Re: User Research Findings into PgAdmin

Hi

On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 8:02 PM, Raffi Holzer <rholzer(at)pivotal(dot)io> wrote:

> As a summary of our findings in writing:
>
> Below is a table of user needs we discovered and solutions we or the
> customers suggested. Some of the "missing" features people complained about
> are not missing at all (such as auto-complete or syntax highlighting) but
> the fact that people didn't know about them points to a discoverability
> issue we believe we can address through design.
>
>
> Needs
>
> Suggested Solutions
>
> Users need a reliable way to save their queries frequently
>
> Autosave, Persisting & Complete History, Persisting Un-run queries after
> disconnect
>

Please add feature requests for:

- Auto-saving of queries (I believe this would implement persisting un-run
queries as well).

- Saving of previous queries (implemented in pgAdmin III as a combo box at
the top of the editor)

> Users need a more efficient way to type
>
> Auto-discoverable Autocomplete, Customize shortcuts, more visible syntax
> highlighting
>

Please add feature requests for:

- Hint mechanism, to display balloon hints that can be triggered during
certain tasks to inform the user of functionality they might want to use

- Customisable shortcuts (a panel under Preferences -> [Tool Name] to allow
customisation of shortcuts in each tool)

- Customisable syntax highlight colours

> Users need a process to share query output with others
>
> Copy and Paste into Excel with proper formatting, Export button to MS XML
>

Please add a feature request for:

- Allow customisation of the data copy formatting as found in pgAdmin III.
The defaults should be changed to not quote strings and use a tab as the
delimiter to allow pasting into Excel/Numbers. Note that tabs cannot be
represented in TSV data, so we need to deal with that and warn the user.
Pasting back into pgAdmin also needs to support format changes.

- Add a drop-down menu to the Export button that the user can use to select
data format (the default remaining CSV). This can include XML, JSON and the
user-defined copy format (per above).

> Users need a way to quickly input content into pgAdmin
>
> Edit within graphic table
>

I don't understand that - you can already add/edit/delete data in a grid.

> Users need query output to be stored to reuse results
>
> Results stored in history
>

Typically users would use multiple query tool windows for that. Saving the
results in the history doesn't seem feasible - they can easily run into 10s
of MB or more.

> Users need an easier way to find saved queries
>
> Workspace, Search
>

This would need much more definition. In pgAdmin III we had Macros that
allowed you to insert standard queries you had saved in response to a
shortcut key, and Favourites that allowed you to store a library of
favourite queries and load or inject them into the editor. Plus of course,
you can save queries to the file system. What would help here?

Oh, and before you ask:
https://redmine.postgresql.org/projects/pgadmin4/issues/new :-)

Thanks.

>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Robert Eckhardt <reckhardt(at)pivotal(dot)io>
> wrote:
>
>> My main concern is making the right decisions on what to change, and
>>> focussing efforts in the areas where we gain most benefit. Of course,
>>> the resources to do the work are also critical - the current team
>>> already have a good years worth of work in various additional features
>>> and improvements.
>>>
>>
>> Absolutely our concern as well which is why we don't want to work in a
>> vacuum.
>>
>> -- Rob
>>
>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dave Page
>>> Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
>>> Twitter: @pgsnake
>>>
>>> EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
>>> The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Raffi Holzer
> Product Manager
> Pivotal Labs
>

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company