[tahoe-dev] barriers to using tahoe

[Peter Secor]

The javascript web interface for allmydata.com grabs the base URI from a 
database (given a user/pass) and presents the user with a simple 
file-explorer paradigm. The URI's are not exposed, and there is drag and 
drop of files/directories that are already in the grid.

Some useful but could-be-better features are file upload via a dialog 
(not exploring the local drive yet), sharing (requires php currently), 
and downloads (click to save).

We've had a prototype of this working on the local node, but haven't 
released it yet to the open-source project. We're actively working to 
get it out, but it has been fairly useful to the commercial customer 
base and I personally use it quite a lot.

Hope this helps,
Ps

On 2/4/10 3:57 PM, Jody Harris wrote:
> I'm not as opposed to showing globally unique identifiers as you are.
> I'm also not optimistic about having good, fluid drag-and-drop in a web
> interface. Doing good, clean drag-and-drop in the web would be a major
> undertaking.
>
> That said, a "good user experience" for Tahoe seems to be creeping
> farther away rather than drawing nearer.
>
> jody
> ----
> - Think carefully.
> - Contra mundum - "Against the world" (St. Athanasius)
> - Credo ut intelliga - "I believe that I may know" (St. Augustin of Hippo)
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 4:50 PM, James A. Donald <jamesd at echeque.com
> <mailto:jamesd at echeque.com>> wrote:
>
>     Jody Harris wrote:
>      > Barriers continued....
>      >
>      > These are comments from my users:
>      >
>      >    (Speaking of command line...) "cryptic they are. They need to
>     move more
>      > of the functionality into the web gui and do automatical aliasing
>     and show
>      > that in the web GUI.  At least the top and maybe first trees in the
>      > structure."
>      >
>      > "...why not include a web app - complete with logins and groups?"
>      >
>      > "Interesting decision not to include [a web wrapper]...seems an
>     obvious
>      > oversight?"
>      >
>      > These users seem to have very little patience for understanding
>     the broader
>      > context of what tahoe was designed for.
>      >
>      > Perhaps I'm just trying to roll this out in the context of the
>     wrong users.
>
>     I suspect that any user will have similar reactions to a tool that
>     shoves globally unique identifiers in his face.
>
>     What I interpret these users as requesting, when they ask for a "web
>     app" or a "web wrapper", that does "automatical aliasing" is a web page
>     that they can log into (thus obtaining their root capability) and on
>     that web page they see the "aliases" (petnames, links) for the
>     capabilities that they have already created, and they can drag and drop
>     files onto that web page, thereby creating more capabilities,
>     represented by more "aliases" (user petnames)
>
>     I think "automatical aliasing" may perhaps mean the same thing as I mean
>     when I say, "never show an end user a globally unique identifier."
>
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