> On 08 Jun 2016, at 11:49, Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, > > The problem is that the AppBar could be populated with lots of apps that > might not be interesting for the user. Currently the AppBar acts like an > AppIndex (for the apps that provide the panels.Applications UIX), while > some users might expect it to act like a Favorites mechanism (the admin > deciding what apps should be promoted there). Also the AppBar is not very > scalable: having 50+ apps installed will be hard for an user to scroll in > order to find his desired app. > > Trying to simplify the Appbar by removing apps from it, concludes that > users might not be able to know if some apps are installed and available. > The administrators have access to EM and AppBar configuration, but normal > users don't. So it's normal to have the need of an "Application Index", > just like we have for pages, users and wikis. > > Topics: > 1. App Index page location > 2. App Index launcher location > > 1. The first thing we should decide is where we should locate this App > Index. Alternatives: > 1.1 Main.AppIndex : consistent with Main.AllDocs and Main.UserDirectory, > not consistent with WikiManager.WebHome. > 1.2 Applications.WebHome: as a new top level space. In theory, other > applications could use this space as parent. > 1.3 AppWithinMinutes.AppIndex : as part of AWM, but the livetable should be > extended to include all the apps UIX. The page will be included on the > AWM.WebHome in addition with the ability to Create new AWM apps. > 1.4 XWiki.InstalledApplications : as part of EM, but with rights visible > for all users, not just Admins. It will list just apps, with the ability to > 'Launch/Open/View' an app. > 1.4 other?
I believe we need an xwiki-platform-application module that would contain: * Descriptors for apps * Application Index Actually we already have one: https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/tree/master/xwiki-platform-core/xwiki-platform-application-manager But I don’t think we use it and it contains old stuff. So we could either: * Keep it, remove the stuff we don’t use and add the ApplicationIndex page * Move it to contrib and create a new xwiki-platform-application/xwiki-platform-application-ui module and add Application.ApplicationIndex page. * Keep it and create a new xwiki-platform-application/xwiki-platform-application-ui module and add Application.ApplicationIndex page. Since each module/app should have its own space namespace (our current rule, see http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Community/ApplicationDevelopmentBestPractices) then I’d put it in Application.ApplicationIndex (I prefer this slightly over Application.Index since when you view just the page it’s harder to see the context and ApplicationIndex make it more clear). It would be a hidden page. > 2. App Index launcher could be placed: > 2.1 in the Drawer with the rest of the Indexes +1 for this since it’s very logical and would fit well with the other indexes there. > 2.2 instead of the AppBar 'More applications' menu, as a link -0, it’s nice to be able to install new apps + create apps so I wouldn’t remove that. There could be a third option to view all but I don’t feel it necessary if we have the App Index in the drawer. > There are several aspects: > > A. EM lists for admins all the installed extensions, but they cannot see > just the 'applications' installed on the wiki and launch them. We could > create a filter to list just applications (InstalledApplications) and help > the admin manage apps faster. If we were to move administrative actions > inside an external AppIndex (outside of EM) it would duplicate/split EM > functionality (Launch, Install, Delete, Add/Create, etc.) EM is technical stuff; it has nothing to do with showing a curated list of visible apps. There are plenty of technical apps that shouldn’t be shown. Using the UIX mechanism is much better IMO since that’s an automatic curation mechanism. > B. AWM allows you to create apps. For a simple user, he might not see the > difference between what apps are created with AWM and which are not, and > why should he care. Yes, and apps created by AWM will appear in the App index. > For an user, an application is just an application. If > we don't chooses 1.3 than the user might be confused why some apps are > listed in AWM.WebHome, while others/all are listed in an external AppIndex > (outside of AWM). I do think we need to separate AWM-apps that can edited with AWM from other apps so it makes sense to me that the App Index shows all apps but that the AWM home page only shows AWM-apps. > C. If we transform AppBar into a Favorites, then we will need to move the > UIXP to the Application Index. It's a bit strange that we are considering > using a panel dedicated UIXP as a simple 'application descriptor’. I agree that we’ll need to do something about this over time. For a first version, if we want to move fast on the removal of apps in the app bar I’d just reuse this UIXP for now. Then implement UIXP aliasing. > There are many things to consider since AppBar, AWM and EM share > applications definitions and we might want to remove duplication, but still > allow both admins and users have access to information about apps. > > Let me know what you think. Thanks for starting this thread! :) -Vincent > Thanks, > Caty > > Related issues: > - "Simplify the Appbar by removing some apps" > http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-13433 > - "Create an Application Index" http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-11423 > - "Better differenciate the notion of Application inside XWiki" > http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-7924 _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
