Description
ABOUT File Visibility and the DejaCode UI
DejaCode currently provides a simple and convenient interface that enables a user to generate an ABOUT file (and associated files) for a Package or Component; however, the DejaCode user does not actually see what the ABOUT file is going to look like or what it looks like after the file is generated. The ABOUT file is in the user’s file system, separate from the DejaCode application and its database; only the single user sees the ABOUT file unless it is shared with the user’s team by some other technology.
Consider a new tab in the Package details user view, perhaps called “ABOUT”, that offers a rendering of its ABOUT file exactly as it will appear in a generated .yml file. This “preview” would allow the user to evaluate the Package data as it exists in DejaCode, complete with any curations, before it is actually generated. The same “preview” would also provide an appropriate means to confirm the successful Import ( see #43 ) of an ABOUT file into the DejaCode database, where the Import would either create or update a Package identified by the PURL.
If a DejaCode user updates Package details, then after those changes are saved the proposed ABOUT tab would show any impact on the ABOUT file fields as a preview of an ABOUT file that can potentially be generated.