Usability Suggestion - Error Messages

[dnoff]

I have been testing NT 7 with several strategies running live - If there is a temporary connection lost (say as Zenfire is prone to do from time to time) I get a bunch of individual messages from each strategy telling that

"Strategy 'Name/{strategy GUID/key} lost order connection but will keep running"

This happens for any individual instance (10 in my case) to which I need to click OK to continue. Could you in stead "summarize" these into something like:

" Connection to Zen-Fire was lost: Strategies A,B,C,D..... will continue to run and catchup when reconnected...blah blah.."

and the same when reconnected etc.

That way I only have a single error message to deal with and also can see that it is an issue with ZenFire/connection and not an individual strategy (I also only have to click one OK instead of 10/15 times when you have a bunch of individual strategies running)

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

Thanks for raising this. I will add this to our feedback list for now.

[noincomenojobnoassets]

Any progress? Just clicked away 80 messages...

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi noincomenojobnoassets,

Thank you for your post.

Unfortunately, there is nothing new to report on this since the release of NT 7.0.0.12.

[noincomenojobnoassets]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for answering.

Another alternative would be to somewhere include a checkbox to disable non-critical popup error messages such as the ones saying "...lost price/order connection but will keep running."

Would that one be hard to implement?

Regards

ninjna

[laocoon]

I second dnoff's suggestion, this would indeed be very helpful...

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello noincomenojobnoassets,

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the implementation of this. I will, however, forward this on to my development team as well.

[noincomenojobnoassets]

Had the impression that too many of those "lost price/order connection but will keep running" messages make NT crash at some point if you don't click the messages away - anyone else experience that?

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi noincomenojobnoassets,

The messages themselves should not cause a crash.

So that we may investigate the underlying cause of the crash, please send a note to Support [AT] NinjaTrader [DOT] com with 'ATTN: Kyle' in the subject line.

In the message, please include the following:

1.) A link to this forum thread.

2.) Your trace file from the last date the crash occurred.
You will find the trace file in the My Documents > NinjaTrader 7 > Trace folder.
The file will be named 'trace.YYYYMMDD.txt'.

[noincomenojobnoassets]

Any news as to whether displaying those messages will be optional in the future?

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

This is on our list for consideration however, we will not introduce any new features/changes other than issue resolution in order to priorize getting NT7 to a production state.

[dnoff]

So back to usability again- right now I have 10-15 strategies running under both Nt 6.5 and 7 (beta 13). Because of this issues NT7 is now bordering on unusable for me. Having to click 20+ plus times, several times during a trading day is ridiculous. The logs show that the connection drop problem being reported via the UI popup is millisecs in length (connectionLost and Connection=Connected times are the same in most cases).

Can this be handled either by changing to either:

1. Allow for option to disable?

2. Only show popups for lost connections longer than "10 seconds" or something more "intelligent"

3. At least combine the errors into a single dialogue

The frustration level with this is pretty high mainly because it is a huge distraction and hassle to resolve (on a bad overnight there could be 100-200 clicks required to clear the damn popups and get my environment "back).

It's a shame, because "finish" items like these distract you away from what is shaping up as a nice platform. However as a trader, I don't need any more frustration or distractions -there is plenty of those from this already - I need my tools to make my life easier etc, and right now this small item is turning me off NT7. Don't underestimate "small" usability issues like this as you resolve so called pressing issues for production release.

[jdfagan]

I second this concern. A more intelligent way to "notify" us is to mark in color coded status label in the lower section status bar of Control Center (i.e., similar to how we usually have a "Connected" green status label). Such a label would be designed as a color coded error/warning/alert "Log" status level that lights up when new errors/warnings/alerts have arrived since last time we've viewed the Log. That way no popups would ever really have to occur. Upon viewing the Log tab, such status light would be cleared so that we know when to check the log again in case of exceptional errors/warnings/alerts in the future.

JD

[noincomenojobnoassets]

same here again - just clicked about a hundred messages away... a real nuisance. not having to cope with those unnecessary messages should be an integral part of NT7 getting to "production state". apart from that, those messages are useless - "lost connection but will keep running", thanks for letting me know, but the strategies are still running, heh? that's the only thing Ißm interested in, basically...

[noincomenojobnoassets]

Guys, guys, guys.... could it be those notification messages have been disabled in beta 16?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for that!!!

It really gets our NT experience to a whole new level!

Thanks again.
ninjna