Re: [xwiki-devs] [VOTE] Edit UI improvements and panelless edit

The fact that currently panels are not the same in edit& view mode and the fact that users can configure view panels as they see fit but not edit panels is a usability problem too. Panels can be useful but it doesn't mean they're used to the best effect right now. Additionally, some panels are plain obnoxious (especially the translation& tags ones).

Although I like the way Sergiu's suggestions are going, I agree with Vincent that this is major work that we can't possibly try making fit in XE 2.2 now without postponing the release& introducing a lot of instability. We have already introduced risk with Vincent's refactoring. I'm aware that some community members are looking forward to the WCAG / accessibility improvements we brought in XE 2.2 and I think it would be safer to provide a version that introduces them without re-hauling the whole XWiki Edit interface. Last but not least, these proposals have been discussed very little on the list so far and could benefit from additional refinements. Waiting for XE 2.3 would give us more time to make it work just right.

My personal take on this is that panelless edit would open the way to make inline edition a reality in XWiki. In practice this would mean that the content area (contentview.vm) could be replaced with the edit area while everything else would remain the same on the page (header, footer, panels). We could also load the edit part dynamically via AJAX, improving the speed and thus the perceived performance for the user. Last but not least, this would also bring us closer to unifying the edit& inline mode, which I believe would make XWiki more appealing for application developers. I've been developing applications lastly by adding metadata right above and under the content area in contentview.vm and being able to use the native XE content area& edit mode without mixing edit& inline is great and makes for a smoother user experience. I see Sergiu's proposal as a first and significant step in that direction and I think it's maybe actually not ambitious enough rather than the other way round ;-)

PS: Sergiu, I know all this would be much nicer if we were using Git and you could implement it in your own branch and share it whith whomever developer pleased you. Maybe this could be the right time to explore once again how XWiki development could take place using Git?