436636 - implement way to queue and display notifications

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Cloud Services :: General, defect, P1)

Description

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: work in progress

There should be a way for Weave to queue up notifications for the user as it generates them and then display them for the user when the user wants to see them.

Here's the beginnings of such a beast, a work in progress that reuses some Firefox notification XBL.  It doesn't work yet.

Comment 1

[Dan Mills [:thunder]]

Cc'ing Mano, he's working on this.

Comment 2

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: mockup

Here's a mockup from Maria of what we're looking for in the notification UI.

The one element of this mockup that needs to be changed is the depiction of a notification with an action needed.  The mockup depicts the action the user can take as a link, but some such notifications will have multiple choices, and some will require additional UI elements like a list of checkboxes.

For example, the notification that "someone wants to share a bookmark folder with you" should let the user say "Yes" or "No" to the request.  And the notification that there are "Tabs From Other Computers" will have a list of tabs the user can open, with checkboxes for choosing which ones to open.

So instead of links, the actions should be buttons.

Comment 3

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: screenshot of the tabs notification

Here's what the tabs notification looks like currently, so you can see an example of the kind of "action needed" notification that will be integrated into the notification system.

Besides folder sharing and tabs notifications, the other major notification that will require an action is when login or syncing fails for some reason.  There we might allow the user to "Verify Username/Password" or "Try Again" or the like.

Comment 4

[Chris Beard]

mano, are you working on this?  any progress?  trying to get a feel for if we'll be ready for a some test builds over the next day or two

Comment 5

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Taking this again...

Comment 6

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: work in progress 2: updated to tip, notifications are removable

Comment 7

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: work in progress 3: getting close

This is close, but it isn't quite there yet.  There are positioning and style issues (icon should be next to weave username, panel should open in corner of browser, warnings and errors should have correct icons and background colors), and it should be possible to add buttons using the basic notification.

But adding and removing notifications works, and tab notifications are now integrated into this consolidated notification UI, providing an example of how you can create a custom notification that does more than the basic notification provides.

I'll try to finish this up tonight.

Comment 8

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: patch v1: implements functionality.

Here's a working version, modulo some bugs and a variety of appearance/behavior issues.  I'll wait to check this in until tomorrow, when I can run more comprehensive tests and document the issues encountered (and also how to add a notification).

Comment 9

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: patch v1: corrected patch

The previous patch was missing some files.  This patch contains them.

Comment 10

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: patch v2: fixes various bugs

This patch fixes various bugs in the previous one.  Other bugs remain, and there's lots of polish work to do, but that's all best worked on with this patch in the tree, so I'll push it shortly.

Comment 11

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

changeset:   729:10512274ea50
tag:         tip
date:        Wed Jun 25 13:51:39 2008 -0700
summary:     bug 436636: a system for showing various kinds of notifications in one consolidated location