Hi,
how can I achieve such a simple GUI for all users?
That’s suppose to be simple?
You could write your own theme just as @Ilia, did… But it’s quite an undertaking.
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You shouldn’t. There is no reason to imitate cPanel UI, and even though we have a different UI – it’s not a problem. Just stick with it for a week or two, and you will find it more functional and easy to use. Give it a try.
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I find that UI chaotic rather than simple. But, to each their own.
You can remove any options your users don’t use, or that you don’t want them using. I think the default set of features and privileges is pretty minimal, but you can certainly turn off more of them.
You could also make a custom module that is just a pile of icons like this and make it the default page when a user logs in. That’s very easy to implement…like an afternoon of work, if you know Perl and have done any Webmin module work, or a couple days if you don’t. It’d show up in the right pane rather than the left menu, though.
To modify the left menu in a drastic way like this, you’d need to make a new theme.
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This may sound like a paid commercial, but I love the Virtualmin interface. Back when I had PLESK, my clients were always “in there tinkering” because it was “to pretty to resist”… now that I have Virtualmin, they say it’s “too geeky for them” and they only get in to do a specific task. Another problem solved.
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Ok thanks for replays, so for such a result there is required new theme for that.
It is not for me, but for other people, that are used to use cpanel, and they don’t need hundreds of options, but just simple add domain/database or install wordpress.
This is not what we’re going for. We’ve got to simplify.
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I don’t understand where you are seeing hundreds of options!? Are you looking at the domain owner user GUI? Root user, of course, has hundreds of options, but the domain owner only has like a dozen items in the menu. I’m willing to believe a dozen is still too many, but how do you get “hundreds” from that?
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I counted a dozen headings with sub options below that …
The only thing I can see missing is a link to phpmyadmin from the “simplified gui” image but I guess you could achieve that if you have the pro version of virtualmin
The installer for phpmyadmin is in both Pro and GPL. But, neither puts it in the menu. We provide an integrated database management GUI (in both Pro and GPL), which is generally what we would expect folks to use. But, phpmyadmin is available for folks who prefer it.
You can add any kind of link you want to the menu, though. It is customizable (in, surprisingly enough, “System Customization->Custom Links”). Pretty sure that’s also in both GPL and Pro.
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I agree completely.
I really don’t understand why anyone finds the UI confusing or complicated; and I, for one, don’t think it needs to be “simplified.”
With a very few exceptions, everything most admins or site owners need to access in a typical day can be found under the headings where I think most sensible people would expect to find them. There’s also the search function, which ingeniously enough is labeled “Search,” if something one needs is not where they expect it to be.
Yeah, there are a few exceptions. Administrative Options > Disk Usage is an example because it actually links to a set of reports rather than a set of options. But once you know it’s there, the mystery is gone.
I really think it gets down to icons. People prefer icons to words, for whatever bizarre reason. Me, I prefer words. I don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what the hell an icon is supposed to mean. I want words.
My opinion: If Virtualmin wants to release a dumbed-down UI featuring pretty little pictures rather than words, then make it a paid option for those who want it. Leave the existing interface alone. It works fine.
Richard
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Onlyi n pro unless it’s changed
Because he’s used to cPanel. That’s basically it. When that’s all you’ve ever used and you’ve grown accustomed to it, anything else is going to “seem” confusing.
For me it was simply a matter of finding where things were in Virtualmin. After a few weeks or so of working with it, I grew to like it much better than I ever did cPanel.
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Yes, custom links are only available in Pro. Although, Authentic theme has a feature in options to add any link on the menu, even include an icon.
And words are searchable, unlink images. I like the idea of icons, besides aesthetics it’s meant to provide a faster accessibility. For example, visiting Webmin ⇾ Webmin Configuration and finding Language and Locale icon should be faster than looking for text. Although, Authentic theme has type-to-search functionality, i.e. when the page is opened, you simply start typing and get all results in the autocomplete dropdown.
For me icons is only aesthetics. Also icons are hard to make, and we cannot just copy/paste icons from the web. GCP and AWS don’t have that much icons either.
The best way for me to think of simplification is to make things work out of the box, and with all those options available there somewhere but without a need of touching them for the vast majority of users. Removing options is also bad cause it would hurt some people too.
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Ironically, when I started looking around two or three cPanel price increases ago, Virtualmin’s simple, text-based UI was what I originally liked most.
Richard
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That’s why I suggested making them a paid plugin or add-on. Virtualmin already delivers the best value in terms of functionality. If some folks are so enamored of having pretty little pictures as well, then I’d think they’d be willing to pay another dollar or two a month for them.
Richard
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famfamfam silk has a wonderful and VERY full icon set, oxygen as well. Both can be found on IconFinder and licensed for free (with attribution). Virtualmin could really use a nice icon set. It’s VERY easy to forget where things are when you’re always looking at a wall of text as an interface.
I used Silk ~15 years ago in a Webmin and Virtualmin theme, but it’s pixel-based, non-scalable, and not suitable for modern GUIs that need to scale from very large to very small displays.
True, they are small. What about Oxygen? Would it be robust enough?
(Also, I meant IconArchive, not IconFinder…)