Discussion of plesk ui usability

[Faris Raouf]

My list is as follows:

1) Make "Open in control panel" link much more obvious/turn into a button. Even though I know where it is on the screen, I'm always hunting for it.

2) When looking at a Customer. at the bottom is a list of Subscriptions. Except they aren't a list of subscriptions. They are a list of domain names. If a Subscription has more than one domain, the primary domain in the Subscription is shown in the list. This is a bit bonkers and doesn't help people who don't quite "get" the idea of customers>subscriptions>domains. I suggest this be slightly changed. There are a number of options here.

For example, instead of listing Subscriptions like this (Gold is the name of one of the service plans I have set up):

Subscriptions:
domain.tld (Gold)

Maybe it could be like this:

Subscriptions:
Gold: domain.tld (primary)
- domain2.tld
- domain3.tld

After all, a Subscription is basically just a container whose limits are set by the Service Plan. This is why I'm putting the Service Plan name first.

Next I'm showing the primary subscription. This isn't ideal. But we have to show that there is a primary one in some way, I suppose.

Then we list the other domains.


3) When looking at a Customer, there is a REMOVE button at the top of the page. Clicking on that button will remove the Customer and all their domains.

Lower down, there is an identical Remove button. This button does nothing unless a subscription is selected, and is used to delete selected subscription(s).

The problem here is that I don't think the Remove button that removes the customer and all their subscriptions should be on this page. Yes, I know there's a warning, but it is too easily ignored (I just did this! D'oh!). In older plesk versions you'd get to a page showing all the domains that would be deleted if you continued, which gives your brain more to work on. But not in modern versions - you just get a warning and if you ignore the words you are doomed .

So personally, I'd like to see either a better warning (one that shows all the subscriptions and domains that will be deleted if you continue) or for the Remove button to be removed from here and only be visible when viewing a list of customers.

In addition, an "UNDO" button would be useful. Thus if you do something stupid, you can undo what you just did. Effectively a backup of whatever it was that was about to be deleted or changed could be made, and this could be restorable. This is not a trivial thing to implement but might be very useful.

 

[Frank.P]

When I create a subdomain appear the path : /site1 ... in version 9 appear the path : subdomains/


I think if the directory subdomains still work, the deault path will be subdomains/site 1 and not /site1


See attach

 

[HostaHost]

When I create a subdomain appear the path : /site1 ... in version 9 appear the path : subdomains/


I think if the directory subdomains still work, the deault path will be subdomains/site 1 and not /site1


See attach

Agreed, the new subdomains changes really stinks. You used to be able to have an independent cgi-bin for each subdomain, which resides outside of httpdocs just like the main site, now you can no longer do that. cgi-bin is either shared with the main site or inside the subdomain's document root, preventing you from setting up subdomains that mirror the main domain, which is quite handy for development and is now impossible.

 

[Kartoffelsack]

A little inconvenience: when installing an application, the check for installation requirements is performed after filling the form with admin credentials, database etc. If some requirements are not met or something is missing (like egroupware needs mcrypt which wasn't installed on my ubuntu by default) you get an error but the form is already gone. So you have to fix the requirements and go back to beginning of installation.

By the way, it's the same order as in your online support request form: after entering the whole bunch of information, including license number, description of problem, contact data and so on, the systems checks the license and tells me that I'm not entitled to send such request directly to parallels. Why don't you check the license first before letting me fill in the complete multipaged form? Very annoying!

 

[Kartoffelsack]

The list of mail aliases is incomplete when a domain alias is setup for that domain. The main mailadress is listed only once (for the main domain) but all aliases are listed seperately for every domain alias.
Some example:
Domain a-domain.com with an alias b-domain.com. Mailaccount setup as [email protected] with an alias user2.
The list now shows these mailadresses:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected] is also a valid mailadress but shows not in the list of mailadresses.

Besides that it would be nice to have the ability to detach mailadresses from main domain, i.e. to configure mailadresses for alias domains seperately. They could be setup as forward-only or alias-only mailadresses. I'm running two domains which are used for email forwarding only and don't want to waste a domainlicense for these domains. But configuring them as aliases forces me to setup the mailadresses on the main domain where they are not wanted.

Also I'm missing the possibility to setup mailadresses for subdomains. I only get the opportunity to setup an adress for the main domain. Sometimes it isuseful to have an adress bound to a subdomain.

 

[HostaHost]

By the way, it's the same order as in your online support request form: after entering the whole bunch of information, including license number, description of problem, contact data and so on, the systems checks the license and tells me that I'm not entitled to send such request directly to parallels. Why don't you check the license first before letting me fill in the complete multipaged form? Very annoying!

Don't worry, even if you were able to fill it out, nothing ever gets fixed anyway.

 

[TobiasP]

Suggestion

Here is a small suggestion:
My customers find it rather confusing that you still have to (well you actually don't have to) enter a password when you want to create an E-Mail address which is just for forwarding without a mailbox.

What I mean is that I don't see the point of having the option to enter a password for an E-Mail address without a mailbox.

I suggest you should implement that the password fields get hidden when you uncheck "Mailbox".

 

[HostaHost]

Here is a small suggestion:
My customers find it rather confusing that you still have to (well you actually don't have to) enter a password when you want to create an E-Mail address which is just for forwarding without a mailbox.

What I mean is that I don't see the point of having the option to enter a password for an E-Mail address without a mailbox.

I suggest you should implement that the password fields get hidden when you uncheck "Mailbox".

I think they do that because that end user can still log in to plesk to manage their email settings, so they may at times want to turn mailbox on and off and still be able to control their password independently. Additionally, in other areas where Plesk has chosen to hide fields based on selections, that can sometimes be a nightmare figuring out why something isn't showing but is affecting you; they did this with the notification settings that still take effect even if the customer is allowed to go over quota. This would also likely result in the above case (Well I need to reset your password so you can manage your forwarding yourself, why isn't it showing now?).

 

[TobiasP]

I think they do that because that end user can still log in to plesk to manage their email settings, so they may at times want to turn mailbox on and off and still be able to control their password independently. Additionally, in other areas where Plesk has chosen to hide fields based on selections, that can sometimes be a nightmare figuring out why something isn't showing but is affecting you; they did this with the notification settings that still take effect even if the customer is allowed to go over quota. This would also likely result in the above case (Well I need to reset your password so you can manage your forwarding yourself, why isn't it showing now?).

OK thanks for the explanation.

 

[humpy]

Plesk 11 is just plain horrible!

Hi
I would have to agree with Demonlee.. My old VPS running plesk 9 crashed, and I had to migrate to a plesk 11 VPS. I only have 60 domains, but the last time i has to do an "emergency migration" using single plesk domain backups , it only took me less than a day from a plesk 9 to plesk 9 server. To migrate to the plesk 11 server server i hardly slept for 3 days!!! everything now takes 10X longer to do and is far from intuitive.

I totally agree with demonlee that the most MASSIVE downfall of Plesk 11 is the removal of the simple domain level user access of plesk 9, where users could do all their own domain admining easily . yes you can create a "user" and link it to a specific domain, but it is far more cumbersome, and i am finding that at this level there is no longer any spam control. I now waste much of my time having to go into plesk and add email addresses to the blacklist for them as they cannot do this any more, and thats just the start.....

the removal of the "mailuser" plesk login where single enduser mail accounts could control all aspects of their account/spam/passwords is also a really bad move...

Yes, I could go through and create a "User" like I have had to do for domain users... but to do this for hundreds of email accounts would take a ridiculous amount of wasted time, and then I have to mail each mail user, their new login information... in plesk 9 they simply used their old email l/p whuich they already knew......

I find instead of in the past being able to simply email clients/resellers/mail users a simple link and a username and password, to let them do their own adminning, whenever they rang and wanted anything changed.. I now end up having to do all this for tham,, and waste hours of my time for no income...!

The WHOLE POINT of having plesk is to reduce time wasted with administration ! Plesk 11 has totally removed that advantage...

I am almost considering changing to CPanel in desperation, except it has its own issues......

Parallels... I can see what you have tried to do with Plesk 11, but I can assure you, it has been a HUGE step backwards in usability....

Plesk 9 had some security exploits etc, but overall it was a MUCH better product fom the users perspective,, very simple and straightforward..

Very very very very disappointed and very angry at all the time i now waste totally unneccessarily.......
W.

 

[D__Soz]

Demonlee has many valid points.

Other annoyances:

Instead of 25 domains / email accounts / whatever, I'd like to see them ALL, every time, as the default.

The domains should remember the last way I sorted them (by domain name)

Spamassassin: email size limit option has been removed. Spammers thank you.

Setting up a single domain for a single client just added many steps, across several screens, some under advanced drop downs. Why?

 

[HostaHost]

Demonlee has many valid points.

Other annoyances:

Instead of 25 domains / email accounts / whatever, I'd like to see them ALL, every time, as the default.

The domains should remember the last way I sorted them (by domain name)

Spamassassin: email size limit option has been removed. Spammers thank you.

Setting up a single domain for a single client just added many steps, across several screens, some under advanced drop downs. Why?

+1 to all of this.

Some things you can't even do as admin anymore, such as adding a service plan to a reseller; you have to log in as them to create it, then assign their plans to it. That works great if you have your own customers' passwords, but that's the last thing we want to have knowledge of. The whole Plesk 10/11 way of doing things has made day to day operations significantly time consuming. Hook the billing system into it and then you've got yourself a real nightmare.

 

[jean pauld]

Custom Usability

Hi, I would like to say that i found Plesk Panel easy to use, but is true there are many things to improve yet. I have to say that I lost a some clients when I migrated to it, and it was not just for the control panel usability but also for the filemanager (very poor). There is an api, so i decided to do my own custom control panel, improving some things like: do less clicks to main commands like add domain, FTP or email accounts, and added a file-manager like ajxplorer. I attached an image of it. Have to say there is huge niche of business for any kind of web service that helps parallels Plesk Panel doing better.

 

[web2010]

Since upgrading to 11, server stability issues are fixed but now we are the ones having to complete what used to be minor tasks for our customers as they cannot find their way around 11. In saying that, we too find the same and we have been using Plesk since 1999! If we are finding the new UI difficult to navigate, what hope do our customers have?

This version has to be the most unfriendly end-user version ever and in saying that, after all these years are considering moving to cPanel due to recommendations from our server company and they have been in business one year longer than us!

When you can the naming of 'actions', it makes it so difficult to use your very limited support pages to work out where it now can be found.

What we have experienced:

1. WHMCS is now not 'talking' to Plesk.

2. Cannot find where to allow the customer to amend their own DNS. We currently have it set globally not to allow access for obvious reasons.

3. Subscriptions> blahblah.comm > Permissions > It SHOULD be easy to alter these but for some reason Plesk 11 does not want you to quickly and easily amend them from an admin level - WHY?

4. Change hosting settings. Just seems to me that this is where you can change everything regarding hosting settings, not just the password, username and IP address.

5. Where did the white and black lists go for the spam filter?

Just a few examples from our end using Plesk 11.

 

[Eric Pretorious]

2. SSL certificate installation and setup is confusing.

Personally, I find it confusing enabling/disabling the use of SSL for a domain. Currently, it's buried down under Subscriptions -> Example.com -> Websites & Domains -> Web Scripting & Security.
Also, I'd like the ability to use a separate SSL certificate for all e-mail transactions (e.g., SMTP, POP3-SSL, IMAPS, etc).

I can appreciate your frustration [DemonLee], but I think your solution is both counter-intuitive and quite confusing. It looks like the form from hell and would put not sell Plesk. I don't really find the fact that each sub-component of hosting lives on its own page, though I do find it irritating that some require 2 clicks (Advanced Operations),

I agree: I prefer to see forms that fit on 1 or 2 screen lengths. Anything longer is difficult to navigate.

I think your specific use case is addressed completely by using the command line utilities and automating the whole process (or using the API to achieve the same). Some investment of time here would reap massive rewards for you i feel.

AFAICT there's a lot that CAN'T be done via the CLI.

2. Installation of Wordpress in Plesk is a joke, you cannot even define a database name, one I had to install today created the name of 'wordpress_f' and then it will not let you change it.. if you create another name to match the domain you want to migrate over, oops, the whole system crashes.

IIRC, the APS is an open standard. You could always roll your own.

1. I'd like the ability to view and manage users (i.e., all users or each client's users), and
2. I'd like the ability to view domains and subscriptions by client.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Sven L.]

Hello Igor,

i have posted several questions/problems in another post, about how webmail with plesk works

i guess some of those issues could be considered "UI problems", so maybe you want to take a look

http://forum.parallels.com/showthre...grate-PROPERLY&p=683621&viewfull=1#post683621

some of the things mentioned there:

- when creating an email adress, the default user role assigned is "application user" which does not have spam management permissions. if i create a new role called "webmail user" i need to assign this role manually to every single mail user, there is no way to default this?

- final users have to log into the :8443 with their credentials and when they click on the webmail link they have to enter their password again. unacceptable and not user friendly

- final users can't change their default language in the :8443 panel

- final users with spam management and antivirus management permissions see way too much info on their :8443 panel. for example: they should not be able to see domain details like how many mailboxes there are. how to customize what each user role can/can not see?

and some other questions in that link i'd like to know how to solve.

 

[Linulex]

As far as i see it there is only 1 solution to "fix" plesk:

Admit that 11 and 10 are mistakes, take the losses and move on. Technically they might be ok but UI-wise they are the biggest mistake since the invention of the chocolate coffeepot.

You will never ever fix something by adding more stuff to it. Sometimes you need to be able to let go of a mistake and start over. For plesk that is not even needed because there was a version with a clean and very usable interface. That was plesk 8.6. True, it missed a lot of things like reseller/client tiers, ipv6, sni, etc... but things that are missing can be added.

So i would say:
Get the code back out from plesk 8.6 and build on that. Maybe not the code, but the user interface setup idea behind it: 1 single page as a starting point to manage a domain with everything a domain possible could have on that page and the ability to hide unwanted buttons.

Every country has its own tax rules, vat rules, invoice rules, etc... the whole customer/subscription setup is only unwanted extra complication to everyone that doesn't use the Customer & Business Manager.

We professionals need a hosting control panel, not an hosting/semi-invoicing panel. I know it is possible to not install the Customer & Business Manager, but if i choose to not install it, i don't want the remains from it either.

regards
Jan

Parallels Certified Automation Professional
Plesk Platinum Partner
Plesk user since v 1.3.1

 

[IgorG]

Linulex, just switch to Power User Mode and forget about customers, subscriptions, plans and so on.

 

[Linulex]

Linulex, just switch to Power User Mode and forget about customers, subscriptions, plans and so on.

Error: Unable to switch to the Power User view because there are customer or reseller accounts created in Panel.

That answer illustrates perfectly that parallels has no idea what we, your paying customers, are talking about. What good is a hosting control panel in wish i can not create resellers?
Please continue ignoring our wishes, all the way up to the point that we start ignoring your product.

regards
Jan

 

[DemonLee]

Dealing With Webmail

Sven,

With webmail there is NO NEED to access it via their plesk control panel, if you set up a DNS entry 'A' record such as 'webmail.domain.ext' A <ip> then you simply type in the URL in any browser as http://webmail<domain> and it will open up webmail for the domain with the login.

Demon

Hello Igor,

i have posted several questions/problems in another post, about how webmail with plesk works

i guess some of those issues could be considered "UI problems", so maybe you want to take a look

http://forum.parallels.com/showthre...grate-PROPERLY&p=683621&viewfull=1#post683621

some of the things mentioned there:

- when creating an email adress, the default user role assigned is "application user" which does not have spam management permissions. if i create a new role called "webmail user" i need to assign this role manually to every single mail user, there is no way to default this?

- final users have to log into the :8443 with their credentials and when they click on the webmail link they have to enter their password again. unacceptable and not user friendly

- final users can't change their default language in the :8443 panel

- final users with spam management and antivirus management permissions see way too much info on their :8443 panel. for example: they should not be able to see domain details like how many mailboxes there are. how to customize what each user role can/can not see?

and some other questions in that link i'd like to know how to solve.