The "Pro Designer" as VSCode extension - a step backwards in terms of usability?

mhoffmann

Hi,

today I finally started to take a look at the new "designer" in VSCode and I'll be honest: I think it's a huge step backwards in terms of usability. I can admit that humans are creatures of habit - I've been working with Eclipse for a long time and therefore I am used to the ecosystem and software and a forced change of an IDE is just something I really don't welcome at all.

When developing Java, I personally think that VSCode was never a good IDE for it and the look at the new designer confirmed it for me. The settings are buried deep into sub menus, and since VSCode is a more generic approach of an IDE, I think it adds complexity rather than removing it.:

I also can't understand why I have three boxes:

Axon Ivy Projects
Java Projects
Maven

An Axon Ivy projects contains all three of them itself, there's no need to list them individually, is it? Further, I think the UI is far worse in terms of distinguishability of the different subfolders of a project: In Eclipse, icons were used to distinguish the several folders / logical groups, now we just have text - it's really worse of an UI.

Another issue I'm having is that it seems like I have to manually start the Maven install job when installing the Portal - at least I had several errors that it couldn't find a DataClass before.

Then we come to the embedded engine - when accessing it we're greeted with this page:

Notice what's missing? Literally all of the developer stuff because it takes us to the system application rather than to the actual designer application under: http://localhost:8080/~Developer-axon-ivy-14/dev-workflow-ui/faces/home.xhtml

The only thing which seems to be better is the performance - that's a huge difference in startup time but other than that, at least judging from usability, it currently feels like a huge step backwards. Everything being black and white is something I condemn in modern UIs. Yes, it may look cleaner, but in terms of usability, it makes things a lot worse.

I can fully admit that it might be only an issue for me personally, but I think that the UI (understanding that it's still in beta state) should be improved and should be leaned more towards to the old Eclipse UI rather than trying to be something new - in its current state, that doesn't work out for me.

I am not writing a support ticket because maybe there are other opinions about it and I think that an open discussion is worth more in the end.

Cheers!
Mario

Reto Weiss

Hi @mhoffmann

Thank you for testing our new VS Code extension and for sharing your feedback. As you correctly pointed out, people tend to stick to familiar workflows, and anything new can initially feel strange or uncomfortable. The user experience in VS Code differs significantly from that of the Eclipse IDE. In VS Code, many features are accessed via commands rather than through context menus or visible buttons, which can make the learning curve a bit steeper for beginners. However, once users become familiar with it, the workflow becomes very efficient and productive.

I have worked with Eclipse for more than 20 years and still use it from time to time. At the same time, I use VS Code frequently and have become very comfortable with it. It is a different way of working, but one that many developers ultimately enjoy.

Let me address your points one by one:

1. VS Code is not a good Java IDE

The Java extension included with our Axon Ivy extension is based on the Eclipse Java Language Server, and it provides the same core Java functionality you would expect from the Eclipse IDE. In other words, it supports the Java development workflow in a familiar and capable way.

With LTS-14, Axon Ivy projects are, from a Java perspective, regular Maven projects and no longer have the old Eclipse-specific dependencies. This means they can be opened and edited with any IDE that supports Maven and Java, including IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse IDE, NetBeans, VS Code, and others. This gives developers flexibility and choice when working on Java classes.

2. Too many boxes: Axon Ivy Projects, Java Projects, Maven

At the moment, the Axon Ivy project boxes do not yet provide a major practical benefit, but we are actively working on improving them and expanding their functionality. We are also refining the current sprint to make the experience more useful and less cluttered.

You can hide the boxes you do not want to see. Simply use the context menu on the relevant box and choose “Hide …”.

3. Project tree has no icons

This is something we are actively working on in the current sprint. A preview is available here:

4. Using Portal

This is also being addressed in the current sprint. The idea is to let developers choose whether they want to work with the Portal, and then the started engine will automatically include the Portal application without requiring it to be imported into VS Code separately.

5. Engine Main Page

When you start a process in VS Code, the internal browser opens the dev-workflow UI, which mirrors the behavior of the old Designer. That said, you are right: if you open an external browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080/, you will see the main engine page. I will create a story to improve this behavior and make it clearer.

Thank you again for the thoughtful feedback. Your comments are valuable and help us improve the experience for our users.

Best regards,
Reto Weiss, Product Owner

mhoffmann

Hey Reto Weiss,

first of all, thank you for your time to write such a detailed reply. You're right about one thing: VSCode is very different form any Java IDE I've used, may it be NetBeans, Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA. I personally think that VSCode is not really an IDE, but rather a text editor modified to act like an IDE, therefore it requires, as you said, quite an adjustment.

I don't doubt that I might be more productive with it in the future, it's just that I personally struggle to see added value for me since I still develop common JEE projects with Eclipse, for me, that was actually one of the reasons why I liked the Axon Ivy Designer so much: Not much has changed.

But given that the Java support in VSCode is provided by a 3rd-party, it most likely isn't worth it to discuss this in depth here since I can fully admit that it's a matter of taste and habituation.

1) Basically, that's what I've already written about in the first lines of this post, so it's fine. However, maybe I'll give it a try to edit the Java part in Eclipse rather than VSCode.

2) I guess my main point here was that I personally think that the three boxes aren't really a good idea to begin with. Imho the Java & Axon Ivy Projects should be aggregated into one view, whereas the build tool can stay independent. That's at least also the case with the Gradle implementation in Eclipse and therefore it would be somewhat familiar to me.

3) This looks already so much better! I personally think that you might consider adding icons for the folders (e.g. dataclasses) as well, so it's also clear when having the structure not expanded. Other than that, I think this goes really into the right direction, looks pretty good!

4) Alright. I don't know if I had bad luck or did something wrong, but I'd argue that importing a project should perform its mvn install after the import. I didn't however fully test it whether it was a fluke, but I'll trust your judgement here.

5) I think the main problem here was that it showed that no application was deployed, which was not the case. I was really confused by it at first and I got the entry point only by going to the cockpit and taking it from the application listed in there. Further, I personally know that I have written several code snippets bypassing API calls / 3rd party software integrations with the condition IApplication.current().name.equalsIgnoreCase("designer") - I think the application name should be reserved and kept, because I might not be the only one who did this. If the constant (DESIGNER_APPLICATION_NAME or similar, I can't remember) is set properly, that would also be fine.

I might take a look at the extension in some weeks time again, maybe I'll have additional feedback for you. Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful and detailed reply. May you have a nice weekend!

Mario