Cloud Resources Held for 8.4

Adam Borries (Logos)
Adam Borries (Logos) Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 881

Cloud Resources to be kept in beta for another six weeks.

Thank you to everyone for your feedback and bug reports on the new Cloud Resources (selective download) feature. We are happy with the progress of the feature so far, but we’ve decided to keep it in beta for another cycle for further testing.

You have helped us identify several areas we need to improve. Among other things, we are currently working on:

  • Respecting Hidden Resources in first-run download
  • Various issues with download failure states
  • Preventing a possible (but unlikely) state where all resources are downloaded regardless of cloud settings
  • Several smaller UI bugs, such as the “Remove” option not always appearing in the context menu in the Library

There is also an additional body of potential work for improvements, which we have under consideration for the future:

  • “Actually” cancel download of Cloud Resources in the Library (When downloading a resource in the Library, the “Cancel” button currently finishes the download, then removes the resource.)
  • Improve performance of Library load time
  • Add additional first-run screens for choosing preferred commentary, etc.
  • Make a UI distinction between “unavailable” and “locked,” in keylink lookup, links to specific titles, etc.

Most of all, please keep reporting issues! Your real-world testing is invaluable for making sure we deliver the best experience we can when we roll out Cloud Resources to all users. Thank you!

 

Comments

  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    I think this is the right decision. I am always in favor of getting it right over getting it sooner. 

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    I agree that it doesn't impress as being ready for v8.3.

    I'm puzzled that you are considering a future "additional first-run screens" feature for preferred resources, when you haven't identified that the choice of "curated" resources (pre-selection) needs to be improved; along with the number of available (non-maximum) download sets, and stating the number of library resources and expected installation size.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Adam Borries (Logos)
    Adam Borries (Logos) Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 881

    I'm puzzled that you are considering a future "additional first-run screens" feature for preferred resources, when you haven't identified that the choice of "curated" resources (pre-selection) needs to be improved;

    These aren't mutually exclusive. The former takes a fairly significant development effort, while the latter requires none. "Recommended" resource sets are based on the Logos 8 base package library you own, and we can easily improve on them as needed*.

    (*Within that definition, for now. At some later date, we could also improve "Recommended" download sets by including all your preferred/highly-rated/most-used resources, etc.)

    along with the number of available (non-maximum) download sets

    There LOTS of other things we could do here: 

    • Full resource-by-resource control 
    • Download nothing, let me pick in Library later (including datasets, which don't appear in the Library--or anywhere else--in the current version)
    • Download a Resource Collection I've built
    • Mirror my library configuration from MyDesktopComputer

    Believe me, I would love to have all of those, and if I could speak them into existence, I would. The reality is, any of those would delay releasing Cloud Resources by weeks, if not months. So, we are not planning to build these features at the current time. Our goal is to get Cloud Resources, in its current iteration, to a stable point so that all users can benefit from what we've already built. After it has had some time in the wild, we can reevaluate if/how to improve on Cloud Resources, against all of our other priorities. 

    stating the number of library resources and expected installation size.

    I agree this is not the optimal experience, and we plan to address it; at minimum, we'll make it clearer in the text.

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    Adam,

    Can you take a look at this thread? 8.3 beta 2: Feedback on the new installation process

    Thanks.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    Thanks, Adam

    Our goal is to get Cloud Resources, in its current iteration, to a stable point so that all users can benefit from what we've already built.

    Can you look at https://community.logos.com/forums/t/179272.aspx because 137 temporary resources are missing from Library in my two stable installations.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Andrew Batishko
    Andrew Batishko Member, Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 5,395

    Can you look at https://community.logos.com/forums/t/179272.aspx because 137 temporary resources are missing from Library in my two stable installations.

    Has your subscription recently expired?

    Andrew Batishko | Logos software developer

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    Has your subscription recently expired?

    Faithlife Connect states "You have no current subscriptions"! And confirmed by the result from Delete Unlicensed Resources...

    But I got a download notification of 880.6 MB in both stable installations. When downloading in v7.19, the size increased gradually to 1.4 GB! When finished, there was no Indexer log, and no change in Library resources.

    6136.DwldMissing.zip

    This download mirrors what happened in Beta 4, so we can (almost) ignore that thread! But why did the download appear?

    Now, I still have 12 temporary resources. I took out the Courseware in February; so it looks like its license will run the course, along with February previews. The other 5 I've had for a long time, so they must have come with a free package.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Reuben Helmuth
    Reuben Helmuth MVP Posts: 2,485

    we’ve decided to keep it in beta for another cycle for further testing.

    The right decision.

    There is also an additional body of potential work for improvements, which we have under consideration for the future:

    Is this being considered for 8.4? I'd really like to see at least the '"Actually" cancel download' implemented. This would help the UX a lot in limited data situations (until we get a NO download option ;-)).

    At what point will it be pulled? In other words, what's the latest 8.3 beta I can update to without losing this (I have to keep my secondary installation from reverting to full-download or I'll be in trouble!)?

    Edit: Just saw this in the release notes... "This will not affect beta users who remain on the beta channel."

  • Andrew Batishko
    Andrew Batishko Member, Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 5,395

    I'd really like to see at least the '"Actually" cancel download' implemented.

    If you cancel the downloads then exit the application, when you restart the application it will not resume the downloads.

    Andrew Batishko | Logos software developer

  • David Mullens
    David Mullens Member Posts: 97 ✭✭

    FWIW, I moved to Beta for this one feature because the SSD on my desktop was running out of room because of my library. 

    I ended up downloading the recommended resources, however, there seemed to be a lot of resources I don't usually use and it left out a lot of resources I use every week. 

    That wasn't a big deal because I then filtered out "resources not on this device" along with "reading" because I knew if the resource was in the "reading" list I was actively using the resource somewhere. That process worked pretty well. 

    What would be really nice is when I run some kind of guide there was an indication of which resources are local and which ones are in the cloud. 

    Thanks for this feature!! It really helps on my desktop. Perhaps some day there will be an option to put "active resources" on one drive and "inactive resources" on a different one (or leave in the cloud). 

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    What would be really nice is when I run some kind of guide there was an indication of which resources are local and which ones are in the cloud. 

     Only Search has a separate section for Cloud resources. Guides, etc will only use the local resources (otherwise, why are you downsizing?).

    however, there seemed to be a lot of resources I don't usually use and it left out a lot of resources I use every week. 

    So you should select/download the commentaries, bibles, lexicons, etc. that you want to use, and remove the ones you don't want to use. In each case, right click one or more resources in Library and select either Download or Remove from this device. It helps to first filter by "Not on this device" for downloading, and filter by "On this device" for removing.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Kolen Cheung
    Kolen Cheung Member Posts: 1,096 ✭✭✭

    The following part copied from Logos Help seems to be describing this feature, but I'm on stable channel. So it seems like the documentation of the un-released feature is already released.

    Cloud Resources

    All of a user’s resources are linked to their Faithlife account. Logos allows users to select which resources are stored locally and which will remain in the Cloud to be added at the user’s discretion. This section explains how to download resources from the cloud and how to remove resources from local storage.

    Note: The default behavior is to download all purchased resources.

    Download Resources

    1. Open the Library.

    2. Select the Devices filter from the left-hand toolbar and expand the Not on This Device section.

    3. Show Resource Information by pressing Cmd+I (Mac) or Shift+Ctrl+I (Windows).

    Note: Users can also select which devices the resource will be downloaded to from the information pane.

    4. Select the resources to add to the local Library.

    5. Click Download.

    Remove Local Resources

    1. Open the Library.

    2. Select the Devices filter from the left-hand toolbar and expand the This Device section. This displays all the resources on the local device, which may be a large number for many users. This option is especially helpful when seeking to remove a large number of resources in one batch.

    3. To remove a particular resource, use the Find resources box or the Find option in the faceted browsing panel to search for it, then follow the steps below.

    4. Show Resource Information by pressing Cmd+I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (Windows).

    5. Select the resources to add to the local Library.

    6. Click Downloaded>Remove from device.

    Logos Help. (2018). Bellingham, WA: Faithlife.

    Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:09 AM March 18, 2019.

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    So it seems like the documentation of the un-released feature is already released.

    As the feature is disabled in the stable version, one can't use the information. It is also far from complete.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Kolen Cheung
    Kolen Cheung Member Posts: 1,096 ✭✭✭

    As the feature is disabled in the stable version, one can't use the information.

    Yes, I mean they should have safe guard in place to prevent documentation of unreleased feature released. The 2 (releasing the feature and releasing its documentation) should be sync'd.

  • Philana R. Crouch
    Philana R. Crouch Member, Logos Employee Posts: 4,597

    As the feature is disabled in the stable version, one can't use the information.

    Yes, I mean they should have safe guard in place to prevent documentation of unreleased feature released. The 2 (releasing the feature and releasing its documentation) should be sync'd.

    Kolen,

    We have do have this on our list to fix. It was unintentional that we left this in. We hope to have it updated in time for the next resource update ship date. Unfortunately the process is not as simple as updating the resource source files so we can't get the updated files to users automatically.

  • Kolen Cheung
    Kolen Cheung Member Posts: 1,096 ✭✭✭

    No problem as long as you’re already aware of the issue. Take your time. Thanks.