[SOLVED] Ongoing status updates with new UI for Gear Isolation

[agent_kith]

So 1.2.0 is all about a new OS and a fancy shell installer. Took months but that is finally out of the way. That is only half the story! The WebApp was my first attempt with Angular, and frankly it's not my best work.OK, it is still better compared to the first version of Snakeoil:
 

So next bit of work is re-work the WebApp and improve the coding, and implement additional features suggested by you guys over the years. Code wise it will be update from Angular 2 all the way to Angular 11 (probably 12 by the time this is done). That is under the hood. What you will see as an audiophile will be a cleaner/neater user interface. Two words - less clutter.

The dashboard is finished. That's one down, 7 more to go.

[agent_kith]

Been a week, but it felt like a month for some reason. Unfortunately too many odd jobs around the house and other misc errands that kept me away from Snakeoil. :(

The building blocks are complete, but there's still a fair way to go. Have decided to spilt Snakeoil section (Beta/experimental features) into more sub-menu items. The benefits of this is it may be easier to move them out once it's deemed to be stable.

Still a lot of things to do to be honest, e.g. going to re-imagine how music players work. Hopefully we'll get there eventually.

[Bromf]

too many odd jobs around the house and other misc errands

Yes, that seems to be the default here on waking each day...

[agent_kith]

So I had some grand plans for the last WA long weekend... But!! I got sick, and slept for almost 50 hours.. And on Monday when I woke up, turned on the computer, and my SSD is dead again! That's 3 days gone unfortunately. I'm on my last SSD now, but still have heaps of old computer HDD left to go. Don't really want to buy new computer hardware until I run out of my old stock. Hopefully I can get back up to speed and finish up the GUI. stay tuned.

PS: I can actually feel my brain working very very slowly so don't expect too much. :(

[agent_kith]

Mystery solved on why my brain was running so slowly. Didn't realise I have a fever. A wet towel later and now I'm fixed. Ordered a body thermometer and calling that lesson learnt.

Anyway, remember the "big new thing" I was talking about previously? Well, basically if you look at two post backs, it's the side menu. Although that kind of works, I find it a bit too small and mouse centric. I like to go with big clickable areas where possible (esp for the dashboard).

So decision is made to  do away with the side menu, and replace the sub sections with tiles, like so. The footer will also go away.


Tapping the tiles will go into the sub-menus as before, I find this more phone/tablet friendly IMO. BTW, I am going to pay a usage fee for the first five or six pictures ($2 each for a total of $10 or $12). 6 if I decided to go with the wizard, and 5 without. These pictures are just place holders for now, but will find and pay for a good set on final release.

Still toying with the layout, but the gist is we are going with this look now. Hope you guys like it.

[agent_kith]

Been a busy week at work trying to finish up some work thing so didn't had a lot of time to dedicate to Snakeoil coding. Here is the Systems page I've been working on and off while I can.
 

While it is simple looking there's a lot of changes under the hood. E.g. I am trying to work on a simpler system to upload firmware. If this works it will allow me to do away with running PHP on the Snakeoil process, meaning one less thing that's running on the system. There are still challenges, namely to get this to actually work, and how to disable PHP while still allowing users to roll back the upgrade if they have to.

The changes under the hood is what's more important. It makes for cleaner (and more modular code), allowing me to update this better in the future. e.g. this page is now rendered like so:
 

Code:

<div class="row" *ngSwitchCase="Mode.NORMAL">
    <ngx-system-uploader class="col-md-12">
    </ngx-system-uploader>

    <ngx-system-commands class="col-md-12" [(config)]="config">
    </ngx-system-commands>
  </div>

  <ngx-system-reboot *ngSwitchCase="Mode.REBOOT" [(config)]="config">
  </ngx-system-reboot>

And the command buttons is now a single loop (ngFor), with the commands defined in it's own data structure.
 

Code:

<nb-card>
      <nb-card-header>
        {{ 'SYSTEM.COMMANDS' | translate }}
      </nb-card-header>
      <nb-card-body class="row">
        <div class="col-lg-3 col-md-4 col-sm-6"
            *ngFor="let command of commands">
          <button nbButton class="command" shape="round"
              (click)="onCmdClick(command.label)" nbTooltip="{{ command.tooltip | translate }}">
            <i class="{{command.icon}}"></i> 
            {{ command.label | translate }}
          </button>
        </div>
      </nb-card-body>
    </nb-card>

The old GUI code, the button codes are created on their own, and while that works, it's not easily expandable. This new design is heaps easier, and more readable. All this means moving forward the code will be more maintainable, and it's easier to add/remove things in the future. (e.g. I can add/remove commands without changing any HTML code.

In other words, this new GUI will take some time to finish as I rework everything to the Angular 11 standards. I really want to make this right, and that takes time.

[agent_kith]

Sorry guys, been so busy with other stuffs havn't had time to do much in the past 2 weeks.. How busy was I? Well, put it this way, I havn't:

1. File my taxes
   
2. Renew my Australia PR (which is expiring soon)
   

Probably going to spend the coming weekend to do the above, and the next weekend I'm gonna take my first Covid vaccination. At least then I will finally have time to get back to this.

[agent_kith]

Above about sums it up right now. The base WebApp (what you guys are using atm) is suddenly not compiling any more. Had this problem before, but managed to fix it, but just spent 2 hours this morning and just couldn't get it to work. There are too many links and it seems utterly broken beyond hope.

Mainly I guess because that code is based on Angular 5, and everything has moved on. Surprisingly things just "break" without me doing anything, and this got to happen in the last 3 months or so.

The new code should still be working (Angular 12). I have to probably do some rolling back on the changes/fixes I tried this morning to get it back to a working state.

Meaning more than ever I have to FINISH this new WebApp. As such I may be dropping some things just to get this WebApp out the door, and gradually add all the old functionality back. For now I am just going to concentrate on 3 components:

1. Dashboard
   
2. Music player selection
   
3. Disk mounting
   
4. Beta experimental features (Snakeoil)
   

Things like file file browser, network, wizard will be dropped but added eventually.. Focus of course will be on the first 3.

Good news though. As I said before, once I have enough money to fund my own server, Snakeoil will be open source! Well not quite, one part of the code will be kept private - the Snakeoil activation stuffs. The rest will be open sourced. This means any enterprise (aka cheap) person can download the source code, make a simple change and have an activated edition. It also means any commercial entity can do the same. And honestly I have no problems with that!

The idea of asking folks to pay money to enroll in the beta process is kind of a contempt anyway. As in who would actually do that? Turns out, many of you did, for that I am grateful, and apologies again for not dedicating enough time for this project.

Times are hard, and I hope music will help bring some solace during this difficult times.

[Bromf]

Times are hard

Yes and especially in Australia at the moment...    Covid seems rampant in NSW and creeping into Vic and Liz'Land...

Stay safe in Perth ! and look after you and yours.
I am sure that we all wish you the very best of health   and everything else is small potatoes by comparison.

Just chill and know that we all send our best wishes.

Best regards,
Bob.

[agent_kith]

Yes and especially in Australia at the moment...    Covid seems rampant in NSW and creeping into Vic and Liz'Land...

Stay safe in Perth ! and look after you and yours.
I am sure that we all wish you the very best of health   and everything else is small potatoes by comparison.

Just chill and know that we all send our best wishes.

All good in Perth so far. But it's inevitable they will get through, thanks to mixed messages, nobody in NSW is taking this seriously. They'll realise how bad it's gonna be if the mining sector here is hit hard and had to shut down...

BTW, took my first jab 2 weeks ago? Man I felt like I aged 30 years, all my joints are in pain (inflamed) and at times I can't even stand straight, or walk briskly.. This was on the third day, and took about 5 days to get back to normal... Didn't take anything to ease things though.. Wonder what the second shot is gonna be like.

Still gonna do it though. The alternative is so much worse it's really a no brainer. I honestly do not know how anti-vaxers think. Maybe they just don't have loved ones or family members worth protecting. Kindd say really if I think deeper, so I try not to.