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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0009406ParaViewFeaturepublic2009-08-12 12:352010-05-04 17:05
ReporterKen Moreland 
Assigned ToYumin Yuan 
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityhave not tried
StatusclosedResolutionfixed 
PlatformOSOS Version
Product Version 
Target Version3.8Fixed in Version 
Summary0009406: Change icons in plugin manager
DescriptionRight now, the plugin manager uses red, yellow, and green dots to convey the "status" of each plugin (that is, whether it successfully loaded). I see several problems with using these icons:

1. Most people who suffer from color deficiencies (~ 10% of the male population) cannot distinguish between red, yellow, and green very well. It makes the icons mostly pointless for them.
2. The three states (green=good, yellow=bad, red=more bad) is one state too many? What is the point of the yellow state? It does not seem to be used at all. Furthermore, I can't see the point of using it in any case. Either the plugin loaded successfully, or it didn't.
3. The green=good state is unnecessarily distracting. Why do we need an icon that draws your attention to say that everything is fine? It is much better to have nothing when everything is fine and an attention grabbing icon when it is not. Thus, your attention will be drawn to those entries with problems.

Instead of the red, yellow, green dots, I recommend having one "warning" icon for the error conditions and nothing for the success conditions. The icon most commonly used for this purpose is a yellow triangle (with black boarder) and an exclamation point inside it. I have attached an image which I think will work fine for such an icon. (I'm not paid for icon creation for a reason, so no hard feelings if you use some else's.)
TagsNo tags attached.
Project
Topic Name
Type
Attached Files? file icon Warning.svg [^] (45,466 bytes) 2009-08-12 12:35
png file icon Warning.png [^] (398 bytes) 2009-08-12 12:35

 Relationships

  Notes
(0017103)
Yumin Yuan (developer)
2009-08-12 15:52

 OK, I agree, however, there is also a case that if a plugin's "Auto Load" property is not set, this plugin will show up in the list when we start paraview or connect to a server, but it is not loaded automatically, so we still need another icon to differentiate these plugins with those loaded successfully.
(0017104)
Ken Moreland (manager)
2009-08-12 16:11

 I see your point, but I'm not sure another icon is right here. Rather than draw attention to an unloaded plugin with an icon, I suggest muting it (that is, make it less noticeable), which could be achieved by graying out the name of the plugin (the equivalent to disabling a label in Qt). If this were done and a "load" button were added to unloaded plugins (as suggested in 0009403), it would be pretty clear which plugins were not loaded.
(0020521)
Ken Moreland (manager)
2010-05-03 17:16

 This was fixed long ago.
(0020559)
Alan Scott (manager)
2010-05-04 17:05

 Tested local client, trunk, Windows.

 Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2009-08-12 12:35 Ken Moreland New Issue
2009-08-12 12:35 Ken Moreland File Added: Warning.svg
2009-08-12 12:35 Ken Moreland Description Updated
2009-08-12 12:35 Ken Moreland Status backlog => tabled
2009-08-12 12:35 Ken Moreland Assigned To => Yumin Yuan
2009-08-12 12:35 Ken Moreland File Added: Warning.png
2009-08-12 15:52 Yumin Yuan Note Added: 0017103
2009-08-12 16:11 Ken Moreland Note Added: 0017104
2010-05-03 17:16 Ken Moreland Note Added: 0020521
2010-05-03 17:16 Ken Moreland Status tabled => @80@
2010-05-03 17:16 Ken Moreland Resolution open => fixed
2010-05-04 17:05 Alan Scott Note Added: 0020559
2010-05-04 17:05 Alan Scott Status @80@ => closed
2011-06-16 13:10 Zack Galbreath Category Feature Request => Feature

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