Communicate lengthy syncs after signing in

[mikejohnstn]

I believe #360 is a good improvement (removing simulated pull to refresh), but a side effect is that after you first sign in, you're left staring at a "no posts" screen for quite awhile.

Consider adding a centered progress indicator when a table has no data yet and a sync is in progress. When the sync completes, and there's still no data, only then should the "no data" screen be displayed.

[koke]

IMO the real problem is that there should be content after you sign in.

[mikejohnstn]

@koke Yeah definitely. One step at a time. This is where Simperium will eventually help, but even then we've found this pattern useful for the signin case where stuff can still take a couple seconds to start showing up after authenticating.

[pivotal-rebecca]

This issue is definitely most noticeable after improving the performance of signing in. Before, all the syncing/inserting/saving happened on the main queue, so when it finally completed, it looked like it had taken that long just to sync. In fact, the syncing was happening on other threads while the main thread was being blocked for conveniently long enough.

IMO an issue with syncing all your blogs when you add them is when you add many blogs. Understandably this happens for very few users, but it seems excessive to sync all your data when you may use only your posts at first.

I keep landing on the Reader first for when I add blogs anyways, so unless that is a bug in disguise, the blogs don't even need to be synced right away at all. Reader already starts downloading content as soon as you sign in and before adding blogs, but you still get the simulated refresh/loading on fast connections. Though I bet if someone lingered on the NUX longer it would be fine.

Additionally, IMO, a central progress indicator could be overkill. I really like the apps that have a little status bar that flips down from under the navigation bar, or up from the bottom of the screen on network activity, and is still not obstructing the users touchable areas. It still gives the user indication something is happening, and can provide more context than just "Loading...".

[mikejohnstn]

This issue is meant to be aesthetic only...I won't be improving any actual sync speeds, though we should do that too.

By "central progress indicator" I don't mean a big ugly modal, which I agree would be overkill. I mean a subtle gray activity indicator in the otherwise blank area. It goes away as soon as there is at least one item in the table view.

I disagree about showing context; on mobile I subscribe to the Apple-ish philosophy that the more information you're shown while waiting for progress, the more it feels like waiting, and the more nerdy it can seem (depending on the messages). Note that many progress bars/spinners across iOS don't give extra information, and I believe it's for these reasons.

My instinct is this approach will be acceptable for now while sync speeds are slow, and will continue to work when sync speeds are faster. I believe an activity indicator is more subtle than status bars that flip in and out, with the added bonus of being easier to implement/maintain.

[sendhil]

I like the idea of an activity indicator that's easier to implement while at the same time not being to obtrusive. I do agree with @koke though that long term it'd be nice to have something besides the blank screen.

[koke]

@mikejohnstn what I meant is that adding a blog used to trigger a sync, which for nux usually meant when you dismissed the walkthrough your posts were there waiting for you. I'm not sure what changed there

[mikejohnstn]

@koke Is there another issue for that somewhere? Could you link it?

[koke]

No, it's still working on 3.8.4: I added a self hosted blog and it synced posts/pages/...

I think it was broken on #388 though

[mikejohnstn]

OK, let's consider that a separate issue then (I've added it to #388's todo list).

[sendhil]

@mikejohnstn - just to double check, but are you going to go with the activity indicator approach for now?

[mikejohnstn]

Yep. I also fixed the bug Koke pointed out. It's in #388 and content will start to load immediately after you sign in successfully. #295 will be a logical followup (display Freshly Pressed for new users and make sure content starts loading ASAP).

[sendhil]

@mikejohnstn - just checked, but this is done correct?