File uploader feedback.

[Ray Davis]

On 5/15/2008 2:02 PM, Ray Davis wrote:
> I'm nervous about jumping in here, but I wonder if the limitations of 
> the current uploader demo page -- particularly it's not updating a 
> browser panel or redirecting automatically to the next page in the 
> workflow after it's done

To try to be a little clearer about this, picture a panel where 
thumbnails of newly uploaded images appear one by one as each file is 
successfully ingested server-side and knocked off the Uploader Component 
queue. Or picture an Uploader Component that appears as a temporary 
floater above a playlist manager. In downloading terms, it's like being 
able to look at an open folder on my desktop while the downloader tool 
is chugging away.

Best,
Ray

> -- might tempt us to grow what's supposed to be 
> an "uploading component" into an "online content management UI."
> 
> Given the variety of things that an application might want to do with 
> files once they've *been* uploaded, and the early status of the 
> component, it might be best for now to restrict the Fluid Uploader to 
> the actual select-and-upload portions of the workflow and to let the 
> component's customers decide for themselves how to handle successfully 
> uploaded files. If that restriction is acceptable, it would imply that 
> "Remove" *does* only refer to removing from the queue and "Cancel" 
> doesn't delete already successfully uploaded files, and also that it 
> needs to be very clear to the user that "Cancel" didn't undo any already 
> successfully completed work -- it only interrupted work-in-progress. At 
> any rate, if a "Delete from Server" capability is added to the 
> component, I hope it will be optional and clearly distinguished from a 
> queue removal. (The Firefox "Downloads" window would be a familiar, if 
> not very pretty, example of what I mean.)
> 
> Best,
> Ray
> 
> On 5/15/2008 1:05 PM, Jonathan Hung wrote:
>> Hey Eli, Daphne, and Erin.
>>
>> First... that uploader rocks my socks. Seriously! Every uploader 
>> should be as friendly. :)
>>
>> I spent some time putting it through the Uploader Test Protocol and 
>> encountered a few things that I would love to see in a future 
>> iteration of the Uploader (incremental improvements, right? :):
>>
>> 1. A way to selectively delete already uploaded files. (That remove 
>> column is a tease! It only applies to files in a queue. :).
>>
>> 2. Make the filename clickable to "view" the file. If an image, the 
>> browser will launch it in another window. If a document, the browser 
>> will prompt you to download it. Does whatever the default browser is 
>> configured to do for that file type. This is handy in case you forget 
>> what you've already uploaded and want to see what it is.
>>
>> 3. Cancel button is a bit ambiguous. If I've already uploaded files, 
>> does hitting Cancel delete the files I already uploaded? Or does 
>> Cancel just send you back to the previous page keeping your uploaded 
>> files intact? In which case, would "Done" be a more appropriate label?
>>
>> 4. Have the uploader sing songs while it's working.... really nice 
>> when uploading a huge batch of large. Please, no muzak.
>>
>>
>> Thanks for entertaining my thoughts. :)
>>
>> - jonathan.
>>
>> -- 
>> Jonathan Hung / jonathan.hung at utoronto.ca 
>> <mailto:jonathan.hung at utoronto.ca>
>> University of Toronto - ATRC
>> Tel: (416) 946-8312
>>
> 
>