Coinciding with the 2023.4 release on August 19, Kahua will be releasing a brand new desktop windows host. This host will be built off the same framework as Kahua for Web, increasing synergy in the UX of both hosts.
Users will not be forced to switch to the new desktop host right away. There will be a transition period where users may use either the old or new Kahua Windows Desktop hosts.
While functionality will remain mostly the same when transitioning to the new desktop host, long time users of the previous desktop host may notice a few differences to the look and feel of the new host. The most prominent of these differences are detailed below. As a continuation of this initiative, a new home screen will be introduced in an upcoming release, allowing users to quickly get to their Tasks and Messages from a single location.
Login experience tutorial:
Kahua's New Launch Page
Previously, when launching Kahua from the browser, users saw a page that looked like this:
From this page users were able to either launch browser or install Kahua’s WPF (Legacy) Windows Desktop Host. Kahua is removing this intermediary landing page.
Now, users will be taken directly to a login screen for Kahua for Web. For the August 19th release, Users who already have the old Kahua WPF (Legacy) Host installed on their computer will see a familiar prompt asking them if they want to launch their desktop host and will still be able to click “Open Kahua” to launch into their familiar desktop experience.
These users can also launch the WPF (Legacy) desktop host directly from their installed Kahua application without navigating to Kahua’s new launch page.
To instead access Kahua’s new WINUI Windows Desktop host, or Kahua for Web, users first sign directly into Kahua for Web from the new Kahua launch page.
Once signed in on web, the user can launch the desktop host their Kahua Domain Admin has enabled for their domain by either selecting the Windows icon in the lower right corner or by clicking on their account name and then selecting “Download Kahua For Windows” in the subsequent menu.
This will load either the old or new Kahua Windows Desktop hosts, depending on what the KDA has configured in a new Domain Setting “Windows Desktop Host Download Option”. For this release, all existing domains are configured to launch the WPF (Legacy) host by default.
As an administrator, to grant your domain users early access to the new WinUI Kahua Desktop Host, simply update this setting in the Domain Defaults app accordingly. To prevent any of the desktop hosts from being used by your users, disable the setting entirely, which will only permit logging in to Kahua using the webhost via a supported browser. Note: After moving to the WinUI host, Kahua recommends users who previously had the legacy WPF host installed should remove it
The WPF (Legacy) host will retain its previous look and feel.
While the new WinUI Windows Desktop Host (and Kahua for Web*) features updated styling and some navigation improvements as detailed below.
*Note that while the previous WPF Desktop host will retain Kahua’s old styling, the look and feel of Kahua for Web will be updated to match the new WinUI Desktop host upon the August 19th release.
Header Navigation
Kahua is adding a new way for users to leverage the header to navigate to Kahua for Web and the new WINUI Windows Desktop Host. This improved header displays whether the current application view is project-specific or applies to all projects (when available to all projects, the project name will not be displayed). For example, the Getting Started app will no longer display your active project since information is displayed from all available projects. Also, Tasks and Messages are accessible directly from the header for all users at any time. Tasks and Messages will remain in the Launch Bar on the left side of the screen as well. We are leaving in both places for this release to allow for the transition, however, Tasks and Messages app will be removed from launch bar in an upcoming release.
Pending Functionality
At release Kahua’s new desktop host will largely have parity with the previous desktop host, however a few items remain pending that will be addressed in short order. These pending items will be added to the pending features article here closer to the August 19th, 2023 release. This article will be updated as remaining items are resolved. As previously mentioned, the WPF (Legacy) Desktop Host will remain available in case there is a pending item you require that is not yet supported in the new host.