ezadmin2 a bittersweet improvement

For those keeping up with eZ Publish and their new development schedules you will know of course that the next release, 4.3, is just around the corner. Among it are a number of updates and perhaps one of those most eagerly awaited would be an administration interface refresh, something which hasn’t happened since eZ Publish 3.

For those who work frequently with eZ Publish there is probably not much doubt in your mind that the admin interface requires a refresh, could do with a good dose of javascript/ajax and some speed enhancements. And to be honest, that is what you have to look forward to in 4.3.

Unfortunately however the new admin2 design doesn’t really come with many usability enhancements in mind. The javascript additions simplify some operations to remove page loads – but all in the all the admin interface does look very very similar to its predecessor.

I wonder then is it that the eZ Publish admin is at its best layout and optimised design considering the functions and features available, or could it be improved even further with some thoughts about design and usability? Perhaps improving the code base to make it easier to extend and override specific areas of the admin interface, perhaps making things like the top tabs ACL dependent so they don’t appear if you don’t have access to them..

There are mixed reactions to the 4.3alpha1 release on twitter, it should be interesting to see how things go prior to launch.