On Oct 31, 2008, at 12:17 PM, Sergiu Dumitriu wrote: > Guillaume Lerouge wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I personally like Marta's suggestion a lot (that's definitely be >> the one I >> would use) and I think providing it to users would be cool. However >> displaying both input methods on the same page might look clunky. >> >> What we could do is to take advantage of XWiki's simple user / >> advanced user >> feature: we could display the full graphical interface for simple >> user and >> the quick input one for advanced users, or maybe have 2 tabs with >> the simple >> one selected for simple users and the advanced one selected for >> advanced >> users when they click on the "add link" button. >> >> WDYT? > > But this means that users will not be able to learn the syntax and > switch to advanced users. And Simple/Advanced is more than how well do > they know how the wiki works. There could be users that want to enter > links fast, but don't want to know about object editing. > > I think that keeping both is OK, provided the two areas are delimited, > and the "wizard" can be collapsed. The smart input is small and > doesn't > take too much space. It's important to make it clear that the two are > alternatives, and they don't have to use both in order to enter a > link.
I agree with Sergiu. -Vincent >> On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 3:30 PM, Vincent Massol >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Yes +1 >>> >>> This is exactly what I had in mind too. >>> >>> And yes we should make the control reusable for navigating to any >>> page >>> quickly. >>> >>> Thanks >>> -Vincent >>> >>> On Oct 30, 2008, at 2:40 PM, Marta Girdea wrote: >>> >>>> Hi everyone, >>>> >>>> Here's my (late) reaction to the discussion about managing links in >>>> the new >>>> wysiwyg: >>>> >>>> All the proposals target users who are XWiki beginners and need >>>> guidance in >>>> their actions. This is good, of course, for a newbie it's the right >>>> approach, but a more experienced user will be *very* annoyed with >>>> all the >>>> clicking and tabbing and browsing that is necessary in order to >>>> create a >>>> link. Experienced users should also have the right to use the >>>> wysiwyg >>>> without being slowed down by all the help it offers. >>>> >>>> Consequently, I would propose to provide two ways of creating the >>>> link. In >>>> the dedicated dialog, there should be two areas (sorry i didn't >>>> make a >>>> drawing): >>>> - top: a small zone for those who know what they are doing, with a >>>> single >>>> input endowed with a "smart" suggest feature. >>>> - under it, a bigger zone containing one of the proposed complex >>>> selection >>>> interfaces. In my opinion, this zone should be collapsed for >>>> advanced users. >>>> >>>> Here's an example that illustrates how the link input would work. >>>> When the >>>> user starts writing "de" in the input, the suggestions will include >>>> all >>>> wikis, spaces from the current wiki and pages from the current >>>> space >>>> that >>>> start with "de", for example in this form: >>>> *de*v: >>>> *De*velopment. >>>> CurrentSpace.*De*tails >>>> (For experienced users, it will be obvious that what ends with ":" >>>> is a >>>> virtual wiki, what ends with "." is a space in the current wiki, >>>> etc. Maybe >>>> some color codes can be used in the suggestion list to help them to >>>> quickly >>>> spot what they need, and, for a "richer" experience, the different >>>> fragments >>>> of the path can be displayed in the input with that color, for >>>> example: >>>> purple for wikis, blue for spaces, green for pages. The same color >>>> codes >>>> could be used in the beginner's zone as well.) >>>> >>>> If the user chooses "dev:", then at that point we start suggesting, >>>> according to the user's input, spaces from that wiki, and so on. >>>> Also, >>>> whenever the user hits ":" (not necessarily by choosing explicitly >>>> one of >>>> the suggestions), we realize that so far he specified a virtual >>>> wiki, and >>>> start making suggestions of spaces from that wiki. >>>> >>>> So, basically, this is addressed to users that know the syntax of >>>> an >>>> internal wiki link, know where they want to link, and just want to >>>> type it >>>> quickly. >>>> >>>> (offtopic: such an input would also be very useful for implementing >>>> Vincent's idea XWIKI-1485). >>>> >>>> Of course, the user may be wrong and try to point to a page that >>>> does not >>>> exist. He will be informed about the mistake with a small warning >>>> somewhere >>>> around the input, but he will be allowed to continue (maybe he >>>> knows >>>> what >>>> he's doing; otherwise he would have used the wizard :) ). >>>> >>>> A complex selection interface is very necessary and can under no >>>> circumstances be replaced by this toy, but, in my opinion, if the >>>> beginners >>>> are properly helped by it and shown the result of their actions, >>>> some may >>>> start to understand how to write the paths without all the guidance >>>> and end >>>> up preferring to use the more simple and quick variant. I'm >>>> thinking >>>> that >>>> maybe the two (the input and the selector) should be at all time >>>> "synchronized". I'm aware that probably there's not enough time >>>> to do >>>> everything before 1.7, but imo this approach would really boost the >>>> usability for all categories of users. > > > -- > Sergiu Dumitriu > http://purl.org/net/sergiu/ > _______________________________________________ > devs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
