The all new FirstClass 8.3 User Interface FirstClass has distinguished itself over the years through the breadth of its feature set, low total cost of ownership, remarkable scalability and robustness, and strong cross-platform support. As new features have been added over time they have been layered on to the existing user interface. In some cases this has made it more challenging for users to discover and take advantage of the new capabilities that have been added to the product. Also, since the user interface of FirstClass was so unique to FirstClass new users sometimes had a longer learning curve since it worked differently than other applications that they may have had prior experience with. In FirstClass 8.3 a significant effort has gone into redesigning the FirstClass user interface. Key design goals included: make the basic product more familiar and easy to learn for novice users make the advanced capabilities of the product more discoverable for all users modernize the graphical user interface to provide a "state of the art" user experience harmonize the different modes of the user interface into one integrated model with a range of customization options provide system administrators with more control over the look and feel which their users experience. FirstClass has had a great track record over the years of making system and user upgrades quick and largely transparent to end users. With the breadth of changes to the user interface in FirstClass 8.3 this upgrade will be noticed by your users! This document is intended to familiarize FirstClass system administrators with these new user interface changes in order to help prepare for the rollout of this exciting new release. The Underlying Model In the past, the underlying model of the FirstClass user interface has been that of a graphical desktop similar to what is provided by the Windows or Macintosh operating systems. Users have been provided with a virtual "Desktop" which contained a wide array of applications and files, each represented by a graphical icon that could be placed anywhere on the Desktop by the end user. Users launched applications or opened files by simply double-clicking the appropriate icon. A few years back a new "Explore" mode was added to FirstClass, enabling users to replace the FirstClass Desktop user interface with a multi-paned suite of windows for more efficient navigation through large lists of files and folders. This mode was typically only used by power users who appreciated the ability to navigate through large amounts of information quickly. Unfortunately, users running in this mode lost the benefits of the graphical nature of the FirstClass desktop. In recent years most computer users have become familiar with additional user interface models beyond the desktop model including: The browser model with forward/back navigation between diverse applications (web sites) and the concept of favorites for jumping to new applications The communications suite model as illustrated by popular groupware applications like Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes that provide a multi-application environment within a single window.
In FirstClass 8.3 we have preserved the traditional FirstClass Desktop model and seamlessly extended it with key concepts from the communications suites model and the browser model. The old "Explore" mode has been eliminated and effectively replaced by a new navigation pane that can be hidden and displayed at the click of a button. This navigation pane includes a launch bar for quick access to the key FirstClass applications. In addition, we've added "forward" and "back" buttons to enable users to easily navigate through work in progress. Also, we've beefed up the prominence and ease of use of bookmarks to enable easier navigation to both FirstClass and web-based content. With these enhancements the powerful FirstClass Desktop metaphor is available to all users, and at the same time all users can easily navigate through their FirstClass applications with the familiar navigation pane and browser-style controls. Key Changes for Users FirstClass users will notice a number of enhancements when they upgrade to a FirstClass 8.3 client. This section provides an overview of the key user-visible changes. The new Navigation Pane The navigation pane is an evolution of the Explore mode introduced in FirstClass 7.1 and subsequently enhanced in FirstClass 8.2. The navigation pane is divided into two sections. The explore pane in the upper portion provides a drill-down view of whatever objects are tied in to the currently selected application. The launch bar in the lower portion provides a convenient way of quickly moving between different FirstClass applications. For FirstClass 8.3 the navigation pane can be displayed or hidden at the touch of a button. In fact there are three ways to control the availability of the navigation pane: 1 users can close the navigation pane by clicking on the "X" in the upper right hand corner of the launch bar 2 users can open and close the navigation pane by double-clicking on the vertical bar on the side of the launch bar that contains a black triangle 3 users can open and close the navigation pane by simply clicking
on the new toggle button in the lower left hand corner of the client (in the status bar) Users will find that as they use the navigation pane they will significantly reduce the number of different windows that are open at a given time. Also, FirstClass will store a user's setting for this between sessions.
The New Toolbar With FirstClass 8.3 the toolbar has been redesigned to provide large, higher resolution icons. In addition, the toolbar is now context-sensitive so it will display application-specific buttons that are tied to the context of the currently active application. These changes will make it easier for users to discover features within each application. Also new browser style back/forward buttons have been added to enable users to quickly jump around between contexts they have established as they work with FirstClass. The help icon on the application toolbar is always context sensitive. Pressing the Help icon in an application will open a help document providing information about the application you are currently in. Full online help can be accessed from the Desktop Help icon, or from the Help drop-down menu at the top of the screen. Desktop toolbar: Mailbox toolbar: Documents toolbar:
The FirstClass Applications With FirstClass 8.3 users will have much more visibility to the breadth of applications available within FirstClass. All applications will be available at all times; however for some applications the administrator can apply restrictions that limit the capabilities of what the user can do within the application. An overview of each of the applications along with how it works in restricted mode is provided below. Mail The Mail application is the foundation application of FirstClass. It is required for all users. The administrator can apply restrictions to the user's mail features such as prohibiting user to user mail, or prohibiting the sending of mail to the internet. Even with those restrictions in place the mail application is used for sending mail internally within the system including to conferences since a copy of all sent messages is stored in the user's mailbox. Calendar If the administrator enables the Calendar permission for all users or a group of users, these users can then share their calendars and invite other users to events. If a user doesn't have the calendar permission turned on they are restricted to using it for personal scheduling only. Contacts All users have a personal Contacts folder on their Desktops. If the Contacts application is enabled, a user can address mail to anyone in his Contacts folder the same way he does for anyone listed in the Directory. If this application is not enabled, the Contacts folder can still be used as a storage container for personal contacts. Documents The new Documents application is available to all users. Users can use this application to create and store FirstClass documents.
File Storage The new File Storage application is available to all users. It provides a convenient location for storing computer files such as spreadsheets, photos, music, video clips and so on. Note that per group based file restrictions feature that enables an administrator to block the upload/download of specified file types and/or specified file names will apply to files in the File Storage application just as it applies to files uploaded elsewhere in FirstClass. Trash Can When users delete objects or have objects that expire these objects will appear in the Trash Can for the length of time specified by the administrator on the Limits tab of the Group Privileges form. We suggest you set a minimum removal expiry first at the All Users level and increase it as required for other groups of users. Users can undelete items from the Trash Can, or can drag items from the Trash Can to other folders on their Desktops, thereby undeleting the item. Conferences All users have access to the conferences area. As the administrator, you can make selected conferences available in the Conferences area by placing them here. This is useful for publishing access to standard organization level conferences that are accessible to all users. Workspaces A workspace is a user-created space that can be used for a wide range of activities such as managing projects and activities, sharing files and documents and so on. If the administrator grants the Share Workspaces privilege to a user, the user can invite other users in to share a workspace. If a user does not have the Share Workspaces privilege, he/she can still use this application to create and organize personal projects, but will not have the ability to add any Workspace Members. Instant Messaging If the Private Chat feature is not enabled, the user can open the Instant Messaging application, but cannot invite anyone to chat.
Web Publishing Users can easily create a personal web site including regular web pages, blogs, and even podcasts in this folder. Content created here can be rendered directly to the web by Internet Services if the user has Web Publishing privilege turned on. If this privilege is not turned on the user can still create web content, but this content cannot be accessed via the web. Bookmarks Users can use the Bookmarks application to store, manage, and user internal and external bookmarks/favorites. This application is available to all users. In FirstClass 8.3 the ability to import bookmarks directly from a web browser has been added. Help This Help application provides a set of help files that explain many of the basic tasks FirstClass users will want to perform. You can add additional help material if you wish by adding documents to the Help folder on the administrator s Desktop. Users can access the Help contents by choosing Help > Help contents, or by pressing F1 at any time within FirstClass. The Help application is available to all users at all times. User Interface changes "under the hood" of FirstClass 8.3 The previous sections focused on changes that your users will see when they upgrade to FirstClass 8.3. This section describes some of the changes within FirstClass 8.3 affecting the user interface that are primarily of interest to System Administrators. The "All Desktops" group In past versions of FirstClass, it wasn't easy for the administrator to change the view properties of existing user Desktops. Changes made to the All Users model Desktop view properties (new backgrounds, Desktop size, etc.) and to standard objects (Address book renamed to Contacts, etc.) only affected users created after the change. This resulted in inconsistent layout schemes among users' Desktops which then created difficulties for administrators in providing end user support. Administrators consistently told us they wanted to be able to update all users and bring a consistent look to their site. Although this was all possible through various FirstClass tools, the planning and execution of a site overhaul was daunting. In FirstClass 8.3 this issue has been solved through the creation of a new standard container template named All Desktops. The All Desktops template determines the Desktop view properties for all users new and existing. This provides administrators with a much more powerful way of managing the look and feel of their users' Desktops
since All Desktops view property changes made by the administrator will be sent out dynamically to each user each time they log in. As in the past, users are free to further customize the view properties of their own Desktops if they choose to do so. If they do, these changes "stick" even when the All Desktops template is changed to avoid resetting these power users' Desktops. However, there is now an easy way for end users to restore their Desktop view back to the system default as set by All Desktops by simply clicking on the "default" button in the View Properties window of the Desktop. Scalable icons Prior to FirstClass 8.3 all icons were fixed in size and displayed in their native (unscaled) size. FirstClass contained two icon families, "small icons" which are 16x16 in size, and "icons" which were typically 32x32 in size (but they could be other sizes as well). Icons were stored in the Apple Macintosh ICON graphics format. For FirstClass 8.3 a new scalable icon technology has been added to the product. Icons are now stored in the PNG graphics format, and they may be created at any size. These new icons are dynamically scalable and can scale anywhere from 16x16 up to 128x128 in size. A new suite of higher resolution icons has been provided as part of the 8.3 release. The new standard icon size is 64x64. In FirstClass 8.3 there are two modes in which the icons within a container (a Desktop, a conference, etc.) can be viewed: by "icon" view or by "scaled icon" view. In "icon" view each icon is displayed in its actual size. This enables a mixture of icon sizes within the window. In "scaled icon" view all icons within the window are scaled to the same selected size. The icon view can be changed through the "View" menu either by selecting the appropriate choice from the menu or selecting "Change View Properties" and selecting the appropriate choice from the "Display format" field on the "Sorting" tab. Icon size, when using "scaled icon" view, is controlled by adjusting the slider on the "Icons" tab of the "Change View Properties" form. Note that the "scaled icon" view in FirstClass 8.3 is a redefinition of the old "small icon" view. If you previously had "small icon" view selected for a container prior to FirstClass 8.3 it will show up as "scaled icon" view with a size set at 16x16 with a FirstClass 8.3 client. Also, if you had a container such as a conference that was set to "icon" view in the FirstClass 8.3 upgrade it will be set to "scaled icon" with a size set at 32x32. Older clients accessing such a conference will see the traditional "icon" view that they have always seen for that container; only 8.3 clients will take advantage of the new scaled icons feature for displaying the container. A new set of scalable system icons will be provided as part of the system upgrade. Most, if not all, of the old standard icons have new scalable equivalents that will be automatically used. Custom icons in the 28000 range will not be touched; this should enable sites to preserve custom icons they have created over time. After upgrading your server to FirstClass 8.3 but before upgrading users to the FirstClass 8.3 client we suggest that you look at your various groups and general conferences and make any layout adjustments such as icon placement and icon scaling as necessary. The standard applications
Standard applications are available to all users in either the full version or the restricted version as described above. The administrator can remove an application icon from the All Desktops model Desktop and this will remove the icon from all users' Desktops. However, the user still has access to the application either through the Launch Bar or by choosing File > Open > Calendar (for example). Localizing standard objects In the past, there was no way to localize standard Desktop objects. No matter what language your system used, the Mailbox was always called the Mailbox. With FirstClass 8.3's new modeling capabilities you can change the text of standard objects and have all users see those changes. The Administrator's Desktop The view template provided by "All Desktops" will NOT be applied to the administrator's desktop. This means that when an administrator logs in to a FirstClass 8.3 server the basic layout, background graphic and icon size should be the same as it was before the upgrade. Note however that two new conferences will be added to the Administrator's desktop as part of the FirstClass 8.3 upgrade process. These are: A new conference called FC Control, which will be used in the future as a location for FirstClass software and content upgrades to be sent. A new conference called Object Templates, which contains all the templates used for the standard FirstClass applications. Also, the "All Desktops" container template will be added in to the Groups folder as part of the FirstClass 8.3 upgrade process.
What happens to the user interface when you upgrade to FirstClass 8.3? When you install FirstClass 8.3 on your FirstClass server the upgrade process will install all the new software, icons, background images, buttons, and so on that are required to provide the new FirstClass 8.3 user interface. However, users running a FirstClass 8.2 or older client won't experience the new user interface; instead they'll continue to see the same user interface they were experiencing prior to the 8.3 upgrade. When a user logs in to a FirstClass 8.3 server with a FirstClass 8.3 client for the first time a number of changes are applied to the user's account to prepare it to the new user interface. Toolbar changes
First, all custom toolbars are cleared to make way for the new context-driven toolbars that are provided as part of FirstClass 8.3. Toolbar customizations can be added back in after the initial login. Desktop view changes If the user Desktop was displayed in "small icon" view prior to upgrading to FirstClass 8.3 then the view is changed to "scaled icon" view with an icon size of 16x16. The user will not notice any significant change in the layout of their actual desktop. If the user Desktop was displayed in "icon" view prior to upgrading to FirstClass 8.3 then the user's old desktop view properties are deleted by the upgrade and the user's new desktop view properties are provided based on the "All Desktops" container template. This will change the layout of the user's Desktop as follows: The background image from "All Desktops" is applied. The FirstClass 8.3 upgrade process supplies a new default Desktop background image in "All Desktops" but, of course, you are free to replace this with your own custom background image as the system default Desktop background image. The icon style information from "All Desktops" is applied. The FirstClass 8.3 upgrade process sets this to be "icon" view by default. This means that some icons (such as the new application icons) will be displayed at 64x64, and older icons will remain at their default size (generally 32x32). You can, of course, change this default view property to, for instance, "scaled icon" and then set the size to 32; doing so will result in your users seeing all icons (new and old) rendered at 32x32. The positioning of the standard applications icons from "All Desktops" is applied. This will move these icons on the user's Desktop so they match what is in "All Desktops". The FirstClass 8.3 upgrade process establishes a default for the placement of these icons that matches the default background image provided in the upgrade process. This places the standard application icons along the left hand side and the top of the Desktop window. Again, you are free to customize this to meet your needs, however be aware that if you choose a different layout for the position of your standard applications icons, your users may have to tune the placement of their desktop icons when they upgrade to FirstClass 8.3 (see next point). All other icons on the user's desktop are moved 96 pixels down and 96 pixels to the right. This has been done to make room in the Desktop window for the new default placement of the standard application icons. Note that if you have decided to go with a different layout than the default supplied with the FirstClass 8.3 upgrade for your default Desktop then this icon shift may result in your end users needing to move them back (a one-time activity) to a more appropriate place. For users and user groups that have little Desktop view customization over the standard shipping product the one-time changes described above should move them to the much more modern 8.3 Desktop layout with little tuning required. For users and user groups that have done substantial customization in the past and who wish to retain that customization, more effort will be required to modify the provided defaults to achieve the desired layout. For example, a standard user desktop prior to FirstClass 8.3 is shown here:
After upgrading to FirstClass 8.3 using the standard shipping defaults the new Desktop view (with navigation pane turned on) looks like this:
After upgrading to FirstClass 8.3 using the standard shipping defaults the new Desktop view (with navigation pane turned off) looks like this:
FAQs Can I delete the All Desktops group? No. You should never delete a standard group from the Groups folder. When will my users see the new user interface changes take place? The changes will only appear to users once they have logged into the 8.3 server with an 8.3 client. We will delay placing the 8.3 client on the FirstClass website for user downloading after the initial release of FirstClass 8.3 to give you the opportunity to prepare for your system upgrade. Each administrator can manage the timing of the distribution of the 8.3 client to their users. What is the difference between All Users and All Desktops? All Desktops precedes All Users and affects existing users' view properties. All Desktops is a container template that controls view properties and can distribute resources. All Users retains its current functionality. Can I delete one or more of the standard applications from All Desktops if we don't support the application's use? You can do this, however you should be aware that the user can gain access to any of the standard applications (some in personal productivity mode) by opening the application through the File > Open menu command. Will users be able to reset their Desktops to how they were before the upgrade? Yes. Some users may have customized their Desktops in a way that works very well for them, and they can restore that with a small amount of effort. However we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback on the new layout and icons and we feel strongly that users will greatly benefit from this step forward in the client user experience and they should be encouraged to use it before reverting back to their old Desktops. The steps required to restore a user's Desktop to the look and feel prior to the 8.3 upgrade include: the user should log in to the 8.3 server with an 8.3 client and have the Desktop displayed go to the View menu and select "View by Scaled Icon" go to the View menu and select "Change View Properties" within the View Properties window click the "Icons" tab and move the slider to select an icon size of 32 within the View Properties window click the "Background" tab, ensure "Use background picture" is selected, and choose the desired image move the Application Icons to their desired position from their default position along the top and left hand sides of the window move all other icons back to their desired position (the user can select all icons at once and drag all left and up by 96 pixels)