launchpad development
The issue: serving two audiences
As far as I understand, the current PPA index page has evolved from an initial requirement serve developers and packagers - whose main PPA needs are focused on building and testing packages.
Over time, we have seen a gradual shift to also serve the needs of PPA users - people who just want to use the software provided by a PPA.
As a result, the PPA index page has become quite complicated - trying to provide simple instructions for adding the PPA to your system, indicating the current status of builds, filtering and paginating through packages and links to functionality to copy packages etc., all on the one interface.
Part of the problem is that, even though the url of the page (+ppa/ppa_name) represents a singular object - a personal archive, due to the needs of the initial developer base, we have pulled information that should really have been at +ppa/ppa_name/packages up into the ppa index page.
Re-design ideas
1. Simplify PPA page by providing separate packages URL
One idea is to simplify the PPA page so that it describes the singular PPA, summarising its most popular packages and most recently uploaded packages etc.:
As the owner or uploader or admin, you will also see two additional portlets on the above page for "Build summary status" and "Repository disk usage".
Option 1: To smooth the transition, we could keep the list of source packages at the bottom of the page, but any interaction with it (ie. filtering or paginating) will then use the +ppa/ppa_name/packages url to handle the request.
Identified issues for discussion
Changing the url for browsing packages is a big move - and perhaps unwanted - this idea would change the url where packages are browsed to +ppa/ppa_name/packages - which might not be a welcome change for people who are very used to the source packages being displayed at +ppa/ppa_name. I personally don't see the 'extra-click' as an issue, as uploaders/owners will quickly start navigating directly to +ppa/ppa_name/packages, but a number of people have expressed concern.
We cannot (yet) implement most popular packages - the infrastructure for most popular packages isn't planned to be implemented until post 3-0. This means that users who browse to the PPA page will only see most recently uploaded packages, and potentially will need to click on the 'All packages' link to verify that the package that they are interested is present. One solution to this is to temporarily still include the sources table at the bottom of the page, but as soon as the user clicks 'next page' or filters, it will use the /packages url. This option may provide a smoother transition anyway.
There is no side-content - Most-recent-uploads could possibly be considered notifications for the side-portlet (currently there is not anything relevant for the well-defined contents of the side-portlet). This is not an issue, but the side content does look great in other designs
- Given that the main use-case for people using the PPA index page is use the software, that section should go above the other portlets (beuno's suggestion)
