-mjau wrote: Thanks for all the feedback so far! Any comments are welcome, even if the are "inappropriate" =)
Ok, just for you here is the token "inappropriate" comment.

Scantily clad women as a background image on the admin page?
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

13 Jun 2009, 06:32

carter2 wrote:Scantily clad women as a background image on the admin page?
Hmmm ... That may help distract visitors from obvious bugs in the admin interface. Good idea!
 
User avatar
PhotoFolio
Experienced
Posts: 39
Joined: 05 Oct 2007, 07:45

13 Jun 2009, 10:06

Well, I think the most important things to improve have been quoted yet by yourself and previous users.
I would just like to emphasize that whatever your new features are the major point to me is to maintain the upward compatibility with the existing settings, in a direct way or through an upgrade procedure.
Indeed, I guess this is your intention as you already did the necessary job with the X2 release, but since I had to reconfigure 3 times my gallery in the past due to evolutions (I'm not criticizing at all ! :wink:, but sometimes it's a bit tricky) I wish you continue to keep it transparent.
I know that admin GUI and gallery settings are separated things, but I guess some new features, such as manual sorting via admin GUI for instance, may impact gallery settings.
In the meantime, keep up the good job !
Greets
Pascal
 
anytime732
Experienced
Posts: 112
Joined: 02 Aug 2008, 16:44

13 Jun 2009, 12:17

just for the record - for me and others the manual sorting of images is a need rather than a want. therefore seing as the admin side of thing would need to bevastly altered to accomadate this hence why i think now would be a good time to condider its devolment
things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

13 Jun 2009, 12:44

Photofolio: The idea is primarily to just rebuild the interface, not how the backend works. Thanks for the reminder though, as it might be something we need to consider underway.

anytime732: As I tried to mention in my previous post, one of the main factors behind rebuilding the interface, is exactly for the purpose of adding javascript/dhtml for drag ´n ´drop manual sorting.
 
Moh
Experienced
Posts: 24
Joined: 31 Jul 2008, 00:30

14 Jun 2009, 06:15

I have these two suggestions (so far)...

1) I'd like to see progress bar(s) for the different functions like thmbnail creation, etc. Instead of the breath-taking wait time of re-generating all thmbnails in a gallery that has tons of photos, a progress bar (AJAX maybe?) would look a lot better!

2) A global admin navigation menu on the left side of the page with categories. Each category has the corresponding links beneath it.

Thank you for your hard work!
'The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear'
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

14 Jun 2009, 06:58

Moh wrote:I have these two suggestions (so far)...

1) I'd like to see progress bar(s) for the different functions like thmbnail creation, etc. Instead of the breath-taking wait time of re-generating all thmbnails in a gallery that has tons of photos, a progress bar (AJAX maybe?) would look a lot better!

2) A global admin navigation menu on the left side of the page with categories. Each category has the corresponding links beneath it.

Thank you for your hard work!
1. Thanks for the suggestion

2. You mean you want to move the main menu from top/horizontal, to left/vertical? Or do you mean you want a global menu access to the FOLDERS from the left? (You already have the folders globally accessible by rolling over the "+" icon below the menu).
 
anytime732
Experienced
Posts: 112
Joined: 02 Aug 2008, 16:44

14 Jun 2009, 16:58

Hi,

I just thought id make to following suggestion as it's something Ive had confusion over in the past.

Here we are discussing different ideas and plans for the future development of x2, where is going, new features and amendments to existing features. Personally I think this is great that the developers are asking us as customers and users what more we would like. though I do think that what has been missed out of all this is the basic yes's and no's of which of the ideas, suggestions, improvements are actually going to take place as well as the intended implementation dates.

For example it's been talked about there being a new imagevuex website and since the recommendations where put forward no substantial info has been passed back as to what's going on. Also a while ago it was asked when the next release would be and the answer was should be by the end of the month when actually it was a few weeks after that. This in itself is not a problem and I sympathise with the developers that sometimes things take long and there isn't enough ours in the day but still I personally think there should be some way of passing this back to the users....

right now I cant really think of the best way of doing this other that to have a page detailing the date for the next intended release and what's in it, but im sure there are far better ways of managing this... im sure others have great ideas???

thanks...
things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise
 
Moh
Experienced
Posts: 24
Joined: 31 Jul 2008, 00:30

14 Jun 2009, 21:24

mjau-mjau wrote: 2. You mean you want to move the main menu from top/horizontal, to left/vertical? Or do you mean you want a global menu access to the FOLDERS from the left? (You already have the folders globally accessible by rolling over the "+" icon below the menu).
Here is how I wish it to be like, possibley with collapse/expand category option too:

Image

I think this makes locating things easier and quicker.
'The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear'
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

15 Jun 2009, 02:29

anytime732 wrote:Hi,

I just thought id make to following suggestion as it's something Ive had confusion over in the past.

Here we are discussing different ideas and plans for the future development of x2, where is going, new features and amendments to existing features. Personally I think this is great that the developers are asking us as customers and users what more we would like. though I do think that what has been missed out of all this is the basic yes's and no's of which of the ideas, suggestions, improvements are actually going to take place as well as the intended implementation dates.

For example it's been talked about there being a new imagevuex website and since the recommendations where put forward no substantial info has been passed back as to what's going on. Also a while ago it was asked when the next release would be and the answer was should be by the end of the month when actually it was a few weeks after that. This in itself is not a problem and I sympathise with the developers that sometimes things take long and there isn't enough ours in the day but still I personally think there should be some way of passing this back to the users....

right now I cant really think of the best way of doing this other that to have a page detailing the date for the next intended release and what's in it, but im sure there are far better ways of managing this... im sure others have great ideas???

thanks...
Thanks for constructive criticism, unrelated to the new admin. Other than that, I can ´t really see any question.

YES we are working on a new website and YES, we are working on a new admin, because we love our products and our customers. Other than that, I handle sales, support forum, support emails, project management, flash development, design and several other tasks. I believe the website will be a foundation to support improved interaction with customers, and the new admin will provide a better fundament for the flash gallery, new features, and even new galleries/modules we plan for the future. That is why these two tasks are in focus right now. Later on, we hope to focus more on frontend- and module development.

Unfortunately, because of the factors above, and because we are only 2++ people working with all this on a small budget, and perhaps because our heads are a little messy, we don ´t have the structure and capacity to provide fixed dates on everything we do.

I read all requests we ever get on improvements, and that is only a small percentage of the amount of ideas we have ourselves anyway! I usually reply when there is a feature I think is useless, otherwise, the list is growing faster than our development is progressing. All I can say, is that we are passionately dedicated to Imagevue, now and in the future.

If that ´s not enough for some people, then check other options. We appreciate that there is a fair amount of healthy competition out there, each with their advantages and flaws.

Right now, in this post, I am mr. project manager, and I am trying to plan an admin that will be kickass, can handle future frontend features, and even unique new frontends later on. We already have our own projections on the new admin, based on a lot of experience, but we want to see how this compares with what our users think, or if we left out something. Like I specified earlier, the new admin will not be a revolution in terms of new features. It is mainly to address gallery speed, improved UI, ajax features(like custom sorting), flexibility and less flaws ...

To be honest, plans aren ´t all that chiseled out here at imagevue, but I think it is pretty robust to have a flexible, ever-changing perspective.

Thanks for the criticism, although I can ´t guarantee huge immediate improvements in this area. Perhaps we should start twittering ...

If anything else than the new admin is going to be discussed, I will have to move it to another post ...
Last edited by mjau-mjau on 15 Jun 2009, 02:34, edited 1 time in total.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 8