Sergiu Dumitriu wrote:
On 02/15/2010 12:35 AM, Josh wrote:
Sergiu Dumitriu wrote:
Hi XWiki Users,
Please help the dev team solve a UI design dilemma. Your feedback is very important, we really need the point of view of all categories of users.
The context:
We wish to get rid of the editor panels and integrate their corresponding functionality in the editor itself. There are several reasons for doing this (having all the editor functions in one place, without depending on the panels that might or might not be in the database, having the possibility to integrate the editors in view mode without functionality loss, etc).
The proposals:
A) http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/Design/ImprovedEdit#HVariantA All the information from the side panels is inserted in the main editor in semantically related places - the language/translation can be chosen from the content menu - the user can change the parent document by editing the hierarchy - the included documents are listed above the content - the document syntax can be selected from a field placed near the content textarea; a link to the syntax help page is provided in the same place. Note that the included documents and the page syntax are only visible in the wiki editing mode. Users editing pages in wysiwyg are not bothered with such details.
B) http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/Design/ImprovedEdit#HVariantB All the information from the side panels is grouped in an "Advanced options" zone, hidden by default and displayable on the right. This variant is highly similar to what we currently have in edit mode, with the additional possibility to hide it to gain more horizontal space.
I option B) the best. A large XWiki project I've been working on uses custom fields in the edit panels for editing page data stored in page objects. Option A would seem to make it more difficult to add these custom fields. Here are a few more thoughts and questions:
As I said in the wiki page, but not in the mail, for other custom fields there will be a different edit mode for document metadata not related to the content. So the question is: do your fields belong in the content editor, or in a document metadata editor?
Ah, sorry I didn't see that. Thanks for pointing it out. Given your paragraph below, I think my fields would make more sense in the metadata editor.
For older users, there is the misconception that document metadata should be edited in the wiki and WYSIWYG editors, which is wrong. These editors should be about editing the content only. One drawback of this behavior is that for sheet-based documents, such as blog entries, these fields are not available in the inline edit mode, and this edit mode is the only one available to non-advanced users, so editing metadata is really hard. Separating metadata from the content should really be a step forward, even though it will be annoying at first for users accustomed to the current way.
I think the idea of separation of document content and document metadata makes much more sense, and a UI to reflect this difference will improve usability.
1.) Perhaps there could be an area specifically for custom fields. That way users could have a way within the current templates to add their own functionality without having to learn enough about the edit templates to choose an insertion point themselves. Also, the fields could provide a friendlier interface than the Objects editor, much like the Inline Form editor except in the Wiki/WYSIWYG editors.
In the future the editing will be done in a UI like the view one: same panels on the left/right, and the extra tabs at the bottom. The "Information" tab will be editable, and document metadata will be there. Would this be enough for you?
I think this will be easier to work with than adding fields in the current editors.
Option A) could work with this by having, say, an additional clickable icon at the top that would reveal these additional fields. For my project, I simply placed the custom fields in the Document Information panel.
2.) Are the "panels" in B) still panels located in the Panels space?
At least initially. One goal of this move was to not depend on the panels application.
3.) Would this hidden Advanced Options sidebar be available in the WYSIWYG edit mode as well?
Yes.
-Joshua
Please comment on these proposals, telling us which works better for you. New ideas are also welcome.
Thanks in advance for your feedback, which will help us move forward.
Let me just say that the XWiki team is doing a great job. The latest big enhancements and those in the works--new user profile UI, entity references, this editor UI redesign--are I think excellent ideas, and I look forward to following and contributing to this project. -Joshua