A new resource to support Primero users and administrators now available
By guest blogger (and super intern) A. Doughty
Do you ever wonder whom the people are doing the behind the scenes quality assurance for Primero? What is the Primero Support Hub (beta), why do we need it and what makes it a fantastic resource? We took the time to speak with Ian Lawrence, the founder of Jozian, Ltd. He gave us a tour so we could share with you highlights about the newly launched Primero Support Hub. From the info on new releases to community support, the Primero Support Hub is designed to be your one-stop-shop for all things relating to Primero technology and tools.
Mr. Lawrence explained that the Support Hub is built out on three main pillars. These three pillars help streamline processes and facilitate current users' access to support services. The three components fit together and work in an integrated fashion to bubble up information to the top level of the site. The goal is to make it easy to track all discussions, support tickets, and versioned release info.
The three pillars are:
The Releases Pillar: This pillar focuses on project management and continued software development. Having the ability to track issues against releases and assign topics to developers helps us maintain the Primero code, respond to user needs, and inform our road map.
The Support Pillar: Support has several great features. Firstly, there is a scalable service desk and support hub, meaning that whether you are a small group or a large international organization, the help you need is there when you need it. Another great feature within the Support Pillar is that end users can now build out their individualized sub-forums to enable more topic targeted discussions. Also, the Support Hub offers the Primero user an option to opt into a weekly email update of the most hit on or talked about support issue of the week. This feature has the potential to inform users of any potential troubleshooting issues before they arise! Lastly, a “FAQ” voting feature that will push the most relevant search topics to the forefront of the forum.
The Documentation Pillar: User guides and developer related documentation can be found here. The unique feature about the documentation pillar is that the user guides and process documentation are editable and downloadable directly through the hub. Key contributors will have the permissions to direct manage resources so we can fill in the gaps as we learn and grow.
On the tech: The Hub is designed to support users, but it also our resource for techies and system admins. Ideas about how to keep the technology up-to-date and relevant played an important role when the hub was under construction. Some of the tech features incorporate the use of tags so that appropriate data bubbles up from the pillars into the UI. Because this data flow is dynamic, we needed to find a way to only show the changes and not render everything every time there was something new. React JS is a JavaScript library for building component-based user interfaces. Utilizing an in-memory DOM contributes to considerable performance benefits.
The goal of the Support Hub is to assist platform users to be as autonomous as possible. A detailed self-help road map for using the Primero platform was our primary objective when building the Hub. Longer-term goals include being able to see the support hub being used to configure and install Primero for users as well as it being used in other projects.
Primero is growing. The Hub is a convenient one-stop-shop for users and administrators that will help us achieve scale up and keep costs down. We want to build our community and hear your voices. Please subscribe to the blog or drop a line.
Thanks for reading!