NWAM Phase 0.5 - NWAM Manager UI Specification

Version

• Version 0.3
  2008/07/30 - Darren Kenny
• Version 0.2
  2008/07/30 - Darren Kenny
• Version 0.1
  2008/07/28 - Darren Kenny

Introduction

This document describes the user interface that we will deliver for NWAM Phase 0.5.

It is based loosely off the Phase 1 UI Spec, but is limited by the available functionality in NWAM Phase 0.5, but we aim to be as close as possibly to that for anything we deliver to maximise re-use. The Phase 1 UI Spec is available at:

• http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam/UIDesign/Phase1

This project is part of a larger plan to solve some of the networking issues that were brought up as a result of the release of OpenSolaris 2008.05, targeting delivery into OpenSolaris 2008.11. Along with the changes to NWAM and the separation of the UI from the daemon, we are also doing the following:

• Update to GNOME Netstatus Applet
  This adds support for the signal strength on Solaris, and changes from using two icons to one icon for wireless information. Also adds more information about wireless information to the properties dialog. It should also support an "Auto" mode where it monitors what NWAM is doing w.r.t. the active i/f.
  This is is being documented as the case LSARC/2008/479
• Update to GNOME System Tools - Network Admin
  This is to add support for switching between Manual Mode (network/physical:default) and Automatic Mode (network/physical:nwam) rather than the current unhelpful dialog that you get simply telling you to go read some documentation.

This is "small steps" towards the delivery of NWAM Phase 1.

The NWAM Manager Daemon

Startup

NWAM Manager is a user-level daemon that will be launched on user login, and be present as a largely background process for the duration of a user's session. This will be achieved using the FreeDesktop Autostart mechanism. The daemon will also exit with the user-session.

The file /usr/share/gnome/autostart/nwam-manager.desktop will be delivered as part of the installation package and will be automatically picked up by the GNOME Session when the user session starts.

Presence on the desktop

NWAM Manager is intended to be the main representation of NWAM on the desktop and will provide the following functionality:

• NWAM Manager will show changes in the status of the daemon through notification balloons and an icon in the GNOME Notification Area (like the MS Windows System tray).
• NWAM Manager will make it self visible on the desktop only when NWAM is running on login.
• When NWAM is not running at login time (e.g. if you happen to be using the legacy network/physical:default service to configure your network) the daemon will remain silently in the background, and wait (using the libnwam_open_door(-1) name API call) until NWAM starts.
• In contrast, if NWAM goes down after the user session has started the icon will remain visible and show that NWAM is down.
• The notification icon will have a pop-up menu, which will have the following entries:
  • Manual Selection of Interface, defaults to Automatic selection
    A list based on the LLPs and should state Wired/Wireless if possible, will lock the user to this interface, should also show an Automatic entry to allow user to define return to automatic mode.
  • Edit interface priorities...
    Show a basic dialog to change LLP sort order.
  • For Wireless Interfaces (if selected Manually or via NWAM)
    • Wifi Networks Selection
      A list of known Wireless networks, should be populated from NWAM scan events.
    • Join Unlisted Wireless Network...
      Allow the user to configure a new network - main use for hidden networks.
• We will handle events from NWAM by presenting appropriate UI to the user:
  • Information Events
    This will be presented using notification messages, which will appear without changing window focus, and disappear after a short period of time.
  • Select Wifi due to no known networks (deWlanSelectionNeeded)
    On receipt of this event we will do the following:
    • Populate the pop-up menu with list of Wireless APs
    • Show a notification balloon to tell user that couldn't auto-conf network, and ask them to select one.
    • If a selection is made, it is communicated to NWAM.
    • If a selection is not made, then we enter a cycle where we set a timeout and on each timeout do a rescan of the wireless APs, this will continue until such time as a selection is made by the user, or NWAM is able to auto-configure due to a change in the environment (e.g. user plugged in a network cable, user moved to a location with a known network, etc.)
  • Provide the wireless configuration keys (deWlanKeyNeeded)
    This will show the Wi-Fi configuration dialog and provide the information to NWAM.
  For phase 0.5 the events that you wish to see, or not, will not be configurable via the UI, though we may consider providing a GConf key, but this will be subject to change for Phase 1.

Mockups of the UI

Sometime a picture (even if ASCII based) is worth a thousand words, so here is a set of mock-ups of the UI as described above:

GNOME Panel, Notification Area and Pop-up Menu

In the image below you see the GNOME Panel at the top, with a [NWAM] icon in the notification area. If you right-click on this icon you will get the pop-up menu.

---------------------------------------------------
                | [NWAM] 
---------------------------------------------------
                +-----------------------------------+
                |  (o) Automatic (active i/f)       |
                |  ( ) Lock ath0                    |
                |  ( ) Lock bge0                    |
                |---------------------------------- |
                | Edit interface priorities...      |
                |---------------------------------- |
                |  ( ) .iI essid_1           [SEC]  |
                |  ( ) .i  essid_2           [SEC]  |
                |  ( ) .iI essid_3           [OPEN] |
                |---------------------------------- |
                | Join Unlisted Wireless Network... |
                +---------------------------------- +

( .iI = represents an icon with signal strength steps )

Notification Messages (Balloons)

Notification messages will pop up and disappear after a short timeout, and will look something like:

---------------------------------------------------
                | [NWAM] 
---------------------------------------------------
                +-----------------------------------+
                | [ ICON ] Message Title       [x]  |
                | [      ]                          |
                |          Message Details          |
                +---------------------------------- +

Providing Security Key

This is a simple dialog that will be something like:

    +---------------------------------------------+
    |      Wireless Security Configuration        |
    +---------------------------------------------+
    |                                             |
    |   Please provide the wireless key for       |
    |   the network "ESSID":                      |
    |                                             |
    |   Password: [******                    ]    |
    |                                             |
    |   [ ] Show text                             |
    |                                             |
    |---------------------------------------------|
    |          [ Cancel ]     [ OK ]              |
    +---------------------------------------------+

Enter ESSID For A Hidden Wireless Network

This is another simplistic dialog that will be something like:

    +---------------------------------------------+
    |      Join Unlisted Wireless Network...      |
    +---------------------------------------------+
    |                                             |
    |   Please provide the name of the            |
    |   wireless network :                        |
    |                                             |
    |   Name (ESSID) : [                  ]       |
    |                                             |
    |   Advanced v                                |
    |                                             |
    |     BSSID : [                         ]     |
    |                                             |
    |---------------------------------------------|
    |          [ Cancel ]     [ OK ]              |
    +---------------------------------------------+

In this dialog the Advanced area will be hidden by default and the user will have to click on the arrow ('v' in the above) to show it.