Export to VM

[ninavizz]

Problem

A number of pilot participants have commented that, especially with post-COVID WTF workflows, exporting files to a VM is more desirable than doing so to a USB thumb drive. Current participants are skunkworks'ing this with thumb drives, which sounds like a sucky experience.

Solution

Implement UI triggerable flow akin to what below video shows. MVP would not include sanitization build-ins. Future releases, however, would—with recommended tools from @harlo being Dangerzone, Libre Office, FFMPeg, Audacity.

Qubes' "Convert to Safe PDF" feature is great, but 1. It uses a different rendering engine from Dangerzone, and 2. It only converts PDFs to PDFs. One participant in the pilot also commented that it can choke on PDFs created from PPT files.

Yes, @micahflee and I have discussed creating a Qubes native Dangerzone to reduce the bloat of containers in containers making more containers.

Export-May2021.mov

Etc

Outdated ticket content

Solution

The below was presented and discussed in that meeting. From the discussions in the meeting and subsequent back-channel discussions, a 3rd option was devised. See PDF for more detail.

Heavyweight Option

Pros: Uses existing design patterns/system for USB Export
Cons: Feels heavyhanded, for what should be a quicker task. Nobody in the UX meeting even wanted to discuss this version, less the ever-diligent PM desiring consensus around why, precisely, it was disfavored. The risks are far lower for a same-device export, than for exporting a file onto an external drive. The only value in this solution, would be accommodating existing dev things, and a few technically-inaccurate assumptions around backend dependencies I made in drafting it.

Lightweight w/ QVM Copy

Pros: A contextual interaction to get the user to the dialog, feels more streamlined and quick.
Cons: Existing Qubes RPC dialog likely to feel confusing to non-developer journalist users. This Issue has subsequently been filed with the Qubes team, to explore usability improvements that could benefit both user communities.

Lightweight + Contained To Client

Pros: This is probably the most intuitive experience, and what most users will expect. Among everyone present in the UX meeting, this sentiment was shared.
Cons: Will impose a lot of workflow needs for installers and admins, to get properly configured for journalist users. That, combined with other backend needs, would make this a very time and testing intensive feature to get right, from a dev perspective.

[ninavizz]

Update: This Issue now exists on the Qubes team, to make their RPC dialog clearer w/ facilitating the Lightweight w/ QVM Copy option above.

[ninavizz]

This issue is being currently worked on, now.

Some updates:

• Product Chat meeting was had, during which sanitization and export flows were the topic of discussion. Notes, here.
• Prototypes were developed and videos made, at the re-launch of this effort.
  • Single-click export-to-sanitize flow is the current leaning of the team. Keeping things simple is key.
  • Feedback from most current video, so far quite positive. :)

[eloquence]

I don't expect we'll be able to do development work on this during the 8/4-8/18 sprint, but @ninavizz & @creviera, I suggest we review the state of the design work so far, and chat about whether it makes sense to prepare further design & research iterations during this time.