Nmap Development mailing list archives
Context Help System for Zenmap Profile Editor Proposal
From: Jurand <jurand () gmail com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:08:54 -0500
Context Help System for Zenmap Profile Editor Jurand Nogiec www.jurand.netThis proposal is available at my wiki-site at http://jurandn.wikidot.com/context-help-proposal .
I. Current Profile EditorAs of now, the profile editor has different tabs such as Profile, Scan, Ping, Target, etc. which outline all the different options available. For instance, under Scan tab, we have such options as which TCP scan, timing, Idle Scan, IPv6 support, and such. This profile builds a command using checkboxes and textfields to specify options and settings for command line input.
II. ProblemThere are so many options that newbies to the software will not know head from tail regarding this, even with this profile builder. There are so many option names and attributes that it does not really make sense. It is also a problem to the expert user because the user may not even know which names map to which classic nmap command line options. It makes the profile builder a direct mapping to all possible nmap options, without very much help with description to what each checkbox and field actually does for the user. I have a way to make it even better, so that Zenmap can come closer to realizing the goal of being intuitive to newbies and useful even for the expert level user.
III. Proposal OverviewIn response to the problem, here is the solution proposal. Parts of the implementation ideas are displayed in the attached screenshot.
I propose to add a Help textbox next to all of the tabs. In this textbox would be description of the currently in-focus attribute in a short 1-3 sentence summary, as well as the example input for the attribute. When a user selects a different option, the Help text changes automatically (I.e. in the screenshot, you see that when "Use decoys to hide identity" attribute is in focus, the corresponding screen shows the small summary and the corresponding input for that option.) Next to each attribute, its nmap options are listed (I.e. -D for decoy) This Help system is usable for user because when one is focusing in on a field, at the same time one can read the short documentation and decide what to do. One thing to note is that these summaries do not mean to replace the current refguide.xml or attempt to recreate it. Rather, it is a short high-level summary of what attributes do that should change very little in future nmap versions.
IV. ImplementationAs far as implementation goes, the Help texts must be compiled from the refguide.xml, extracting 1-3 sentence summaries and the desired input variables. The help text will be stored inside of a Help.py type of file, with the different texts having corresponding names that are activated when user focuses on one of the options.
V. Requirements * The system must currently modify only the profile editor. * The system must show the help for the currently focused option.* The system must not try to replace the currently documentation entirely.
* The system must show a description and example input for each option.* The system profile editor must show the nmap options next to each attribute.
VI. FeedbackIf you have comments, concerns, or questions regarding this proposal, please let me know. I am going to start implementing this mid-week (around July 16-17) so please give me any feedback rather quickly so that I may consider it before I start implementation work.
_______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://SecLists.Org
Current thread:
- Context Help System for Zenmap Profile Editor Proposal Jurand (Jul 13)
- Re: Context Help System for Zenmap Profile Editor Proposal David Fifield (Jul 16)