Why is there an option to focus on the datasource or instance level?

@Stuart Weenig - it feels like the YUI (V1 UI) to V2 UI all over again!

Here’s how it will go down:

1. LM: This is great! Use it!
2. US: Er… no.  This needs a complete rethink.
3. LM: How about now?
4. US: You’re not listening.  There is basic functionality missing.
5. LM: We’re going to force you to make the change.  We’re switching off the old UI in 2 months
6. US: No you won’t.  You value customer retention too much.
7. LM (2 years later): How about now?
8. US: You’re getting there (users actually prefer the new UI)
9. LM: Right, we mean it this time.  We’re switching the old one off in 2 months.
10. US: Whatever
11. HIGH VALUE CUSTOMER: NO.
12. LM (2 years later): It’s done.

I also don’t like how when you focus on anything, the “Recently Deleted” and “Unmonitored Devices” tabs are visible. In UIv3 those tabs were only visible when the root folder was selected, and I think that was cleaner.

Have to agree with you. However, I doubt anything will be done. They will weigh “why don’t you just not click it” against “what code do we have to write to exclude it from having a focus option”.  Guess which will win.

I have already clicked this on instances inadvertently many times in the new UI. I think the slower response time contributes to this, and the proximity of the + icon to the name of the instance. The eyeball icon placed above the resources in the old UI was a separation which seemed to help prevent this.

Agreed, the placement of the focus icon is also much better in UIv3. 

Hopefully that doesn’t end up being the case. So many things are different/strange about UIv4 where I can’t really use it for work unless I want to do things 10x slower. 

Does focusing on the instance give you a unique link that will get you back to that same instance? Wonder if they’re trying to make it easier to share URLs that point to specific things.

It doesn’t look like focusing on an instance gives you a different URL. Either way if you select an instance it gives you a URL that navigates back to the instance. Does the same in UIv3 as well, although the URL looks different and the UIv4 instance URL is easier to parse.

Don’t get me started on the “you don’t need the magnifying glass if you throw your no-double-clicking rule out the window” argument.

Whatever demigod they’ve been taking their UI advice from clearly has never used our product. There are some things in that area that are changing though. I just wish the UIv4 focus was feature parity first, additional capabilities later. So much new capability is being stuffed into UIv4 before it’s even rolled out.

Thanks for the feedback y’all!

A couple of questions - 
1. do you use the focus functionality a lot? 
2. if so, when do you use the focus as opposed to just having an item expanded in the tree?

Also for instances of slowness, can you describe what workflows? Like is it when interacting with the tree or with the graphs tab? We want to make sure that you have a comparable experience in the new UI so we want to resolve those issues if you’re still facing them.