panel6.dreamhost.com

panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Josh
Posted on: 2007-02-28 12:08:00

Hey Happy Discussion Forum-ers!

How would YOU like to "beta-test" our completely re-skinned Web Control Panel, before anybody else, just because you read this forum?

Well, you can! Just try https://panel6.dreamhost.com/ (and if you get a security warning about the certificate, accept it) and there you are!

Please reply to this post with any issues you find! Browser compatibility bugs, confusing things, broken stuff, suggestions for improvement, you know the drill..

And, we're no google.. we plan on putting this thing live, I dunno.. TOMORROW?

josh!

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rlparker
Posted on: 2007-02-28 13:14:00

Well, the *first* impression is that it is "prettier" but it will take some getting used to.

Looks nice though...and seems to load faster (maybe because it's not yet that loaded, or maybe more efficiently coded?)

--rlparker

Edited: original confusion over not seeing existing databases was the result of being logged in as a user that *had* no databases...he he Edited by rlparker on 02/28/07 01:18 PM (server time).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rlparker
Posted on: 2007-02-28 13:33:00

Hey, I know it's all the "Web 2.0 is the rage" kinda thing happening right now, but that "tag cloud" seems really out of place in a control panel, even on an "overview" page. The jury's still out, but that just doesn't seem to be working for me.

I think I'd rather see some general account overview information, like maybe even a "highly visible" repeat of which *user* you are logged in as and which *account* you are looking at, and "plan renewal staus" or something more useful.

Who knows, maybe it will "grow" on me (especially if it is "smart" enough to reflect what *I* use the most often). wink

--rlparker

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Mousee
Posted on: 2007-02-28 13:56:00

Agreed on this.

Everything else looks quite nice though!
What we really need however is a new statistics feature in the panel: "How many times Procwatch has killed your processes"
tongue

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: dallas
Posted on: 2007-02-28 14:19:00

In reply to:

I think I'd rather see some general account overview information, like maybe even a "highly visible" repeat of which *user* you are logged in as and which *account* you are looking at, and "plan renewal staus" or something more useful.


Does the 'Hi, Dallas!' at the very top not tell you? Do you have multiple logins with the same name or something?


- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rlparker
Posted on: 2007-02-28 14:44:00

In reply to:

Does the 'Hi, Dallas!' at the very top not tell you? Do you have multiple logins with the same name or something?


You are right, Dallas. Actually, yes it *does*, which is how I noticed why I wasn't seeing what I expected to see. wink

I don't have "multiple logins" so much as I have account privileges assigned to my user by some of my clients who have their own account, and I occasionally "forget" (contributed to by the cookie) which account I was looking at when logged in. For instance, logged in under my own user, but viewing a client's account for which I have *all* privileges, I occasionally confuzzle myself.

Also, on occasion, I may be logged in as their user, which is the same issue.

All the information *is* there, and the "ajax" "status thing in the upper right is nice too. I think the overall new look is a great improvement (and told Brett so!) I just currently view the "tag cloud" as "wasted space" but it doesn't really bother me and I'm sure some will like it a lot!

And it might even "grow on me" over time! smile

--rlparker

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: scjessey
Posted on: 2007-02-28 15:00:00

Huge visual improvement over the existing panel, although the "tag cloud" is silly (in fact, all tag clouds are silly). Like most redesigns these days, you've gone for teeny weeny font sizes, but for they most part they seem to scale reasonably well.

I have two feature requests that should be really easy to add:

1. Please offer an RSS or Atom feed for the Rewards Payment Report.
2. Please make promo codes editable (an icon appears to exist for this already).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: dallas
Posted on: 2007-02-28 15:37:00

I'm not sure I'm sold on the tag cloud, either. It's easy to remove if most people don't like it, though.

We'll see what happens when everyone starts using the new web panel.


Is the box on the lower left that shows what account is selected not obvious enough? We've debated that ourselves before.

- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: kchrist
Posted on: 2007-02-28 16:19:00

A couple initial thoughts:

* I'd like to see more visual hints on the domain/subdomain list. The current panel indents subdomains more than the new one does and visually groups them by background color. The new one runs them all together.

* In the user list, the 'Edit' icon should be in the first column, not the webftp thing. I think webftp should probably be somewhere else entirely, as it has nothing to do with managing users.

* Selecting a heading in the sidebar should automatically load the first submenu item. As-is, it takes two clicks where this could be done in one.

* The entire design doesn't cope well with (somewhat) narrow browser windows. In fact, the mail alias bulk-edit textarea requires me to scroll sideways to see an entire line.

* I'd still like to see a way to delete unnecessary automatically-created DNS records (ftp, www.subdomain, etc).

* The tag cloud makes no sense.

* You're still accepting destructive actions via GET requests.

The design needs a little more contrast and will probably look dated very quickly. That said, you've made definite improvements in some areas, particularly the distinction between new mailboxes vs. aliases.


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rlparker
Posted on: 2007-02-28 16:31:00

In reply to:

Is the box on the lower left that shows what account is selected not obvious enough? We've debated that ourselves before.


It probably *is* obvious enough; I have no idea why I tend to overlook it on occasion - it's probably just me.

All in all, like I said, I really like the new look. From a usability standpoint, I think some of the type are a little small when your browser is set at "normal" type size, but that's a smallish issue for me.

--rlparker

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: genesteinberg
Posted on: 2007-02-28 17:23:00

Looking on a laptop with big screen and high resolution (a 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro), the type size for many of the functions appears to be somewhat small for me. This ought to be rethought a bit before it goes live.

Not everyone is as young as the people who run DH.


Peace,
Gene Steinberg
Co-Host, The Paracast
http://www.theparacast.com
My DreamHost Promo Plan—Use the code: ROCKS

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Raz2133
Posted on: 2007-02-28 18:40:00

I would tend to agree with what has already been said about the tag cloud, I think it looks a little silly and the space could be better utilized. Having said that, some might find it very useful for getting around the panel quickly.

I do like the new ability to create promo-codes with 'feature bonuses', but I agree with Simon that the ability to edit and/or delete promo-codes would have been a nice addition.

Overall, I like the new look a lot, well done. smile

Mark

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Raz2133
Posted on: 2007-02-28 19:11:00

One other thing that I just thought of...

Now that we can create promo-codes that offer disk and bandwidth bonuses, do new customers who use a promo-code to sign-up still receive the old 200GB/2TB quotas (plus any bonus), or is the bonus percentage calculated on the current daily offering? (ie: today it is 172GB/1.72TB and dropping).

By the way; I just noticed the DreamHost logo in the top left corner of the new panel does not link to the DreamHost website. wink

Mark

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: matttail
Posted on: 2007-03-01 01:45:00

I totally love the new look! Though I have to agree with others that the font size is small - it would be nice to see that change.

I don't really mind the tag cloud, besides I generally stay logged into the panel so it automatically reloads to where I was last, thus I'll hardly see it.

As far as how long this layout will be 'in style' compared to the 90's blocky html tables look, this design should be good for an other several years! :)



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: anonymous2
Posted on: 2007-03-01 03:08:00

Likes:
Removed old unused links
Slightly shorter top region; smaller DH banner
Removed disk and xfer summary (from all pages)
Tag cloud is OK (if it's gonna be more 'tarted' up and 'glossy' anyway), but want an option to display cloud based on Either: My usage (for functionality), or All customers' usage (for curiosity).

Dislikes:
Nearly non-functional with javascript disabled; only Billing was functional IIRC, all others were *completely* blank.
Added Left (and right) margins - requires more scrolling
More 'iconified' only links (fewer text-only links)
Some pages display in 2 phases, adding additional text at top in 2nd phase. Example - Suggestions displays first without explanation at top, then 'updates' and adds explanation text.
Extra clicks required; example 3-clicks to get to Is there a System Problem, under support.
Displayed browser "upgrade required" for some browser user agents (iE6, Netscape 3, Opera 7.5); some warnings were scary red color.

Bugs(?):
Account Status 'pop-down' on Overview/front page shows only 1 database server, but Manage MySQL detailed list shows more than 1 database server.
Status pop-down covers over other info previously displayed on page, making it unreadable.
Browser upgrade links include a link to Microsoft. laugh
No warning for OS of windows. ;-)
Welcome line says 'Hi Butthead!'




Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: netdcon
Posted on: 2007-03-01 08:04:00

First impression, in a word: <blech>

It's hideous, in a "trying to fit 10 pounds of pudding (!?!) in a five-pound bag" kinda way, at least in areas that I commonly use, including:
* email management: The user add/edit page is confusing with regards to what's a mailbox, what's forwarding, and what's garbage.
* domain management: horizontal fit is awful, even with the teeny-tiny barely readable text. The row-separating background colors could use more contrast.
* MySQL management: has so much gibberish clumped in it I can barely figure out which server is which; this may also be due to insufficient background contrast.

The "web2.0" tag cloud is, as others have pointed out, both superfluous and silly in a control panel environment, but if it only appears on the main page, I could care less - although I can but sincerely hope that no one actually wasted time on such a frivolous "feature".

Other than that, it still has all of the more annoying "features" that the original panel has, so I guess I'm missing the point - if it's meant to be just a "face lift" sorta thing, I should thing that youze guys on the LeftCoast™ were way better at that sorta surgery.

One can but hope that the notion it be implemented "TOMORROW" is just a joke.

/yes, I said "pudding", but y'all know what I meant wink

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: nessahead
Posted on: 2007-03-01 10:49:00

Thank you for the redesign, DH! *hug*

I believe that the cloud's usefulness to first-time users outweighs any offense it may give to old-school members. Personally, I like to know if other people find a certain function very useful. Make the cloud an option, perhaps?

Also, you need to add around 50px more padding to the bottom of every page. On the One-Click page, for example, the content buts right up against the 1px border. Whitespace is good.

Edited by nessahead on 03/01/07 10:49 AM (server time).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: mnordhoff
Posted on: 2007-03-01 12:30:00

Minor bug:

When you click on "© 1996-2007 DreamHost", the onclick should have a "return false;" so that the user doesn't get scrolled to the top of the page. Same with when you click "close" in the box that pops up.

Also, in both of those onclicks, there's a typo: The ');' is AFTER the quotation mark.

Edit: The Account Status drop-down things says "Domains Hosted: 1 domains, 1 subdomains".

Edit: Just out of curiosity, why do you put my user-agent in an HTML comment at the bottom of the page?

__________
Hug me!Edited by mnordhoff on 03/01/07 12:39 PM (server time).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rinvelt
Posted on: 2007-03-01 12:52:00

First off I'm missing the disk space and bandwidth usage gage.

Was I the only one using those?

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: mnordhoff
Posted on: 2007-03-01 13:37:00

Click "Account Status" on the top-right corner of the page. It has the information (and lots of other information), but no pretty bars. :(

__________
Hug me!Edited by mnordhoff on 03/01/07 01:38 PM (server time).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: edges
Posted on: 2007-03-01 13:42:00

I *really* don't like the tiny little icons that I have to remember the meaning of; not to mention that I can barely see them (my vision isn't great).

I *especially* don't like the fact that these tiny little icons are all right on top of one another, meaning that the one I'll be pushing on a daily basis is 3 pixels away from the one that deletes something.

I hope you'll consider making a text skin. I find the new panel extremely difficult to use. In the old panel, I could simply make the font size bigger - but I can't scale up the size of your icons, so the new panel is essentially impossible for me to use without a screen magnifier.


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rinvelt
Posted on: 2007-03-01 13:58:00

Ahh.. thanks... Thats what I was looking for.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wersh
Posted on: 2007-03-01 14:30:00

Poking around, my thoughts. I tested it out a bit on Safari. Also, I'm colorblind, so some of my comments may reflect that implicitly.

* The font size for a lot of the text is a bit too small. Maybe increase it a point or two.

* Top right corner says "Account Status:". Clicking on it overlays a box underneath it that gives my account status. The colon being followed by nothing is confusing. It did not suggest that I should click Account Status to get that info, which is what I assume was intended. It made me wonder "what isn't there a status?". It should have a clearer indicator that you should click to get your status. I'm also not a fan of the drop-down it gives because it blends right into the page. The drop down needs to contrast enough with the page that it looks like something different. Giving it a different background color might help that.

* Tag Cloud: Doesn't make sense. We have a heirarchical navigation system on the left, so it's faintly redundant. Here's what I'd rather see: Let us customize overview to become a portal page. Let us pick which links should show up there, and maybe give us little widget things we can use for our frequently-used actions. Give us the option to always load there when we visit panel.dreamhost.com. Then, give all users a basic initial set up based on what most users seem to like. That would actually be useful. However, I still think it's overkill since we have a heirarchical list on the left which is easy to use.

* The Account selector (bottom of left column): Interface is a bit confusing, especially with only two accounts. Nothing else in the interface is underlined (except "Account Status:", see above), but my non-selected account is. That made me think my non-selected acccount was the selected account initially. The faint yellow arrow to the left is a much more subtle visual clue than underlining. I recommend you get rid of the underlining and consider making the selected account a bit more distinct -- perhaps a background color, perhaps a less faint arrow.

* Suggestion Panel: Unvoted on suggestions have a "thumbs up"/"thumbs down" icon. Voted on suggestions say "You voted on this! [Remove vote!]". I mostly like the icons, but they are a bit faint and hard to see. I dislike the other thing. For voted comments, give the same two thumb icons but make the active one blue or red, to show it's been activated. Put a third icon in for removal, perhaps an X. Make sure the thumb icons stay aligned when you add that.

* Billing - Manage Account: The tables' rows have very, very, very faint colors in the background to distinguish one row from the next visually. Being colorblind, they're invisible to me. My non-colorblind friend said he could only barely see them. Please make this color visible so that I can more easily navigate tables. I shouldn't have to use a straight-edge to figure out which "Actions" icon goes with which domain. (Also, make sure the colors alternate per-row, not per group of rows. Alternating per group is less useful for visual navigation when the group contains many lines.)

* Account Priviledges: The text "Web ID's <name>'s access priviledges to "<name>'s account:" is smaller than "Revoke all priviledges for <name>." The revoke text should be smaller and should look more like it falls under the section it belongs in. As it is now, it really stands out far too much, confusing the interface.

* Manage Domains: I really like the new look for the table here. It's much cleaner and clearer than the old one, if I recall it properly. My only complaint (and it's a major complaint!) is that, as with the earlier tables I pointed out, the rows are too faintly distinguished; for me, the alternating background color is invisible.

* Manage Users: The icon for "webftp login" does no clearly symbolize "webftp login". In fact, I had no idea what it was for until I happened to hover over it -- which isn't necessarily an obvious action to take. Your icons should be obvious, otherwise they're not as useful.

* When you click a link in the left navbar to visit that page, the link displays some info text underneath it after the page has loaded. This is backwards. Once I'm on the page, I can look at the page to see what it does. Each page has a summary at the top of its function, anyway. Those little tips in the navbar are useless once they show up. They just clutter the interface. The only real benefit they give is that they very clearly indicate which is the active item in the navbar. Without them, the arrow alone would probably be fairly easy to miss -- the colors aren't that contrasting. However, I would rather you make the active selection more visually distinct than see you keep pointless helper text. If you really want to keep the helper text, have it show up in a floating box when you hover over menu options -- but then be sure to give us the option to turn the feature off, because it'll drive a lot of us nuts.

* Manage Email: The icons for "activate" and "deactive" are too visually similar. They also do not symbolize well what they do.

* Webmail: The domains without active service are interspersed with those that have it. This makes the interface more confusing. Seperate them into two lists.

* Junk Mail Filter: See "Manage Email" above, regarding icons.

* Manage MySQL: Again, the table does not have clear row indicators. If I scroll to the middle of my listing -- I have no idea whether "Add User" goes with the database above or below unless I'm really paying attention. I also find it interesting that you decided to label the icons here, but did not elsewhere; and also, decided to list them vertically rather than horizontal. It makes the icons' functions clear (and they wouldn't be clear, otherwise), but it makes it look kinda awkward somehow.

* One-Click installs: Table row issues, as above.

* Bandwidth Usage: The "Actions" column contains one action: a link to bring up a detail report. That's not an action, it's a link. I'd name the column "Reports" for better clarity.

* Disk Usage: Same as Bandwidth Usage.

* MySQL Usage: Same as Bandwidth Usage.

* Contact Support: I don't like the interface for the top sections, where you click a heading and a new sections pops up. Many of the sections are very small, which makes it kinda silly. The few sections that aren't small, seem too big to be squished in this page. Split this up or something.

* Consider adding a link to the Wiki in the quicklinks area in the top right.

* Please, use some software that tests how your site looks for people with various forms of colorblindness. There's plenty of free software out there for exactly that purpose.

Despite all my criticisms above, I think the overhaul is a good move. Most of the site is pretty good. There are some noticeable improvements, and I'm very glad that it's been standardized now, which I hope will more easily facilitate future improvements.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: nfriedly
Posted on: 2007-03-01 16:15:00

I found one glitch:

on Support > Contact Support

when you click on one of the cool javascript dropdown bits such as "> The DreamHost Wiki" it expands it, but the browser jumps to the top of the page.

The reason that it does this this is because you have the link href="#" but you do not have a return:false; at the end of the onclick=

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-01 17:22:00

I haven't had much of a chance to browse around the new layout but there are a couple of things I think could do with some work.

Home->Tag Cloud: I'm in two minds about this, I feel it's a bit of a waste of space, but if it actually changes according to my own usage I could become to like it.

Home->Suggestions: Not very keen on the thumb color, the light red (pink?) looks out of place to me and doesn't fit the theme.

Home->Rewards: It would be nice if the expanded menus could have a memory instead of being reset to collapsed once the panel has been closed.

Domains->Manage Domains: The delete icons are confusing and don't explain what they actually do, the titles should have additional information such as "Delete selected user for this domain" and "Destroy this domain entirely", or something along those lines.

Edit Profile: Obviously that is still on the "to do" list. smile

Thats about all I can think of for now.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: gnasby
Posted on: 2007-03-01 17:23:00

THE NEW PANEL LOOKS HORRIBLE.

It also gets an "F" in usability.

Just because it looks "nice" in your graphic designer's mind, doesn't mean it is useful for the rest of us.

Complete lack on contrast makes it very hard to use. Even worse if you are tired. Lots of "light grey" vs. white sections - I can't tell the difference.

Tiny text I can't read.

I have to keep clicking all the time to find stuff. Don't "collapse sections", just give me a long page I can easily scroll through and quickly scan as I am doing so.

Cutesy little icons that aren't obvious what they do - when simple text like would work much better.

The new deisgn has itty-bitty input boxes which you have to scroll around in. Have you ever read any of the literature on usability?

Ughh... you guys had such a great "panel". why did you have to wreck it?

One of Dreamhost's major strengths is (well...was) it's panel.

Please give us back our old panel.

If you want to make this "new look" optional - fine. But please don't kill the usability of your panel for the rest of us.

Longtime Dreamhost user
Graham



Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: kestasjk
Posted on: 2007-03-01 18:49:00

I really like it "Just one more thing" ahahah, so appropriate. :-)

Thanks for making this upgrade Dreamhost, maybe you'll now get the board so it doesn't look so bad too.

*thumbs up*


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-01 22:05:00

Got an error in the html that needs fixing. It came up after upgrading a wordpress blog. The update went through ok, but the panel says there was an error. Note my own comment entered.

In reply to:


<div class="errorbox">
<div class="errorbox_head"><h1><img src="https://secure.newdream.net/newpanel/icon-error.gif" alt="!" height="14" width="16" /> Error!</h1></div>
<div class="errorbox_body">
You had 1 error!<br />Please fix it below:<p />

</div>
</div>

<h1>Upgrade or remove previously installed software:</h1>

/* Note the div class below is missing the leading "<" */
div class="error">Please click a link below!</div>

<b>Upgrading</b> will install the latest version of the software at the same URL, using the same database (and move your last installation to <i>.old</i>). If you've done any template installations or added any non-default plugins at all, you'll have to re-install them!)<br />

<br />



Edit: Adding to the error problem that is not a real error problem. While the error is there, I cannot navigate to any other part of the panel, nor can I logout, the panel keeps asking me to fix an error that doesn't exist. I've had to kill the cookie to get out of the one-click install page.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: mao
Posted on: 2007-03-02 01:27:00

I have 2 thoughts:
1- There are problem when you try to uninstall Wordpress with the 1click thing.It says that there is an error and to check a link below, but there isn't any link (once i saw a <div> (maybe it doesn't work on the old panel too)

2- I would have preferred to see bandwidth and disk without clicking on the ajax thing. (imho)

Cupons:MAO_HALFPRICE : pay only half of the price (L1 plans only) MAO97 get 97$ back

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: todbotdotcom
Posted on: 2007-03-02 01:44:00

I'm getting a similar error message as well after I tried to upgrade Wordpress using the 1-click upgrade thing.

What sucks is that I can't even open up a support ticket on it because the UI keeps throwing me back to the goodies page.

Here's what the error looks like:
http://todbot.com/images/dh-goodies-error.png

It's not valid HTML, it says I have an error but not what the error is, and I'm trapped on that page not able to leave.


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-02 02:11:00

In reply to:

What sucks is that I can't even open up a support ticket on it because the UI keeps throwing me back to the goodies page.


To reset your panel login delete the panel.dreamhost.com cookie.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: mao
Posted on: 2007-03-02 04:00:00

I simply clicked on the mysql link you should have there and the error disappeared.


Cupons:MAO_HALFPRICE : pay only half of the price (L1 plans only) MAO97 get 97$ back

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: jbarr
Posted on: 2007-03-02 07:26:00

My only real complaint is that there's no link to this forum. Or am I just missing it? I'd suggest placing a link at the upper right with the Blog and Newsletter links.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Serg
Posted on: 2007-03-02 07:43:00

Not a bug but just a sugestion, it would be nice if (maybe optional) the "status / bandwith" list would be ordered just like in "domains / manage domains" with subdomains tabbed under the domains.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: asbjornu
Posted on: 2007-03-02 07:46:00

I really like the new panel! But can I ask a minor improvement? Add a little :hover { text-decoration: underline } effect to the links in the menu.

«He's a loathsome offensive brute, yet I can't look away░

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: munkay
Posted on: 2007-03-02 07:57:00

Couple of comments, and I hope you don't take it the wrong way.

Firstly, I hope you did some usability tests instead of running with some guy(s)' idea of what a "good looking site" should be.

Shiny as it is, its NOT any more usable than the old site.
-1 points for changing the look without making it any easier to navigate.

When I first log in, I get this crazy page with a tag cloud. Really? A tag cloud? Why would a control panel need one? If its just because you can do it, then that's a bad idea. Show me a good idea. Maybe it'll be useful.
-0.5 points for something that is nifty but has no real use.

One of my biggest issues/annoyances: The "My Status" module. WHY would you use ajax for it? It was so handy to have it in the sidebar, and now its taking up even more space and looks ugly. It also doesn't give any more useful information than the old site did.
-2 points because you used ajax just 'cuz. The sidebar is horrible. (Did you know that the sidebar also COVERS other elements for NO reason??? How can you have "shortcuts" only to have it covered by the "status" in a new version, when the old version really allowed access to both JUST FINE.

The left menu or whatever only remembers where you currently are. Why? I dont want to have to click the title for every single menu item just to see the ones underneath every time. Make the toggle remember it. It worked in the old version, why mess with it now?
-0.5 for breaking the already-working left menu.

So you changed to css + "web 2.0". Web 2.0 is overrated. Design matters. Content matters. Ajax doesn't. At least it doesn't if you use it in places where it serves no purpose.

At least it moved away from the old flat boring look to this new shiny look. Kudos to you, and since its all css now, hopefully making changes will be easier.
+1 points for having the guts to make this transition.

But if you're going to do a code revamp, at least do it well.
I get 73 warnings for the html just on the home page. And then 172 on the One-click install page. Is it too hard to ask for standards compliant code?

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: manic
Posted on: 2007-03-02 09:16:00

Nice job with the new panel..

Maybe the tag cloud can be optional, I actually like it. The account status could probably be a third the size it is in now and still provide the same info.

It would be nice to be able to get to the overview with a single click from anywhere in the panel.

Look forward to seeing it once you guys finish your recommended reading and know what you are doing.. ;)

Thanks! It is much easier to delete blogs now!

Posted by: bobclary
Posted on: 2007-03-02 11:56:00

The first thing I did was look under goodies to see if you have made the latest WordPress upgrade available.

It was very nice to see that you have made it much easier to delete a blog accidentally by making the links to upgrade and delete so close together.

I know that wasn't enough in improving the usability since you made only the images linked and not the text, thus making it even easier to delete my blog.

I hope you enjoy restoring sites from backups!

Good work!

/bc

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: C.G.
Posted on: 2007-03-02 18:03:00

I think the panel looks great! It will take all of 5 minutes to get used to.

I also think the 'Upgrade' and 'Delete' buttons are too close to one another. If they could be moved, it might prevent someone from accidentally deleting their Goodie.Edited by C.G. on 03/02/07 06:13 PM (server time).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: jimphelps
Posted on: 2007-03-02 19:38:00

There is a bug in the panel.

1. Click on upgrade (like for Wordpress upgrade)
2. Wait for the message re: We are upgrading your wordpress install to appear
3. Click on Support to expand the support sidebar menu
4. Click on Support History

The panel stays on the current page with an message: You have 1 error below

You have to go to the root URL (http://panel.dreamhost.com) to get functionality back

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Xamayon
Posted on: 2007-03-02 23:34:00

I have one small issue with the way the panel is now...

The boxes explaining what the specific page you are on is for, take up way too much space. I understand that it does help new users find their way around, but I dont really need to have what bandwidth is explained to me every single time I visit that page.

If these explanations were optional, or collapsable, I would not need to scroll as much, which would really help make the panel easier and quicker to use.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: rlparker
Posted on: 2007-03-03 00:23:00

In reply to:

If these explanations were optional, or collapsable, I would not need to scroll as much, which would really help make the panel easier and quicker to use.


Actually, though it is not intuitive, not only are those explanations "collapsable", but they are "stateful" (they use a cookie) to "remember" how *you* left them.

If you click the little "I" icon (information?) next to the title, the will "toggle" either the full explanation or the title only, and remember which way you left them when you return to the page. wink

--rlparker

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: HelpfulNeighbor
Posted on: 2007-03-03 00:53:00

I just hit an annoying issue adding a new database. There was a warning stating lowercase only please. Problem is this warning message showed up between to fields it wasn't realted to. It took ages to stumble upon which field was the problem. I probably would have been better off with a message "hey, something is jacked, play around until it works" at the top. At least I wouldn't have been pointed to two fields that were entirely wrong.

1) Error messages should reference the field "Username must be all lowercase please"

2) Make sure your HTML is correct. Most likely this error was put in the wrong place in my browser because it fell outside of the td tag it belonged in, or a td tag wasn't defined for it. This often causes items to get rendered in an unintended location.

For clarification, the issue was with the username for the new datbase. And the message was showing up between the password and comment fields. I'm using FireFox 1.0.7 on this machine if it helps.

The new look is fairly decent as others have commented, but it just seems slower to me without adding any new functionality.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-03 10:55:00

And the status dropdown is incomplete. It tells me only one DB server when I actually have three.

The tag cloud looks like a 3 year old tried to do layout. Replace it with the status information (bandwidth and space and so on) instead.

Wholly - IS NOT MY PROMO CODE. Even worse, I don't get any credit for it. Use WhollyMindless for full credit. I'm really disappointed in someone.Edited by wholly on 03/03/07 10:57 AM (server time).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: sp0rk.me
Posted on: 2007-03-03 17:13:00

Hi!

I just found out about the panel last night and I was rather excited using it. It did take me a little while (maybe an hour or so) to get used to the new style and features of the panel.

I've noticed a lot of people complaining about the icons (not knowing what they are and such). So, why not either create and link to a Dreamhost Wiki article doing a walk through of the new features and icons on the panel and/OR have a legend of icons either on a page-by-page basis or for the panel as a whole.

Have fun! Love the panel!
- Logan

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Raz2133
Posted on: 2007-03-03 19:35:00

In reply to:

I've noticed a lot of people complaining about the icons


The icons do make it a little difficult to give panel directions here on the forum, "click the small spanner".

I would much prefer if these functions had both an icon and a text label, it's not like the text would consume much space, given the tiny font being used. wink

Mark

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: ldove
Posted on: 2007-03-04 13:25:00

They seem much more responsive now as well. Or is that just me?

The eye candy is appealing, and I myself haven't hit any of the reported bugs so far, but I do agree with the goodies page, the mysql items, the 4 options are VERY close together. Of course, it does ask you to confirm before deleting, so its somewhat a mute point to worry about it.

At this point, it looks good to me.

__________________
-Lyle

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-04 19:00:00

I really kinda wish a simpler version were available for phone/pda access. Web 2.0 has kinda crimped my style. Even my bank doesn't support anything without javascript and flash anymore.

Wholly - IS NOT MY PROMO CODE. Even worse, I don't get any credit for it. Use WhollyMindless for full credit. I'm really disappointed in someone.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Extrarius
Posted on: 2007-03-05 07:12:00

I _REALLY_ hate the new look. Icons make things harder to find, low contrast everywhere strains my eyes and makes division practically invisible, the bubbly look is a reminder of the dreaded "eyecandy over functionality" movement, etc.

Standards are great and all, but the new control panel is not at all easier to use, and it's much harser on my eyes (and I don't mean aesthetics, though that aspect is also worse IMO).

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: voipfc
Posted on: 2007-03-05 08:56:00

Am I the only one with his head screwed on right here who thinks that this is mostly tosh?

You have replaced a fairly good panel with something which make DH out to be some kind of fashion and style victim, like those models who starve themselves to look 'okay'.

Concentrate on improving the functionality and navigation of the current panel and worry about the skinny, fashionable, itsy-bitsy looks later.

Dreamhost users are hard men who use ssh, command line and other sensible ways of working. We don't need this poncey design stuff.

I am not even going to look for the functionality improvements.

Total thumbs down.

PS. This is not a troll.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-05 16:06:00

In reply to:

Dreamhost users are hard men who use ssh, command line and other sensible ways of working. We don't need this poncey design stuff.


Hehe, now there's the quote of the month. smile

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-05 19:08:00

That really does need to be in the wiki, or at least a sig.

Wholly - IS NOT MY PROMO CODE. Even worse, I don't get any credit for it. Use WhollyMindless for full credit. I'm really disappointed in someone.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: netdcon
Posted on: 2007-03-06 08:04:00

In reply to:

Hehe, now there's the quote of the month.


I'd just like to add my "bravo!" to this sentiment.


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-06 17:23:00

I can't make it fit in a meaningful sig!! (sniff.)

(actually, that's good. Log sigs pollute the world.)

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Phrozt
Posted on: 2007-03-07 09:28:00

Quite frankly, I like the new look. I found the old one to be just fine, but I think new users will like the look (I've been a customer since april '06).

After a quick runthrough, there's 1 thing that I REALLY need, and 1 thing that I miss:

I NEED some color to separate out a main domain and then subdomains off that main one. I realize you use indentation, but with the new styles, that is simply not enough for my eyes, and they get confused trying to pick out main domains from subdomains.

I MISS the status bars for total used space and bandwidth. Those were incredibly useful!

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-07 19:02:00

I'd *like* to see the new panel. It's apparently gone walkabout this evening.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: osaga
Posted on: 2007-03-08 09:13:00

I hate the new panel.

PRO's

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Dimon
Posted on: 2007-03-08 13:36:00

The purpose of a control panel is CONTROL (=more control handles on less screen space) not interterment.
Looks like DH inspired by Microsoft ideology introduced 7 years ago on XP. Rather then improving functionality they add few bslht_visual effects on the top of old 2000 core and called it updated system. The Microsoft motivations were to hook idiots on Microsoft. At least it helped boost hardware technology. What was motivation for DH to make a panel more attractive but less informative (=same controls take twice bigger page space)? Is it urge for self-expression or to
confuse and increase questions to DH help desk?


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wjd
Posted on: 2007-03-12 12:17:00

The new tech support pane looks awesome. Ajax isn't working on Safari as of yet but that's why it's on the beta panel :-)

digitalrundown.com

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-12 17:38:00

Dude, it was released to production a while ago.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-12 18:50:00

So that must make any issues that are found now "undocumented features" rather than bugs. smile

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Raz2133
Posted on: 2007-03-12 20:13:00

I must say, after using the new panel for a while, I really do miss the old panel. *sniff*

The old panel wasn't as 'pretty', but it was definitely more usable, at least for the things I do in the panel.

Mark

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wjd
Posted on: 2007-03-13 12:07:00

In reply to:

Dude, it was released to production a while ago.


Panel6 is still their beta panel so there was a new tech support. Not the one that pushed a few weeks ago.

digitalrundown.com

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: wholly
Posted on: 2007-03-13 22:06:00

i guess you COULD be right (duh on my part. Maybe it's because of all the panel downtime and db maintenance that made me think that they might stop messing around with the beta code and get production working 22.5x7)

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: marslam
Posted on: 2007-03-14 02:41:00


On Account Status, the result for domain and sub domain counts is not correct.




Martin Lam
http://www.game.st

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-14 02:44:00

Intermittent bug? The counts are correct for my account.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: marslam
Posted on: 2007-03-14 03:14:00

Thank you Shonky! You are right!

I looked into this problem again, and found the numbers should be correct.

DH should have defined "sub-domain" and "domain" a little bit different.

DH does not think automatically "sub.domain.com" is a sub-domain of "domain.com". It depends on how we created it on DH...

If "sub.domain.com" is created on the same level as "domain.com", it is counted as a "domain"; otherwise if it is created under "domain.com" it should be treated as a sub-domain.









Martin Lam
http://www.game.st

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: tmetro
Posted on: 2007-03-15 11:10:00

In reply to:

...it just seems slower...


The revised panel (I'm not using panel6) is pretty much unusably slow with Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1.1 on an older machine. Though only on pages that have form fields, like the domain registration page or the support form are a problem. When the support page has focus, it pegs the CPU at 100%. Undoubtedly some badly behaved JavaScript is to blame.


In other matters, the support form fails to preserve the CC: field if the form validation fails and the form gets redisplayed.

Additionally, I noticed from the cc'ed message I received that everything was double spaced, so there's probably a problem with the processing of line endings.

-Tom


Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: uniguy
Posted on: 2007-03-16 09:53:00

Disappointment.
I was hoping for a new panel from DH for a long time, but now that one is here, I'm wondering "all that work for this?". Not being one for artsy/fartsy over practicality, I'm puzzled why this low contrast, hard-to-read, visually dizzying skin is better than the old one. Go ahead and gussy up the DH website, but let's have a control panel that emphasizes the word "control".

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Lensman
Posted on: 2007-03-17 09:21:00

Are we still supposed to submit bugs here in this thread or now that it's live are we supposed to submit them somewhere else - say a support ticket?

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Shonky
Posted on: 2007-03-17 16:27:00

It's a bit of a half arsed beta test if you ask me, the Honchos come in ask us for feedback, then give no feedback in return as to whether they've even bothered to read this thread since it was created, poor form and rather disrespectful to those who answered.

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com

Posted by: Lensman
Posted on: 2007-03-17 18:18:00

I decided to submit a support ticket for the bug because the panel is in production. smile

Re: panel6.dreamhost.com - Error/bug Persists

Posted by: rlparker
Posted on: 2007-04-14 03:31:00

In reply to:

Got an error in the html that needs fixing. It came up after upgrading a wordpress blog. The update went through ok, but the panel says there was an error....Adding to the error problem that is not a real error problem. While the error is there, I cannot navigate to any other part of the panel, nor can I logout, the panel keeps asking me to fix an error that doesn't exist. I've had to kill the cookie to get out of the one-click install page.


I could have sworn that I read somewhere that this had been addresses, but it hasn't been fixed - it bit me again this morning.

Again, as reported, the "upgrade" went through just fine, but it took manually killing the DH cookie to navigate *anywhere* after "submitting" that upgrade request. frown

--rlparker