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  • "New! Improved!" Knowledge Center

    Is the "Knowledge Center" (KC) considered an IBM i "tool"? If not, maybe this should go under 'Anything Goes' (except this doesn't fit under 'iSeries Programming Languages' and also doesn't quite seem to be an 'OFF Topic' topic).

    Anyway, I'm really not impressed by the "New! Improved!" version. So far, I'm mostly against it. I'm using FF 46.0.1 in Linux, and maybe that's a problem.

    First thing I dislike is that way too many links force new windows even when 'Open in new tab' is selected. That's in common with the previous KC, so at least it's not new. But this iteration of the KC also seems to strip elements such as the navigation pane from most new tabs (when a new tab is allowed). It'd be no big deal if that pane was fully collapsed, but it's irritating when it's completely gone. I often want to see where a page falls in relation to all other topics, but that's now difficult. Even the heading at the top showing the path to the page is gone.

    Oddly, it also seemed to take a few page refreshes to get anything but blank, white pages to appear, at least during initial accesses. I leave the browser window open for quite a few days, so I haven't checked if it happens if I restart this laptop or if I restart FF.

    Maybe worst of all, there no longer seems to be any 'Feedback' nor 'Comment' links on pages. There is a standard 'Contact' link, but it's the generic "contact IBM" page. Of course, that page has a 'Feedback' link that brings up a generic kind of survey page.

    And I just ran into another 'Bad Request' page after trying to open a navigation pane link in a new tab. I'm seeing those maybe one out of every six attempts to open a linked page. I haven't zeroed in on a pattern.

    Are these FF idiosyncrasies for the KC site?

    I expect to give feedback on the new KC when I find an appropriate place. Perhaps through my current support contract, or maybe a developerWorks forum.

    Does anybody else have opinions on the new KC? Or how about usability tips?
    Last edited by tomliotta; June 12, 2016, 06:52 PM. Reason: Added an irritation
    Tom

    There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

    Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the universe are pointed away from Earth?

  • #2
    At least I see that 'Feedback' has been added at the bottom of pages sometime since my earlier attempts to find it. I still don't see much to be pleased about.

    I've also noticed a potentially interesting side-bar showing up to the right of 'Search' results. I haven't seen useful links there yet, but I'll try to keep looking them over.
    Tom

    There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

    Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the universe are pointed away from Earth?

    Comment


    • #3
      I'll have to find that feedback button now as the knowledge centre needs a lot of work.
      Recently I was looking up API documentation. After searching for the API and clicking the link, the documentation opened but I could only see a small fraction of it on the screen - and there are NO scrollbars to actually view the rest!! I had to open the documentation in a new tab in order to view it all.

      Comment


      • #4
        Apparently it's necessary to open API-finder links in a new tab or window now. If you just click the finder result link, it opens the entire page in that pane so that you get "The Knowledge Center" inside that pane of the Knowledge Center window. And when that happens, the various scroll controls don't exist. It's as if you get a kind of 'preview' of the page that you actually want, but with no way to use it.

        I guess it's just expected now that you'll always ask for a new tab or window, so it defaults to an unusable form.

        Tom

        There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

        Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the universe are pointed away from Earth?

        Comment

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