<h1>Changes in the Eclipse Install/Update 3.0 User Interface</h1>
<p>This working document is designed to assist early adopters in understanding 
the rational behind Eclipse Update interface changes and learning how to perform 
standard tasks. The document will evolve with the UI and will eventually be 
rolled into the official user documentation. We welcome community feedback while 
we are going through this process.</p>
<h2>1. Problems that prompted the redesign</h2>
<p>The implementation of Update Manager that can be found in Eclipse 2.1 release 
is fairly polished but very confusing from the usability point of view. Too many 
capabilities are readily presented to the user when this perspective is opened, 
making it very hard for a novice to figure out what to do. Some of the complains 
are:</p>
<h3>Problem: Update Manager is too advanced and has too much function, yet some 
of the basic tasks cannot be done without it</h3>
<p>Interestingly, for the longest time the development team didn't understand 
the complaints. Knowing what the underlying mechanisms are, we liked the UI 
because it did exactly what we wanted it to do and could see everything we 
wanted when we wanted. When a new developer joined our team and started getting 
into the details of the component, he revealed this blindness to us. We realized 
that the current UI is a thin veil over the Update Core API. There is almost 1-1 
mapping between APIs in Update Core and the way things are presented in the 
Update UI. Since we were comfortable with Update Core (knowing its every nook 
and cranny), we could not see how this direct mapping can be confusing to 
anybody.</p>
<p>Since we realized that it should be easy to simply update the installed 
product to the latest fix pack, the current UI does have a 'one-click' update 
alternative (Help&gt;Software Updates&gt;New Updates). However, anything else requires 
switching to the Update Manager - a major learning curve.</p>
<h3>Problem: There is no progressive disclosure.</h3>
<p>As a corollary of the one-dimensional UI layer on top of the Update Core, 
everything is immediately accessible - simple and complex tasks alike. Case in 
point - previous and saved configurations. They are visible all the time in the 
Configuration view even though as a concept they are only needed for the 
'revert' operation.</p>
<h3>Problem: Users have no idea what the difference is between Configuration and 
Updates views</h3>
<p>These two views were part of the Update perspective and seemed too similar - 
both contained features (with the same icons), both were driving the same 
Preview when clicking on objects etc.</p>
<h3>Problem: Understanding of 'Available Updates' is not crisp. </h3>
<p>Users tend to think that new features that they can install also qualify as 
updates (as opposed to strictly limited to new versions of the existing 
features). This concept (that Update developers find so strange) revolves that 
anything useful that can be added to the product is an 'update' (although we 
could argue that a more precise term would be 'add-on' for things that didn't 
exist before, compared to the real 'updates').</p>
<h2>2. Redesigned UI</h2>
<p>Since Eclipse 3.0 Milestone 1 build, we have provided a new set of actions 
that launch a redesigned Eclipse Update user interface that begins to address 
the above listed problems. These two actions are available off the Help&gt;Software 
Updates menu and both have 'experimental' in the label.</p>
<p>First thing that is immediately obvious even from the labels of these actions 
is that we have separated the concept of 'updates' and 'configuration'. When you 
need to browse or change your current configuration (things you have installed 
in your product), you use Configuration Manager. To install new features into 
your product (either strict 'updates' or the ones not previously installed), you 
use 'New Updates' wizard.</p>
<p>Since all Update tasks are now handled by these two UI parts, Update Manager 
 
and all of its views are gone.</p>
<h3>2.1 New Updates wizard</h3>
<p>When a new Eclipse-based product is installed, the first (and most frequent) 
task you are likely to perform is to search for updates. In 2.1, you could do 
this in two ways: using 'New Updates' action that immediately started the 
search, or using a more powerful searches in Update Manager. In 3.0, search is 
unified and simplified in that all the ways to get it to start result in 
bringing up the same wizard.</p>
<p>The usual way to start the update search is from the Window&gt;Software Updates 
menu. Selecting the action 'New Updates (experimental)' brings up a consolidated 
search wizard:</p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/new-updates.jpg" width="600" height="500"></p>
<p>The first page offers a choice between a plain update search or a search for 
new things (not already installed). The default choice is compatible with the 
old behavior of 'New Updates' action i.e. plain search. Since no more 
information is required to commence the search, pressing 'Next' will cause the 
search progress and the review page to appear. Unlike before, you can now see 
results as they arrive in the list. When the search is over, you will end up 
with 0 or more 'hits':</p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/review-page.jpg" width="600" height="500"></p>
<p>This page now replaces all other ways of viewing features on servers before 
installing into the product. Short feature description is shown below the result 
list. Feature properties (license, os/ws/arch/nl coverage, general information, 
copyright etc.) can be viewed by double-clicking or by selecting 'Properties' 
button. If a feature has more information in HTML form, 'More Info' button will 
show it in a resident browser. More than one feature can be selected in this 
page (although invalid feature combination will be flagged as errors).</p>
<p>Update search algorithm has been modified to pick up patches (e-fixes) in 
addition to valid updates (updates are pre-selected, while e-fixes are not).</p>
<p>When one or more features are selected, pressing 'Next' takes you to the 
standard set of pages known from 2.1 release (license, optional features, target 
install location).</p>
<p>What is particularly new in Eclipse Update 3.0 is that searching for new 
features is not very different and involves the same wizard. It starts by 
selecting the second radio button in the first wizard page. When 'Next' is 
pressed, a different page will show up. It allows you to define the scope of the 
search - which update sites to include and (optionally) which categories to 
exclude from the search:</p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/site-page.jpg" width="600" height="500"></p>
<p>Initially, the list of sites is pre-loaded with those found in the currently 
configured root features as 'discovery' sites. New sites can be added later 
using 'Add Update Site...' button and providing the site URL. Local sites (file 
system, CD-ROM) can be added using 'Add Local Site...'. This button will allow 
you to find a directory that contains 'site.xml' using the standard system file 
selection dialog.</p>
<p>The list of sites is persisted. Sites that are checked will be searched. 
Optionally, users can expand the site (this results in network activity as 
site.xml is downloaded and parsed to detect available categories). By default, 
all categories are checked. Users can uncheck some if they want to exclude them 
from the search.</p>
<p>When sites and categories to search are selected, pressing 'Next' shows the 
same Review page as in the case of the search for updates. The search progress 
will be indicated using the wizard's progress monitor, and results can be seen 
as they arrive. The rest is the same as before.</p>
<p>For the sake of simplicity and consistency, there will be more launch points 
in Eclipse Update 3.0 that will result in opening this wizard. Typically, they 
will configure the search in such a way that no further user input is required. 
Consequently, the wizard will open directly into the Review page, with the 
search already in progress. The goal is to have a single way of installing new 
features (either updates or really new ones).</p>
<h3>2.2 Configuration Manager</h3>
<p>Addressing one of the problems mentioned at the beginning, browsing and 
managing your configuration is now done in a completely different visual part - 
Configuration Manager. We discarded the Update Manager perspective because there 
was always a nagging feeling that what we are doing there is very different from 
other perspectives. We wanted to make it clear that configuration management is 
something that requires clear break in the normal work while important decisions 
regarding the configuration are made.</p>
<p>Since Configuration Manager is a separate window (rather than a perspective), 
there is no confusion that you need to do something other than development in 
it. It has no detachable views, you cannot show any of its views in another 
perspective, and no views can be repositioned or closed (it really has only one 
view housed in a modal window).</p>
<p>Configuration Manager window is modal to underline that you should not be 
doing any thing else while it is open. On the surface, it uses similar metaphor 
to the old 'Install Configuration/Preview' pair, but with some important 
differences:</p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/config-manager.jpg" width="705" height="551"></p>
<p>The left half of the manager contains the familiar configuration tree from 
the old UI. It shows the current configuration, with install locations (product, 
extensions, private locations) as children, and features as their children. 
Feature hierarchy can be browsed. New for 3.0 is that this hierarchy can be 
simplified (both install locations and included features can be individually 
filtered out from the tool bar).</p>
<p>The right half of the window is occupied by a simplified preview. It shows 
the name, the description and the available tasks of the selected object on the 
left. Available tasks are accessible as hyperlinks with descriptions. We believe 
that the old preview had a very low signal-to-visual-noise ratio and that a more 
compact one in 3.0 is better. The rest of the information that used to be 
presented in the old preview is now accessible as object Properties (or 
double-click).</p>
<p>Almost all of the tasks available in 2.1 are still available here. Features 
can be enabled or disabled (in 3.0, they can also be uninstalled). Install 
locations can be enabled or disabled as a whole (very handy for turning product 
extensions on or off).</p>
<p>As before, it is possible to revert to one of the previous install 
configurations. However, in the spirit of progressive disclosure, we decided to 
hide the configuration history until really needed. When 'Revert to Previous' 
task is selected, a dialog appears:</p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/revert.jpg" width="500" height="500"></p>
<p align="left">It shows the past configurations (excluding the current one) 
going backwards in time as far as the configuration stack permits (by default, 
50 configurations). Activities for the selected configuration are shown in the 
second table.</p>
<p align="left">Due to the generous capacity of the default configuration stack, 
we were of the opinion that the ability to save a configuration is almost never 
used and hence it was not worth migrating to the new UI. It may also be safer 
not to since saved configurations may grow stale after a while (i.e. point at 
features that are no longer present).</p>
<h2 align="left">3. UI enhancements to arrive in Milestone 2</h2>
<p align="left">The (still experimental) Update UI described above has been made 
available for early feedback in the stable Milestone 1 Eclipse 3.0 build. Since 
the progress marches on, we already went a bit further. Here is a preview of the 
UI enhancements to come in the integration builds after M1:</p>
<h3 align="left">3.1 Complete Installation History</h3>
<p align="left">As users perform Update operations, we preserve past 
configurations within the capacity of the configuration stack (configurable in 
the Preferences). When the capacity is reached, old configurations are recycled. 
However, Update maintains an ever-growing log file containing configurations and 
their activities. This file is compact but not very easy to read (or find). We 
will add an action in the Configuration Manager that shows this history in a 
resident browser. In case of problems, users can save the
<a href="Install-Log.htm">HTML history page</a> and send it to service/support 
for analysis.</p>
<h3 align="left">3.2 Web-triggered Updates</h3>
<p align="left">Web-triggered updates is a loose term that describes Eclipse 
Update's ability to react to queries from a web browser that result in install 
wizard being opened and primed with a specific feature for installation. This 
capability is available in 2.1 but in 3.0 UI we had a problem with browser 
launch points. Since we don't have Feature Updates view any more, we have no 
bookmarks to use as a launch point for encoding servlet host and port 
information and passing it to the resident browser.</p>
<p align="left">We will use the Software Updates menu for this purpose instead 
to show Update web site bookmarks in a more traditional fashion. Update sites 
that have the 'web' type computed from the installed features (as 'discovery' 
sites) will be shown there by default. Users will be able to add new bookmarks 
and organize them later. Since these bookmarks are used solely for passing the 
callback servlet information to the Web pages that can use it, we will 
automatically start the Eclipse application server and get rid of the 
Web-triggered updates preference page:</p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/update-web-sites.jpg" width="502" height="199"></p>
<p align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/organize-bookmarks.jpg" width="300" height="300"></p>
<h3 align="left">3.3 More launch points for update search</h3>
<p align="left">We will allow update search to be initiated from within the 
Configuration Manager. For example, it will be possible to select an installed 
feature the start a search for updates only for that feature.</p>