Re: A question about the New Java Project wizard

this is another idea. the problem that we saw during the usability test 
is that none of the participants understood why there were two panels 
letting them add sources (this was to a project with existing sources).  
the root of the problem is communicating what a source root is and what 
a java root is and why they are different and to a large degree, why the 
user should care about them.

by combining all roots into one panel i am assuming a couple of things:
-user does not care about Source Roots or Java Roots
-most users just want to add java source to a java project -doing so 
drops the java stuff into the packages node which is where it belongs. 
knowing about different kinds of roots doesn't help them.
-a project from existing sources will probably be added via one or more 
roots that will probably contain the java bit further down the tree 
(like a nb cvs module).  the java bit of the existing source turns up 
under packages and the non-java bit under sources. knowing about the 
different root types doesn't actually help them. (the java root panel 
should actually be changed to show the packages that were found so the 
user can verify that is what they want.)

what i'm contesting here is that the different types of 'roots' are 
implementation details that have zero meaning to the user. getting them 
out of the way and just asking the user to add sources will let us ask 
meaningful questions about whether java sources found should be added to 
the project as such.

cL

Petr Jiricka wrote:

> Ann,
>
> I agree with your goal that the wizards, and especially the Basic 
> wizard, should have as few steps as possible. That is a good goal and 
> we should not be adding arbitrary panels that only clutter the wizard UI.
>
> I believe the above goal can be achieved even if we combine the Basic 
> project and the Project from existing sources into one template.
>
> This is how such a combined wizard would look for the case of Java 
> projects - for Web projects it would be analogous:
>
> 1. Specify Project name and Project File Location
> Also, this panel will have a checkbox "Add existing sources to this 
> project" (or similar). This is the only piece of UI that is added 
> compared to the current Basic project wizard.
>
> Now there are two branches of the wizard. If the "Add existing 
> sources" checkbox is unchecked, then the next panels are:
>
> 2a. Specify Java source locations
>    -default: <prj_path>/src
>    -user can add more Java source directories
>    -Finish is enabled starting on this panel
>
> 3a. Specify resources
>     ....
>
> ....
> etc.
>
>
> If on the other hand the "Add existing sources" checkbox is checked, 
> then the wizard proceeds as follows:
>
> 2b. Specify (general) source directories
>    -user can add arbitrary directories containing files in general
>    -at least one directory must be specified
>
> 3b. Specify Java source locations
>    -the wizard scans the directories added in panel 2b for Java source
>     directories and puts them to the list by default
>    -user can add more Java source directories or remove the ones
>     added by the wizard
>    -Finish is enabled starting on this panel
>
> 4b. Specify resources
>     ....
>
> ....
> etc.
>
>
> So if the checkbox on panel 1 is unchecked (which is the default), the 
> wizard is no more complicated than the current Basic wizard (except 
> for the checkbox itself). The advantage is obviously that we cut down 
> the number of wizards to one half.
>
> Comments ?
> Petr
>
> Ann Sunhachawee wrote:
>
>> To get my 2c in before rework happens .. I disagree with 
>> consolidating the basic/empty with the project from existing sources. 
>> We would like our users to get through wizards as quickly as 
>> possible, and I think this distinction in templates is helpful up front.
>>
>> This allows the user interested in starting a fresh project to start 
>> up quickly, without having to pause and understand the concept of 
>> "Java roots" or consider adding source or resource directories. If 
>> the user creates a empty/basic project and picks a project home that 
>> contains files, then perhaps we launch into Project from Existing 
>> Sources at that point if they confirm they indeed are trying to 
>> create a new project with those sources. The situation I'd like to 
>> avoid is that a user ends up with a hybrid project - part of their 
>> sources, with sample app files.
>>
>> -ann
>>
>> cL wrote:
>>
>>> sure, this sound fine. the spec will get a major update after the 
>>> usability test results are compiled and analyzed and i will add this 
>>> to the bits that need to be re-worked.
>>>
>>> thanks,
>>> cL
>>>
>>> Petr Jiricka wrote:
>>>
>>>> Team,
>>>>
>>>> I have one question about creating new Java projects. According to 
>>>> the UI spec, there will be two wizards: one for new empty/basic 
>>>> project, and  one for project from existing sources. Well, is this 
>>>> really necessary ? Couldn't it work if there was just one wizard, 
>>>> which would decide which root to take, based on whether the home 
>>>> directory entered by the user already contains sources or not ?
>>>> The way it is now, the user needs to make the choice, when in fact 
>>>> the machine could make the choice for her. Another advantage would 
>>>> be that this would decrease the amount of clutter in the project 
>>>> selector UI.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> Petr
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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