Feedback round for 0.6.0 - hobbyist

[matmair]

Hi there @sintech!

You had a lot of ideas that you mentioned in #1471. A fair amount of them was implemented since April so I wanted to ask your opinion on the upcoming 0.6.0 release.
Would you be willing to check the current master and provide some feedback? I think your input was valuable and valued in the past and I would like to get the perspective of a hobbyist user.

Thanks Matthias

[sintech]

First of all thank you @SchrodingersGat @matmair @eeintech and all other developers for keep on working on Inventree.
I know a lot was changed under the hood but let me share what I noticed as a user.

Improvements:

• New Plugin definition #2074, looks very promising, can't wait to see it on my instance. I have a couple of scripts for new part info import that I run standalone and communicate to Inventree via API. Good candidates for plugin.
• Attachment links #2373 is a step in the right direction but multiple images for Part is more important IMHO.
• [FR] Custom "full name" #2085 - nice customization option.
• Bom substitutes #2150 is a feature I really missed. And it looks almost exactly like I imagined.

Don't know why, but interesting (for me) PRs got stalled:

• Price refactoring #2196, purchase price history. Currently price info disappears with the last stock item.
• sales order price and validation #1730, "additional line items" is a really good idea.

Corner of criticism:

• Personally I don't like new look of inventree since Bootstrap 5 was introduced. Maybe it is a new color scheme, or bulky buttons and other UI elements but It just doesn't feel as good as before.
  It would be nice to have "Inventree classic" theme (if it is possible).
• Missing category/stock location sidebar, already discussed, clearly a regression. [FR] Idea for subcategory tree view #2250
• New Part screen looks strange, too many empty space with UI controls scattered on the opposite sides of the screen. What If I have 27" monitor, my neck would hurt a lot. ;)
  
  

Regards,
Konstantin

[eeintech]

@matmair I do get what you are saying but even though it is technically better, it does not make it inherently more user friendly and less disruptive to toggle the switch, people with less technical abilities might not adapt seamlessly to the switch like you and have would. If the interface was closer to what's on 0.5.4 for the part page, that would make me more comfortable switching. I was really pleased and got attached to the layout on that page and sad to see it changed so much:

master

0.5.4

[matmair]

@eeintech as far as I see it all actions are now always in the same place and the part details have their own tab. Does not seem to be that big of a change. We could bring back an option to show the part details on each page if that suits your needs.

[matmair]

And the star is now a bell as the function has changed to a more complex notification system that supports mail for now and probably web notifications when we get 0.6.x ready.

[eeintech]

Sure I can contribute to improving this page if I find time, having in the header row all the way to the right feels misplaced, I like when all the controls are closer to the zone of action which is the left hand side.

[matmair]

I think we should have a general UI/UX design discussion as @SchrodingersGat and I just refactored all components (including coming up features) to follow that new paradigm.
One of the big reasons why I prefer it this way: it reduces the space that is needed overall while enlarging the touch targets to something usable. I maintain a few instances that run in mid-scale production and rapid-prototyping environments where a lot of mounted tablets and industrial touch-displays (think cnc-controller like) are used. InvenTree was unusable till the switch to bootstrap 5 (which is almost mobile first) and the refactor. There are a lot more formfactors than a 1080/1440 24/27 inch landscape-oriented screen with mouse input in manufacturing and I think we should consider that. Mice are just inefficient way to interact when you quickly need something.

[SchrodingersGat]

@sintech

Attachment links #2373 is a step in the right direction but multiple images for Part is more important IMHO.

Feel free to submit a PR with this functionality if you like :)

Don't know why, but interesting (for me) PRs got stalled:

Limited time, and lots of open PRs! Planning to get to those, but when is the question...

Missing category/stock location sidebar, already discussed, clearly a regression.

This will be added back in for 0.6.0 - the "old" way it was implemented was quite bad, so we need a "new" way ;)

New Part screen looks strange, too many empty space with UI controls scattered on the opposite sides of the screen. What If I have 27" monitor, my neck would hurt a lot. ;)

I agree in part. The new visual refactor moved a lot of the action buttons into the "title" blocks of various screens - saving a lot of vertical space. However this has left a visual "negative space" where they used to be.. I think that there are some definite improvements that can be made here before the next release. If you have any particular suggestions please let me know

[SchrodingersGat]

@eeintech it's the price of progress ;)

[eeintech]

Indeed... but what is?