Details
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Epic
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Status: Resolved (View Workflow)
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Major
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Resolution: Fixed
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2.0: Out of the box experience
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Description
Problem Description
When a new user installs Jenkins, they are greeted with the main, empty, dashboard which suggests that they "create jobs." This makes no mention of plugins or the configuration options that are relevant to helping the user make Jenkins match their needs.
Proposal
Instead of changing the post-install defaults, which may not properly represent the user's needs, the first-time user experience should help guide the user through configuration and plugin installation quickly so they can use Jenkins for their needs. Effectively it should be as easy as possible for a user to arrive at a good configuration for their usage.
Part of this would entail:
- Changing how plugin bundling works, no automatically installing plugins just for backward compatibility
- Encouraging use of pipeline-as-code enhancements discussed previously
Impact
This would primarily change the way in which first-time users would use Jenkins.
Open Questions
Attachments
Issue Links
- is blocking
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JENKINS-33281 Release Jenkins 2.0
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- Closed
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Activity
pkleanthous Right, AFAICT this is what the plugin I link to already does.
FWIW the trend seems to be towards tools like Chef (rather than plain SCM), and adding a DSL for Jenkins system configuration is currently being considered. Likely won't make it into 2.0 though.
Hi danielbeck thanks for the info. You are right this it can be done better via a configuration management tool.
Daniel Beck,
The intent of having a wizard-guided UI experience for first-time use is to help the user get Jenkins configured quickly, in a manner that suits their needs, without having to fully understand all of the various configuration screens, fields, plug-ins, etc. that they currently need to understand.
The numbered example items I listed are not fully thought through. They would need to be clarified, expanded, and put into a tree structure, so responses to fundamental questions would lead to more specific questions, and exclude questions that are not applicable. I other words a flowchart-driven set of prompts.
As for users not being equipped to deal with all the questions that the configuration wizard might present, this is a valid criticism. This can be addressed by providing a worksheet the user can print out, to help them collect the info they'll need to gather before beginning the wizard. Or the wizard can allow responses to be saved at any point, so the wizard can be resumed at a later time and completed once all info is gathered.
If done poorly, this just creates a redundant set of screens that are harder to use than the existing configuration screens, or leave the system configured only to a small degree. But if implemented well, this could help users get Jenkins up-and-ruinning – in a manner suitable for their organization – very quickly.and easily. Fine-tuning the final configuration – including the addition of various plug-ins and their settings – would be beyond the scope of this initial configuration wizard, and would require the existing UI.
- Michael
Michael Litwak
added a comment - - edited Daniel Beck,
The intent of having a wizard-guided UI experience for first-time use is to help the user get Jenkins configured quickly, in a manner that suits their needs, without having to fully understand all of the various configuration screens, fields, plug-ins, etc. that they currently need to understand.
The numbered example items I listed are not fully thought through. They would need to be clarified, expanded, and put into a tree structure, so responses to fundamental questions would lead to more specific questions, and exclude questions that are not applicable. I other words a flowchart-driven set of prompts.
As for users not being equipped to deal with all the questions that the configuration wizard might present, this is a valid criticism. This can be addressed by providing a worksheet the user can print out, to help them collect the info they'll need to gather before beginning the wizard. Or the wizard can allow responses to be saved at any point, so the wizard can be resumed at a later time and completed once all info is gathered.
If done poorly, this just creates a redundant set of screens that are harder to use than the existing configuration screens, or leave the system configured only to a small degree. But if implemented well, this could help users get Jenkins up-and-ruinning – in a manner suitable for their organization – very quickly.and easily. Fine-tuning the final configuration – including the addition of various plug-ins and their settings – would be beyond the scope of this initial configuration wizard, and would require the existing UI.
Michael
Hi danielbeck,
The story it's for having jenkins configuration. Like what you can find inside "Manage Jenkins" in a SCM system and can drop them automatically.