Make a Walk Through for new users on first run.

[bmcgonag]

As a new user / administrator in Databag, I'd like a first run Walk Through to help highlight the various portions of interaction in the user interface, so I can quickly learn how to use Databag to it's fullest.

[balzack]

This is awesome feedback, thank you!! I will be adding a walk-through and some tutorial videos in the next couple months. I'm in the middle of a couple new features; once I finish, that will be my focus.

1] to find a new user on your node, you go to the contact drawer/screen and click find new contact. Your server will be pre-populated, so searching will give you the results of your server. To find users on another node, you need to know the server name. You can test it with the public server 'databag.coredb.org'. I chose to avoid a centralized registry to remain as decentralized as possible.

2] For your account to show up in a search result, your need to set your account as visible.

3] If you create a topic with just one member, then it's equivalent to direct messaging, but creating that topic obviously less convenient that simply clicking on a contact. I would be totally open to adding this functionality if I could make it work in the UI, that's where I struggle the most as I am not a designer.

4] To search for someone on a federated server, you would need to be provided with that server name. If this turns out to be too big of an ask, I will start looking into building a centralized registry.

5] Setting up your user information shouldn't be required immediately, but it would mean that when you try and connect with someone, they would see your profile as empty.

6] My thought was that the admin would create links for each person they want to give an account to. They would then distribute those links through email. If public access to account creation is something important to have, then I will add that server configuration to the admin UI. For now you would need to ssh into the server and run:
sqlite3 /var/lib/databag/databag.db
insert into configs (config_id, num_value) values ("account_limit", 1024);
insert into configs (config_id, bool_value) values ("open_access", 1);

[bmcgonag]

Ok, I asked a lot on this issue, would you like me to create a few separate issues with some suggestions for workflow? I'm happy to do it, and thank you for the answers. We could leave this one as the Walk-through ticket.

[balzack]

It would be great if you could create a few separate issues for workflow suggestions. Thank you again!

[bmcgonag]

I adjusted the story on the first entry of this topic for the Walk Through only. I also created another story for the DM option. One last question. Does each user have to type in another server's URL in order to search for federated users? If so, might it be better to store it once someone has typed it in, and allow all other users to see people from that server as options?

[balzack]

Would this be an example of what you suggest: If there are two accounts on node 'sample.org', and one account searching for a contact, lists the accounts on 'node.databag.org', then 'node.databag.org' would be added to a dropdown. When the other account goes to search for contacts, they can select that server name from the dropdown or type in a new server name, which would be added to the dropdown.

If that is what you suggest, then there would need to be some additional rules. The admin should be able to have access to that list to prune typos or offensive names. The server names should auto expire, if not search in X days, then don't include in the dropdown.

I do like the idea. I think as it is it's too hard to find and add new users.

[bmcgonag]

I'll create a new story / ticket for the Search for federated users, and include your thoughts as well. Great ideas!