SoulSync/docs/webui-page-migration-analysis.md

WebUI Page Migration Analysis

Snapshot date: 2026-05-02

Summary

• The shell route manifest now has 18 page ids.
• issues is still the only React-owned route.
• Since the last snapshot, the biggest changes are:
  • downloads was renamed into search.
  • The live queue became active-downloads.
  • watchlist and wishlist became full sidebar pages.
  • tools was split off from dashboard.
  • artists is no longer a route id.
• The shell is also more modular now. The old monolithic script.js has been split across core.js, init.js, shared-helpers.js, and feature modules such as search.js, api-monitor.js, pages-extra.js, stats-automations.js, and wishlist-tools.js.
• Current profile compatibility still normalizes old downloads and artists references to search, so the docs and the route ids are not always using the same historical language.

What Changed Since The Last Snapshot

• search is now the canonical route for the old download/search experience.
• active-downloads owns the dedicated live queue that used to sit inside the search flow.
• watchlist and wishlist moved out of dashboard-era chrome and into their own routes.
• tools moved off the dashboard into a dedicated sidebar page.
• dashboard is a bit narrower now, because several operational surfaces were split out.
• artist-detail is still a first-class route, but its permission relationship is now tied to library and search, not to an artists page.
• The contextual help system still contains some historical downloads and artists wording, so those labels should be treated as legacy text rather than route ids.

Current Architecture

• webui/index.html still hosts the Flask-rendered shell, the sidebar, the media player, the legacy .page containers, and the React mount point.
• webui/static/core.js now holds a lot of the shared global state that used to live in the old monolith.
• webui/static/init.js still owns page activation, permission gating, nav highlighting, legacy routing, and the window.SoulSyncWebRouter bridge.
• webui/static/shell-bridge.js and the TanStack Router adapter still decide whether a route is handled by the React host or handed back to the legacy shell.
• issues remains the reference pattern for React-owned pages: route manifest ownership, shell bridge integration, route-local data loading, and detail-modal behavior all live in the React subtree.
• The legacy shell is now spread across feature modules rather than one giant coordinator file, which makes the migration seams a little clearer than they were a month ago.

Route and Compatibility Notes

• Manifest page ids: dashboard, sync, search, discover, playlist-explorer, watchlist, wishlist, automations, active-downloads, library, tools, artist-detail, stats, import, settings, issues, help, hydrabase.
• downloads and artists are no longer manifest ids.
• HTML .page containers exist for every legacy page plus webui-react-root for React.
• watchlist, wishlist, and active-downloads are now standalone route targets instead of dashboard overlays.
• tools is now a dedicated page, so dashboard can be treated as a monitoring hub instead of the one-stop maintenance surface.
• help and issues remain always-allowed for non-admins.
• settings remains admin-only.
• artist-detail is allowed when the profile can access library or search.

Cross-Cutting Features

• Profile and permission routing still live in the shell bootstrap.
• Shell chrome and nav highlighting are still shared shell responsibilities.
• Media player behavior, queue handling, and global overlays still cut across multiple pages.
• Socket/WebSocket and polling behavior remain the biggest migration risks for live pages.
• The help system, tours, and helper annotations still reference some historical route names, so route-migration work should use the manifest as the source of truth.
• Visual effects such as particles.js and worker-orbs.js remain shell-global.

Scoring Rubric

Each page is scored from 1 to 5 on five axes:

• Rendering surface size: HTML/UI area and number of distinct render states
• State/coupling complexity: amount of local state plus coupling to other pages or shell-global state
• Async/realtime complexity: fetch fan-out, polling, WebSocket/live progress, streaming, or long-running workflows
• Cross-cutting shell dependency: reliance on shared shell behaviors, globals, overlays, or non-route contracts
• Testability/parity difficulty: how hard it is to prove route parity without regressions

Rollups:

• Migration effort
  • Low: total score 9-11
  • Medium: total score 12-17
  • High: total score 18-21
  • Very High: total score 22-25
• Regression risk
  • Low: mostly isolated UI with limited async and minimal shell coupling
  • Medium: moderate data flow or workflow complexity with bounded blast radius
  • High: broad coupling, many async states, or sensitive user workflows

Summary Matrix

Page	Owner	Scores (R/S/A/C/T)	Effort	Risk	Recommended Wave
issues	React	2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2	Low	Low	Wave 0
help	Legacy	3 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 2	Low	Low	Wave 1
hydrabase	Legacy	2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2	Low	Low	Wave 1
stats	Legacy	2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2	Low	Low	Wave 1
import	Legacy	3 / 3 / 3 / 2 / 3	Medium	Medium	Wave 1
search	Legacy	4 / 4 / 4 / 3 / 4	High	High	Wave 2
watchlist	Legacy	4 / 4 / 4 / 3 / 4	High	High	Wave 3
wishlist	Legacy	4 / 4 / 4 / 3 / 4	High	High	Wave 3
active-downloads	Legacy	3 / 4 / 4 / 3 / 4	High	High	Wave 4
tools	Legacy	4 / 4 / 4 / 4 / 4	High	High	Wave 4
dashboard	Legacy	4 / 4 / 4 / 4 / 4	High	High	Wave 5
discover	Legacy	5 / 5 / 4 / 4 / 5	Very High	High	Wave 6
playlist-explorer	Legacy	4 / 4 / 4 / 3 / 4	High	High	Wave 7
library	Legacy	4 / 5 / 4 / 4 / 5	Very High	High	Wave 8
artist-detail	Legacy	5 / 5 / 4 / 5 / 5	Very High	High	Wave 8
sync	Legacy	5 / 5 / 5 / 4 / 5	Very High	High	Wave 9
settings	Legacy	5 / 5 / 4 / 5 / 5	Very High	High	Wave 10
automations	Legacy	4 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 4	High	High	Wave 10

Page Catalog

Wave 0: Baseline

issues

• Current owner: React.
• Primary files: webui/src/routes/issues/*, webui/src/platform/shell/*, webui/src/app/router.tsx.
• Main surface: counts cards, filtered issue list, issue-detail modal, mutation flows.
• Key coupling: shell page gating, shell nav badge refresh, bridge-controlled chrome, React Query cache.
• Why it stays first: it is already the canonical React route pattern and the migration baseline.

Wave 1: Safest wins

help

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/docs.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: docs navigation, long-form sections, screenshots, lightbox behavior.
• Key coupling: mostly shell chrome and docs deep linking.
• Recommendation: still one of the safest early migrations, but keep the helper system shell-owned for now.

hydrabase

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/init.js.
• Main surface: connection state, saved credentials, peer count, comparison list.
• Key coupling: profile gating and a small amount of shell state.
• Recommendation: low-risk route with a narrow surface.

stats

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/stats-automations.js.
• Main surface: listening stats, charts, ranked lists, database storage visualization.
• Key coupling: chart rendering, some deep links back into library routes.
• Recommendation: early migration candidate with good parity-test potential.

import

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/stats-automations.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: staging files, album and singles matching, suggestion cards, processing queue.
• Key coupling: settings-derived staging path assumptions and downstream library state.
• Recommendation: still bounded enough for an early wave, though more workflow-heavy than help or stats.

Wave 2: Search split

search

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/search.js, webui/static/downloads.js, webui/static/shared-helpers.js.
• Main surface: basic search, enhanced search, source picker, fallback banner, download launch flow.
• Key coupling: global search widget parity, shared search controller, download modal handoff, legacy DOM ids that still say downloads.
• Recommendation: this is the renamed download/search surface, so it should be treated as a distinct migration from the queue view, not as the old monolith.

Wave 3: Watchlist pair

watchlist

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/api-monitor.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: watched-artist grid, per-artist config, scan status, global override banner, bulk actions.
• Key coupling: discovery and wishlist generation, scan polling, per-profile access rules.
• Recommendation: good mid-complexity route once the shell bridge and route-local data patterns are stable.

wishlist

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/api-monitor.js, webui/static/wishlist-tools.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: track queue, cycle state, live processing, nebula visualization, countdown timers.
• Key coupling: watchlist scans, playlist sync handoff, download processing, live polling.
• Recommendation: visually distinctive but still bounded enough to follow watchlist in the same program wave.

Wave 4: Operational split

active-downloads

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/pages-extra.js.
• Main surface: centralized live download list, status filters, batch grouping, batch history, cancellation controls.
• Key coupling: polling every few seconds, download batch hydration, nav badge counts, server-side download state.
• Recommendation: the old embedded queue moved here, so this page should be treated as the queue sibling of search.

tools

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/wishlist-tools.js, webui/static/stats-automations.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: database updater, metadata updater, quality scan, duplicate clean, retag, backups, maintenance sections.
• Key coupling: lots of operational actions and several background jobs, but less dashboard chrome than before.
• Recommendation: split-off from the dashboard, but still operational enough to stay in a later wave.

Wave 5: Monitoring hub

dashboard

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/init.js, webui/static/wishlist-tools.js, webui/static/api-monitor.js, webui/static/worker-orbs.js.
• Main surface: service cards, enrichment workers, library status, recent syncs, system stats, activity feed, quick nav.
• Key coupling: almost every global subsystem eventually shows up here.
• Recommendation: narrower than the old snapshot because tools moved out, but still one of the central shell surfaces.

Wave 6: Broad discovery surface

discover

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/discover.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: hero carousel, recent releases, genre browser, decade browser, similar artists, seasonal picks.
• Key coupling: watchlist-derived recommendations, discovery pool, download handoffs, many semi-independent sections.
• Recommendation: broad rendering surface and heavy fetch fan-out make this a high-risk migration.

Wave 7: Visual interaction route

playlist-explorer

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/wishlist-tools.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: playlist cards, discovery tree, selection model, zoom/pan interactions, wishlist submission.
• Key coupling: document-level pointer handling, discovery workflow, artist navigation.
• Recommendation: interactive enough to wait until the team is comfortable migrating richer stateful views.

Wave 8: Library stack

library

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/library.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: searchable artist grid, watchlist filters, pagination, download bubbles, deep links to detail.
• Key coupling: tightly bound to artist-detail, watchlist systems, and library-wide expectations.
• Recommendation: should be migrated alongside the detail route, not as an isolated quick win.

artist-detail

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/library.js, webui/static/downloads.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: hero section, discography views, bulk operations, inline editing, tag writing, reorganize, quality actions.
• Key coupling: explicitly coupled to library, plus downloads, playback, metadata services, and file-organization settings.
• Recommendation: treat this as part of the library stack and keep it out of early waves.

Wave 9: Multi-source orchestration

sync

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/sync-spotify.js, webui/static/sync-services.js, webui/static/wishlist-tools.js.
• Main surface: mirrored playlists, source tabs, discovery, sync history, playlist import flows, M3U export.
• Key coupling: the heaviest async orchestration in the app, with long-running workflows and state rehydration.
• Recommendation: one of the last major migrations.

Wave 10: Final complex authoring/admin routes

settings

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/settings.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: service credentials, download config, quality settings, file organization, appearance, advanced settings.
• Key coupling: almost every other page depends on settings-derived behavior or stored configuration.
• Recommendation: late migration because the blast radius is very large.

automations

• Current owner: Legacy.
• Primary files: webui/index.html, webui/static/stats-automations.js, webui/static/helper.js.
• Main surface: automation list, visual builder, run history, one-click hub groups, config editing.
• Key coupling: nested editable state, polling, run/deploy/toggle flows, and other system-level actions.
• Recommendation: save this for the final wave with the other complex authoring surfaces.

Platform Unlocks

• search likely unlocks reusable search-controller and download-launch primitives for the global search widget and other search entry points.
• watchlist likely unlocks artist-card, per-artist config, and scan-status primitives for discover and wishlist.
• wishlist likely unlocks queue/cycle visualization, live polling, and retry-state handling for active-downloads and sync-driven download flows.
• active-downloads likely unlocks batch grouping, queue filtering, and cancellation patterns for other download-related surfaces.
• tools likely unlocks maintenance-card and operational-action patterns that can be reused from dashboard.
• library + artist-detail still unlock entity-detail patterns, bulk actions, and file-management workflows.

Why Earlier Waves Are Safer

• Wave 1 routes are either mostly static or bounded data UIs with limited cross-route side effects.
• Wave 2 adds the renamed search surface without dragging in the full queue history.
• Wave 3 introduces the new watchlist/wishlist split, which is important but still narrower than discovery or library management.
• Wave 4 adds the live queue and tools split once the route-local patterns are already in place.
• Wave 5 keeps the dashboard after its maintenance responsibilities have been peeled away.
• Waves 6-10 defer the broadest, most coupled, or most orchestration-heavy surfaces until the team has the most leverage.

Final Recommendation

• Keep issues as the reference implementation and preserve the existing bridge contract.
• Treat search, watchlist, wishlist, active-downloads, and tools as the current route ids, and keep downloads and artists only as compatibility history.
• Migrate the safe routes first: help, hydrabase, stats, and import.
• Use search as the next meaningful proving ground now that the download queue has been split out.
• Avoid pulling settings, sync, library, artist-detail, or automations forward unless there is a separate product priority strong enough to justify the added regression risk.