Download Design and Implementation of a Framework for Remote Automated

Remote Environment Automation Framework
8.3 Front-End Programming
Non-Intrusive Popups
Within the context of front-end programming, a significant implementation problem is how
to present a small amount of additional information on a page which already contains a large
amount of content. An example of a user wishing to access a small amount of additional
information would be, whilst viewing the actions and triggers associated with a particular
service, attempting to find out more about any one of the actions or triggers. Such a
small amount of information makes retrieving an entirely new page a tedious operation for
the user, yet initially all of the relevant information on the current page would results in
content which is too cluttered. We solved this problem using non-intrusive popups, which
are panels that appear on top of the currently displayed content without opening a new
window. This was achieved by adjusting the attributes of various web page components
using CSS following specific events, such as a user pressing a button. Specifically, the
core concepts involved dimming the currently displayed content and causing a previously
invisible panel to appear in the centre of the screen, containing the information requested
by the user.
Final Version
Although it very closely matches the flow outlined in Figure 8.2, the final implementation of
the front-end was slightly altered from the original design. The web page hierarchy for the
final implementation of the front-end can be seen in Figure 8.3. The main features which
differ between the original design and the current version are the features accessible from
the programs page. Although it is still possible to view a condensed version of a program,
the detailed view is now part of the overarching add/edit program page. Additionally, the
current version includes the following pages which were not previously considered in detail:
the create account page, which is only retrieved if an account has not yet been created; the
login page, which is only retrieved if the user did not recently log in; the upload descriptor
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