Hi,
I want to give more feedback about this topic because I gave TrueNAS a 2nd (and 3rd) chance this weekend (because I really like the TRUENAS-MINI-3.0-X+) and experimented a lot and I managed somehow to add users that can access SMB shares. I still do not know if its the best way how I did it. etc.
So I want to share one of my main obstacles adding ACLs because, in my opinion, everyone already knowing TrueNAS has probably already internalized this strange UI-behaviour.
Preface:
Users have expectations about a UI based on their past experiences. So a lot of users that have already used a computer for entering data (addresses, customers, users, products, etc.) expect more or less some CRUD (create, read, update, delete) functionality for data records.
So, when I clicked "Edit Filesystem ACL" after creating a new share (which seems to be the same as "Edit Permission" for a pool), I expected to get a form/page where I can create/add an ACL itself and after I created a new ACL I expected to be able to create (CRUD) the entries/members of that ACL (the ACE records).
With this expectation, I got the following page. I have drawn in green and red how I saw that page/form:
View attachment 42444
The word "User" on the left side connects to the "owner@" on the right side, the word "Group" on the left side connects to the word "group@" on the right side. So all these input fields are optically part of one form (I marked the form with a red border) and one ACL-entry/record.
And because the buttons "SELECT AN ACL PRESET" and "ADD ACL ITEM" look the same and are below the data fields (in their column) they are both doing something for the ACL-data-record. Then "ADD ACL ITEM" clearly (it is at the bottom, like form-buttons usually are) will mean that this button ADD/Create the ACL-record with the input fields above.
It surely does not help for understanding this form, that the form-scrollbar is detached from the form and sits at the right border of the browser-window and that the real "SAVE" button is below the screen horizon and is not visible on screen without scrolling. And I do not have a small screen resolution.
Later I understood, that this one form includes the fields for the ACL itself but also all data-records of its members/entries (ACEs) and that all ACEs are shown in the right column with all their data-fields.
But then my expectation was, that the buttons "ADD ACL ITEM" and "DELETE" are related to the fields/data-record above them (like it is in a typical html form).
It did took some time to realize that the "ADD ACL ITEM" button is completely at the wrong position because it is not related to the data above (like the DELETE-button that is next to it) but adds a new, empty ACE-record that is not saved until I scrolled down and clicked the "SAVE"-button.
And I still do not understand why there is a "CANCEL" button besides the "SAVE" button if the form-data is only saved after pressing the "SAVE" button.
I think this is an example of bad UI design and the UI should be changed. But as long as the UI is not changed (there are probably good reasons for not changing the UI) it is an issue that should be included in the documentation, so new users do not fall easily into this trap (like I did).
P.S. If there is a more appropriate area in the forum for this kind of discussion, please give me a hint.
P.P.S. There are a lot of places where the "action-icons" (i.e. the three dots that open extra masks, functions etc.) are hidden because they are not seen without scrolling because they are in the right column of lists. Thats also an UI-issue that should be explained in the documentation.