Form groups should be collapsible [#16204]

With all the talk of form reorganization and with the latest attempts at coding a solution, I thought I'd step up and contribute my solution. It is a quick development that I just threw together and it will probably need to be expanded to support more options, but it works and it has zero impact on existing code other than a small change to form_groups(). I've added an optional boolean parameter called "collapsed" so that modules can specify if the group should be initially collapsed or not.

Known issues:
1. Styling the collapsed forms to look the same or even just good in every browser may prove troublesome. It looks fine in Mozilla/Firefox but the legend jumps around a bit in IE. I'm not terribly concerned about that at the moment though.

2. Required fields are not handled so a collapsed fieldset *could* contain a required field. This will need to be dealt with before this is a real solution, in my opinion. The difficulty lies in the fact that required fields are not labeled (in the markup) as such, other than by adding an extran span. Maybe we should think about adding a "required" attribute to required fields.

I'm attaching the patch (against HEAD) now and will attach the javascript file shortly as well as a test page so you can see the functionality.

As an aside, I'm setting this issue to patch status since that seems to be the process used around here. However, I think that generally an issue should ONLY be set to patch status if the attached file is worthy of being commited. Please correct me if I have misunderstood.

Comment	File	Size	Author
#68	collapse_3.patch	13.08 KB	Thox
#68
#64	collapse_2.patch	13.48 KB	Thox
#64
#63	collapse_1.patch	12.72 KB	Thox
#63
#62	collapsible.png	31.65 KB	Dries
#57	collapse.png	48.87 KB	Dries
#56	collapse_0.patch	4.91 KB	Thox
#56
#54	collapse.patch	7.98 KB	Thox
#54
#51	fieldset_test_0.html	486 bytes	factoryjoe
#45	collapsible_elements.pdf	119.12 KB	Bèr Kessels
#36	drupal-css.dynamic-fieldset2.patch	1.13 KB	tangent
#36
#35	drupal-css.dynamic-fieldset.patch	1.06 KB	tangent
#35
#34	comment.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	745 bytes	tangent
#34
#33	node.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	1.17 KB	tangent
#33
#32	upload.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	878 bytes	tangent
#32
#31	system.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	4.15 KB	tangent
#31
#30	common.dynamic-fieldset.patch	1.58 KB	tangent
#30
#29	forms.js	2.01 KB	tangent
#28	dhtml.js	509 bytes	tangent
#27	drupal.dynamic-fieldset.patch	1.04 KB	tangent
#27
#17	fieldset_test5.html	4.08 KB	Junyor
#12	fieldset_test4.html	4.07 KB	tangent
#10	drupal_form_toolbox.png	19.23 KB	Bèr Kessels
#7	fieldset_test3.html	4.06 KB	tangent
#5	fieldset_test2.html	3.84 KB	tangent
#2	fieldset_test.html	3.41 KB	tangent
#1	drupal.js	1.68 KB	tangent
	collapsible_formgroups.patch	2.8 KB	tangent

Support from Acquia helps fund testing for Drupal Acquia logo

Comments

Comment #1

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 03:44

File	Size
drupal.js	1.68 KB

Here's the (new) drupal.js file. Note that don't necessarily think the functions included in it need to be loaded for every request. If more javascript is added, it should probably be broken up into separate pieces that can be sourced as need.

Comment #2

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 03:46

File	Size
fieldset_test.html	3.41 KB

Here's a stand-alone test page so you can see what the functionality would be like. Please report any issues with specific browsers by attaching your user-agent string or a description of your browser and the issue. Screenshots are welcome.

Comment #3

Junyor CreditAttribution: Junyor commented 26 January 2005 at 08:22

FYI, window.addEventListener is not supported in Opera.

Comment #4

chx CreditAttribution: chx commented 26 January 2005 at 08:27

A cross browser solution to add event listeners can be found at http://www.scottandrew.com/weblog/articles/cbs-events

That one works with Opera.

Comment #5

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 08:45

File	Size
fieldset_test2.html	3.84 KB

Here's an update of the test page. You should see the toggle image now and I've added extra event handling for all those substandard browsers ;-)

I also corrected an issue where, if javascript is disabled, the group could be collapsed and not expandable.

Comment #6

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 08:48

For what it's worth, if this functionality doesn't work in some browsers that's ok. As long as the code fails silently everything else will degrade nicely and they'll simply see all the forms.

Comment #7

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 09:08

File	Size
fieldset_test3.html	4.06 KB

This one might work better. I missed some stuff if the last one. I don't have Opera or Konqueror to test with though.

I'm working a method to deal with required fields next.

Comment #8

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 26 January 2005 at 09:37

Looks good (though I haven't looked at the code).

The node-edit/submit form would be an obvious candidate for this kind of stuff.

Interesting!

Comment #9

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 12:34

Should fieldset collapsing be optional? This implies that form_group() would need 2 new arguments: $collapsible and $collapsed.

Someone has already voiced a desire for a configuration to enable/disable collapsible groups but I think that we should simply let the module decide. In my opinion it would be like offering a config preference for allowing expanding menus or not.

Comment #10

Bèr Kessels CreditAttribution: Bèr Kessels commented 26 January 2005 at 13:35

File	Size
drupal_form_toolbox.png	19.23 KB

Great work!
Some initial thoughts from me:
We need logic to uncollapse forms that have the required flag set. (required forms should be visible by default)
We need logic to uncollapse forms that have errors.
The form group should, in this case get an extra class to show that, when collapsed, it contains an error, or a required field.
We must think of a method to avoid colapses-in-collapses. I.E: you collapse form_group, which is great, but what if (i think bigger) we have three areas on a page, that can be collapsed: in that case, the form_groupos inside such an area should not be collapsible.
We could decide to collapse the other forms, when opening one. This is somethimes called "cards", sometimes they are called "toolboxes' see attachement for an example.

Comment #11

matt westgate CreditAttribution: matt westgate commented 26 January 2005 at 14:32

One usability issue surrounding collapsible elements is controlling how they would operate when present on the node editing form (which would be a great location for this functionality). For example what happens when someone clicks the preview button? I would want forms fields that contain data to stay expanded and not re-collapse.

Comment #12

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 26 January 2005 at 18:32

File	Size
fieldset_test4.html	4.07 KB

Here's an updated test page that handles required fields the easy way. It simply borders the collapsed field with red. I think we should try this one out and discuss further before deciding on how best to deal with this issue. I am not immediately convinced that one solution is better than another.

I've changed the addEvent function again to reduce it as far as possible. I am not convinced that the other version added support for any other browsers than this version so please correct me if I am mistaken.

Comment #13

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 27 January 2005 at 08:54

After giving further thought to some of your suggestions I have revised my opinions.

1. A fieldset containing an input with a validation error MUST be expanded. It would be a major usability issue not to. The only question is whether to allow the fieldset to be collapsible or force it to not be collapsible. I might imagine a scenario where the user, once she has updated the input, would want to collapse the fieldset to look at other areas of the form but perhaps this scenario is unlikely or undesirable.

2. A fieldset containing an input that is required MUST be expanded by default. While it would be possible to style the collapsed fieldset to convey that it contains a required field, it would require the user to expand the fieldset before being able to input the required form data and it could prove too confusing to users since it would be an unusual UI method. Again, the only question is whether to allow a fieldset containing a required input to be collapsible. I find the scenario where a user would want to collapse a completed fieldset more likely in this instance so I would lean toward allowing it.

3. Since this change uses client-side scripting which may cause problems for or be negatively viewed by Drupal admins it may be desirable to provide a configuration setting to disable (or enable as the case may be) the functionality. Because the functionality is contained solely in the client-side code implementing this option should be as simple as checking for the preference and adding the "script" tag to the output or not and should not require adding any other checks elsewhere. Where would this configuration setting be placed though? Adding this option to the main settings screen seems like the logical place, for lack of a more suitable area.

4. The preview mode would, ideally, preserve the form state. If the user collapses a fieldset which is not collapsed by default then it should remain collapsed in the preview mode. While I haven't examined the preview method to see if it would support "form state" without modification I can't imagine that it does. I also imagine that adding this support could be more trouble than it is worth. How necessary is this feature?

I am not going to concern myself with other collapsible form areas (e.g., tab groups) at this time. If this happens at some future time my implementation should be easy to extend to live within the new environment but it seems unnecessary to worry about it until it happens.

Comment #14

moshe weitzman CreditAttribution: moshe weitzman commented 27 January 2005 at 12:40

Re: collapsing sections with required fields.

Keep in mind that a lot of fields are 'required' but they are hardly ever changed. `If you are an admin, you see lots of fields on the node/edit page such as Author which cannot be blank. This field is always contains a value already. You might want this admin section collapsed by default. Another example might be a taxonomy selector called 'Departments'. Perhaps the user always posts to the 'Marketing' department. Lets say that we re-instate an old feature whereby the system remembers your last chosen taxonoy terms. So this user might want to always collapse the taxonomy section and just accept default values. I hope that is possible even if the section contains a required field. The concern is not with required fields, but with *empty* required fields.

Anyway, please consider this wrinkle in your design.

Comment #15

Steven CreditAttribution: Steven commented 27 January 2005 at 15:00

I like the clean implementation. Just some notes:

- Your method for changing the classname to ensure the CSS is not applied without JS is a bit convoluted. You can do this more easily by defining your rules as:html.javascript ... {}

and doing:

if (document.documentElement) {
  addClass(document.documentElement, 'javascript');
}
function addClass(element, classname) {
  if (element.className.length > 0) {
    element.className += ' '+ classname;
  }
  else {
    element.className = classname;
  }
}

This will add the "javascript" class to the <html> element, and automatically enable all rules that select on that.

- For matching classNames you should use:
element.className.match('\\bclass\\b')
to properly support multiple classes per element.

- If we are going to include JS in drupal, we need to figure out some code style. While most of Drupal's PHP rules translate to JS, some don't really make sense. For example, Javascript uses 'studlyCaps' for variable and function naming. As we have to use that notation for predefined functions and variables anyway, it would seem to make sense to use that naming convention instead.

- "cursor: pointer;" does not work in IE... you have to use "cursor: hand;" instead. The best solution is to use "cursor: hand; cursor: pointer;". CSS ignoring rules make this work on all browsers.

Comment #16

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 27 January 2005 at 15:24

Thanks for all the suggestions.

1. Your suggestion to apply a "javascript" class to html would result in the the fieldsets being collapsed if their DOM supports documentElement even though they may not support the addEvent implementation. I hope to do the class assignment as late as possible to eliminate the possibility of css being applied when the javascript is not functioning.

2. I tried to use the drupal code style where applicable but I agree that javascript should have its own code-style conventions.

3. As far as I know IE5 only supports cursor: hand while IE6 supports cursor: pointer (at least my version does). I would prefer to avoid adding non-standard CSS to drupal.css if possible.

Comment #17

Junyor CreditAttribution: Junyor commented 28 January 2005 at 14:04

File	Size
fieldset_test5.html	4.08 KB

@tangent:

If you change the third parameter for addEventListener() to 'false', it'll work in Opera, too. It's actually a bug in Mozilla that it works with the value 'true' in your script[1]. I'm attaching a modified version of fieldset_test4.html.

Tested and working in IE 6.0, Opera 7.54 and 8.0B1+, Firefox 1.0, and Safari 1.2.4.

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=235441

Comment #18

Steven CreditAttribution: Steven commented 5 February 2005 at 07:38

1. Your suggestion to apply a "javascript" class to html would result in the the fieldsets being collapsed if their DOM supports documentElement even though they may not support the addEvent implementation. I hope to do the class assignment as late as possible to eliminate the possibility of css being applied when the javascript is not functioning.

It doesn't matter when you do the class assignments, my point was that it would be much shorter than having to muck around with the class of /every/ fieldset. Surely you can check for the addEvent presence too?

Comment #19

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 5 February 2005 at 19:59

Changing the class of each fieldset is necessary each time the user clicks on the legend to expand or collapse it since I am using definitions in drupal.css to change the style settings of the fieldset (as opposed to restyling with js). This will allow a theme to change the style of fieldsets without having to alter the javascript.

Further, I don't really like the idea of ".html .fieldset-expanded" selectors in drupal.css because it looks rather hackish.

Finally, I have a dilemma over whether this feature is really wise. When testing the feature with a small test page it works great but in a live environment where pages take longer to load there is a delay (while the page is loading) before the fieldsets collapse because the js does not execute until the page is completely loaded. This flash is less than desirable and may be unnacceptable in some cases.

The only workaround for this that I can think of is to integrate the feature fully into Drupal such that if js is detected fieldsets would be displayed already collapsed (unless they have a error field of course). It doesn't really seem appealing to go this route right now though. Thoughts? I am considering if the feature is more appriopriate as a theme feature.

I have everything working and I am creating patches right now which will be attached shortly.

Final functionality will be:

If javascript is available and all DOM requirements are met then all fieldsets will be collapsible (not optional)
If a fieldset has
1. a class of "collapsed" AND
2. the fieldset contains no EMPTY form elements that have a class of "required" AND
3. the fieldset contains no form elements that have a class of "error"
then the fieldset will be collapsed after the page is completely loaded.
If a fieldset contains a form element that has a class of either "required" or "error" then it will ONLY
be collapsible AFTER the user has entered a value in the form element.

An additional note. Due to a bug in mozilla as of Firefox 1.0, fieldsets may not be styled as a block element. Specifically, if the "display" css property of a legend is altered it will render incorrectly so it may not be changed from inline to block (or none). This limits how collapsed fieldsets may be styled with respect to Firefox. This bug has reportedly been fixed since FF 1.0 but due to the widespread use of that version it is small consolation.

Comment #20

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 6 February 2005 at 10:14

1. Make sure the patch applies against CVS. The version is currently set to 4.5.2.

2. Can we use this to simplify the settings pages?

Right now, some settings live under 'admin/settings' while other settings live under 'admin/settings/foo' (eg. 'admin/settings/search' or 'admin/settings/throttle'). This is an artifact of our module system, so I bet this organization looks pretty random for anyone that is not familiar with Drupal's inner workings (we got used to it so take a step back and try looking at it from a user's point of view). I envision putting all 'simple settings' on one page. Combined with the collapsible form groups this might be a workable solution. If all forms are collapsed, you're presented an overview of all simple settings.

Of course, that won't work for the 'complex settings' (eg. 'admin/settings/forum', 'admin/settings/profiles' and not to mention the filter settings on 'admin/filters') but nonetheless it might be a step towards a simpler model.

One showstopping issue is that some of the settings pages (eg. 'admin/settings/search' and 'admin/settings/statistics) use several form_group() on their own.

(If you haven't already, take a look at Jetbox One (easy to use demo: http://opensourcecms.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=169).)

Comment #21

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 6 February 2005 at 14:10

1. Of course.
2. Of course. ;-)

I've only added options to collapse some content creation fieldsets so far but I'll add options for the settings page as well. Is "General settings" expanded and all others collapsed a reasonable approach?

Comment #22

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 6 February 2005 at 14:23

Note that JetBox uses tables and divs to markup their form layout (instead of fieldsets). If we go the generic markup route it would make styling easier (fieldsets are not well supported elements for DHTML) but would not change the fact that collapsible element support must move into PHP to resolve the collapse delay issue.

Comment #23

Bèr Kessels CreditAttribution: Bèr Kessels commented 6 February 2005 at 14:44

JetBox uses tables and divs to markup their form layout
(instead of fieldsets). If we go the generic markup route it would make
styling easier (fieldsets are not well supported elements for DHTML) but
would not change ...

Yes, Taht was the exact reason, I wanted to revive the default Drupal Boxing/Div-ing nmethod. See Improve theme_box to make it better themeable and consistent with blocks for more information.

Comment #24

(not verified) CreditAttribution: commented 6 February 2005 at 21:38

Actually, the "html.javascript something { ... }" trick is there to prevent the annoying flash of style. You set the HTML class immediately rather than on load (making sure to check if everything is supported). The CSS cascade then makes the elements collapse immediately.

Comment #25

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 7 February 2005 at 03:49

That seems like a a reasonable expectation but testing in Firefox and IE 6 indicates that it isn't the case. If the first command in the external javascript file assigns a class to document.documentElement (and that class is added to the selector for fieldsets) there is still a delay before the style is applied.

Comment #26

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 7 February 2005 at 04:23

Apparently this style delay only occurs when the reload option is used. When a form is loaded via a normal link click the fieldsets are collapsed as soon as they are visible (even without the html.javascript trick). This makes the issue very minor to me. I'll proceed with creating patches for my latest work and some form updates.

Comment #27

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 03:47

File	Size
drupal.dynamic-fieldset.patch	1.04 KB

I've pretty much finalized the javascript and css which handles this feature. The visual style could be better but I'd like to see the feedback on this before altering the group markup.

Instead of overloading the javascript with doxygen comments (or any comments for that matter) I've instead chosen to make the code as terse and compact as possible in the interest of download efficiency. If it is decided that comments are needed/desired for the javascript files then I would vote for having a fully commented version and a "compacted" production copy. I found a perl script that compacts javascript pretty well but I guess we would have to seek permission from the author to be able to include it as a script tool.

I also chose to split the javascript into 2 files. Once for generic dhtml functions and one for form specific functions. It would be desirable to have the ability to call a function like drupal_set_html_head_once($script_url) so that the script could be sourced in form_group() instead of including it globally but only have it included once. This doesn't seem to be an option presently though so they are both in drupal_get_html_head() for now.

I will attach patches to modify the behavior of specific forms separately in case I guess wrong with some. Here is the first which patches drupal.css.

Comment #28

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 03:49

File	Size
dhtml.js	509 bytes

Here's the generic dhtml javascript file.

Comment #29

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 03:49

File	Size
forms.js	2.01 KB

Here's the form specific javascript file.

Comment #30

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 03:51

File	Size
common.dynamic-fieldset.patch	1.58 KB

Here's the patch for common.inc which adds the javascript files to head and updates form_group().

Comment #31

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 03:52

File	Size
system.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	4.15 KB

This patch makes all form groups except "General Settings" on /admin/settings collapsed by default.

Comment #32

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 03:56

File	Size
upload.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	878 bytes

This patch updates the file attachment form group.

Comment #33

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 04:07

File	Size
node.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	1.17 KB

This patch makes the node.module option groups ("Authoring information", "options") collapsed by default. I am not certain this patch should be applied until it has been tested and is deemed appropriate. In particular, the "Options" group may need to be modified with each post for some users. Making some of these groups (I'm including the comment options group) collapsed and others expanded may look strange though unless the layout is changed.

Comment #34

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 8 February 2005 at 04:17

File	Size
comment.dynamic-fieldsets.patch	745 bytes

Here's the patch which makes the comment options form group collapsed. Same comments as above.

Comment #35

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 15 February 2005 at 09:59

File	Size
drupal-css.dynamic-fieldset.patch	1.06 KB

It seems that the search module uses paragraphs inside of form groups instead of form item divs. The CSS I provided did not handle this scenario so here's an updated patch for drupal.css.

Comment #36

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 15 February 2005 at 10:47

File	Size
drupal-css.dynamic-fieldset2.patch	1.13 KB

Sigh. Added a few more elements which are defined in fieldsets in new areas.

Comment #37

Bèr Kessels CreditAttribution: Bèr Kessels commented 15 February 2005 at 11:38

Can you not use

.fieldset-collapsed * {
  display: none;
}

, Tangent?

Comment #38

tangent CreditAttribution: tangent commented 15 February 2005 at 11:54

I'd love to use that but due to a Firefox bug (which I can't find right now) if the display property of a legend element is changed then Firefox renders it incorrectly. Following a change the legend would appear at the bottom of the fieldset following any other content in the fieldset.

Comment #39

moshe weitzman CreditAttribution: moshe weitzman commented 26 April 2005 at 21:42

what is the status here? tangent? UnConed? is this ready for review?

Comment #40

magico CreditAttribution: magico commented 16 May 2005 at 16:46

any update to this?

Comment #41

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 16 May 2005 at 17:58

It would be nice if you changed all of the regular expression code to something a little more friendly and external such as functions for has_class(), add_class(), and remove_class(). I'm sure these would be used by any other future javascript implementation in Drupal.

Bèr mentioned javascript optimisation (http://home.earthlink.net/~kendrasg/info/js_opt/) on the drupal-devel mailing list. One of the things I learnt from that is that you shouldn't put "var x = y" inside a loop - apparently it's very slow.

Is there documentation anywhere for what kind of class names to use in CSS? I don't think "fieldset-collapsed" makes much sense. Simply "collapsed" would be far more appropriate, and the CSS file could reference it as ".collapsed" (or "fieldset.collapsed" if you really wanted).

My problem is that I'm also using javascript to add functionality to Drupal. In my case it's autocomplete fields (using AJAX), so I don't need to worry about elements "flashing" on the screen. My problem at the moment is whether or not people think Drupal should use an external javascript library / API or make our own.

I quite like the Prototype library, especially when it's combined with a few extensions. Since it's now part of Ruby On Rails, I imagine it's actively being developed.

Incidently, taskThis is a good example of an application using javascript to add some nice features for users (uses the above library).

Comment #42

drumm

he/him

NY, US

CreditAttribution: drumm commented 16 May 2005 at 19:23

If this gets added, something for general collapseability needs to be added simultaneously. I think this needs to happen to avoid anyone using form_group() outside of forms because the collapsible function only worked on form_group(). A good example of this happening in the past is the use of form_item() in displaying individual nodes of a few contrib modules. Off the top of my head I can actually think of many more uses for a generic collapsible themeable function (mostly for containing whole forms) than for collapsing form groups.

Comment #43

Bèr Kessels CreditAttribution: Bèr Kessels commented 16 May 2005 at 20:11

Drumms remark is also what we agreed upon on the meetings in Antwerp.

Comment #44

Steven CreditAttribution: Steven commented 25 May 2005 at 04:43

I believe Thox is working on this patch now. It certainly needs to be updated to take advantage of the new JS apis in Drupal since autocomplete was committed.

Comment #45

Bèr Kessels CreditAttribution: Bèr Kessels commented 25 May 2005 at 07:02

File	Size
collapsible_elements.pdf	119.12 KB

For reference, the notes from the meetings in Antwerp;

Comment #46

Steven CreditAttribution: Steven commented 1 June 2005 at 04:35

Note that contrary to what we thought at the usability sprint, there is actually no HTML problem in using a fieldset outside of a form. In my opinion we should therefor use fieldsets everywhere for collapsible elements, it makes sure they look and act the same everywhere.

Comment #47

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 1 June 2005 at 08:34

I can code all of the behaviour described in the Antwerp meeting notes except the behaviour of tabbing into a collapsed form_group. I can see no sensible way of coding such a feature in Opera.

Opera does not let users tab through links on the page, so I cannot use the focus event of the expand/collapse link to trigger the javascript to expand the group like I can do with other browsers. Since I do not believe in using browser detection, I do not know any way of working around this.

Also, it's not just Opera that is affected. The behaviour I made even involved a "hack" to make IE and Firefox both work.

Comment #48

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 1 June 2005 at 09:15

Then I think we should go ahead without tabbing. This is something that can be refined later on. Let's avoid browser-specific solutions at all costs (or as much as possible).

Comment #49

Junyor CreditAttribution: Junyor commented 1 June 2005 at 11:32

Users can navigate between links in Opera in several ways:

1) Using the A and Q shortcuts
2) Using spatial navigation (Shift+Arrows)
3) Using Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down

Would these be sufficient for what you're trying to do?

Comment #50

Junyor CreditAttribution: Junyor commented 1 June 2005 at 11:45

Steven: According to the HTML 4.01 spec., FIELDSETs are for grouping "thematically related [form] controls and labels". In other words, semantically HTML does require that FIELDSETs are related to form controls.

Is there any reason we can't use a DIV or SPAN elsewhere for collapsible elements?

Comment #51

factoryjoe CreditAttribution: factoryjoe commented 1 June 2005 at 20:56

File	Size
fieldset_test_0.html	486 bytes

Even though the attached validates (a fieldset outside of a form), I don't believe that form elements can be used outside of the form tag. Therefore, by extension, it makes no sense, semantically, to use fieldsets in this way. I feel like this is overloading the fieldset in way that we should avoid.

Divs should be used for logical divisions; showing and hiding a logical division makes sense to me as does showing and hiding a group of form controls. But the two are not the same and we shouldn't confuse the same markup for semantically different purposes. Fieldsets are for forms; divs are for logical divisions. We should abide by those definitions.

Comment #52

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 2 June 2005 at 08:23

As a common GUI widget, FIELDSETs can be seen everywhere - not just in areas where the user is needed to enter information. For this reason, I see no problem with using FIELDSETs . The only arguement I see against using FIELDSETs is that applying CSS to them is tricky across different browsers.

Comment #53

Stefan Nagtegaal CreditAttribution: Stefan Nagtegaal commented 2 June 2005 at 08:33

The only arguement I see against using FIELDSETs is that applying CSS to them is tricky across different browsers.

Indeed, which is exactly why I vote to use simple divs instead of fieldsets.. Remember about improving themability??? ;-)

Comment #54

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 2 June 2005 at 09:14

File	Size
collapse.patch	7.98 KB

Here's a patch for collapsing FIELDSETs. I've made it work with all the fieldsets in the admin/settings page.

I've tried to avoid any jumping effects that occur when groups collapse on the page load. The admin/settings page won't demonstrate this though, as all of the groups there are open by default.

If a group contains an error then it will not collapse. If that same group was told to start collapsed, then the javascript will expand the group after the entire page has finished loading.

Comment #55

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 3 June 2005 at 12:19

The last patch doesn't seem to work for me (using Firefox) ... Not sure what is wrong.

1. Implementation-wise, I think it would be better to extend the existing form_group() API rather than introducing an extra function.

2. One of the driving factors of this patch is its applicability on the node submission/edit screen (and possibly the user edit screen). Can we modify the upload module to make the 'Attachment'-part collapsible? Can we extend core with something like menu_otf? (Ideally the path-stuff and menu-stuff would be grouped.) I think we should try so we can evaluate this properly.

3. Can we think of situations where one would want to collapse multiple form groups at once? How does this stack with the requirement to place the 'submit'-buttons outside the form-groups, for example?

4. Would it be a good idea to put all "simple settings" on one page? Eg. move the throttle.module, search.module, contact.module settings to the main settings page?

Looks like this starts to rock.

Comment #56

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 3 June 2005 at 17:54

File	Size
collapse_0.patch	4.91 KB

Attached is a (hopefully) working patch, including the extra collapse.js file.

Comment #57

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 3 June 2005 at 18:09

File	Size
collapse.png	48.87 KB

Your last patch does not include the system.module changes. However, when I combine the system.module changes of your previous patch with your last patch, it works. :) Screenshot attached for those who want to see it in action.

Comment #58

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 3 June 2005 at 18:13

One more thing: the goal of collapsible page elements is to reduce the clutter and to help the administrator get an overview of the page. On the settings page all form groups are unfolded, which of course, defeats the goal of this patch. By default, all clutter should be hidden (not vice versa).

IMO, this would be good time for the usability folks to step forward ...

Comment #59

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 3 June 2005 at 21:07

I'm away this weekend but I can update the patch next week.

So far:
- Fix the patch itself to include all changes (extra files & changed files)
- Set the admin/settings boxes as collapsed by default
- Integrate the collapsing code into the current form_group() function - does this mean adding an extra parameter? should it go at the end?

Comment #60

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 4 June 2005 at 07:47

Also:

Collapse the upload module group on the node form.
Think about how we can further improve the node form because that is what we created this patch for to begin with! I think we should reconsider how we deal with path aliases and integrate the ability to create a menu item for a page. That can be in a separate patch though.
Think about how we can further improve the settings pages. If we update 'admin/settings' to use form_group_collapse() it might end up looking weird, because it is the only settings page using form_group_collapse(). It makes for inconsistent behavior. As such, some extra refactoring/reorganization might be required. That can be in a separate patch though.

(I prefer to merge form_group_collapse() and form_group() but it looks like we didn't merge form_textfield() and form_autocomplete() either. Not sure what is best.)

Comment #61

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 5 June 2005 at 09:21

For the node edit form, it might be better if the entire top-section ('Author details', 'Options', 'User comments') was collapsible in one go. (See also http://drupal.org/node/15506.)

Comment #62

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 5 June 2005 at 16:51

File	Size
collapsible.png	31.65 KB

I made a PNG with an overview of the "bigger picture". The overview identifies related work/patches and shows that collapsible page elements are somewhat of an enabler. Please take a look!

Comment #63

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 8 June 2005 at 10:05

File	Size
collapse_1.patch	12.72 KB

Latest patch includes collapsing elements on the node creation groups (plus a new group around the input formats).

I considered creating an "Advanced Editting" group around the top three groups (author, options & comments). I've not implemented that yet, as I'm very much liking the Node creation redesign discussion.

Screenshots:

Comment #64

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 8 June 2005 at 11:19

File	Size
collapse_2.patch	13.48 KB

Added patch of comment.module and changed the node "Options" group to be called "Publishing Options".

Comment #65

Stefan Nagtegaal CreditAttribution: Stefan Nagtegaal commented 8 June 2005 at 16:15

Damn, this is really nice! Works flawelessly on my localhost...

Nothing more to say.. Very, very nice and good patch.

Comment #66

Steven CreditAttribution: Steven commented 8 June 2005 at 17:37

Looking great... some notes:

- I don't see how the "fieldsets with errors should open" works. I can see some code for checking that, but it is only invoked in a.onclick. There is also an unused variable collapse_action. Can you check this? It is an important feature IMO.

- The administration options at the top are a bit weird... at a glance, it looks like it's the title for the normal node fields (title/body) rather than a collapsed fieldset on its own. Moving all of them inside an "administrative options" which is layed out in a more logical (and compact fashion) would probably make it a lot simpler.

- "Attachments" should probably be changed to "File attachments".

- Your patch has messed up the UTF-8 in common.inc (the comment in mime_header_encode()). Check your editor settings please.

- We should check for the presence of document.documentElement in the global JS killswitch.

- collapse_auto_attach should be inside a isJSEnabled()

- It seems you've undone the "undefined is undefined" IE5 compatibilty patch that you submitted a while ago.

Finally, some code style stuff in the JS:
- Always use brackets and separate lines for control flow, this avoids errors later.

- You should put spaces around all operators, except between an operator and a quote.

- Can you do for (var i = ... rather than var i; for (i = ... or does JS disallow it? The first looks cleaner.

- You've used "php_style_naming" rather than "jsStyleNaming" in a couple of places.

Sorry, I don't have time to test (exams!).

Comment #67

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 8 June 2005 at 17:54

I'd consider moving the collapsible form groups at the top below the 'Filter settings'. Right now, they look too much like subtabs.

Regardless, this is a great patch. :)

Comment #68

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 9 June 2005 at 11:43

File	Size
collapse_3.patch	13.08 KB

New patch fixing the things Steven mentioned.

I've cleaned up collapse.js quite a bit and Steven was right that it didn't automatically expand the boxes. I've changed this now so that the groups start open when they contain errors, but can be collapsed manually after the page has loaded. See screenshot.

Comment #69

graphik-1 CreditAttribution: graphik-1 commented 5 July 2005 at 14:56

Category:	feature	» support
Status:	Needs review	» Active

After running this on an Apache server with NS7 as the main browser I found that it worked rather well. However, I ran into a problem when I incorporated pre-made forms that the page called. So I wrapped the around my
that contained my form information and played around with collapsed and expanded.

It works for the first time I access the form. I am able to fill it out and submit. But once I collapse or collapse and expand again when I try to fill the form out my text fields are skewed. So it appears that the positioning gets messed up after I perform the collapse or expand functions.

Comment #70

singularo

Adelaide, AUS

CreditAttribution: singularo commented 27 July 2005 at 03:40

Any chance of getting a version of this patch against 4.6.2 that works?

None of the .rej files seemed major, but when I manually did those bits, I get collapsed regions, but I can't expand them.

I'd like to have both this and form_autocomplete, and I dont want to wait for 4.7 ;-)

Comment #71

fago

German

Vienna

CreditAttribution: fago commented 5 August 2005 at 17:39

a really great patch.

i tried with a 4.6 install.
(you have to add misc/drupal.js and drupal_add_js() from HEAD)

unfortunately opera and konqueror display the legend below the fieldset's top border line, which extends to a whole ugly line.

i had a look at the css and came to this conclusion:
mozilla,IE need this, at it is:

html.js fieldset.collapsed legend,
html.js fieldset.collapsed legend * {
  display: inline;
}

opera,konqueror need:

html.js fieldset.collapsed legend,
html.js fieldset.collapsed legend * {
  display: compact;
}

so, to bring this together, i've found no other way than something like that

html.js fieldset.collapsed legend,
html.js fieldset.collapsed legend * {
  display: inline;
}

/*  IE doesn't use this,
     Mozilla Browsers use inline,
     Opera and Konqueror use compact
*/
html.js fieldset[class=" collapsible collapsed"] legend,
html.js fieldset[class=" collapsible collapsed"] legend * {
  display: inline;
  display: compact;  
}

this works with IE6, firefox, opera7 and konqueror

Comment #72

fago

German

Vienna

CreditAttribution: fago commented 17 August 2005 at 19:16

whats up with this?

i've tested the code in head, same troubles.
further in IE5.0 the array-image is placed behind the fieldset legend.
and all IEs have troubles with tables in collapsible fieldsets.

should i provide a patch to fix this issues?
or is a css hack like this not welcome in the drupal-core?

i know its not ideal, but it would work ;)

ie table fix:

html.js fieldset.collapsed table * {
   display: inline;
}

and to fix the image in ie5 set the display to block

html.js fieldset.collapsible legend a {
  padding-left: 15px;
  display: block;  
  background: url('menu-expanded.png') 5px 50% no-repeat;
}

Comment #73

Thox CreditAttribution: Thox commented 17 August 2005 at 19:26

IMO, what you're reporting is a seperate issue, as the fields are already collapsible. However, a patch for fixing the IE issues is welcome. Anything that includes "hacks" or similar CSS tricks that are browser-specific aren't likely to get into core.

Comment #74

fago

German

Vienna

CreditAttribution: fago commented 17 August 2005 at 20:06

hm, i think all of them but the ie5-arrow-fix are a bit dirty :/
i've opend an issue for that

Comment #75

ñull CreditAttribution: ñull commented 31 August 2005 at 14:40

I think I am at the right thread to report a problem with this system in combination with jsdomenu module. This is too complicated for me to find out why and if it really is caused by this module, but at least you know now that it breaks at least one moduel based on JavaScript and there might be others. See for a description of the problem: http://drupal.org/node/30014