#349 - Editing GUI
-
By Chris Graham
- Added
- 0 views
| Identifier | #349 |
|---|---|
| Issue type | Feature request or suggestion |
| Title | Editing GUI |
| Status | Closed (rejected) |
| Handling member | Chris Graham |
| Addon | core |
| Description | Give each page the admin views an identifier code, via a meta tag. Store the templates/lang-strings/etc used in a database table, against that identifier code.
After the page loads, code the ability AJAX to pull in XML details of all this stuff. This would be performed when an 'enable editing' checkbox was ticked (check) in the footer. This replaces the contextual actions drop down. When ticked an overlay window shows, which is like a menu with what used to be in the contextual actions drop down. Clicking each opens up an overlay for editing that stuff. There is also a "reload page" option that uses AJAX to reload the page but maintains all the overlays in place. Each kind of data used on the page (templates/lang-strings/etc) is given a regexp that defines it's matchable pattern. This powers a new "search and locate" button, which is like the Firebug inspect button. If you click it gives a list of possible things you might want to edit, based on what things on the page have a regexp for which your position fits. When you select an option, that opens in an overlay. As well as the "reload page" option, have a preview option (and an auto-preview option) that re-renders the page, as if the edits you're trying out were actually made. |
| Steps to reproduce | |
| Funded? | No |
The system will post a comment when this issue is modified (e.g., status changes). To be notified of this, click "Enable comment notifications".
Comments
It sounds a bit clunky, but a really complex UI is not going to work very well, and while that may be slick, bugginess (much of it unavoidable, due to lack of clearly defined semantics, or buried network errors) is much worse.
When this was written (the ideas are based on considerations we had much before 2011), the view of how the web would evolve is a bit different from reality. UIs have got simpler and less busy, not really complex like old desktop UIs; browsers have got better.
With modern browsers, back buttons and tabs work much better than they used to. Composr's standard UI is nicer than it was too.