want sensible suggestions when choosing a branch to link to a bug
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Launchpad itself |
Triaged
|
Low
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
The UI to link a related branch to a bug is hilariously unusable, in my experience. I am presented with a text box and no indication what should be entered into that textbox (a full HTTP URL of the branch to link? an lp:~whoever/project/branch string? A ~whoever/
1. Branches by me, in the same project as the bug, which have not been merged, in descending order of most-recently-
2. Branches by anyone, in the same project as the bug, which have not been merged
3. Branches by anyone, in the same project as the bug, which have been merged
4. Branches by anyone in any project
It seems rare to me that I would be as likely to link (a) a branch by me in this project which is unmerged and (b) a branch by someone else in an unrelated project which was merged three years ago, but the current UI gives these equal weight.
These options could be implemented as "tabs" in the existing "choose" popup, or, better still, the existing textbox could be replaced with the Choose UI. Since directly entering a branch may still be useful, a fifth tab should allow for that. So, proposed new UI:
1. Branches by me, in the same project as the bug, which have not been merged, in descending order of most-recently-
+------
| Choose a branchׄ
+------
| Mineׄ | Othersׄ | Mergedׄ | ׄAnyׄ | Specific |
+ׄׄׄׄׄׄ
| Your unmerged branches for THISPROJECTׄׄׄׄׄׄׄ|
| ~sil/thisprojec
| ~sil/thisprojec
| ~sil/thisprojec
+------
2. Branches by anyone, in the same project as the bug, which have not been merged
+------
| Choose a branchׄ
+------
| Mineׄ | Othersׄ | Mergedׄ | ׄAnyׄ | Specific |
+------
| Everyone's unmerged branches for THISPROJECT |
| ~somedude/
| ~otherdude/
| ~otherdude/
+------
3. Branches by anyone, in the same project as the bug, which have been merged
+------
| Choose a branchׄ
+------
| Mineׄ | Othersׄ | Mergedׄ | ׄAnyׄ | Specific |
+------
| Everyone's merged branches for THISPROJECTׄׄ |
| ~somedude/
| ~otherdude/
+------
4. Branches by anyone in any project
+------
| Choose a branchׄ
+------
| Mineׄ | Othersׄ | Mergedׄ | ׄAnyׄ | Specific |
+------
| Search for a branchׄ
| [ׄׄׄׄׄׄ
|ׄׄׄׄׄׄ
+------
Note that the search here should be changed to do substring searches on full branch name, and AND together tokens separated by whitespace in the query (so searching for "sil bindwood" would find a branch named lp:~sil/bindwood/whatever).
5. Specific branch by name/URL
+------
| Choose a branchׄ
+------
| Mineׄ | Othersׄ | Mergedׄ | ׄAnyׄ | Specific |
+------
| Enter a specific branchׄ
| (URL, lp:~person/project/branch, orׄׄׄׄׄׄׄׄׄ |
| ׄׄ~person/
| [ׄׄׄׄׄׄ
|ׄׄׄׄׄׄ
+------
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
affects: | launchpad → launchpad-code |
tags: | added: bug-branch-links |
Changed in launchpad: | |
assignee: | Tim Penhey (thumper) → nobody |
Changed in launchpad: | |
importance: | Medium → Low |
Changed in launchpad: | |
assignee: | Benji York (benji) → nobody |
Note also that my suggestion is rather maximal. If making certain options more awkward is allowed, then I'd suggest:
keep the "Mine" and "Others" tabs
collapse "Merged", "Any", and "Specific" into one search box which either takes a full URL/lp:~whatever/~whatever designation *or* a search query and intelligently identifies which is meant and Does The Right Thing (links the specified branch or shows matching search results).
This would leave only three tabs, which is potentially easier to deal with.
(My workflow is to link branches to bugs when I start working on the branch, or at worst when I push the branch and request merging to trunk. If other people tend to link up branches to bugs well after those branches hit trunk, then maybe the "Merged" tab should stay too.)