Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 11465
Redesigning a more informative "About" dialog
Last modified: 2013-08-07 15:31:33 UTC
for ease of QA and issue report, I propose OO.o to have a new more informative "About" dialog. info required: - version number (e.g. 1.0, 1.0.2) - build number (e.g. 638, 643) - copyright notice - brief of licenses used (e.g. LGPL, SISSL) - patch number(s) that has been applied to (** future, in case OO.o allow a binary patch) - general environment info (e.g. OS, OS/kernel version, hardware architect, locale, JVM version) optional info: - detailed environment info (e.g. paths, memory usage, vdo mode. For Unixes: window manager version, version of important libraries e.g. libc++) - detail of each license used, in a seperate window/frame (or may be just internet link) all the infos may not need to be shown at once in only one screen, it may be shown seperately in another window/frame or manually/automatically scroll in same window/frame. please see attached example of "About" dialog from other apps, to get some idea. ---- i strongly believe that this enhancement will increase the quality of QAing OO.o :)
Created attachment 4711 [details] OpenOffice.org 643C's About dialog
Created attachment 4712 [details] Mozilla 1.3b's - show product version & build, also general environment info
Created attachment 4713 [details] Internet Explorer 6.0's -- also show patch no. of applied patches
Created attachment 4714 [details] WinSCP 2.2.0's -- has a separated dialog to show full license agreement
changing ownership to user experience team for evaluation
Set to "NEW"
Add possibility to get all the version info copied to clipboard. Either by having the data represented in such a field that the user can perform "normal" copy function (e.g. Edit->Copy, or popup menu) OR by having a button "Copy to Clipboard" in the dialog. The user could then paste this data into defect report, to identify the used system in more detail.
Created attachment 17301 [details] About -> Detail. NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta 1
another good example is the one in Google Deskbar's Help dialog. http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/ (copy & paste from Help dialog) --------------------------------------------- Beta Versions Installed Deskbar: 0.5.95 Beta Mini-viewer: 0.5.95 Beta Setting Information: DeskBar: EULAAccepted=1 Version=95 SeededTermAutoComplete=1 WidthActiveHorz=154 WidthInactiveHorz=154 SavedExplorerTaskbarWidth=1028 installonce=1 SeededUrlAutoComplete=1 DynamicResize=1 -- Mini-viewer: Version=95 -- Stats: Version=95 statsStartTimeDate=1108326079 statsStartTimeDateReadable=Sun%2C+13+Feb+2005+20%3A21%3A19 statsIsSendingEnabled=1 customSearchesDefined=2 mVwrNavsTotal=2 -- Running Deskbar: beta 0.5.95 C:\Program Files\Google\deskbar-0.5.95.0\ggtaskbar.dll Mini Viewer: beta 0.5.95 C:\Program Files\Google\deskbar-0.5.95.0\ggviewer.exe ---------------------------------------------
Created attachment 22592 [details] Google Deskbar, Help/About dialog
Created attachment 22722 [details] SharpDevelop's -- with a copy button to copy all info in the table shown to a clipboard.
addtional info required: - list of add-ins, plug-ins installed (like what Mozilla "about:plugins" do) - list of language packs installed (OOo 2.x) - current locale, keyboard layout
The dialog may even has a "Report Issue" button, which, when a user click on it, will open a web browser, automatically load an Issue Tracker page, and fill out as many fields as possible for the user (like "Platform", "OS", "Version" fields), before he/she continues to fill the rest and submit an issue report. (This assume that the user has been already registered with OOo and has an OOo website account. So he/she can (auto) logged in to the Issue Tracker.)
OOo 2.0 codeline does not has this enhancement yet (checked with 1.9m77 build).
How can I change the "Version" in this issue from 643C to a current version of OOo (say, 1.9mm79)? Please. Thank you.
version changed to 'current'
please split this issue into the relevant pieces. THis is a collective issue and thus cannot be handled properly, furthermore it is quite outdated already. * Version number is there, although not end-user-frienldy, this is issue 58850 * build-number: Is not of any interest for the home-user, can be accessed using the key-combo if necessary. * copyright notice: already there * license: not easily done since there might be multiple licnenses involved. Feel free to file a seperate issue for that. * patch-number/simila: This is already accounted for. The version-string already contains the variable "PRODUCTEXTENSION" that is filled in when there was a patch installed (which don't exist at the moment anyway) * general-environment-info? What should this be good for? IMHO this only bloats the dialog without providing actual information. But again feel free to file a seperate issue for that. Same for "detailed environment info". What should the use do with that info? Just see the about dialog from about every current gnome/gtk app. Please file a seperate issue for the request of being able to select/copy the text. These tasks are so differnt implementation wise, so they should be filed and handled seperately. Googles Dialog is a good example? Do you want OOo to show every setting you did? Please don't compare apples with bananas Same goes for the addons. That's why you have the package-manager and the possibility to install a menu-item in the help-menu for the addons. The addon is responsible for showing a version info/product details. Furtheremore there is no versioning of addons yet. Please file a seperate issue. The same for the "report an issue" button. This should not be in the about-dialog IMHO, but if you thing OOo needs one, again please file a seperate issue. And: The version field is not to be set to the current version, but to the version the bug/issue was first discovered/reported with. A collective issue cannot be handled properly, therefore removing rfe_eval_ok keyword. Removing ENH-DEF keyword as well, since that is only for CollabNet/SourceCast/CEE related stuff. So please split the issue into the relevant pieces.
changed component to framework
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".