ivan.bvionlineQ: I have some experience with a similar but different tool called Fronter (fronter.
io) so I am bringing a pain point I had with that one. The problem I discovered was that it could not log comments for Ajax-driven events (e.g. it was not possible to log some weirdness caused when putting a product into an Ajax cart while staying at the same page).
I realize this is a very complex issue to pull off and that it might not even be possible to do it, but I still find it worth it to ask if Volley has figured out a way to do it.
Thank you!
Kyle_Volley
May 15, 2024A: Awesome! We'll get that updated ASAP!
Hi Bvionline,
Thanks for checking out Volley and for the information about Fronter!
Volley and Fronter work in fundamentally different ways and because of this Volley doesn't suffer from issues like the one you've described!
Tools like Frontier place your website in a canvas on top of their own code which allows it to run through their site, which can be nice... However, this can lead to issues such as slow load times and even pages and or other functionality that doesn't render or execute properly. This can become problematic because you are not able to experience/see your websites exactly how your end users are seeing them, which is crucial for a proper design review. Additionally, there can be issues when trying to comment on a local website, staging site or a page behind a secure login.
With Volley we use a combination of high-resolution screenshots + browser extension to ensure that Volley is lightning-fast to launch, works on ANY website, even local sites, staging builds, etc. right out of the box.
Thank you for the quick response, it was straight to the point!
Yes, a canvas solution suffers the quirks you describe, plus it has to switch by necessity between a 'navigation' and a 'note taking' mode, which does somehow limit workflow. But the upside of their solution is that onboarding non-technical personnel to engage with the project & leave comments is very simple: all one needs is send an email with an invitation link, and the user will be up and running.
The approach taken by Volley by marrying screen capture and note taking capabilities within a browser extension means that onboarding becomes a bit more difficult, as we now have to guide a non-technical user into installing a browser extension (and, if we are to be as fair to them as possible, guide them how to uninstall it at the end of the project). Anyway, I understand the reason for the trade-off; for some heavily dynamic site the solution you have provided is the only way to go ahead and canvas-based tools will simply not work.
What confuses me about the short video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhWBuPi8uwA) that I watched after registering with your service to look further is that no form of authorization takes place — it appears anyone with the Volley browser extension installed who happens to come across a website with Volley feedback collection enabled will be able to start leaving notes.
Does the app require some form of authentication, or having the browser extension enabled is sufficient for collaborators to start leaving comments & see comments left by others?
Note: the browser extension icons in the app dashboard aren't clickable for whatever reason: https://i.imgur.com/JAdSzQu.png
Thanks
Ivan/BVI
P.S. I do realize I am probably a couple of minutes away from figuring out what I am asking by simply trying, but whatever we discuss here will hopefully save time to other potential customers & help them know the product better.
Hi bvionline,
It's really cool to hear your perspective on Volley vs. other solutions—thanks for that!
Obviously, we feel that Volley strikes the right balance of trade offs to ensure that it is the perfect tool for leaving feedback on any website. That being said, we do understand that adding any additional steps to get that feedback can be tough for some. However, we've found getting up and running with the extension, even with a client to be pretty quick and easy. Here's a video showing the whole process in 3min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F3lLJCZGBQ&t=8s
Regarding our intro video, I see how that could be confusing so we'll be sure to rework it to be more clear, but to answer your question the extension does require authentication. Thus the act of authenticating the extension will automatically scope the extension to your account and projects. To that end, all one needs to start leaving feedback is to add the extension and login, there is no concept of enabling Volley feedback collection other than what I've described!
To your point about the browser icons not being clickable, thanks for bringing that up, I agree it would be much better to have those both clickable to the proper extension url. For some additional context, when you land in the zero state of a newly created project the "Install the browser extension" instructions are dynamic and will display a clickable button for Chrome or Firefox depending on which of those browsers you have Volley open with. So, would I be correct in saying that you were using Volley with some other browser? Regardless, we'll get that fixed, and thanks so much for noting it!
PS. NP!! We're pumped you're digging into Volley and we're always here to chat about any questions or feedback you might have!
Happy Volleying!
"So, would I be correct in saying that you were using Volley with some other browser?"
Yes, I was using Edge (which is compatible with Chrome extensions) :)