Pathetic state of inventory functionality in 1.10.2

Today is the first day that i have spent using the new inventory window, and I am shocked at how buggy and unusable it is. Linden Lab should be absolutely ashamed at rushing this crap out the door and subjecting its users to something so unintuitive and unusable. I don't even know where to begin on what is wrong with it, since it is a complete and utter disaster. The sad part is, the features on paper are very nice. Too bad the do not work as advertised, and basic functionality is so fucked that it has become unusuable.

The single worst thing about the new inventory is the moment that you actually find an item and you right click on it to wear it, suddenly the window shoots back up to the top of the Library, with every folder now open. Convenient! On top of that, there is no way to search for something and then access the rest of the items in a folder with it. If they don't match the search, you're screwed. You have to manuallly navigate back to it after it clears out and shows everything again. Previously, you could select the folder, clear out the search easily, and the folder would still be selected. Not anymore.

The much vaunted "Recent Items" tab doesn't work as expected either. Case and point. I went to a store to buy a tuxedo. I bought the item, it came into my inventory as a boxed object. It should be on the Recent Items tab, but it was not there. I had to find it manually by searching for the title. After using Open and putting the items into a folder, you would think the folder would be on there, and it was. However, the only object that would appear in the folder was the landmark to the store (even though the filters are set to show all). The tuxedo itself would not show.

As a developer, I have to say that those responsible for this disaster should be ashamed. It did not even seem to receive even a modicum of usability testing. The only thing we can hope is that an equally hasty client update can either roll back this crap or fix it. It is amazing how all the good will of version 1.10.0 could be undone in one update by breaking something so fundamental. Does LL even have a QA tester? They certainly have not assured any kind of quality.

I'd just like to say, as someone who's been away from the client for several months, when I recently returned I was very impressed by the all the improvements. I almost wept when I realized that I could drag and drop multiple items at the same time. I also appreciated the smooth expansion and scroll when adding, deleting, and moving items. It made the inventory so much more pleasant to work with and improved my productivity.

This complaint is a very valid one. I used to search for an item, click on it, and then clear the search to navigate to its folder. Now it's not possible, requiring me to make a mental note of the item's path and then manually navigate to the folder every single time. This has definitely reduced my productivity.

Further, I think the search interface would provide easier-to-read results if the default matching text were lowercase (as opposed to uppercase) and the highlighting were more subtle. In regards to the text case, I think it's obvious that the search is case insensitive, so why the need for all caps?

So, thanks for the excellent improvements and I look forward to the update which will provide these usability tweaks.

~Ulrika~

Seconded. It's crap. The interface is less clear than it used to be, and the search is totally neutered. Now when I entered something all the folders stay, so I have no idea where the actual search results are, so I have to wade through all the folders anyway. What the hell?

Ah, that'd be the one checkbox that makes a YUGE difference. In Inventory window, FILTERS menu > MODIFY CURRENT and uncheck SHOW ALL FOLDERS in the ALL ITEMS tab. Which it should default to off. Which we know about. Which should be fixed soon.

I'll post this here too:

Lotsa Resis asked that more info be given... so YES! The following are known inventory bugs we wanna fix ASAP:

1. Receiving or moving inventory expands all folders when "Show All Folders" is not checked
   
2. Deleting any inworld object you own expands Trash folder and obscures Recent Items tab view
   
3. During inventory streaming, every single folder expands when alternating clicks on All items and Recent Items tabs
   
4. Focus is lost on a selected folder when search query is deleted--all folders expand instead
   

As well as similar "folders expanded unwantedly" bugs.

Please help spread the word and send in new bug reports inworld with your step-by-step instructions from HELP menu > REPORT BUG.

We're hot on the trail.

I'm glad I'm not the only one having a problem with this. It makes the way I've organised my inventory next to useless.

One would hope that an error as severe as the improved inventory system would be speedily corrected.

Thank you, Torley, I do appreciate the feedback. I also hope you are hot on the trail of why this was released in such an incomplete form in the first place. Fix this messed up version and make sure that it does not happen again in the future - there is too much at stake for this kind of sloppiness.

No, I think the trail has completely eluded you. This inventory system is clearly lost in the woods. I suggest you go back to the starting point until you have a better idea of where this takes your users! Roll back NOW to the previous USABLE inventory system please. (On my knees begging here)

The inventory issues along with them breaking the rendering for the culling model....I'd say 1.10.2 is a solid flop.

I'd roll it back and send it back to QA, this update is far from done.

What do you mean "rushing this crap out the door" Cris? We've been asking for these features for two years. Are you suggesting that they've only been working on it a few weeks?

I think if my products had as many glaring and obvious bugs as the new inventory system does...I wouldn't be selling many products.

Course I work on my stuff for more than a day or two.

I can't bear to open my inventory now. I hope this gets fixed quickly.

It is indeed a sad day for any coder when they are able to make the Windows "Open File" dialog look impressive by comparison.

How hard could it possibly be to develop a method for exploring and manipulating the contents of a heirarchical storage list? I guess this is what LL means when they say "SL is innovative".

I really have had it up to HERE with asking this question...


WHY does poorly developed software with, to quote Torley, 'known bugs', KEEP being inflicted on SL's remaining paying customers?

The last month or so has been a stream of unrelieved unrequested shiny™ junk, improvements that actually aren't, and absolutely insane policy changes.

I've been becoming more and more disenchanted with SL since 1.7, which, looking back was, for me, the begining of the end. Since then nothing's really worked right. I've spent a lot of money upgrading hardware in an attempt to obtain acceptable performance and still seen performance drop steadily. The UI, building tools and now inventory, has gone downhill.

Ah, the hell with it!

heh.. its in shit allright.. keeps flipping back to the top of the library.. like everytime someone logs in or out.. incredibly annoying ><

I was talking to Siobhan about this and honestly, I've not had a problem with it yet, considering that I have a huge inventory.

I don't like the recent items tab much, not just for the open all folders bug, but because its just as bloody laggy as searching my inventory for stuff. I like the new filters "date" option.

I haven't experienced problems like you guys, but then I don't really have my inventory open a lot, only usually to change, or when i'm putting new stuff away, so I haven't noticed the flipping back to the top when people log in or anything like that. I can still find all my stuff, and I don't have an issue getting to it.

My inventory is uber organised tho, that might help lol.. I think the only way to fix everyones inventory gripes is to make it available offline to us for us to sort without having to log in.

After setting it to sort to date it hasn't really bothered me but most of the new stuff doesn't really seem to make much difference (In a good or bad way).

A big big help would be to have a little icon to close a folder at the bottom like this...

http://imagesocket.com/view/invcloser84f.jpg

Obviously you don't need it for small folders but something with more than ten/twenty items it would be great. No more having to scroll the whole way up to close the damn Objects folder!

That would be nice.

It would have been nice for all of the "bugs" to have been pointed out in the PREVIEW period, which was available. I know that I'm guilty of not trying it out earlier. *shrug*

I would like to think that no one would intentionally put out a buggy release.

Remember Windows ME?

Are we writing AL this in hope that one or more Lindens than lovely Torley will read?

Do more Lindens read forum?

And what will they do?

)

/Tina

Maybe it's a way of getting us to clean out our massive inventories? It turns what was before a two second in 'n' out into a scrolling nightmare.

Turn off 'Show all Folders' in the filters page, and the old 'search only shows folders containing items matching' functionality returns.

Yes, but you can't open the folders and access their contents at that point. You need to clear the search, at which point the folder's again lost in the crowd.

I really really like the new recent items tab.