Re: [xwiki-devs] [Proposal] Prevent users from renaming/move pages with XClass definition

Hi Simon, The nice part about the listener is that it works for all use cases: * rename/move from the UI * rename/move from scripts * etc

The bad parts are: 1) right now we don’t provide a nice UI when an event is cancelled. AFAIR we just display a stack trace in the UI which is definitely not good enough. Are you improving this part?

2) this is after the fact. Imagine that you’re renaming a set of pages and among them there are several coming from an app. It’ll work fine on pages not having an XClass (like moving the page having an XObject of that XClass) and then failing down the line on the page having the XClass. That’s a problem because the xobject page will be wrongly moved, since it doesn’t make sense that it’s moved if the other pages of the app are not moved. Generally speaking you’ll have a bad state that is not easy to rollback. This is why for me the check also has to be done in the move/rename UI and verify that among the list of pages there are none with XClass and if so prevent moving/renaming any page. This is not in contradiction with the listener but the more important (from a usage POV) is the check in the move/rename UI and not the listener which is a more advanced use case.

AFAIK if you copy a set of pages with pages having an XClass in it, then the copied pages won’t work so we shouldn’t drop this. We should just implement the protection at the UI level (ie the copy action), same as for rename/move and not implement the listener part (ie not support the script use case).

Thanks -Vincent > > Simon > > > On 9/26/18 10:27 AM, Simon Urli wrote: >> Hi everyone, >> ok trying to sum-up (I'm only talking about cases with XClass below, to simplify): >> - according to Vincent, we should completely prevent simple users to copy/move/rename and only allow advanced users to do it after a warning >> - according to Adel & Clément: preventing simple users will be useless as they can easily switch the advanced feature in their account >> - according to Marius copying a page/app is not necessarily harmful compared to moving/renaming and we should manage it differently. >> I really don't know the practice of users on the field, but it looks to me that preventing simple users to do the action and telling them to ask an advanced user is actually a good trade-off: >> 1. it will warn users that they might be doing something wrong >> 2. it's not something completely blocking: either they ask for the admin/advanced user, or they know they can switch the advanced features by themselves, at their own risks >> Now maybe we can only do the warning for the "copy" action. >> WDYT? >> Simon >> On 9/25/18 11:36 AM, Vincent Massol wrote: >>> Hi Marius, >>> >>>> On 25 Sep 2018, at 11:34, Marius Dumitru Florea <mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> On Sun, Sep 23, 2018 at 11:12 AM Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi Simon, >>>>> >>>>>> On 21 Sep 2018, at 16:58, Simon Urli <simon.urli(a)xwiki.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On 9/21/18 4:53 PM, Adel Atallah wrote: >>>>>>> +1 for the warning, but I would not forbid simple users from renaming >>>>>>> or moving pages but instead just hide the action (from the page menu). >>>>>> >>>>>> OK I should have written it: by "forbid" I meant: >>>>>> >>>>>> 1. Hide the action from the menu >>>>>> 2. Return an error message if the user try to access the >>>>> renaming/moving page (using forged URL) >>>>>> >>>>>> So you suggest we shouldn't do 2? >>>>> >>>>> So +1 to prevent/warn the user when doing a move/renaming >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> AND copy pages containing XClass definitions >>>> >>>> >>>> FTR, copying a single page having an XClass definition is not dangerous (it >>>> won't break the application that owns the page), as it only creates a new >>>> class definition. Copying an entire application is not dangerous either. >>>> The copy won't work like the original application (this justifies a warning >>>> as it may fail the user expectations), but the original application will >>>> still work. Renaming or moving an application is dangerous as it breaks the >>>> application. >>> >>> Yes you’re correct. Unless the user does a copy + delete ;) >>> >>> Thanks >>> -Vincent >>> >>>> >>>>> (the message should list all such pages). >>>>> >>>>> -1 to hide the action from the menu (if you’re talking about the >>>>> “Move/Rename” and “Copy" actions) because: >>>>> 1) you get to choose whether you move/rename/copy children after you click >>>>> the action >>>>> 2) even when the current page has an XClass, the user wouldn't understand >>>>> why he cannot see/click on the action. It’s better that he can do it but >>>>> get an error message, explaining why and telling him that to contact an >>>>> advanced users if he really needs to do it. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks >>>>> -Vincent >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Fri, Sep 21, 2018 at 4:44 PM Simon Urli <simon.urli(a)xwiki.com> >>>>> wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Hi all, >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> users might currently break their AWM application by renaming/moving >>>>>>>> pages containing XClass definition. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> We need a proper refactoring operation to be able to properly do such >>>>>>>> move/rename. But this feature might take a while to be completely >>>>>>>> available. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> In the meantime I propose that we prevent users from renaming/moving >>>>>>>> pages containing XClass. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> What I propose is the following: >>>>>>>> - Forbid completely *simple users* to rename/move pages containing >>>>> XClass >>>>>>>> - Display a warning to *advanced users* when they perform such >>>>>>>> operation: the same kind of warning we already have when performing >>>>> edit >>>>>>>> on XWiki pages >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> WDYT? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Simon >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>> Simon Urli >>>>>>>> Software Engineer at XWiki SAS >>>>>>>> simon.urli(a)xwiki.com >>>>>>>> More about us at http://www.xwiki.com >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Simon Urli >>>>>> Software Engineer at XWiki SAS >>>>>> simon.urli(a)xwiki.com >>>>>> More about us at http://www.xwiki.com >>> > > -- > Simon Urli > Software Engineer at XWiki SAS > simon.urli(a)xwiki.com > More about us at http://www.xwiki.com