Hi,


On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 1:54 PM, vincent@massol.net <vincent@massol.net>
wrote:

> Hi devs,
>
> We had this discussion in the past but it wasn’t officially recorded on
> dev.xwiki.org and I can’t find the thread.
>
> The question is to decide which docs should be hidden by default.
>
> My take:
>
> - all pages not containing user content. This includes application pages
> (for ex Dashboard.WebHome, Blog.WebHome, etc)
>
> Rationale:
>
> - Separate apps from content
> -- Spaces list should only list spaces having pages with user content
> -- Apps should be found in the Applications panel (or in the Apps
> directory in the future)
>
> Side note:
>
> - search suggest and search should return results for app names
>

Eventually in a dedicated area just like we have for Users or Workspaces.


>
> WDYT?
>

Until now the 'standard' to hide pages was if we considered them to be
'technical' pages and that an user should not access them directly.
It's true that we kind of went farther and hidden also advanced
Applications, letting them be accessible only from the 'Applications'
panel.

In theory I agree to separate the Application's data from Wiki content,
since it's separating a bit also the Flavors. But in practice this is kind
of hard to do since we don't model Applications and we don't have a
descriptor and everything is build on pages. As you know if you install
older applications they will appear in the Spaces area and is confusing.
Anyway, in practice just having a convention will not make the Homepage App
and Spaces confusion-proof.
Also wiki pages could be seen as instance of a Wiki App/Flavor.


>
> The reason I’m raising this is because while developing the new Home Page
> app (http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-10586) I just found that the user
> could not select the Dashboard.WebHome page because it’s a hidden page…
>
> Thus I have 2 options:
>
> 1) Unhide it, but this means the “Dashboard” will become visible in the
> spaces list
>
> 2) Change the UI I have at
> http://jira.xwiki.org/secure/attachment/28082/step2.png in order to allow
> the user to choose from both a list of apps or a list of pages. I could
> even show the apps with their icons, using the
> “org.xwiki.platform.panels.Applications” UIX.
>

Selecting an app means it will show only the app's WebHome. What if I want
to select Blog.FirstBlogPost as HomePage? or whatever instance from an
application. How the UI will look in this case?

The question is: what is more likely the users will select to populate
their Homepage?
- Is it an app (other than the Dashboard)? Would someone limit their wiki
functionality just to use a Blog? Would they select Statistics, Panels,
Scheduler, User Index? They could, but it will be a shame.
- Is it a page? The option to select between an existing page or 'create
your own' (a.k.a empty) are very similar, since after populating
Main.WebHome with your content it will be like any other page.

IMO the current proposal for the Homepage is a bit too complicated. First
because it's holding so much text (I would never read it).
>From what I understood some users are listing a livetable on the Homepage.
What I think people are missing some layouts for the Dashboard
applications, some predefined layouts. Choose between:
- 2 columns with Spaces + AS;
- 1 column with a Livetable that you customize and give a Class you want to
list;
- 1 column just with Text (equivalent of empty or 'Create your own
content').

Currently in User Profile we have a select that asks if what we see on the
Homepage is the global Dashboard or a custom one, and this mechanism could
be improved.

So, to answer your question: Instead of listing all the pages on the wikis
and all the applications, I would just list the 3 known layouts user would
need: empty, current, livetable.
Instead of creating the Dashboard layouts like suggested above, we could
implement this using the templates mechanism (but the livetable needs to be
put in a Macro, so the user could edit it with WYSIWYG and just change the
Class parameter).
When creating a space you are asked to select a template. For the
Main.WebHome use case when in edit we could allow the user to change the
initial selection (we will not store content in Main.WebHome, but just
includes). An older mockup of the space template selector
http://jira.xwiki.org/secure/attachment/22498/space1.png

Until we would implement additional mechanisms, from your 2 options and
with what you currently implemented: I would select 1) Just change the
hidden from Dashboard.
Option 2) would work if we were to have a better separation between pages
and apps.

Thanks,
Caty


> Option 2 seems ok but it’ll make the UI a bit more complex. I could offer
> linking to apps by default and have the linking to page behind an
> “Advanced” button...
>
> Any other idea?
>
> Thanks
> -Vincent
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> devs mailing list
> devs@xwiki.org
> http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
>