On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 4:21 PM, Marius Dumitru Florea <
mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 3:01 PM, Vincent Massol
<vincent(a)massol.net> wrote:
Hi Marius,
See below
On 3 May 2018, at 13:24, Marius Dumitru Florea
<
mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 1:44 PM, Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net>
wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>> On 3 May 2018, at 12:32, Marius Dumitru Florea <
>> mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 11:58 AM, Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) <
>>> valicac(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 7:02 PM, Marius Dumitru Florea <
>>>> mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi devs,
>>>>>
>>>>> Some users have complained that the navigation panel shows top
level
>>>> pages
>>>>> that they don't need/want to navigate to, most importantly the
XWiki
>>>> page.
>>>>>
>>>>> There are multiple ways in which we can fix this.
>>>>>
>>>>> Solution 1: Content Page
>>>>>
>>>>> Create a top level "Content" page for user content and
configure
the
>>>> navigation panel to show the contents of this page.
>>>>
>>>> Pros:
>>>> * Namespace isolation (no conflicts between user pages and
application
>>>> pages)
>>>>
>>>> Cons:
>>>> * The user may want to navigate to a top level application page
> (although
>>>> it's better to use the application panel for this instead)
>>>> * All the paths / references used to access the user content will
start
>>>>> with this "Content" page
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> S1: This solution is good if users would work in isolation or in the
>>>> evaluation period, but for team and multiple people sharing spaces,
I
>> don't
>>>> see this as a valid solution.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The Content space is for all users, shared. This is not about having
a
>>
separate space for each user.
>>
>>
>>> -0
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Solution 2: Blacklisting
>>>>
>>>> Add support for specifying a list of (top level) pages to exclude
from
>>>> the
>>>>> navigation panel.
>>>>>
>>>>> Pros:
>>>>> * The user (top level) pages created later on will be visible in
the
>>>>> navigation panel
>>>>> * The blacklist could be used to filter not only top level pages
but
>> also
>>>>> any nested page from the navigation panel.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cons:
>>>>> * The blacklist depends on the installed apps. The administrator
may
> have
>>>> to update the blacklist when new applications are installed
>>>> * The blacklist depends on whether you view hidden pages or not. If
you
>>>>> don't view hidden pages then the blacklist probably contains 4
pages:
>>>> Help,
>>>>> Menu, Sandbox, XWiki (there is an application panel entry for each
of
>>>> them
>>>>> except XWiki), which is manageable. If you view hidden pages then
you
>>> need
>>>> to black list 28+ pages which is hard to manage and maintain.
>>>> * The filtering needs to happen on the database (otherwise we break
the
>>>> pagination) so the database
queries will become a bit more complex,
> which
>>>> could led to some performance penalty, depending on how long the
>>> blacklist
>>>> is.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> S2: I see the blacklist solution more as a hack for things in XWiki
that
>>> should be fixed (have users outside
XWiki space, move Sandbox into
Help
>>>> space, hide Help pages and provide a dedicated Help entry in the
User
>> menu,
>>>> etc.) but we don't have the time to do it.
>>>> -0 in an ideal state
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Solution 3: Whitelisting
>>>>>
>>>>> Add support for controlling the list of top level pages that are
>>>> displayed
>>>>> in the navigation panel.
>>>>>
>>>>> Pros:
>>>>> * the whitelist doesn't depend on the installed extensions or
hidden
>>> pages
>>>> so it's easier to maintain.
>>>> * the whitelist can be used to order the top level pages visible in
the
>>>>> navigation panel.
>>>>> * the whitelist can be used to show at the top level (for
navigation
>>>>> purpose) a page that is not
really a top level page
>>>>> * No performance penalty
>>>>>
>>>>> Cons:
>>>>> * The user (top level) pages created later on will not be visible
in
> the
>>>> navigation panel. The administrator will have to add them to the
>>> whitelist
>>>> if they are useful for the navigation. Although creating top level
> pages
>>>> should happen less often than creating nested pages under the
existing
>>>> top
>>>>> level pages.
>>>>> * the whitelist controls only the first level in the tree. The next
>>>> levels
>>>>> will be dynamic (database queries) and with the default order.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> S3: I prefer this solution, but with the ability to also display
some
>>> dynamic pattern, something like: display X, Y and all children of Z,
or
>>> all pages starting with A, or all
pages created by group N :) (they
are
>>>> just ideas, I know some are very hard to implement).
>>>> +1
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Solution 4: Exclude extension pages
>>>>>
>>>>> Exclude from the navigation panel the top level pages that belong
to
an
>>>> installed extension, allowing the
administrator to make some
exceptions
>>>>> (e.g. keep the home page). The rationale is that if an installed
>>>> extension
>>>>> has a top level page then that page is most probably the
application
>> home
>>>>> page which should be accessible from the application panel. This
can
be
>>>>> implemented on top of solution 3 (the whitelist is basically
dynamic:
> we
>>>> collect the top level pages that don't belong to an extension).
>>>>
>>>> Pros:
>>>> * It does a clear separation between applications (accessible from
the
>>>> application panel) and content
(accessible from the navigation
panel).
>>>> The
>>>>> navigation panel is currently mixing application pages and (user)
>> content
>>>>> pages.
>>>>> * The administrator doesn't need to update the navigation panel
>>>>> configuration to exclude a top level application home page each
time
an
>>>>> application is installed
>>>>> * The hidden top level extension code pages are not shown even when
>> "show
>>>>> hidden pages" is set to true
>>>>> * The user top level pages created later on appear in the tree
>>>>> automatically
>>>>>
>>>>> Cons:
>>>>> * The user won't be able to navigate easily to an application
home
>> page:
>>>>> ** if the application panel is not shown
>>>>> ** or if the application doesn't provide an application panel
entry
>>>>> ** or if the administrator has removed the entry from the
application
>>> panel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>> S4: I don't know if for our users this separation between apps and
> content
>>> is very clear.
>>
>>
>> I think our users (or their administrators at least) want to separate
the
>> applications from the content. So I think
it would be good to have
>> something dedicated to applications, the application panel, and
something
>
dedicated to content, the navigation panel.
> I’m seeing this a bit as a “hack" since the separation would exist in
the
> Nav panel but not elsewhere (AllDocs, other
trees such as the
Rename/Copy
>> ones, etc).
>>
>
> I don't get it. The blacklist / whitelist would be applied *only* to
the
navigation panel also so what you propose is not consistent either.
In the end it boils down to how you view the Navigation panel I think.
I view it as something that can be controlled by the user to decide what
to see/not see.
Deciding to see or not the apps is a choice.
> I think if we want that separation we need to think about it more
> globally. AFAIR we had some discussions about this separation already
and
> the proposed solution were different than the
one proposed here. So if
you
> want to go in this direction, we need to
review the previous proposals
and
think
more globally which IMO is going to take a lot of time.
> I’m still thinking that we should allow users to define a white list
and a
>> black list and that’s all. That will cover all use cases that a
generic
platform requires.
Did you read the cons? Having to manually update the blacklist whenever
you
install an application is a pain.
Only if you don’t want to see the app you added in the nav panel :)
BTW I said that I find it ok to have this “app filter” but as one of the
white list filters that can be applied. So I’m not against it if it’s
configurable.
And what about the hidden pages?
You mean the blacklisted pages?
Don't
you find it hard to manage a blacklist of 28+ excludes?
Sure. And again I said I’m fine with with having this whitelist filter ;)
Solution 4 doesn't
require maintenance from an administrator. When you install an app it's
top
level pages are excluded automatically.
BTW I’m not sure that’s enough. For example
several apps have subspaces
such as a Data space and a Code space. This means that the Data space
would
be displayed and thus the app will be displayed
in the nav panel, no?
No. The implementation I had in mind for Solution 4 is very simple: check
if the top level page itself is part of an extension. That means
Menu.WebHome, Sandbox.WebHome, XWiki.WebHome, etc. Checking if there is
some nested child page created by the user inside a top level page is way
to complex and time consuming. So it doesn't matter if the application has
Code and Data nested pages. What matters is that the home page of the
application is part of an extension and thus that page and all its children
will not appear in the navigation panel.
Another note: I’m probably not understanding something because I don’t
see
the point of hiding, say, ReleaseNotes.Archives
when we’ll display
ReleaseNotes.Data.*. It could even be seen as a regression (I’m assuming
in
this example that ReleaseNotes.Archives is a page
of the ReleaseNotes
app,
which it isn’t FTM).
I also fail to see how this will remove XWiki and
Home from the Nav menu
since they’re not apps/extensions…
Solution 4 is about top level *pages* that *belong* to an extension. If the
XWiki and Home pages (WebHomes) wouldn't be part of an extension then you
wouldn't have them installed with the Standard flavor.
XWiki.WebHome
https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/blob/master/
xwiki-platform-distribution/xwiki-platform-distribution-ui/xwiki-platform-
distribution-ui-base/src/main/resources/XWiki/WebHome.xml
is part of xwiki-platform-distribution-ui
Main.WebHome
https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/blob/master/
xwiki-platform-distribution/xwiki-platform-distribution-
flavor/xwiki-platform-distribution-flavor-common/src/main/resources/Main/
WebHome.xml
is part of xwiki-platform-distribution-flavor-common
So both would be excluded (along with all their child pages) from the
navigation tree. Main.WebHome could be kept though if we check also the
page type (as Thomas mentioned): keep top level pages that belong to an
extension if they are "editable" (based on their type, the XAR page type
introduced by Thomas recently).
Last point: when you say “top level pages are excluded” you mean default
extension pages, not top level pages created by the app when it’s used,
right?
The plan would be to use the Extension Manager API to check if a page is
part of an extension and ATM this is limited to the pages that are include
in the extension XAR package. If the application creates at runtime a top
level page then that page would be shown.
My problem with this solution is that sometimes we want the mix. There are
wikis that have 2 major apps installed and they would want the pages
created with those apps to appear in the Navigation.
For example if you install the Procedures app, you might want to have some
generic pages prioritized in the tree and after to have all the procedures
pages dynamically listed.
Or let's say there is a website flavor that has some static pages like
Home, Contact, About and it also has an FAQ or a Blog app installed. I
would like all these pages to be listed in the navigation tree.
Or on
, I would like to still be able to see pages from Release
Notes app listead together with pages that are not an app yet, like
Roadmap, etc.
When you create a top level page,
it's shown automatically in the tree.
Thanks
-Vincent
>
> Then we can work on optimizing this later on when we decide how we do
the
>> separation between Content and apps and it’ll depend a lot on how we
do
it.
>>
>> If we don’t fo this we risk rushing into a suboptimal solution.
>>
>> WDYT?
>>
>> Thanks
>> -Vincent
>>
>>>
>>>> Also they might create their own apps and they will want
>>>> those to be part of the navigation.
>>>
>>>
>>> They would want to have an entry in the application panel like the
rest
> of
>> the apps I think.
>>
>>
>>> The ideal navigation should be able to
>>> state some important pages to be shown (static aspect), order that
list
>> in
>>>> terms of priority, and later contain and navigate to pages created
by
>> the
>>>> user or team (dynamic aspect). Adding metadatas to pages and
creating
> apps
>>> on top of content is a major feature of XWiki and I don't want to
remove
>>>> these pages from the navigation.
>>>> -0
>>>>
>>>> I prefer solution 3, but with the ability to sort and also to
include
> some
>>> dynamic parts :) is this possible?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Caty
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I prefer solution 4.
>>>>
>>>> WDYT?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Marius