Pager tutorial draft

[Allison Bloodworth]

Hi Anastasia,

Very nice job on the tutorial! It was very helpful for me to read this  
as it gave me a better understanding (in a concrete context) of what  
the component does and doesn't do, what an implementor would need to  
do, what they need to think about that's outside the component, etc.  
It's also so much easier to understand because you describe the  
process within a realistic 'scenario.'

Reading the tutorial made me realize that a couple of things (which  
the component doesn't take care of) should be added to the Pagination  
design pattern (http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Pagination+Design+Pattern 
), so I just did that. I also added the the table we have been talking  
about adding in the "How" of this design pattern, telling implementors  
what is and is not taken care of in the component. Perhaps you could  
take a quick look at this table and check off things the component  
will definitely take care of, or things the implementor would have to  
configure?

I also think it would also be great to have links in the tutorials to  
the relevant design patterns which can give more detail. Going  
forward, it would be fantastic if the person writing the tutorial and  
the person leading the work on the design pattern (I think Erin is for  
Pagination) coordinated those two documents, made sure the appropriate  
links & information were there, and made sure the documents gave the  
same directions. Right now it seems like the Pagination Design Pattern  
gives slightly different directions than the tutorial (e.g. for the  
last link the design pattern recommends using "7 (last)", using "next  
 >" instead of "next," etc.).

I have a couple of suggestions about the tutorial:
1) To me, naming the div containing the pager 'my-search-results'  
isn't entirely intuitive as it seems that the actual search results  
are in the table above. What about naming it 'fluid-pager' or 'my- 
pager'?
2) The sentence, "Also, when you're on the first or last link, it  
would be nice if the 'previous' and 'next' links were disabled" I  
think is a great example of something that could reference a design  
pattern. I also think we can also make this statement a little more  
strongly, e.g. "Also, when you're on the first or last link the 'next'  
or 'previous' link should (usually) be disabled. See the [Pagination  
Design Pattern] for more info on this."

This is great stuff--I'm excited to see how all of our component  
documentation is coming together!

Allison

On Jul 23, 2008, at 1:13 PM, Anastasia Cheetham wrote:

>
> I've put up a first draft of a tutorial for the Pager on the wiki -
> it's a first attempt to describe something that's an odd task. If
> anyone feels like having a look at it, I encourage constructive
> criticism!
>
> http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Pager+Tutorial
>
> -- 
> Anastasia Cheetham                   a.cheetham at utoronto.ca
> Software Designer, Fluid Project    http://fluidproject.org
> Adaptive Technology Resource Centre / University of Toronto
>
> _______________________________________________
> fluid-work mailing list
> fluid-work at fluidproject.org
> http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work

Allison Bloodworth
Senior User Interaction Designer
Educational Technology Services
University of California, Berkeley
(415) 377-8243
abloodworth at berkeley.edu