When looking for a specific problem in the logs, I will enter a search term in the Stackdriver Log Viewer filter. However, this is very awkward as I often need to look at previous or subsequent entries. I often have to re-enter a new search specifying a time window or just jumping to the time in question. And if I want to look for other examples I then have to go through the whole process again which I find very frustrating.
Is there any way to search backwards from my current position until I hit an entered search term? This would make troubleshooting via the logs far more convenient.
If I understood it correctly, you want to set a starting point for your next search term at a specific point found during a previous search. In that case, you could facilitate your navigation through the logs by pinning a log at the specific moment you want to “fixate” you search on.
According to the Viewing logs documentation, after you pinned a log, you are free to change the filter and the Logs Viewer will automatically center around the pinned log.
Related
I deployed Kibana 7.10.1 and Elasitcsearch 7.10.1. I am able to query from Kibana discover page. But I found the time range filter on the top right disappeared. How can I add it in the discover page?
I found the reason is that I didn't pick up a timestamp index when create the index pattern in kibana.
It's because you clicked in the search bar and when the search bar has the focus, the time picker disappears. Click outside of it and the time picker will be back.
I fell into the same trap a while ago and it didn't make sense to me. it's not really intuitive, but I guess the reason was to give as much screen real estate to the search bar while users are typing into it.
I’m writing a script that searches the active document for some word with specific properties, then highlights it.
After performing the operation at the user’s command, I’d like to bring the affected word into view, so that the user doesn’t have to search through the document to find it.
I tried selecting it, but this does not seem to move the text in the window.
Based on user1754036’s suggestion, I tried the following, which is good enough for my case:
myText.select();
app.activeWindow.zoom(ZoomOptions.SHOW_PASTEBOARD);
app.activeWindow.zoom(ZoomOptions.ZOOM_IN);
app.activeWindow.zoom(ZoomOptions.ZOOM_IN);
app.activeWindow.zoom(ZoomOptions.ZOOM_IN);
I have implemented an on-scroll loading which fetches some chunk of data every time the scroll reaches the end of the viewing area. After some point of time when there would be no more new data to be shown, how should I convey to this to the end-user from a UX point of view?
I was thinking of few options such as displaying a tooltip which automatically vanishes after few seconds. Other option would be something similar to rubber banding scrolling from Apple. Any other approach that can be used here?
Without knowledge of what the use-case is (i.e. has user performed a search or just scrolling a list from elsewhere), in general, two good options:
Follow Slack's "You are upto date! + icon" little image on the last
elastic scroll at bottom. Or, for example, "That's all we've got just
yet! Check your email for more or Search for [term] instead".
Use a progress-bar type of indicator like when you read an article on
Medium --> as people scroll down, they'll have a live indicator of
getting to the bottom of the list.
I don't like dead ends in my applications. If the user hits the bottom of your list and is still searching, he probably has the wrong search terms. I'd place a box along the line of "Haven't found what you're looking for? Try a different search term" and link that to the search box.
Even if it's not a search, once the user hits the bottom without successfully finding what they where looking for provide them with an alternative.
Hope this helps you.
I have a bit of a challenge.
In an earlier version of our product, we had an error message window (last resort, unhandled exception) that showed the exception message, type, stack trace + various bits and pieces of information.
This window was printscreen-friendly, in that if the user simply did a printscreen-capture, and emailed us the screenshot, we had almost everything we needed to start diagnosing the problem.
However, the form was deemed too technical and "scary" for normal users, so it was toned down to a more friendly one, still showing the error message, but not the stack trace and some of the more gory details that I'd still like to get. In addition, the form was added the capabilities of emailing us a text file containing everything we had before + lots of other technical details as well, basically everything we need.
However, users still use PrintScreen to capture the contents of the form and email that back to us, which means I now have a less than optimal amount of information to go on.
So I was wondering. Would it be possible for me to pre-render a bitmap the same size as my form, with everything I need on it, detect that PrintScreen was hit and quickly swap out the form contents with my bitmap before capture, and then back again afterwards?
And before you say "just educate the users", yes, that's not going to work. These are not out users, they're users at our customers place, so we really cannot tell them to wisen up all that much.
Or, barring this, is there a way for me to detect PrintScreen, tell Windows to ignore it, and instead react to it, by dumping the aformentioned prerendered bitmap onto the clipboard ready for placing into an email?
The code is C# 3.0 in .NET 3.5, if it matters, but pointers for something to look at/for is good enough.
Our error-reporting window has these capabilities:
Show a screenshot that was taken when the error occured (contains all the open windows of the program at the time, before the error dialog was shown)
Show a text file containing every gory detail we can think of (but no sensitive stuff)
Save the above two files to disk, for latter attaching to an email or whatnot by the user
Sending the above two files to us by email, either by opening a new support case, or entering an existing support case number to add more information to it
Ignore the problem and hope it goes away (return to app)
Exit the application (last resort)
We still get screenshots from some users. Not all, mind you, so my question is basically how I can make the PrintScreen button help us a bit more for those users that still use it.
One option: Put the stack trace and other scary stuff into the error screen using small, low-contrast type -- e.g. dark gray on light gray -- so that the user doesn't really even see it, but the Print Screen captures it.
But if you want to detect the PrintScreen and do your own thing, this looks like an example of what you want.
Wouldn't it be possible to disable the Print Screen button altogether when the error popup is active? Have it display a message along the lines of "Please use the clearly visible button in the middle of your screen to report the error" I agree it breaks expected functionality, but if your users are really that stupid, what can you do...
Alternatively, have it report errors automatically (or store the data locally, to be fetched later, if you can't send without asking for some reason), without asking the user. If you want to be able to connect print screened screenshots with detailed error data, have it send a unique ID with the data that's also displayed in the corner of the popup.
What about offering them a "Print Screen" button that performs these actions as well as performing the print screen? If you're locked into this method of having your customers send error details, this may be an easier route to take.
Lifted from my comment below for easier reference (looks helpful, perhaps):
codeproject.com/KB/cs/PrintScreen.aspx
This is in theory...the best way to deal with it I would think
Intercept a WM_PRINT message or inject one into your process... see this article here
Install a system-wide keyboard hook and intercept the print-screen key and swap it around with your contents prior to the capture. Now, I can point you to several places for this, here on CodeProject, and here also, keyboard spy, and finally, global Mouse and keyboard hook on CodeProject.
Now, once you intercept the print screen, invoke the WM_PRINT message by capturing the contents that you want to capture.
I know this is brief and short, but I hope this should get you going.
The only solution i came up with was to offer big, large, easy to read toolbar buttons that give the user every opportunity to save the contents of the error dialog:
Save
Copy to clipboard
Send using e-mail
Print
And after all that, i use the Windows function SetWindowDisplayAffinity in order to show the user a black box where the form should be:
This function and GetWindowDisplayAffinity are designed to support the window content protection feature that is new to Windows 7. This feature enables applications to protect their own onscreen window content from being captured or copied through a specific set of public operating system features and APIs. However, it works only when the Desktop Window Manager(DWM) is composing the desktop.
It is important to note that unlike a security feature or an implementation of Digital Rights Management (DRM), there is no guarantee that using SetWindowDisplayAffinity and GetWindowDisplayAffinity, and other necessary functions such as DwmIsCompositionEnabled, will strictly protect windowed content, for example where someone takes a photograph of the screen.
If their screenshots show a big black box, hopefully they'll get the hint.
I did add a defeat, if they hold down shift while clicking "show error details", i don't add the protection during form construction:
//Code released into public domain. No attribution required.
if (!IsShiftKeyPressed())
SetWindowDisplayAffinity(this.Handle, WDA_MONITOR); //Please don't screenshot the form, please e-mail me the contents!
I'm currently working on a program that has many of those "the user SHOULD read it but he'll click OK like a stupid monkey" dialogs... So I was thinking of adding something like a captcha in order to avoid click-without thinking...
My ideas were:
Randomly change buttons
Randomly position buttons somewhere on the form
The user must click on a randomly colored word within the text he should read
add captcha
add captcha that includes the message for the user
Has anybody made any experience with such a situation. What would you suggest to do?
Well, you asked for opinions and here goes mine, but I don't think this is what you would like to hear...
Users like programs that they can depend on. They don't like when things change and they don't like to do extra work.
Randomly change buttons and Randomly position buttons somewhere on the form will only make them either press the wrong button or become annoyed with your application, because as you say, they don't read the text, and if you think about it, neither do we. As an example think of an Ok/Cancel dialog, you allways expect the ok button to be on the left, and most times i press it without reading it. It Will happen exactly the same with your users.
The user must click on a randomly colored word within the text he should read
add captcha
add captcha that includes the message for the user
With these 3 option you will add extra work to your application, your users will curse you for that. Just think of something that you would have to do 10x per day, let's say check in your code to source safe. How would you feel if your boss told you that from now on you will have to fill a captcha for each file you try to check in?
I think it's our jobs to make the lives of the people that use our software easier. If they must read some kind of text and they don't want to, there is absolutely no way you can make them do it.
You can´t make people work right, all you can do is provide them with the best possible tools and hope that they are professional enough to do their jobs.
So basically all i'm saying is, do your best to ease their work. If this is really important than you(or whoever is in charge) should talk to them and EXPLAIN WHY this is important.
You would be surprised on how people commit to things they understand.
I suggest that you don't; and that, unless you know better, you emulate respectable well-known, well-tested UIs like <big online retailer's> or <online banking site>.
Playing games with the user in order to get them to read messages is doomed. Users will focus mental resources on completing your game, rather than understanding the message. Your users may be less likely to actually understand the important part of the message if you have things like moved buttons, relabeling, scavenger hunts, captchas, or delays. They’ll focus on the instructions for the game, not on the real issue. Errors are likely to increase.
Users’ refusal to read message boxes is due to users wanting to get things done quickly rather than take the time to read stuff, and it is also due to message boxes being overused and misused so badly in so many apps. Including silly games in message boxes will just make users resent them all the more, compounding the problem.
Here’s what you can do:
Rule 1. Don’t use messages boxes. They should only appear for exceptional circumstances. An app should not have “many” message boxes. It should not be necessary to read a whole lot of documentation each time the user uses an app. If normal use of your app results in a message box, then your UI is wrong. Find another way.
Instead of verification messages, show clearly in the main window what has happened and provide a clear way to Undo it.
Use auto-correction, pictured/masked fields, and disabling rather than error messages.
Use good defaults and automation to avoid messages. For example, rather than showing an error message saying the user can’t upload because they’re not connected to the server, simply reconnect automatically.
Break commands along options. Rather that a message box to ask if the user wants paste with or without format, provide two different commands in the menu.
Don’t have information messages spontaneously popping up telling the user everything worked fine (e.g., “Preferences Saved!”)
Don’t have pop-ups providing helpful hints or documentation. Provide a tutorial or balloon help if you can’t make your UI self-documenting.
Don’t have nagging “upgrade me” messages.
Consider providing message text in the main window rather than in a separate message box (e.g., “Page may not look or act right because ActiveX is off for security.”). Pop-ups from web surfing have conditioned users to automatically dismiss anything that pops up as irrelevant.
Rule 2. If you have to use a message:
Make the text as brief as possible to get the key information across. More text is not equivalent to more helpful. Use “No match to [filemask] in [path].” Don’t use “Nonfatal Error 307: Search action aborted. [Appname] is unable to complete your string search for the regular expression you provided because the file mask you gave, namely [filemask], does not result in any matching files in the directory that you specified (which was [path]). Please check your filemask or path selection and again re-enter it or them in the Files to Search dialog box. Click the OK button below on this message box to return to the Files to Search dialog box. Click the Cancel Button on the Files to Search dialog when you get there to cancel your search for strings.” If there are some users who will need more explanation than can be achieved in a brief message, provide a Help button or a “How do I…” link in the message box.
Use plain language and no jargon in the message. That includes “innocent” words like “dialog,” “database,” and “toner.” Do not take raw exception text and throw it in a error message. Do not include any error numbers or dumps; log these instead. Purge your app of any debugging message boxes left by developers. Better to simply let the app disappear on a fatal error than to put up a message full of jargon and then the app disappears.
Label the buttons of a message box with what the action does, not “OK.” At the very least, the users have to focus on the activating button to dismiss a message box. If that button is labeled something like “Delete” or “Install,” it should give them pause. You should never have to explain in your message text what each button does. BTW, such labeling is a GUI standard on most platforms.
Redesign your application so that it does not use message boxes.
My suggestion, live with it or redesign your dialogs/interface. Do not add randomness to dialogs or otherwise treat the user like an idiot, even though you may think most are :-).
I just recently read a Joel on Software article, Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives. It makes the point that most people won't read anything and discusses ways to work around that or at least not make it worse.
You could try with a timer which waits for the "supposed reading time" before enabling the submit button. You can even calculate the supposed reading time from the number of words.
I think that subtle ways to force the user to read your text (like moving around buttons or asking them to read a captcha) can make them feel like stupid monkeys.
You could use a choice question based on what the user should read.