Is It Just Me?

[SoftwarePolice]

I am a new user of DirectAdmin (which was foisted on me by my hosting company) so please take my comments in that light.

This must be one of the poorest products that I have had to use in a long time. Just a few examples of the poor design/functionality include:

1. Many links on many pages are not highlighted as links so the only way to find them is to run the mouse all over the screen. Underlined blue for links may not be very trendy but at least it's obvious!
2. The help screens are useless. All they do is reiterate what is already stated on the screen being looked at.
3. Every page has the same title so using the browsers back button to navigate back half a dozen pages or so is like russian roulette.
4. The file manager is surely a joke? If anyone out there uses it in preference to any of the freely available FTP programs, please enlighten me as to what I'm missing.

I could go on but I'm having to waste time setting stuff up by trial and error.

 

[thoroughfare]

It's just you

Seriously, ask your host to consider using a different skin which may address some issues you're experiencing. Your first port of call should be them - tell them how you feel.

Matt

 

[jmstacey]

What skin are you using SoftwarePolice?
The original skin had more obvious links than the enhanced one.

What is the filemanager lacking that you feel it is missing?

 

[SoftwarePolice]

The skin would appear to be called "enhanced". Something of a misnomer I think. I changed it to default and half the options disappeared, including everything to do with e-mails! I changed it back again. Having learnt some things on enhanced it would be crazy to have to relearn them again with a completely different user interface.

As for the file manager, haven't you guys heard of that 1970's feature called drag and drop? Have a look at SmartFTP (for one) and see how quick and easy that is for copying files around a domain. Do you seriously expect someone to click boxes to select some files, press the add to clipboard button - wait for a new screen to load, navigate to a new directory - wait for a new screen to load, press copy clipboard files here - wait for a new screen to load, find out that the clipboard contains some stuff left over from the last operation, hunt for the undo button. Oh there isn't one. Good grief!

And then I find out that this isn't even free software! You expect the Gnu stuff to be a little geeky but commercial software?

Still pissed but still willing to learn if there's something here worth perservering with

 

[jmstacey]

I was going to mention that the default skin is no longer kept up to date and is only included for archival purposes you might say.

What control panel did you use previously that had a drag-and-drop filemanager?
I don't know of any. Webmin, the last version of cpanel that I tried had/have the same style...
I guess it could be concievable to add an aplet of some sort that imitated an ftp programs functionality, but I don't see that happening (at least in the near future).

The FileManager is not for large or fast data transfers at least in it's current state.

 

[DamnSkippy]

I have not seen one that is drag and drop either. I will say that DA's file manager is not that great. I have been using (and still do use) hsphere and it has a very nice file manager.

If any of the DA guys want to take a look at it for ideas I will make you an account

 

[SoftwarePolice]

I think you're missing the point I was trying to make which is:

Why do you need a file manager at all as part of the product?

 

[resolveit]

1) Because a lot of my customers don't know how to use a FTP client and find a web interface much easier to work with.
2) Because you cannot install software everywhere you are.
3) Because port 21 is blocked by several corporate firewalls.
4) Because sometimes you need to make a small change to a file and it's stupidity to download and install a FTP client to edit 1 line of HTML.

Just my 2c worth...

Regards,
Onno Vrijburg

 

[ballyn]

I think you're missing the point I was trying to make which is:

Why do you need a file manager at all as part of the product?

Because all commercial control panels have one.

Compared to Cpanel's, DA's is a huge improvement. The clipboard functionality and the ability to grab the clipboard files to a compressed archive is something you won't find in Cpanel last I checked.

If you're unhappy with the control panel, stick with your ftp client... it's fully supported.

I'd be interested to hear what you're comparing DA against.

 

[matrixx]

I am a new user of DirectAdmin (which was foisted on me by my hosting company) so please take my comments in that light.

Hello,

What problems are you having in particular - I hear that DA was foisted on you, but why moan about it here? Moan at your webhost or just change hosts to one that still runs cpanel.

If you've got a real problem with DA then why not post it here, there are a good bunch of people happy to help you work through just about anything.

Rob

 

[SoftwarePolice]

1) Because a lot of my customers don't know how to use a FTP client and find a web interface much easier to work with.
2) Because you cannot install software everywhere you are.
3) Because port 21 is blocked by several corporate firewalls.
4) Because sometimes you need to make a small change to a file and it's stupidity to download and install a FTP client to edit 1 line of HTML.

1) I find that really hard to believe, but OK.
2) I always take my computer everywhere with me, so N/A in my case.
3) In which case I either wait until I get back to base or if it's urgent, use dial up.
4) ?

 

[SoftwarePolice]

I'd be interested to hear what you're comparing DA against.

I'm not comparing it against anything. It's just a really badly designed piece of software with no useable documentation.

As an example, I was messing about with some mailing list settings yesterday and wanted to know what the various controls do and what were valid entries for the various boxes. The documentation simply says (and I quote).

"The configuration menu is best used by those who have experience with Majordomo. We suggest you visit the Majordomo Home Page for more information."

Of course the Majordomo home page and help knows nothing about the names of boxes in Direct Admin so one is left guessing which parameters on the DA screen tie up with which configuration parameters in Majordomo. Doh!

After about 30 minutes I managed to figure out how to restrict the mailing list to registered users but I'm still not able to figure out how to prevent automatic registration to the list via e-mail.

So, as a specific enhancement request, how about putting a ? icon next to each box on every page (or better still a rollover popup box) to bring up immediate useable help on each and every parameter.

 

[nobaloney]

I'm not comparing it against anything. It's just a really badly designed piece of software with no useable documentation.

That's your opinion. There are a lot of people happily using it.

Of course the Majordomo home page and help knows nothing about the names of boxes in Direct Admin so one is left guessing which parameters on the DA screen tie up with which configuration parameters in Majordomo.

The configuration settings on the DA configuration page match exactly the names used by Majordomo in the list-specific configuration file.

After about 30 minutes I managed to figure out how to restrict the mailing list to registered users but I'm still not able to figure out how to prevent automatic registration to the list via e-mail.

The best place to ask that would probably be on the majordomo-users list.

Or get and read a copy of list-owner-info, which DA doesn't send you when you create a new list. I've set up a generic one here.

Note, however, that mine is generic, and uses words such as "listname" instead of your real list name.

So, as a specific enhancement request, how about putting a ? icon next to each box on every page (or better still a rollover popup box) to bring up immediate useable help on each and every parameter.

Not a bad idea, but I doubt it'd happen, since it would clutter the interface to the point of making it slow and cumbersome to experienced users.

Your best bet is probably to notify your hosting company of your dissatisfaction, as they could certainly build a custom skin, or buy or create flash movies that describe and demonstrate the various options, as many of us have.

Jeff

Jeff

 

[nobaloney]

1. Many links on many pages are not highlighted as links so the only way to find them is to run the mouse all over the screen. Underlined blue for links may not be very trendy but at least it's obvious!

The lack of underlined links bothered me for the first week or so, but once I got used to the DA style, I preferred it. Perhaps you should give yourself some time.

2. The help screens are useless. All they do is reiterate what is already stated on the screen being looked at.

I've found the help screens quite helpful, but if you don't you can find on the 'net, or ask you hosting company to provide, some of the excellent flash movies available for teahing DA.

#. Every page has the same title so using the browsers back button to navigate back half a dozen pages or so is like russian roulette.

It's probably not a good idea to use the back arrow in this, as well as in many other, programmatically-driven websites. Most DirectAdmin pages have navigation paths on them; I find them the best way to move around the site.

4. The file manager is surely a joke? If anyone out there uses it in preference to any of the freely available FTP programs, please enlighten me as to what I'm missing.

Referring to some of your other posts in this thread, your customers will, because they don't take the time to learn FTP.

In another post you asked about the lack of drag and drop. Other posters pointed out that they'd never seen that anywhere in a web-based file manager.

If that's available in any browser, it would be as a nonstandard feature, and so would be browser dependent. Of course the file manager could be implemented as a java program rather than as an html page, but then wouldn't it be as complex as FTP?

On the subject of FTP, we find our simplistic clients are more likely to use FTP and never even log in through the web-based interface than the other way around, but of course your mileage may vary.

Note: You've made your point clear. We know you don't like DA. Continuing to say it over and over again will just get your posts removed, your threads locked or deleted. Please use the forum for constructive posting.

Thanks.

Jeff

 

[SoftwarePolice]

OK. I'll quit complaining, although I thought this was a feedback forum.

However, there are some useful points in my posts even though I could perhaps have put it better. Feedback from a new user often gives valuable insight into things that more experienced users have forgotten because they've figured out how it works.

I quite simply don't have the time to spend figuring it out which is the cause of my frustration. I plan to go back to my previous way of working if at all possible which is that I e-mail requests to my hosting service and they figure out how to fix the problems. What else am I paying them for?

 

[rldev]

Why not ask your hosting service for some tutorials. It makes things very easy in many instances.

 

[nobaloney]

I quite simply don't have the time to spend figuring it out which is the cause of my frustration.

That's a good point, but the place to make it is with your hosting company, because they're the ones who moved you to a DirectAdmin-based server.

I plan to go back to my previous way of working if at all possible which is that I e-mail requests to my hosting service and they figure out how to fix the problems. What else am I paying them for?

That may be the best for you, and depending on how much you pay for hosting, it may be ideal for your hosting company as well.

We offer hosting at three different price points depending on what amount of support our clients expect. The highest price point comes with complete support; the lient either calls or emails us, and we manage their hosting for them.

Jeff

 

[Chrysalis]

I think there is 1 problem I noticed.

You say only the enhanced skin is developed now, but if you look at site-helper.com it is based on the basic skin.

 

[matrixx]

I think there is 1 problem I noticed.

You say only the enhanced skin is developed now, but if you look at site-helper.com it is based on the basic skin.

I agree - site-helper is now way way out of date.

Maybe theres a simpler way of doing things like having an integrated help system that users can toggle on and off?

Rob

 

[SoftwarePolice]

Most well designed modern web sites (and web based applications) are all data driven. Things like link text and graphics, screen positioning, menu items, commands, associated help texts, colors, etc. are all stored on a database.

This allows you to very easily:

• Setup customized versions for individual users with only the commands/applications they each need.
• Have individual skins for each user that are designed and maintained by the user.
• Have different user levels (no help, some help, lots of help).
• And any number of other things.

I noticed someone else asking for customizable versions in another thread. As long as DA is written in modules, implementation would be easy, maintenance a breeze and adding new features quick.