On Apr 11, 2009, at 11:45 AM, Abe Zafar wrote:
> I installed an early access build http://download.java.net/glassfish/v3/promoted/glassfish-v3-ea-b43.zip
> and noticed that the admin tool did not feel like the one from
> prelude or v2. Looks like this one is using JSF. The problem with it
> is that it is very clunky, does not have the same crisp feeling like
> the one from previous versions. Items on the screen jump around
> every time I click on something. I also kept getting many admin
> exceptions while navigating within it.
>
> Any reason why this change was made, considering that the GF's admin
> tool from the previous version was actually one of its selling
> points. I was actually planning on doing a demo of GF to replace
> JBoss and use the admin tool in my demo, but with the new version
> that would be hard to do.
Hi, Abe. Thanks for the feedback. We on the console team are
certainly aware of the less than ideal experience in the console at
the moment. We have addressed most of those issues in our development
versions, and are hoping to have those committed to the repo for the
next promoted build. Time will tell if we make this build or not. At
any rate, we approached the user community, as well as several people
internally, late last year (see
http://blogs.steeplesoft.com/changes-are-coming-to-the-glassfish-admin-console/
for example) about changes we'd like to make to the console. As
that blog of mine and one or two others by other members of the
console team detail, there were some technical reasons for changing
the way the console is designed, which I won't rehash here. We are
definitely aware of the typical high marks the console gets (in fact,
my introduction to GlassFish was as an end user/administrator prior to
coming on staff at Sun, largely because of the excellent console), and
we are being very careful not to ruin that experience. Of course, any
time changes are made in a product, there will be at least a small
group of people who are not happy with the changes. That's a fact of
life we likely can't change, but we *are* trying to make that group as
small as possible. In order to help keep the console current and
usable, we have to make changes, but we hope to do so in a non-
disruptive manner.
It's also important to remember that these changes are still in
progress, so you shouldn't get too worried at this point by issues
like this, as we hope to have them all addressed by the time GlassFish
v3 ships. Of course, as a community member, we highly value your
feedback, so if you feel things aren't going well as the development
process moves along, we want to hear from you. Better yet, filing
issues or supplying patches would be great too, but we know not
everyone is able to supply that sort of help. :)
With regard to JSF, the Admin Console has been JSF-based since at
least v2 (that changed happened before I came on board, so someone
else will have to confirm exactly when that happened). It is
currently based on the Woodstock component set, which is no longer
supported, so we have to move off of that at some point, which is one
of driving forces behind the changes.
I hope that addresses your concerns. If not, please feel free to
respond and we'll address your concerns further. I'll try to remember
to note on this alias when we integrate the fixes to the flashing, odd
rendering we're seeing in the console now so you can test it and see
if the fix adequately addresses your concerns.
Thanks a lot for the feedback. It helps us out a lot. :)
Jason Lee
Senior Java Developer
GlassFish Administration Console
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Phone x31197/+1 405-343-1964
Email jasondlee_at_sun.com
Blog
http://blogs.sun.com/jasondlee
Blog
http://blogs.steeplesoft.com