Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, July 7, 2005:

HelpSpot Preview 2 - The Workspace

If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.

Note: This post republished from the HelpSpot mailing list

Welcome to the second HelpSpot preview! We've been hard at work since our last installment and I'm happy to report that HelpSpot is rapidly shaping up into the powerful and useful tool I first envisioned nearly a year ago. This preview will focus on the Workspace. This is really the core of HelpSpot's request tracking and management. It's where your queue's, filters, request creation and more are located. There's so much to show you that I'm sure I won't be able to cover it all here, but please email me or comment on the blog if you have questions which aren't answered below.

1. My Queue

The "My Queue" area is the primary page in the Workspace. This is where every request assigned directly to you is located. From here you can view your requests, batch edit them, reassign them, and more. Let's cover of a few of the innovative features in detail:



1. Initial Request - This feature is possibly the one I'm most excited about in the entire HelpSpot application. Almost universally in help desk software when a help desk staffer fills out a new request (ticket) they are asked to provide a subject for the request. This sounds like a reasonable thing, but in practice it's much less effective then it would at first appear. That's because subjects inevitably turn into useless phrases such as "printer broken", "login problem", and my favorite "error".

So rather than waste your time trying to figure out what these blurbs mean or forcing you to click on the ticket just to peak inside, HelpSpot brings the inside out! Below you can see that the first 1-2 sentences of the request are shown to you directly in the queue. Making it easy to quickly glance at the queue and get a good idea of what's in there. You'll be amazed at how much less clicking you do and how much better you'll be able to manage your queue with this feature.



those of you lucky enough to have higher resolution monitors will be able to see even more of the request. View a sample

2. Age - HelpSpot strives to do more than just track your customer requests. My hope is that HelpSpot makes your customer service better. One method is to change the perspective of the help desk staffer who is providing the support. Showing the date as the amount of time since the request came in instead of just a date helps to change that perspective. The difference between seeing a request with 7/05/05 next to it vs showing the age of the request as 3 days, 12 hours is remarkable. Simply stated, HelpSpot shows you how long you've kept your customers waiting.


3. Unread - When someone other than yourself makes an update to a request which is assigned to you, the queue indicates it letting you know that something has changed.

4. Batch Editing - You can batch edit requests. This is great if you need to reassign several of your requests to another staff member, close several requests which have been resolved, or recategorize requests.



5. RSS - Your queue as well as every other one of your filters has an RSS feed letting you track requests via the comfort of your News Reader. Here's "My Queue" via the news reader, NetNewsWire:

2. Navigation/Filters

The Workspace contains many other features and areas beyond just "My Queue". Let's explore a few:



1.1. Inbox - This is where all (unassigned) new requests go. These might be directly entered by a help desk staff member, created via the web form, created via a web service, or from the email account integration.

1.2. Reminders - Here's another feature focused on helping you provide great customer service. Reminders are a simple little feature that let you set a reminder for yourself and others in regards to a request. Perhaps it's to remember to call the customer back at 3pm tomorrow or to follow up with Bill in Networking. All your reminders are available in the Workspace and in addition an email reminder will be sent to you at the time you specify. Not a feature you normally see in help desk software, but very handy.

1.3. Subscriptions - Track the history of events with any request using subscriptions. You can subscribe to any request that isn't already assigned to you. When something happens with that request an email will be sent to you.

1.4. SPAM - HelpSpot's integrated Bayesian filtering technology automatically detects SPAM that enters the system via the email account integration feature. The SPAM filter is smart and learns from previous SPAM received by the system.



2. Filters - In addition to the built in queue's HelpSpot also provides the ability to create your own via filters. Filters literally allow you to create queue's of information based on a set of criteria you specify. You can create a filter for just about anything including requests made between specific dates, requests created or assigned to specific users, requests in specific categories, information in your custom fields and much much more. Here's some examples:




Global Filters are special, in that they are created by the administrators and are available to everyone. The other filters are custom to my account in HelpSpot. So if I were to click on "All Urgent" I would get all the urgent requests currently in the system:



I've also setup some VIP filters so I can easily see any open requests for large clients or company big wigs. There is literally no limit to the combinations you can create. You're also able to choose which of almost 20 standard columns of information you want to display on your filter, meaning your not stuck with preselected columns. If you want to show the original date (not age) you can, or perhaps the category of the request, or who opened it. No restrictions.

Each filter also gets a quick summary at the bottom letting you easily see the categories and status of requests matching the filter:

3. Wrap Up

I know for many on the mailing list this is your first preview, I hope you found it informative and interesting. As always I welcome and appreciate feedback and comments so please don't be shy!

Discussion

Looks great! It seems that development is coming along very well!

Created by Michael Sica on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Hmmmm. Well I don't think I like the summary at the top because most of the time users will be more focused on the actual items than on a summary so I wouldn't want to push those farther down on the page.

Now your other idea is interesting. I hadn't thought of that, but I like it! I'll have to look back on the filtering code and see how easy that would be. It may not make v1 but I'm definitely putting it down as a feature to explore in a subsequent release.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

This is very nice work, Ian. I really like your small touches to improve how the help desk thinks of the customers at the other end of a request.

Created by Kevin Dangoor on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

I happened to read about your new help system through a tech writing list. I love the way it looks! When do you think it will be released, or put out for ßeta? Is there a way to find out about being a test site?

The only question I have about the software itself is "Is there a spell checker?". That is really important in my company as some people just can't spell and it drives me nuts!

Thanks,
Deb

Created by Deb on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks Deb! A lot of thought has gone into creating HelpSpot and we're very happy with the way it's coming together. Right now we're looking at releasing the beta around mid August. The best way to keep up to date is to sign up for the mailing list located on this page:

http://www.userscape.com/products/helpspot/

Ah the famous spell checker question. That was one of the first features that I had down for HelpSpot (because I can't spell!), but unfortunately at least in version 1 there won't be one. It's not because we didn't try though. The main problem with including a spell checker is that for a web based application like HelpSpot it would greatly increase the complexity of the installation on your end.

It forces you to add addition server side components, which run on different technology than the rest of HelpSpot and even then didn't always run as reliable as we would insist on. Also it would mean another separate program which you would have to maintain. The final problem with it was that there are a lot of, I think, better alternatives. Basically what we use are the very nice browser plugin spellcheckers which let you right click on any of these text boxes in a web page and spellcheck them. They work very well and have the added benefit of being usable on every webpage you visit, so your people can have good spelling in all their applications

Some ones to checkout:
(firefox) http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/
(IE) http://www.iespell.com/

Now after all that, I will say that I'm still looking into it and if I can find a reliable checker that doesn't add a ton of maintenance for our customers then I'm certainly going to add support for it to HelpSpot.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Ian,

WOW! I'm really impressed with what you have here!! Can't wait to see how quickly this all takes off for you.

Josh

Created by Josh Baron on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Looks great! It seems that development is coming along very well!

Created by Michael Sica on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks. Hey a note for your business. Don't release a newsletter to your mailing list and blog on a summer Friday . Nobodies around!

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Ha ha! Thanks for the tip!

I'm sure the comments will pour in on Monday.

I really like the thought you're putting into the UI of your app. The items you mentioned (time since ticket opened, not having a "name" for an issue) seem like really solid ideas.

Have a good weekend.

Created by Michael Sica on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Wow this preview is a blast! Impressive work Ian.

Favorites:
-Fluid design and not fixed width (I don't know how you handle detail forms but for lists this is a must)
-The Request Id textbox in the tree. I guess you type a ReqId, press enter and go straight to the request's details.
-The RSS message.

Notes / Questions:
- I usually dislike javascript trees because they don't remember their last state. I prefer an open tree, although I can see the problem if you went that way (filters / vips could be too many).
- Does the page refresh (off / 30 / 60) refreshes the whole page? Or does it use an iframe/ajax to display a message like "new requests added, click refresh to see them"? Because it could be annoying refreshing the page if am just examining cases / searching / whatever.

In any case, it looks very good and promising.

Created by Dimitris Giannitsaros on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks Dimitris. Yep the reqid let's you go right to a given request instantly.

The design is fluid where it needs to be and fixed width where fluid doesn't make sense (like in some forms as you mentioned). I never understood why some web apps don't use the fluid design for these types of tables. It's especially cool here because as you expand you get to see more of the initial request right in the table.

This javascript tree does remember state so if you leave a folder open it stays open, closed stays closed.

Right now the refresh does refresh the entire page. I decided to keep it simple for now because I have a feeling people won't be using it too much. What I mean is that when you first look at that table you think, oh yeah what a great place for AJAX. But then when you go to the next step with it, how many people are actually going to be sitting at this screen waiting for a new request to come in. I doubt very many. In practice, they'll be in the other parts of the system working on things or outside the system all together and then just be checking the queue every once in a while for something new.

This is one area I'm watching very carefully though and once I get HelpSpot into users hands if I get feedback that they'd like this to be a more real time area I'll definitely add that ability. Plus I'd rather give some more time for the PHP AJAX libraries to evolve and become more production ready. Ideally a commercial or PEAR version.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Wow! Helpspot is looking great! Let's get out a beat soon so that we can get our hands dirty!

Anyway, as a nitpicker, here are few things I noticed.


1. On the workspace page, I found that 'Filter Summary' text is taking too much space which could have been easily used to display more requests.

How about something like:
Filter Breakdown
[Total: 7] [Open/Closed: 7/0] [Urgent:1]
[Breakdown goes here]

I think you can do without using the word 'request'. It's kind of implicit, isn't it?

2. What happens if I click on 'Check/Uncheck'? Does it do select all/none on requests? I kind of find it not so intuitive. I like the way phpMyAdmin does it. They write 'With selected : >' instead of Check/Uncheck. Also, generally I do not like form submission on select field change, but I think in this scenario, it makes sense to submit the form when user selects an option from select field.

3. You could display an indicator that by default, requests are sorted by 'Age'. [with exception that urgent requests are always listed first.]

4. Somehow, I found the red dot, which depicts an unread item, confusing. At my first glance, I immediately thought of it as 'Urgent' requests. How about some other icon to display that item is unread?

See, this time I hardly have anything to nitpick, it means that you have done a great job! Keep rocking!

JD

Created by JD on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Sweet JD, I was expecting worse from you

Let's go through these:

1. The summary doesn't take away any space because it always just appears at the bottom. If there were a hundred requests assigned to you they would all be visible here, the page would expand downward. I kept it to a small amount so that everything fit on the screen for screenshots. There is no pagination on the queues/filters because I think it's better to just list them all out.

I do think I need to tighten up the summary info a bit as you suggest. I'm planning that for near the end during the "cleanup" phase.

2. It does check all the boxes or uncheck them. I presume by form submission you mean you prefer that after selecting from the dropdown it just goes? If that's the case, I did think about that but I went with the form submit for security. In fact I wasn't going to do the batch edit because it's a rather dangerous feature, but I know people would want it. So my compromise was to require them to hit the submit button thereby forcing one more action on their part and providing one more chance for them to backout.

3. Yeah I should show how it's being ordered by default. Good idea.

4. Yeah I haven't been sure what to put there. I don't really like it either. The dot is sort of Mail.app (mac) ish. There are a bunch of icons I need to look at in the clean up phase and this is one I was already planning on reviewing again.

Thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated!

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

One idea.

Why not have summary at the top instead of bottom?

Also, why not make the summary as clickable links?
So, if someone clicks on 'Open', the view filters and displays only Open requests, if they click on 'Urgent', the view displays only Urgent requests and likewise.

JD

Created by JD on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Hmmmm. Well I don't think I like the summary at the top because most of the time users will be more focused on the actual items than on a summary so I wouldn't want to push those farther down on the page.

Now your other idea is interesting. I hadn't thought of that, but I like it! I'll have to look back on the filtering code and see how easy that would be. It may not make v1 but I'm definitely putting it down as a feature to explore in a subsequent release.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

This is very nice work, Ian. I really like your small touches to improve how the help desk thinks of the customers at the other end of a request.

Created by Kevin Dangoor on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

I happened to read about your new help system through a tech writing list. I love the way it looks! When do you think it will be released, or put out for ßeta? Is there a way to find out about being a test site?

The only question I have about the software itself is "Is there a spell checker?". That is really important in my company as some people just can't spell and it drives me nuts!

Thanks,
Deb

Created by Deb on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks Deb! A lot of thought has gone into creating HelpSpot and we're very happy with the way it's coming together. Right now we're looking at releasing the beta around mid August. The best way to keep up to date is to sign up for the mailing list located on this page:

http://www.userscape.com/products/helpspot/

Ah the famous spell checker question. That was one of the first features that I had down for HelpSpot (because I can't spell!), but unfortunately at least in version 1 there won't be one. It's not because we didn't try though. The main problem with including a spell checker is that for a web based application like HelpSpot it would greatly increase the complexity of the installation on your end.

It forces you to add addition server side components, which run on different technology than the rest of HelpSpot and even then didn't always run as reliable as we would insist on. Also it would mean another separate program which you would have to maintain. The final problem with it was that there are a lot of, I think, better alternatives. Basically what we use are the very nice browser plugin spellcheckers which let you right click on any of these text boxes in a web page and spellcheck them. They work very well and have the added benefit of being usable on every webpage you visit, so your people can have good spelling in all their applications

Some ones to checkout:
(firefox) http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/
(IE) http://www.iespell.com/

Now after all that, I will say that I'm still looking into it and if I can find a reliable checker that doesn't add a ton of maintenance for our customers then I'm certainly going to add support for it to HelpSpot.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

One idea.

Why not have summary at the top instead of bottom?

Also, why not make the summary as clickable links?
So, if someone clicks on 'Open', the view filters and displays only Open requests, if they click on 'Urgent', the view displays only Urgent requests and likewise.

JD

Created by JD on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Sweet JD, I was expecting worse from you

Let's go through these:

1. The summary doesn't take away any space because it always just appears at the bottom. If there were a hundred requests assigned to you they would all be visible here, the page would expand downward. I kept it to a small amount so that everything fit on the screen for screenshots. There is no pagination on the queues/filters because I think it's better to just list them all out.

I do think I need to tighten up the summary info a bit as you suggest. I'm planning that for near the end during the "cleanup" phase.

2. It does check all the boxes or uncheck them. I presume by form submission you mean you prefer that after selecting from the dropdown it just goes? If that's the case, I did think about that but I went with the form submit for security. In fact I wasn't going to do the batch edit because it's a rather dangerous feature, but I know people would want it. So my compromise was to require them to hit the submit button thereby forcing one more action on their part and providing one more chance for them to backout.

3. Yeah I should show how it's being ordered by default. Good idea.

4. Yeah I haven't been sure what to put there. I don't really like it either. The dot is sort of Mail.app (mac) ish. There are a bunch of icons I need to look at in the clean up phase and this is one I was already planning on reviewing again.

Thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated!

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Wow! Helpspot is looking great! Let's get out a beat soon so that we can get our hands dirty!

Anyway, as a nitpicker, here are few things I noticed.


1. On the workspace page, I found that 'Filter Summary' text is taking too much space which could have been easily used to display more requests.

How about something like:
Filter Breakdown
[Total: 7] [Open/Closed: 7/0] [Urgent:1]
[Breakdown goes here]

I think you can do without using the word 'request'. It's kind of implicit, isn't it?

2. What happens if I click on 'Check/Uncheck'? Does it do select all/none on requests? I kind of find it not so intuitive. I like the way phpMyAdmin does it. They write 'With selected : >' instead of Check/Uncheck. Also, generally I do not like form submission on select field change, but I think in this scenario, it makes sense to submit the form when user selects an option from select field.

3. You could display an indicator that by default, requests are sorted by 'Age'. [with exception that urgent requests are always listed first.]

4. Somehow, I found the red dot, which depicts an unread item, confusing. At my first glance, I immediately thought of it as 'Urgent' requests. How about some other icon to display that item is unread?

See, this time I hardly have anything to nitpick, it means that you have done a great job! Keep rocking!

JD

Created by JD on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks. Hey a note for your business. Don't release a newsletter to your mailing list and blog on a summer Friday . Nobodies around!

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Ha ha! Thanks for the tip!

I'm sure the comments will pour in on Monday.

I really like the thought you're putting into the UI of your app. The items you mentioned (time since ticket opened, not having a "name" for an issue) seem like really solid ideas.

Have a good weekend.

Created by Michael Sica on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Wow this preview is a blast! Impressive work Ian.

Favorites:
-Fluid design and not fixed width (I don't know how you handle detail forms but for lists this is a must)
-The Request Id textbox in the tree. I guess you type a ReqId, press enter and go straight to the request's details.
-The RSS message.

Notes / Questions:
- I usually dislike javascript trees because they don't remember their last state. I prefer an open tree, although I can see the problem if you went that way (filters / vips could be too many).
- Does the page refresh (off / 30 / 60) refreshes the whole page? Or does it use an iframe/ajax to display a message like "new requests added, click refresh to see them"? Because it could be annoying refreshing the page if am just examining cases / searching / whatever.

In any case, it looks very good and promising.

Created by Dimitris Giannitsaros on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks Dimitris. Yep the reqid let's you go right to a given request instantly.

The design is fluid where it needs to be and fixed width where fluid doesn't make sense (like in some forms as you mentioned). I never understood why some web apps don't use the fluid design for these types of tables. It's especially cool here because as you expand you get to see more of the initial request right in the table.

This javascript tree does remember state so if you leave a folder open it stays open, closed stays closed.

Right now the refresh does refresh the entire page. I decided to keep it simple for now because I have a feeling people won't be using it too much. What I mean is that when you first look at that table you think, oh yeah what a great place for AJAX. But then when you go to the next step with it, how many people are actually going to be sitting at this screen waiting for a new request to come in. I doubt very many. In practice, they'll be in the other parts of the system working on things or outside the system all together and then just be checking the queue every once in a while for something new.

This is one area I'm watching very carefully though and once I get HelpSpot into users hands if I get feedback that they'd like this to be a more real time area I'll definitely add that ability. Plus I'd rather give some more time for the PHP AJAX libraries to evolve and become more production ready. Ideally a commercial or PEAR version.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Wow! Helpspot is looking great! Let's get out a beat soon so that we can get our hands dirty!

Anyway, as a nitpicker, here are few things I noticed.


1. On the workspace page, I found that 'Filter Summary' text is taking too much space which could have been easily used to display more requests.

How about something like:
Filter Breakdown
[Total: 7] [Open/Closed: 7/0] [Urgent:1]
[Breakdown goes here]

I think you can do without using the word 'request'. It's kind of implicit, isn't it?

2. What happens if I click on 'Check/Uncheck'? Does it do select all/none on requests? I kind of find it not so intuitive. I like the way phpMyAdmin does it. They write 'With selected : >' instead of Check/Uncheck. Also, generally I do not like form submission on select field change, but I think in this scenario, it makes sense to submit the form when user selects an option from select field.

3. You could display an indicator that by default, requests are sorted by 'Age'. [with exception that urgent requests are always listed first.]

4. Somehow, I found the red dot, which depicts an unread item, confusing. At my first glance, I immediately thought of it as 'Urgent' requests. How about some other icon to display that item is unread?

See, this time I hardly have anything to nitpick, it means that you have done a great job! Keep rocking!

JD

Created by JD on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Sweet JD, I was expecting worse from you

Let's go through these:

1. The summary doesn't take away any space because it always just appears at the bottom. If there were a hundred requests assigned to you they would all be visible here, the page would expand downward. I kept it to a small amount so that everything fit on the screen for screenshots. There is no pagination on the queues/filters because I think it's better to just list them all out.

I do think I need to tighten up the summary info a bit as you suggest. I'm planning that for near the end during the "cleanup" phase.

2. It does check all the boxes or uncheck them. I presume by form submission you mean you prefer that after selecting from the dropdown it just goes? If that's the case, I did think about that but I went with the form submit for security. In fact I wasn't going to do the batch edit because it's a rather dangerous feature, but I know people would want it. So my compromise was to require them to hit the submit button thereby forcing one more action on their part and providing one more chance for them to backout.

3. Yeah I should show how it's being ordered by default. Good idea.

4. Yeah I haven't been sure what to put there. I don't really like it either. The dot is sort of Mail.app (mac) ish. There are a bunch of icons I need to look at in the clean up phase and this is one I was already planning on reviewing again.

Thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated!

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

One idea.

Why not have summary at the top instead of bottom?

Also, why not make the summary as clickable links?
So, if someone clicks on 'Open', the view filters and displays only Open requests, if they click on 'Urgent', the view displays only Urgent requests and likewise.

JD

Created by JD on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Hmmmm. Well I don't think I like the summary at the top because most of the time users will be more focused on the actual items than on a summary so I wouldn't want to push those farther down on the page.

Now your other idea is interesting. I hadn't thought of that, but I like it! I'll have to look back on the filtering code and see how easy that would be. It may not make v1 but I'm definitely putting it down as a feature to explore in a subsequent release.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

This is very nice work, Ian. I really like your small touches to improve how the help desk thinks of the customers at the other end of a request.

Created by Kevin Dangoor on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

I happened to read about your new help system through a tech writing list. I love the way it looks! When do you think it will be released, or put out for ßeta? Is there a way to find out about being a test site?

The only question I have about the software itself is "Is there a spell checker?". That is really important in my company as some people just can't spell and it drives me nuts!

Thanks,
Deb

Created by Deb on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks Deb! A lot of thought has gone into creating HelpSpot and we're very happy with the way it's coming together. Right now we're looking at releasing the beta around mid August. The best way to keep up to date is to sign up for the mailing list located on this page:

http://www.userscape.com/products/helpspot/

Ah the famous spell checker question. That was one of the first features that I had down for HelpSpot (because I can't spell!), but unfortunately at least in version 1 there won't be one. It's not because we didn't try though. The main problem with including a spell checker is that for a web based application like HelpSpot it would greatly increase the complexity of the installation on your end.

It forces you to add addition server side components, which run on different technology than the rest of HelpSpot and even then didn't always run as reliable as we would insist on. Also it would mean another separate program which you would have to maintain. The final problem with it was that there are a lot of, I think, better alternatives. Basically what we use are the very nice browser plugin spellcheckers which let you right click on any of these text boxes in a web page and spellcheck them. They work very well and have the added benefit of being usable on every webpage you visit, so your people can have good spelling in all their applications

Some ones to checkout:
(firefox) http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/
(IE) http://www.iespell.com/

Now after all that, I will say that I'm still looking into it and if I can find a reliable checker that doesn't add a ton of maintenance for our customers then I'm certainly going to add support for it to HelpSpot.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Ian,

WOW! I'm really impressed with what you have here!! Can't wait to see how quickly this all takes off for you.

Josh

Created by Josh Baron on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Looks great! It seems that development is coming along very well!

Created by Michael Sica on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks. Hey a note for your business. Don't release a newsletter to your mailing list and blog on a summer Friday . Nobodies around!

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Ha ha! Thanks for the tip!

I'm sure the comments will pour in on Monday.

I really like the thought you're putting into the UI of your app. The items you mentioned (time since ticket opened, not having a "name" for an issue) seem like really solid ideas.

Have a good weekend.

Created by Michael Sica on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Wow this preview is a blast! Impressive work Ian.

Favorites:
-Fluid design and not fixed width (I don't know how you handle detail forms but for lists this is a must)
-The Request Id textbox in the tree. I guess you type a ReqId, press enter and go straight to the request's details.
-The RSS message.

Notes / Questions:
- I usually dislike javascript trees because they don't remember their last state. I prefer an open tree, although I can see the problem if you went that way (filters / vips could be too many).
- Does the page refresh (off / 30 / 60) refreshes the whole page? Or does it use an iframe/ajax to display a message like "new requests added, click refresh to see them"? Because it could be annoying refreshing the page if am just examining cases / searching / whatever.

In any case, it looks very good and promising.

Created by Dimitris Giannitsaros on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Thanks Dimitris. Yep the reqid let's you go right to a given request instantly.

The design is fluid where it needs to be and fixed width where fluid doesn't make sense (like in some forms as you mentioned). I never understood why some web apps don't use the fluid design for these types of tables. It's especially cool here because as you expand you get to see more of the initial request right in the table.

This javascript tree does remember state so if you leave a folder open it stays open, closed stays closed.

Right now the refresh does refresh the entire page. I decided to keep it simple for now because I have a feeling people won't be using it too much. What I mean is that when you first look at that table you think, oh yeah what a great place for AJAX. But then when you go to the next step with it, how many people are actually going to be sitting at this screen waiting for a new request to come in. I doubt very many. In practice, they'll be in the other parts of the system working on things or outside the system all together and then just be checking the queue every once in a while for something new.

This is one area I'm watching very carefully though and once I get HelpSpot into users hands if I get feedback that they'd like this to be a more real time area I'll definitely add that ability. Plus I'd rather give some more time for the PHP AJAX libraries to evolve and become more production ready. Ideally a commercial or PEAR version.

Created by Ian on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

Ian,

WOW! I'm really impressed with what you have here!! Can't wait to see how quickly this all takes off for you.

Josh
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Created by Josh Baron on 07.07.2005 11:07 pm

 

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