Switch elements around on share access page

[Kristina Hoeppner]

Mahara 1.4 dev version:

I would switch a couple of elements around on the share access page to make it easier to see. In Western culture we read from left to right. Thus, having the important column with page and collection titles in the middle is a bit weird because you have to focus your attention in the middle and then go to the left to see the access list.

I propose the following (see attached mockup):

1. make the Pages & Collections column the first one and then have access list and edit access
2. move the number of secret URLs closer to the edit button
3. substitute the pencil button for the key button for the secret URL for consistency; besides: a secret URL can only be generated and not edited; I think the key would be more appropriate as it shows access

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

In addition, it would be good to be able to distinguish between collections and pages easily, e.g. collections in bold (as they contain a number of pages).

[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

Kristina, your mockup looks good, but we really would need to have the secret urls column between the Pages & Collections and the Access List column, because secret urls go with individual pages rather than pages grouped by access list. Let's talk about this when you get back and I'll show you what I mean.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Hi Richard,

Sounds good as I don't quite know what you mean. CU Monday.

[François Marier (fmarier)]

Attached is what Richard proposed.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Having the secret URLs coming first gives them more prominence than the regular access. At the moment I don't see any difference. I'll talk to Francois tomorrow to understand it better.

[François Marier (fmarier)]

The reason why Secret URLs have to be next to Pages is more obvious once you add a second Page to a given access list as shown in this new screenshot.

Secret URLs are tied to each individual Page while "Edit Access" relates to the whole Access List. Therefore, we can either have the columns as they are now or like in Richard's proposal.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

*lightbulb goes off* in my head now. Thanks for the revised screenshot. I see what you mean.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Francois, actually, instead of making collections bold and pages not, I think it is easier to see what collections and pages are when we put a heading in for each:

Collections
Collection A
Collection B
...

Pages
Page A
Page B
...

[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

Kristina, how about this? Any better?

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Hi Richard. Yes. That looks good. However, what happened to the Edit Secret URL button? This was separate from the Access List one. Or did you combine them again?

[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

When the views & collections are moved to the left hand side, the secret url buttons become the focus of the page, but I think it's important that the edit access buttons are the ones that stand out, so I took the liberty of removing the secret url buttons and made the numbers into links to the secret url page. I've attached another screenshot showing what it looks like with the buttons back in, in case you think it's better that way.

Another option that could potentially reduce confusion on this page is to just repeat the access list for every view or collection, instead of grouping them together when they have the same access list. Then we'd have one row per view or collection, and there would be no problem moving the secret urls to the right again. However, the downside is that if there are long access lists with several users and groups in them, this option would waste a lot of vertical space by repeating them over and over again.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Hello Richard, sorry that I didn't see that the numbers were links and thus could be clicked. I think the edit button is necessary to indicate that an action can be performed because we always have an edit button. No matter whether the button is there or not, the Secret URLs do have a lot of weight for being listed first. However, in the screenshot the regular access rights button is on the right hand side thus giving easy access to the edit access screen.

It would be good to have others comment as well to see what the preferred solution should be.

[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

No worries, I think the 2nd one with the secret url buttons looks bad, but I'll do it that way. Mostly I added them there for selfish reasons: I know when I'm in a hurry I'll end up clicking the edit secret url button by mistake when I'm really (90% of the time) wanting to edit access.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Maybe a better solution comes to my mind (or somebody else) once we use it. I know that the current implementation is not good and wanted to see what other possibilities exist. Thank you for giving it a try and including it.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Richard and I had a chat about this page that neither of us is entirely happy about and bug #781590. It will be best if the share access page is changed so that every time stays on its own line no matter if the access is the same. Items will not be grouped together. That way the Secret URL link can stay at the end and is not so prominently displayed in the middle.

To see more easily which item is a page and which is a collection, all pages and all collections will be grouped under their respective heading. If I did not miss something, it could look like in the attached mockup.