Re: [xwiki-users] [xwiki-devs] [Proposal] Selective Export UI

For my comments, I use your convention, to avoid speaking about screen or part of screen (A) is the Search/Browse/Select pages functionality (B) is the See/Manage selected/saved pages functionality (C) is the Adjust Export Options functionality On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 23:33, Ecaterina Valica <valicac(a)gmail.com> wrote: Do you means that the way most eCommerce site works using a cart is so bad ? Moreover, from my understanding, deselection is available with (A). The main difference is that (A) is a filtered view over the whole wiki and (B) is a potentially filtered view over the upcoming package with some ordering features. For me (A) and (B) provide 2 really distinct functionality, this is why I have not merged them in a single table, but if (A) and (B) were only a selection feature, a single table would have been sufficient. Even if I can agree to some point for small package, you will always have to rely a little on your mind, since displaying the whole package content will not be always possible. Note that screen are not pages, and switching is fast. Apart from the complexity aspects, you should really consider that not every one has a 26" screen, and that all skins will not always allow such large display. During (A), you have also information displayed (B), so I do not really feel the need to have both together. The user can have more paths of completion: > 1) (A) Search/Browse/Select pages -> (B) See/Manage selected/saved pages -> (C) Adjust Export Options -> (D) Export > 2) (B) See/Manage saved > pages -> (C) Adjust Export Options -> (D) Export > 3) (B) See/Manage saved > pages -> -> (D) Export > (rely on defaults) > Export Options should be placed somewhere near the "Selected Pages", > because > they are part of the export process, but it's not mandatory to be on the > same level. I agree on that point, since (B) may have some ordering feature depending on the format, this implies knowing the format earlier. On the other side, I do not think (C) options should influence (B) and need to be side by side with it. (C) is detailled options, not selections. > So the process is something like (A) - (B) ; (B) - (C). Not really, it could be (A) - (B) then (C), if (C) does not influence (B). In my proposal, I was putting option that influence (B), in (B), not (C). > Idea (nr.1) Now, when you resize the prototype is trying to fit and has > relatives width, but we could do something like: > http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/MultiExport2Pr… > The options could float on the next level. In the case we have lots of > pages > we want to export, we need to provide a shortcut top link to options. > Another idea (nr.2) would be to have something like an vertical accordion > that could expand/collapse elements that we don't need anymore. > Something like "Hide Advertisement" > http://www.nirmaltv.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ads.gif done for > hiding/showing search part "Select document for export" or done for "Export > Option". Accordion or slider could be a way to provide my separated view between (A) and (B), combined with your nr.3 below for (C) this could be a really nice interface. If we can provide a way for small screen and large screen to be used efficiently, I am really not against. But presenting the whole interface at once is IMO too complex for casual user, and some guidance is require anyway. > Idea nr.3 would be to have just "Select documents for export" + "Selected > Pages" and when you press on "Export", it will happen something like when > you press on "Annotation". An overlay would appear where you can select > what > options you want to have. > http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Main/ReleaseNotesXWikiEnterprise23M… > The options could partially hide the Selected Pages, because the user > doesn't need them anymore, since he is in the final step (he already > decided > what he wants to export). > I think nr.3 is my favorite option, since you wouldn't have to scroll to > get > to options, options are not mandatory for the search/select process, but > would make a great difference to have them in context (on the same page, > without changing the view, reloading the page). > If more agree on nr.3 I could make a mockup to see how it looks. > > 2) List of documents and scalability > > > IMO, we should inspire the list of document from the livetable (not the > > tree) actually in AllDocs. We need to have it improved (also in AllDocs), > > but keeping the same look and feel between both of them will obviously > > helps > > both users and developers. The livetable in AllDocs already solve the > > scalability problem nicely, and users will be accustomed to it. > > Maybe it's just me, but I don't want that every control in XWiki to be a > livetable. When I first started thinking about the Selective Export, the > main idea was to have something very similar to the current Importer. > http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Main/ReleaseNotesXWikiEnterprise22/… > http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/MultiExport2Pr… > And they should be similar because they are dual actions: export / import. > Also the tree view for XAR files is optimal IMO. As you said, the importer is nice, because it manage only XAR files, and the tree view fits well. But don't be fooled, the importer is not so scalable (not only form the interface POV however), and with large XAR, it is very difficult to properly import part of a XAR. Selection is a pain, and can only be done based on very basic criteria. So this not a model to follow if we want to improve the functionality. On the other hand, the best UI should not use many different controls for the same final purpose. The LiveTable is the best solution we currently have for displaying lists, it is already scalable, has already an efficient navigation, already provide filters and tag cloud functionality, etc... it really fit the needs, so why use a less featured control ? especially one that user should be accustomed to. > What should be improved (in both place) ? > > - Allow filters on document contents or using the tagcloud. This will > > provide a mix with the search feature and the tag feature, but in a > filter > > way (without sorting by relevance) > > - Allow customizing columns, since we might want to choose document > based > > on creation date, modification date, authors, creators, presence of > > attachements, ... and not all of them could be proposed at once > > - Allow displaying hidden documents > > - Allow small popup document preview ? > > if the names are links we don't need the preview My question mark was not innocent :) > What should be added for export ? > > - A display of the selection status, probably near the name, on the > left. > > - To allow user to select whole Space, why not list them in there own > row, > > next to the documents, and provide a "type" filter to list only spaces, > > document or both. For spaces, the selection box could be three states, > > showing partially selected space. > > - "Add/remove all displayed item", "add/remove the whole filtered list", > > should be proposed for easy large selection/deselection. An undo option > > could be nice to have. > > This UI version is doable, but I don't know if this is really the direction > we want to take. More opinions would help. The selection would look > something like Gmail or Yahoo. I do not know what direction we want to take, but I know what I want to be able to do with export: - Export document matching a given name, tags, ... - Export a given set of spaces, - Export document created/changed since a given date - Export a whole set of document linked (hierarchicaly also) together - Export document (not) having attachements - Export (not) hidden document - Export the same set than last time - ... and a mix of all the above together. Do you think that what I expect are not valid use cases ? For the selection aspect, GMail is nice at selecting elements in large list. For search aspect, I have always find advanced Google search really cryptic. > > 3) List of selected documents / Spaces > > > To stay simple, this list should be very similar to the previous one (and > > influenced by the column customarily displayed in the previous step by > the > > user). This is in fact a filtered view on the selection status. > > I would not mix it with the previous one, to provide a clear step by step > > way and a slightly different interface : > > - The selection status should be replace by a removal button. > > - Some external button should allow: > > - "Add Children" which will add one level of children of all selected > page > > to the list > > - "Add All Children" which will add all children of selected page > > recursively to the list > > - "Add Linked Pages" which will add pages linked from currently selected > > page to the list > > - "Add All Linked Page" which will add pages linked from currently > > selected page recursively to the list > > - "Undo last addition" using one of the previous buttons which will > return > > the list to its previous state > > - "Save current selection" which will allow saving the current selection > > for later use/reuse > > > If the export contains unselected children pages, or unselected linked > > pages. It may be useful to warn the user of that situation on this > screen. > > > 4) Export options > > > This last screen should allow the selection of the export format from a > > free > > list. After a deep refactoring, we should be able to easily implement new > > export format (using components) and this list of format should be > > dynamic. Obviously, the format options will be displayed depending of > > the chosen format (including custom interface by custom formats). > > But, these options should not change the list of exported pages in any > way, > > this is confusing. > > If we get more space for displaying Export Options, then I don't see any > problem in having tabs for showing options. This scales. If it scales, no problem for me, but I really dislike having more than one line of tabs, it generally produce confusing UI. > > 5) What about the hierarchical views > > > IMO, we should stay away from them as much as we can since trees of large > > sets have a serious scalability issue (I means for the user, not only the > > computer). I have already provide some hints on how to provide children > and > > link inclusion, but may be we can go one step further with reasonable > > complexity. > > > For each rows of both table describe above, we may have several expanding > > box (a "small" lightbox), that shows: > > - the list of direct children of the page/space > > - the list of all children of the page taken recursively > > - the list of linked page from the page > > - the list of all linked page from the page taken recursively > > These boxes will display a similar list to the current one (without > further > > expanding boxes), allowing review/selection of additional pages > > IMO trees are very good at reflecting hierarchy (space/page and > parent/child). And this is the way users are organizing and browsing (also > in WYSIWYG) their content inside XWiki, by using the breadcrumbs and by > mentioning always the space (page creation, copy, searching). I agree, but it does not scale, and this is probably an issue not only in the export. From my experience, selection in trees is always a pain, and really less efficient than lists and filters. > The reason I added the List View was to accomodate work already done for > MultiPageExport application > http://code.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Applications/MultiPageExportApplication > How much from what is in MultiPageExport application can be reused for the > "livetable" version? > Also, the first version of Selective Export proposal received nice > feedback. As I have said, I feel sorry coming so late with my comments. I am just wondering if all use cases have been properly taken into consideration. > So I'm not sure we should rethink this UI. WDYT? Any other opinions? I am curious too, I may be wrong ;), but I am sure it could be improved ! Denis > Thanks, > Caty > > Well, there is probably many adjustment that could be needed on the way > to > > this interface, and I hope my remarks will be the source of inspiration > for > > an even better solution. > > Thanks to those who have read me, this is a little bit long... I know. > > > Denis > > > On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 21:55, Ecaterina Valica <valicac(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > > I've made Selective Export Proposal 2 (HTML + CSS) > > > > > > http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Improvements/MultiExport2Propos… > > > > > This proposal follows more closely existing features from > MultiPageExport > > > application, like: > > > + Search by title/name/space/tags > > > + Ordering in the export list (important for HTML and PDF) > > > > > *Improvements* from Proposal 1 ( > > > > > > http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Improvements/MultiExportProposal > > > ): > > > > > - separation of "Saved Packages" in another top tab > > > - Added: "▾more ( 18 / 56 results )" when more pages/spaces are > displayed > > > - Added: "reset to defaults" to export options values > > > - Combined "Package Content" and "Export Options" under "Export > documents > > > as > > > package" > > > - Changed "Export" button position to top > > > - Added deletion for saved packages + saving date > > > > > Also, this proposal has 3 modes for pages relationship visualization: > > > Space/Page Tree, Parent/Child Tree, List View > > > > > Currently MultiPageExport application and XWiki WYSIWYG Search feature > > uses > > > "List View" (page title + location) mode to display information. This > > > should > > > be the default mode to display information: less cryptic, with search > you > > > could find information that you don't know the location. Also the > > ordering > > > (moveUp/moveDown) is more natural for HTML/PDF/RTF export, because > > entries > > > are independent. > > > > > > http://localhost:8080/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/MultiExport2Proposal/… > > > > > IMO, for export applications (XAR) "List View" is less usable and the > the > > > perfect candidate is "Space/Page Tree" view. > > > > > > http://localhost:8080/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/MultiExport2Proposal/… > > > > > Advanced users that will need "Space/Page Tree" or "Parent/Child Tree" > > will > > > have to manually changed the display view and/or the export options, > the > > > others will relay on defaults. > > > > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list > users(a)xwiki.org > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users -- Denis Gervalle SOFTEC sa - CEO eGuilde sarl - CTO