GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 754726
RFE: libnma/libnm-gtk: show password location more clearly than just an icon ?
Last modified: 2020-11-12 14:32:40 UTC
Created attachment 310902 [details] screenshot Whats going on here ? The full-color icons look out of place, and the tooltips has mnemonics in it.
That's also in 3.16 on Fedora 22, bizarrely enough.
Ha! Bugs in the VPN plug-ins.
Created attachment 310929 [details] [review] [patch] fix wrong underscores in tooltip text patch applies on network-manager-applet master (425be7084ebd04da1ba23aa6d0b27188d730b4c0)
(In reply to Matthias Clasen from comment #0) > Created attachment 310902 [details] > screenshot > > Whats going on here ? The full-color icons look out of place, and the > tooltips has mnemonics in it. regarding the icons, mine look different. They are set as: https://git.gnome.org/browse/network-manager-applet/tree/src/libnm-gtk/nm-ui-utils.c?id=425be7084ebd04da1ba23aa6d0b27188d730b4c0#n611 What exactly is wrong with them? CC-ing Jirka who selected the icons.
We prepared utility functions that place an icon to password entries and allow specifying password storage. This helped us to clean up GUI of nm-connection-editor and nm-applet and to remove various widgets for defining password flags. We also use this in VPN plugins UI now, so that password handling was uniform. Users of libnm-gtk/libnma can use that if they want, or they can implement password handling by themselves. I don't understand what is the problem here. The fact that the icons are colorful?? I thought that the look and feel is handled by themes. Anyway, I can see different icons. We use symbolic names for the icons: gtk_entry_set_icon_from_icon_name (GTK_ENTRY (passwd_entry), GTK_ENTRY_ICON_SECONDARY, icon_name_table[item]); Maybe, we could add an API for changing the icon names if that would help. As for the tooltip, we use the same string in the icon-attached menu, where we use mnemonics. But tooltips do not seem to have a _mnemonics() function. So either we will apply the patch from comment #3, or use different string/filter the underscore for the tooltip. References: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=879566 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=731891
As I said above, to fit in the overall control-center UI, I would expect symbolic icons to be used. The underlying problem here is that this is just a list of random icons that seemed to look right: document-save document-save-as dialog-question edit-clear The first two are about 'documents'. Storing a key in a keyring is not really the same as saving a document to disk. The third has really just one purpose: To be put in a message dialog of type GTK_MESSAGE_TYPE_QUESTION. It is pure luck that your theme has this icon in a suitable size for the entry. The last one is fine - the edit- icons are very suitable for inline use in entries. But if you look around GNOME uis you'll find that we use edit-clear-symbolic in every other entry.
(In reply to Jiri Klimes from comment #5) > As for the tooltip, we use the same string in the icon-attached menu, where > we use mnemonics. But tooltips do not seem to have a _mnemonics() function. > So either we will apply the patch from comment #3, or use different > string/filter the underscore for the tooltip. merged patch from comment #3: master: https://git.gnome.org/browse/network-manager-applet/commit/?id=d888f571e5de9570c62b8ec557d8219e64ec45ba nma-1-0: https://git.gnome.org/browse/network-manager-applet/commit/?id=a927e31d01361fe710908cf43f405b4a1899d827 Please feel free to come up with a follow-up patch to restore the mnemonics with a clean tooltip. But then we also need a mnemonic to open the popup menu, otherwise you cannot reach the popup-menu items without clicking anyway.
Created attachment 311135 [details] [review] [PATCH] use symbolic icons in libnm-gtk and libnma (In reply to Matthias Clasen from comment #6) > As I said above, to fit in the overall control-center UI, I would expect > symbolic icons to be used. > > The underlying problem here is that this is just a list of random icons that > seemed to look right: > > document-save > document-save-as > dialog-question > edit-clear > > The first two are about 'documents'. Storing a key in a keyring is not > really the same as saving a document to disk. > > The third has really just one purpose: To be put in a message dialog of type > GTK_MESSAGE_TYPE_QUESTION. It is pure luck that your theme has this icon in > a suitable size for the entry. > > The last one is fine - the edit- icons are very suitable for inline use in > entries. But if you look around GNOME uis you'll find that we use > edit-clear-symbolic in every other entry. See the patch changing the icons to symbolic. I have selected ones that seems appropriate to me. Feel free to suggest other icons.
Created attachment 311136 [details] screenshot of the icon witch the patch applied
It looks like a great improvement to me. I'll ask the designers to chime too.
(In reply to Jiri Klimes from comment #5) > We prepared utility functions that place an icon to password entries and > allow specifying password storage. This helped us to clean up GUI of > nm-connection-editor and nm-applet and to remove various widgets for > defining password flags. We also use this in VPN plugins UI now, so that > password handling was uniform. ... I can understand the desire to clean up these dialogs. At the same time, the use of icons seems problematic: an icon simply can't communicate a complex concept like "store the password for all users". This is reflected in the reliance on tooltips - you've had to stick an explanation on to every icon, so people can understand what they mean! But really, I think that the biggest issue concerns interaction. When you set up a VPN, you really need to review all of the settings [1]. With this approach, the user not only has to inspect the icon through the tooltip, but has to dig down into each menu button. This is a lot more work, it is more error-prone, and it will take longer for users to complete. Given that people generally don't set up VPNs (or change their settings) all that often, and that they require technical details to be correct, clarity and regularity in the UI seem more important than cleanliness. A permanent combobox which shows the options seems like a better approach for these options. [1] And it's worth considering that a lot of tutorials include a screenshot of the completed dialog - something you can't easily do with the approach you've gone for.
Symbolic icons patch (comment #8) pushed to master and nma-1-0 branches: master: 22b70c6 libnma/libnm-gtk: use symbolic icons for password store menu (bgo #754726) nma-1-0: 77a97f5 libnma/libnm-gtk: use symbolic icons for password store menu (bgo #754726)
(In reply to Allan Day from comment #11) > (In reply to Jiri Klimes from comment #5) > > We prepared utility functions that place an icon to password entries and > > allow specifying password storage. This helped us to clean up GUI of > > nm-connection-editor and nm-applet and to remove various widgets for > > defining password flags. We also use this in VPN plugins UI now, so that > > password handling was uniform. > ... > > I can understand the desire to clean up these dialogs. At the same time, the > use of icons seems problematic: an icon simply can't communicate a complex > concept like "store the password for all users". This is reflected in the > reliance on tooltips - you've had to stick an explanation on to every icon, > so people can understand what they mean! > > But really, I think that the biggest issue concerns interaction. When you > set up a VPN, you really need to review all of the settings [1]. With this > approach, the user not only has to inspect the icon through the tooltip, but > has to dig down into each menu button. This is a lot more work, it is more > error-prone, and it will take longer for users to complete. > > Given that people generally don't set up VPNs (or change their settings) all > that often, and that they require technical details to be correct, clarity > and regularity in the UI seem more important than cleanliness. A permanent > combobox which shows the options seems like a better approach for these > options. > > [1] And it's worth considering that a lot of tutorials include a screenshot > of the completed dialog - something you can't easily do with the approach > you've gone for. The big advantage is that there is only one widget for any password. As for the usability, the icon visually indicate the password location, so there is usually no need to open the tooltip. (With the new icons the meaning should be quite clear). Anyway, I am leaving the bug open as an RFE, if anyone has a better idea and is able to implement that.
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