Data Access View - Green button greyed out without graph open

Prerequisites

• Put an X between the brackets on this line if you have done all of the following:
  • Running the latest version of Constellation
  • Attached the Support Package via Help > Support Package
  • Checked the FAQs: https://github.com/constellation-app/constellation/wiki/FAQ
  • Checked that your issue isn’t already filed: https://github.com/constellation-app/constellation/issues
  • Checked that there is not already a module that provides the described functionality: https://github.com/constellation-app/constellation/wiki/Catalogue-of-Repositories

Description

When I open the Data Access View, I can check some plugins to run but I am not able to click on Go. It took some time to figure out that a new graph has to be opened first.

This is not intuitive so some thought to improve the UX is required.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Data Access View
2. Select a plugin

Expected behaviour: The Go button should be green

Actual behaviour: The Go button is disabled because there is no open graph.

Reproduces how often: 100%

Additional Information

Some suggestions:

• Can the Go button be enabled and if there is no graph opened then can the default graph be opened before the Data Access Plugin runs?

[aldebaran30701]

I can see how that implementation will benefit the application as a whole, moving forward. A few error messages could be done away with using the technique @cygnus-x-1 describes. I am preparing a pull request with the complete code and should be able to get it out today.

[arcturus2]

That’s a fair point @cygnus-x-1. If we can solve this problem in a consistent way that all views adhere to then that would be ideal. The idea of presenting a translucent overlay with a warning letting the user know they need to open a graph before they can use the data access view can be applied to pretty much all of the views.

This issue keeps tripping up new users and is a great UX case study to get fixed properly.

@cygnus-x-1 can you share the code for translucent overlay? Also, would you like to create an issue describing how you would like this translucent layer to work?

Depending on how long it takes to get that working, I’m wondering if we can use the solution @aldebaran30701 described to start with and then solve this problem by using the solution @cygnus-x-1 has described.

If we go down this route of a quick fix initially then @aldebaran30701 can you please add a comment in the code to say that the if block should be removed once we get the solution @cygnus-x-1 has suggested in (and quote the issue number)?

Thoughts?