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I hope this forward will not cause disruption in the mail thread.
On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 12:33 PM, vincent(a)massol.net <vincent(a)massol.net>
wrote:
So we really need to start deciding what will be the
differences from a
user POV about the “Nested Spaces” view and the “Nested Documents” view.
There are 2 possibilities I can think ok.
Assumptions:
- In both cases we assume that by default XE is in “Nested Documents” view
when you install it and that going to the “Nested Spaces” view is an
advanced and technical option.
- In both cases we implement the hiding of WebHome everywhere in the UI by
assimilating WebHome and the Space it’s in.
Well, if we can assume that WebHome and space are the exact same thing, NS
became really a edge case.
Option 1
========
Concept: We clearly show the differences between Spaces and Documents in
the UI
* Have an checkbox option in the user profile that is named something like
“Show the Space concept”
* Everywhere in the UI where we display spaces (and there are lots of
places), we display them differently than documents. Some examples:
** In the Document Tree the icon used to display spaces is different than
the one used to display documents
** In the Index application we would need to either have 2 tabs: one for
Documents and one for Spaces or a single one but in this case the Livetable
column should be named “Document and Spaces” and both entities should be
displayed differently (I’m assuming we want a single column, see T13 at
http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Proposal/NestedSpaces#HOriginallisto…
)
** The Add button would list 2 actions: Add > Page and Add > Space
** In the Main Wiki administration UI we have a “Select Space to
Administer” label to choose the space to administer
** In the Add Page UI we ask the user to select both the document name and
the space in which it’s located
** We can keep the “Space List” on the home page’s dashboard
Option 2
========
Concept: We show Spaces and Documents as similarly as possible in the UI
to have the same UI as much as possible between “Nested Spaces” and “Nested
Documents”.
* In the user profile, we would have a checkbox option named something
like “Ability to create several Documents in the same Space”
* Everywhere in the UI we don’t differentiate Spaces and Documents. The
same examples as above would become:
When you are in NS or ND mode, you still have an issue regarding existing
document that are not WebHome.
This is not really a matter of showing them the same or differently, but
more of showing them or not.
** In the Document Tree we use the same icon (a node icon) to display
either spaces or documents
-1, since here Document are not all document that could have childs.
So, if I take your word about assumptions, there should be no difference
with option one in term of icons.
The difference could be that for ND, those documents that are not Webhome
are simply not shown by default.
** In the Index Application, we have a single Document
tab and in the
Livetable column is named “Location” (or “Document Names”) and the
reference is displayed but without showing different icons for Spaces or
Documents.
Exact same effect here, even with ND, we still need to distinct those
WebHome from simple documents.
** The Add > Space menu entry could be removed and
only an Add > Page
entry would stay but when you click on it, you’d still have the ability to
create new Spaces. Basically we ask the user to select both the document
name and the space in which it’s located
This is probably fine, and a good simplification of the UI.
** We replace the “Space List” on the home page’s
dashboard by a “Document
List” widget (showing both spaces and pages).
Fine, but again, in either mode, we need ways to distinct WebHome and
simple documents.
And again, the visibility of simple documents in ND mode should probably be
hidden by default.
In summary, option 2 reduces the difference between Nested Documents and
Nested Spaces to the Add > Page UI.
Pros/Cons
=========
* Option 1:
** Strong difference between Space/Documents in the UI
** Hard to implement: lots of places need to have different behavior
depending on whether the user profile option is turned on or off
** Existing extensions don’t need to be modified to feel natural if you’re
in the “Nested Spaces” mode. However note that since we want to have Nested
Documents by default these extensions must be updated ASAP anyway to
reflect that.
* Option 2:
** Smaller difference between Space/Document in the UI
** Easy to implement since the only UI
** Existing extensions may not feel natural (until they’re updated for
Nested Documents but we need to do that anyway)
WDYT? I’m worried that Option 1 is going to be costly to develop and
maintain.
I agree, we should think as much as possible in a way that makes
development as sharable as possible between the two mode.
Once, again, in either mode, we will need to support both type of documents
(WebHome vs other documents), and it will require them to be clearly
identifiable IMO.
Anca, since you were the one who raised this idea of
keeping both “Nested
Spaces” and “Nested Documents” in the UI, what’s your POV?
Thanks
-Vincent
--
Denis Gervalle
SOFTEC sa - CEO