Uploader Status

[Colin Clark]

Hi Eli,

Thanks for your update, comments below...

On 17-Mar-09, at 10:39 AM, Eli Cochran wrote:
> I got pretty deep into implementing individual Retry buttons for  
> each row, however I ran into two problems:
> - Accessibility Design: our keyboard selection pattern for the file  
> queue assumed that there was only one action that one could do on a  
> row, delete. Adding the Retry button made things ... interesting.  
> More like a table with rows and cells, I think but I need some help  
> talking through it.
> - Code: doing a uploadManager.start() for an individual file was  
> having to touch more and more code, and at 11pm I panicked and  
> backed out. I think that I was close but it didn't feel production  
> worthy.
>
> Next Steps: It would be pretty easy to implement the general Retry  
> button for the whole queue based on the code that is already there.  
> A general Retry is part of the design but I need to talk to Erin and  
> Daphne about whether it is acceptable to have general retry without  
> ind. file retry and I need to talk to Justin about slipping this in  
> after feature freeze.

At standup today, Erin and Daphne mentioned that they're going to take  
a look at what you've got and see if there's any tweaking necessary. I  
think a partial implementation of the error storyboards is probably  
fine for the 1.0 release, but they'll have the final word.

> Cancel and Done
> Last week, Colin and I were still debating whether the Cancel and  
> Done buttons made sense as part of the template for the Uploader or  
> if they were better implemented in an example. And since the only  
> example of the Uploader we have is the Image Gallery, I tried  
> implementing Done and Cancel as series of added listeners in the  
> Image Gallery code. But some combination of stale code in the Image  
> Gallery and stale code in my brain at midnight made that a non- 
> starter, I just couldn't get the Image Gallery to pass in a listener  
> correctly. The ones that are there don't actually seem to be  
> working, but when I updated them the way I thought that they should  
> work, it didn't work.

Late night coding can rough. Since the Image Gallery example isn't  
part of the release, it's not subject to bug parade and code freeze  
policies. On the other hand, we've got our hands full with Uploader- 
related fixes scheduled for Infusion 1.0. As code freeze kicks in,  
let's circle back to the image gallery and see if we can get this  
working.

Ultimately, I'd like to see this in tutorial form, too, rather than  
just being limited to code in the Image Gallery example. Let's explore  
the possibility of working alongside Anastasia to create a tutorial  
for "Implementing the Uploader in Your Application," which will walk  
developers through the process of hooking Uploader up to different  
types of workflow. We can show how to display it in a dialog, for  
example.

> Flash 10 bugs in bug parade:
> I'd like to go ahead and engage Markus from the OpenCast project on  
> fixing these bugs. I think that we have enough information to have a  
> reasonable conversation about the options. Colin, you and I should  
> should sync up quick so that we have an understanding as to which  
> options we'd like to pursue. However, Markus may have some ideas and  
> suggestions for us as well.

Realistically, I don't think it's practical to get these Flash-related  
fixes into SWFUpload in time for the Infusion 1.0 release. I'll draft  
an email and get it out to the list about the various strategies we  
discussed the other day for improving SWFUpload's Flash-side a11y.  
Sorry for the delay on this.

We're going to be looking for expert Flash volunteers to help with  
this--I'm really excited that Markus may be able to lend a hand. But  
for a substantial issue like this, I don't want to rush to get a fix  
in until we're sure it's a viable one. It'll require some  
experimentation and time. Ultimately, our goal is to get a viable  
patch back to the SWFUpload community.

Colin

---
Colin Clark
Technical Lead, Fluid Project
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto
http://fluidproject.org