The talk over at Issue 192962, which concerns adding links to the module administration page, has raised concerns about making the interface too cluttered, redundant and intimidating. I was thinking about the issue, and I still am not convinced that placing the menu links there is in line with the spirit of the module administration page (enabling/disabling modules). Sure, it's useful, and it has a definite "oh neat" factor, but if it turns into the preferred way to access module sub-pages, it is not what we want.

Here's what I propose:

When modules are enabled/disabled, Drupal should display a fat, informative "Install Complete" message. This message should contain:

  • A list of modules that were enabled
  • Links to administrative pages for enabled modules
  • A list of modules that were disabled
  • Links to uninstall for disabled modules, if possible

A few usability notes:

  • It is extremely important that users be able to re-access this "new update" report with their browser back button, so if they click to a page, decide to go back, the report doesn't disappear.
  • We need to show the user where they can find these links later on if they so want it (i.e. the Administration by Module page and the Uninstall Module page). This is hidden in a pile of documentation on the top of the current module administration page.
  • It would be nice if we had "module pages" where anything and everything related to a module was displayed, and an easily browsable list of installed modules. This is probably another issue

Thoughts, before I bang out a patch?

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#12 module_enabled.png11 KBPasqualle
#12 system-enable_3.patch1.91 KBPasqualle
#11 system-enable2.patch2.03 KBezyang
#4 module-enabled.patch2.01 KBezyang
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Comments

Chris Charlton’s picture

Chris Charlton
Primary language English
Location Los Angeles
CreditAttribution: Chris Charlton commented

I agree that any notice that a module was installed, activated, deactivated, etc., would be great feedback to anyone installing something small or large.

As for the report not disappearing, I think watchdog logs would be best for this and longer term record keeping.

gaele’s picture

gaele CreditAttribution: gaele commented

I often think "Hey, I've enabled, this module. Now what?". So +1 on a comprehensive message on "what to do next".

But -1 on keeping this message. It's impossible to keep the user-interface consistent this way. For how long would you keep this message? One hour? A day? 2645 seconds? What if the users enables another module an hour later? Would it be added to the message? At the top or the bottom? Would the second module start a separate counter for message disappearance?

I agree with you that "We need to show the user where they can find these links later", but that's a separate problem.

ezyang’s picture

ezyang CreditAttribution: ezyang commented

But -1 on keeping this message. It's impossible to keep the user-interface consistent this way. For how long would you keep this message? One hour? A day? 2645 seconds? What if the users enables another module an hour later? Would it be added to the message? At the top or the bottom? Would the second module start a separate counter for message disappearance?

Understood. We should, however, make it sure that if they press the back button to the page, the message is still there. You can test this right now by doing the following:

1. Navigate to the Modules administration page (admin/build/modules)
2. Enable a module
3. Ogle at the green text
4. Press any random link
5. Press your browser button.

As far as I can tell, Firefox and Opera preserve the message (i.e. doesn't make a second page request), while Internet Explorer 7 does not. This requires a little bit of outside research, and may be a system-wide issue that requires its own issue.

It sounds like this feature has support. I'll have a prototype out soon.

ezyang’s picture

ezyang CreditAttribution: ezyang commented
Status: Active » Needs review
FileSize
module-enabled.patch2.01 KB

This took way too long to implement (there were some bugs involved with finding hook_help, I ended up hacking around it), but here we go. Drupal 6.x.

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented

I think this is wrong for translation t(' enabled. ')
should be something like ' '. t('enabled') .'. '

the extra spaces are not suitable for translation, as I know

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented

the variable name $enabled_modules is little confusing because of the variable $enable_modules
it is hard to read if two variable names differ only in 1 character.

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented

the colon in t('Start using this module:'); is also a translation problem, but it would not be the first occurrence in core

so, maybe something like this
$message = $module_info[$module]->info['name'] .' '. t('enabled') .'. '. t('Start using this module') .':<ul>';

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented

windows style line endings
white spaces (trailing spaces): patch file lines 12, 28, 30, 34

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented
Status: Needs review » Needs work

ok tested it finally, the message with links shows correctly.

it does not work with the browser back button, if i resave the configuration. but I don't really care about that.

it does not add a help link to the description, as requested in (http://drupal.org/node/192962). it was my initial purpose to test this patch, but no problem..

marking it CNW for the coding style issues..

the diff -u -p would be great, if you can. I know, eclipse does not support the -p param.

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented

Tipp for windows tools:

Editplus: http://www.editplus.com/
Document->File Format->UNIX
Edit->Format->Trim Trailing Spaces.

WinCvs: http://www.wincvs.org/
Admin->Command Line->cvs diff -up modules/system/system.admin.inc

in Eclipse:
Window->Customize Perspective->Commands->enable Editor Presentation->toggle Show Whitespace Characters

ezyang’s picture

ezyang CreditAttribution: ezyang commented
Status: Needs work » Needs review
FileSize
system-enable2.patch2.03 KB

Updated patch, with Pasqualle's notes. I probably ought to re-check out my repos with Unix style line endings.

Help links are another issue. I can't fix (without great pains) the back button bug.

Pasqualle’s picture

Pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
CreditAttribution: Pasqualle commented
FileSize
system-enable_3.patch1.91 KB
module_enabled.png11 KB

reroll
continue; removed

maybe the message needs theme function, I'm not sure..

ezyang’s picture

ezyang CreditAttribution: ezyang commented
Version: 6.x-dev » 7.x-dev

Can we get any eyes on this for 7.x? (It looks like we missed the boat for 6.x)

gpk’s picture

gpk CreditAttribution: gpk commented

Maybe have a look at the patch here http://drupal.org/node/192962#comment-690961 which permanently puts Help links next to each module.

I'm coming over to the view that too much info at the top of the screen (especially in $messages, which is not persistent) is not helpful. I already missed the By-module tab on the admin page.

But I really like those Help links in my patch ;-) [could be done slightly better by the by - will update it when I get round to it]

Easy access to relevant help (and also to relevant admin pages and permissions) is a must IMO. As ever, the question is exactly how to do it. Someone said something about revamping the Help system ... It ought really to be organised by topic, not module, and a search facility for Help, and also for admin settings, would be a boon. Gábor makes some interesting points, e.g. at http://drupal.org/node/192962#comment-680804, and also #81 and #82 in that issue. He says

we actually need to rethink how people find config pages, and how people find out features of particular modules

Finding the config pages and features of a particular module is clearly important (not least when you've just enabled it), but it's still technology/solution focused rather than functionality/behaviour/problem focused, i.e. I want to do "x" ... where do I go to do "x" or find out info on it? Sorry, I digress, I'm not sure I have the answers, only questions!!!

Senpai’s picture

Senpai CreditAttribution: Senpai commented

Have you seen the issue proposing a hook_configuration() system?
http://drupal.org/node/230059

cburschka’s picture

cburschka
they
CreditAttribution: cburschka commented

This patch still appears to apply. (Surprising after a year.)

catch’s picture

catch
he/him
Primary language English
CreditAttribution: catch commented
Component: system.module » usability
Category: feature » task

Moving this to usability. Seems like a decent change to me. (patch still applies with fuzz).

catch’s picture

catch
he/him
Primary language English
CreditAttribution: catch commented
Component: usability » system.module
Status: Needs review » Needs work

Still looks good like a good idea, but is generating it's own unordered list instead of using theme('item_list')

ezyang’s picture

ezyang CreditAttribution: ezyang commented
Assigned: ezyang » Unassigned

It would be nice if someone could step up and fix the patch; I don't have time right now to fix the patch.

Cheers,
Edward

yoroy’s picture

yoroy CreditAttribution: yoroy commented
Status: Needs work » Fixed

We did add config/permission/help links to the modules page in D7. Showing these in a message is a nice gesture but in the current situation a bit redundant. Closing this.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.