Friday, January 9, 2009

Preference & next steps

In the next months all work is being focused in the codebase of the Phase1(ARCE) of the project. Three main things, fix bugs, clean, and implement features and tools which will make starting the Phase2 with a more comfortable Bluetooth base.

One of the most annoying things is that the bluetooth_server is not recognizing the hotplugged dongles on the system, they must be plugged before starting the server. So basically the management of the device(s) plugged in the Haiku system must be improved.

The second big one is the lack of tools, there are 2,  one informational, and another for discovering, but we cannot yet(in svn) take any action. The actions needed by the tests were taken by the remote device(phone).

In a document I was dropping during these months my UI Wishlist

There is a mockup of the future InquiryPanel which I would like to receive some feedback too, but the intention of the post is to show the current Preference application:

3 tabs, rightmost is pretended for global settings. The middle one, pretends to be a list of all known remote device: reacheable, paired, blocked, connected. And a description of what we know about it or services offered if available.

And the target of the post would be the tab which can be seen in the screenshot. Is the description of the LocalDevice, and the most basic action make it enter the game(discoverable). The good thing of those 2 checkboxes is that they are actually working. The black box is intended to show a laptop or Desktop machine(who know.. a smartphone?) icon depending how are you willing to identify yourself.

The panel is very basic so I thought there are many artists around that might want to give me some ideas with mockups or comments. I would be glad reading them before going on with the code.

BTW: The dongle identified in the screenshot is one donated by Pieter Panman one finally containing a valid bdaddr, thanks!

12 comments:

jamesu said...

Interesting start, but lets see..

1) Why do i need to know what the mac address of the bluetooth is?

2) Why do i need to know what class my device is?

3) What is the difference between "Discoverable" and "Show Name"? Would i ever want to be discoverable but not show my name?

4) Realistically, why would i ever want to open the bluetooth preferences just to *view* largely unimportant tidbits about my bluetooth device?

Admittedly i am biased because i pretty much prefer the way it is presented on OS X...

But still, if people thought about what users realistically would want to do, as opposed to just plonking everything on in an arbitrary fashion, then perhaps the computing world would be a much more user-friendlier place. :)

Good luck.

Anonymous said...

I 100% agree :)

No need to show that kind of information, at least by default. Of course it could be usefull, but should be hidden ! :)

Anonymous said...

im not really bothered by the info given but i think the two other posters are somewhat right :)

we could just have one tab called "connection manager", containing the bluetooth enable/visible and all the pairing/connecting stuff, then the "settings" tab and third a "tech info" tab presenting all the MAC address and more.

so a standard user only ever would need the connection manager and nothing else

Anonymous said...

I fully agree with the last comment.

urnenfeld said...

Well 1 things is that you are suposed to be able to have more than 1 Dongle Connected(ok Strange, but we meant to be ready for that). Then you would end up having a lot information of each dongle, in such tab.

I guess for Local information show the class or bdaddr is not that usefull for end used. But AFAIS in MAc they show BDADDR? at least for Remote Devices they do¿?

I wonder how an "Advanced Triangle" like in tracker info file, will behave with the layout system....

PetterHJ said...

Just a simple mockup kind of based on the printers settings:

Bluetooth Preferences

Devices should contain a list of devices connected, or previous connected devices. Maybe only "trusted" devices? Settings-tab is the bluetooth settings for the computer itself, containing things like "discoverable", setting the name, radio on/of and so on.

And a deskbar replicant would also be usefull, with quick access to connected devices, radio on/off, add new device and such.

poll said...

I enjoyed reading your work! GREAT post! I looked around for this… but I found you! Anyway, would you mind if I threw up a backlink from my site? Please come visit my site Business Resources Comprehensive Listings when you got time.

poll said...

I enjoyed reading your work! GREAT post! I looked around for this… but I found you! Anyway, would you mind if I threw up a backlink from my site? Please come visit my site City Guide Detroit when you got time.

rr8004 said...

Wow, loving the two photos you posted. You got potential. Please come visit my site Local Business Directory Arlington when you got time.

rr8004 said...

Wow, loving the two photos you posted. You got potential. Please come visit my site Business Directory Arlington Web Link when you got time.

rr8004 said...

Wow, loving the two photos you posted. You got potential. Please come visit my site Honolulu City Business Listings when you got time.

rr8004 said...

I forgot about those! Maybe they look good w/ the right outfit? I didn't like skinny jeans when I first saw them. lol. Please come visit my site City Guide Minneapolis when you got time.