As discussed at the usability group, there's definitely a demand for improvement on the usability of module page. I've already put some work in this and created a project page for further development.

There's also a discussion going on about an user interface for installing modules via FTP / SSH, and integrating this with the module I'm working on.

It would be awesome to have this in core!!

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#5 modules-vertical-tabs.png9.47 KBjon pugh

Comments

skilip’s picture

skilip commented

This is the right link to the project page: http://drupal.org/project/module_table

Gurpartap Singh’s picture

Gurpartap Singh commented

yippiee. almost every drupal developer has wished one or the other change to the module administration page. This will be exciting!

tstoeckler’s picture

tstoeckler
he/him
Primary language German
Location Essen, Germany
commented

Something to keep an eye on:
#193034: Display module system names (and maybe location) on admin modules screen

skilip’s picture

skilip commented

@tstoeckler:

Thanks for the suggestion! I haven't thought about this yet. However, like Bojhan mentioned, we should be aware of possible cluttering. Showing the system names should therefore be optional. I was already thinking about a way to show - hide columns by right-clicking on the table header, just like in iTunes. This could solve the cluttering.

jon pugh’s picture

jon pugh
he/him
Primary language English
Location Newburgh, NY
commented
StatusFileSize
new modules-vertical-tabs.png9.47 KB

I started working on a patch to use the Vertical Tabs from #323112: Vertical Tabs

I was able to get a rough prototype done in code, but decided it would be better to do some design research first before going at. Also, the vertical tabs code isn't finished yet either, so I made a mockup.

Attached is the mockup I made combining a few ideas I've had from #193034: Display module system names (and maybe location) on admin modules screen plus the vertical tabs.

It addresses concerns of clutter vs. displaying lots of useful information. I don't know if there is a jquery tabs function in core yet, but I think it would make a good addition. Also, to reduce visual clutter, the content of the tabs should start collapsed, like a fieldset. I have tabs for "More Information" (which probably shouldn't show on core modules), "Requirements", and a "Update Available" tab if needed. Additional tabs could be added by form_alter.

In the "More Information" tab, I display a number of links, which could be extensible... "Project Page", "Online Documentation", "Settings", "Permissions", etc... the module.info file could be used to let modules add their own links. I think we could allow any special notes the module author might want to add here. Also appears is the release date of the currently installed module.

Also, the system name and version is displayed floated right, and the help icon appears without the "More Help" text" right next to the module name. I think the text should be there, but hidden... IMHO a blue "?" is universal enough to get the point across.

In the screenshot, the first module listed is what it would look like after clicking 'requirements' tab, the second module is what it would look like after clicking "More Information" tab, and the third would be what the default module row would look like.

To address the concerns of people that use CTRL-F to search for modules, I plan on adding a vertical tab for Search, which would use either just JQuery, searching the HTML of the page and pulling results, or if browsers have trouble with that, AJAX... I imagine some will call for NOSCRIPT searching if we do this, which wouldn't be to hard either.

I do plan on starting the programming for this myself. I'm not designing a feature request here ;)

Thoughts?

jon pugh’s picture

jon pugh
he/him
Primary language English
Location Newburgh, NY
commented

re: tabs...

If JQuery UI is added to core #315035: Add jQuery UI elements to core, we could use the JQUI tabs element... which includes the "collapsible" functionality I mentioned. see http://jqueryui.com/demos/tabs/#option-collapsible

skilip’s picture

skilip commented

As grateful as I am for the effort you've put into this, I really think we should join forces instead of going separate directions. It's just a waste of effort ;).

I'm really opposed to the vertical tabs. It's a huge usability issue, while you're hiding important data. I understand why you wanted to fix the 'having a large table' thingy, hovever I don't see such a large issue there. Look at the permissions table, or even better; iTunes. iTunes is the perfect example of a huge list of data which is still easy scannable.

With iTunes in mind, the extra collumns (a feature which is in my thoughts from the beginning) could be solved by adding the possibility of showing/hiding columns.

It's a shame I couldn't find more time to work on this project. Luckily my new employer sees the importance of this and already scheduled this project in. We're actually going to work on it with a few guys, which is awesome.

jon pugh’s picture

jon pugh
he/him
Primary language English
Location Newburgh, NY
commented

No worries, on the "separate directions" thing, I think at this point, we need some heavy R&D and user testing to figure out what is the best way to go with this. I didn't spend much time on this at all so far.

As to hiding important data... the people working on the vertical tabs framework are going to be looking into "Expand All" functionality, so the option would be there to show everything.

In regards to the large-table paradigm, I've been building drupal sites for about 4.5 years, and back before drupal 5, a giant table was what the modules page consisted of. I have sites up and running that have hundreds of modules listed on this page, and even with the module fieldsets, its a huge pain to use. I'm putting my years of frustration into figuring out an easier way to deal with it. The permissions table is even worse than the modules table.

At this point, we need to run this by Dries and the other higher-ups to see what they think. I feel like we should build some prototypes and put them through the Usability Testing procedures to find out what really works for end users at large.

Frando’s picture

Frando commented

Oh, I didn't know about this issue. Esp. regarding #5, please see #396478: Searchable modules page where I did a patch that implements vertical tabs (and also a search function) for the modules page! So if you're interested in bringing this forward, please review that patch and provide feedback.

skilip’s picture

skilip commented

We need some usability experts to make the decision of whether or not we can use vertical tabs. I really don't think it will make a chance.

jon pugh’s picture

jon pugh
he/him
Primary language English
Location Newburgh, NY
commented

Frando,
Awesome! This is exactly what I was envisioning. I'll check it out. How about we keep that ticket for the tabs and searching, and use this ticket for additional enhancements. See my screenshot for my ideas for the content of the tabsets.

dave reid’s picture

dave reid
he/him
Primary language English
Location Nebraska USA
commented
Component: other » system.module
Issue tags: +Needs usability review, +Usability
mikeytown2’s picture

mikeytown2 commented

No sure if anyone here has played around with Module Info but I really like the fact that it shows almost every menu item related to that module. It's very helpful in terms of configuring a newly installed module, so something similar to this functionally would be very helpful.

mcrittenden’s picture

mcrittenden commented

Any updates here? Are there any other issues floating around in place of this one?

Bojhan’s picture

Bojhan commented
Status: Active » Closed (duplicate)

http://drupal.org/node/538904