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[Proposal] Toggle sections of the Issue update form

Added by Eric Davis at 2011-06-10 08:57 pm

I've been getting annoyed at the UI for the issue update form. For new users there are a lot of fields in there, many of them don't need to be changed very often.

I propose we model the form after how the Files upload looks:

  • Issue properties - closed by default. Would hold the standard attributes "Status", "Priority", and also the (more) attributes. This will reduce the clutter and should fix the "How do I change the subject?" FAQs.
  • Log time - closed by default. All of the log time fieldset
  • Add note - open by default. The notes section
  • Files - closed by default.

Then it would be easier for plugins to add their own UI into here by hooking in and adding a full toggleable fieldset.

Thoughts?

Eric Davis


Replies (4)

RE: [Proposal] Toggle sections of the Issue update form - Added by Tom Rochette at 2011-06-18 02:47 pm

I agree that the UI needs work. But finding the right UI needs people testing suggestions to see how they feel if they are/right wrong.

What I suggest is that we make things a bit more modular so that we don't overwhelm people with tons of fields. For instance, the log time feature could be a completely separate form. I often find myself writing the same note in the comments, but I rarely find myself editing the issue property while logging time.

The strange thing with this UI is that most people are are going to be using the advanced feature are somewhat expert in the system (Redmine/Chiliproject). The single improvement I see would be to have better separation of common fields, but this one is hard to solve.

What could "ease" the modification of the details of the issue for many people I believe would be to have some sort of Edit button inside of the issue details (see attached images). These mockup are not complete (obviously missing buttons, some fields converted and the description needs full style support). I'd suggest adding a note field at the end so people can leave notes when editing issue details.

This means that the new Update form could mostly consist of leaving notes (and possibly logging work).

update_issue.png - Edit link in issue "listing" (96.9 kB)

issue_edit.png - Issue details turn into a form (97.5 kB)

RE: [Proposal] Toggle sections of the Issue update form - Added by Chris Woerle at 2011-07-01 12:24 pm

Hm...

I have this, not only for the update form.

Maybe we can track something back.

The rework of the UI took more time than I liked and I would not want to do this alone.

RE: [Proposal] Toggle sections of the Issue update form - Added by Chris Woerle at 2011-07-01 12:26 pm

Addition:

Tom, you are right, but I think, what we should do first is, to split all the show views and forms into partials.

There is no real rework, its just helping to do anything on the ui.

Once that is done, you can do what ever you like to display single sections

RE: [Proposal] Toggle sections of the Issue update form - Added by Eric Davis at 2011-07-01 08:56 pm

Tom:

I don't know if I like that type of editor. Maybe it's just your image but it feels like it would be difficult to use. The issue fields would be editable on the top of the page but things like notes and time entries would be at the bottom. So on long issues, there would be a huge disconnect between the things you can change.

Eric Davis

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