bugtask expander displays even when you have no ability to change anything

[Joey Stanford]

The expander on bugtask rows shows information not available elsewhere: when the bugtask was created, last modified, and who created it.

All other information is included in the bugtask rows.

This makes the expanded table both highly redundant and confusing - it doesn't appear to be useful to users.

Perhaps we should make the expander just add a single row with the unique information and a link to the +edit-bugtask (or whatever its called) static view.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I do not see this bug. For example, in <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gaim/+bug/138164> I cannot change the importance, so it is shown as text rather than as a menu.

Can you give an example of a bug report where the Importance menu displays and should not?

[Joey Stanford (joey)]

Hi. I'm referencing the bug task line, not the text that displays
after you drop it down.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

The section is still expandable, even if you can't change anything, because there is information inside it that is not shown outside. Namely, the milestone (if any), who filed it in that context (modulo bug 138492), when it was filed there, and when it was assigned.

You could say that showing the drop-down graphic next to the Importance field in particular is misleading, and I'd agree. But the same is true for all three drop-down graphics: they're all associated with particular fields, none of which are the milestone etc. More importantly, all three graphics do exactly the same thing when clicked, so I don't think there's much point hiding some of them.

[Joey Stanford (joey)]

Do you plan to change this mpt with the designs you are working on, or do you think the current behaviour is correct?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Neither. The current presentation was specified by Mark, and tweaked by Bjorn (moving the eject symbols from the right to the left). I think it could be improved by changing back to the previous presentation, but I can't do that.

Another way to improve it would be to abolish the expandable section entirely, replacing it with (1) a "Milestone" column in the table, (2) table cells that became editable when you clicked on them, and (3) a fix for bug 57414. I don't have the knowledge to do that either, particularly #3.

[Robert Collins (lifeless)]

I think this is a bug of the 'bugtask widgets are always enabled' bug I was looking at the other day. Sadly I don't recall the number.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Robert, you're probably thinking of bug 96751. It's not quite the same bug, though, for the reason I gave in 2007-09-11: the expandable section currently contains information that isn't available outside, and that is interesting even if you can't change it.

[Robert Collins (lifeless)]

So, the bug has become fairly stale description wise as we've evolved the bug UI, I've refreshed it and taken a new slant on what we might want to do. Thanks for the link to bug 96751 and yes, its what I was thinking of.