Shortcuts to actions from list view

Attached are the icon and patch files

At least for now (whilst the Storm styles are as they are), i'm not going to commit this one - as you say, it is a different style to the rest of the display, and only saves 1 click.

However, i've tested the patch, which works, so if anyone wants to do this type of thing then the patch could be quite useful.

Agreed, but I was thinking that this could be extended to a general row task item.
If you took the Report pop-up item and extended this to the operations you could perform on a row then I think it would help save time.
As a side line there also needs to be a multiple row action method across the board, but this is a different issue.

Just thrashing out some ideas.

Is it worth me investing some time in this aspect?

Thanks
Mark

Sorry forgot to change status back with regards to my last post

I'm happy to look at these type of things - but the thing that is making me hold back a bit is that adding these types of icon will add complexity to the tables, and also perhaps aren't very obvious at first glance what they do (in comparison perhaps to the + and - buttons).

Again I agreen with your idea that too many icons aren't a good thing.
That's what I was trying to aim at when I mentioned the pop-up.
You could have a single row icon with pop-up or a simple drop down list, offering you delete/add/edit functions.
This would cover all functions you could do with a row, similar to a context-menu.

Just trying to offer up ideas.

cheers
Mark

OK I see a bit more what you mean now - how hard would it be to knock up a rough demo?

I've just reviewed and committed: #468294: Integration of Popups API (AJAX Dialogs)

Is this the type of thing that you were thinking for the new icon?

Hello,

I've just sent you a message via your contact form to give you details on the test website where I'm getting the shortcut menu going.
I didn't use the Popups API as Storm already had popup code in.

I've also attached a screenshot of the shortcut menu in action.

Thanks
Mark

I'd like to hear what anybody else thinks - especially those who have a 'high' usage of Storm so would benefit most from the time savings.

Myself - currently, i'm not convinced that it will save time - a click to show the menu then a click to onto the action. Previously all these could be done by a click onto the ticket itself then to one of the links.

An idea I had was perhaps to have a setting for simple / advanced layouts, simple including the large links as currently, and advanced having smaller one-click actions - so adds the complexity that I wanted to avoid, but only for those who select to view it.

I was just trying to save the additional page load in between which isn't needed, certainly in my scenario.
If I've got a list of tickets I'm working on, I just need a quick way to add time to them.

I'll try and re-work the code to allow for an option for using the menus or not, would that be good for you?

My point was more that if it is a setting, the complexity does not matter as much because a new user could turn it off.

Therefore, if the complexity is not as important, it could be a better option to use your previous example as this saves the click (and also the page load).

Sorry if i'm confusing matters here...

I like the idea of shortcut menu, maybe leaving Add icon directly, and having other icon for shortcut menu.
It would be useful for this feature, but also for other features (ex. i'm making module for budget tracking, and I needed simple/short way to add expenses to different budget items, and I have polluted table with different links and icons, but this is solution that I really like. I will try to implement it and report - but it looks great)

regarding easily adding time tracking to tasks/tickets/projects should we combine it (timetracking) with #346131: Online Timer? And how?

I've already started coding this, you can have a play

url storm.ctscomputing.com
un stormtest
pw Storm-Test

I've only implemented it on the ticket list as yet

Nice, really nice :)

Only thing I have problem with is with storm popups: and is with closing of them - only way to close in on "X" button. It is usability issue, first idea, while I was playing with it is to close it 0.5 sec after pointer leaves popupbox. Or something else.

While you are making those changes for other modules, I will try to integrate popups api with those shortcuts, that could further increase usability of menu. Shouldn't be hard.

Thanks :)

I've added the context menu to project/task/ticket lists on the test site in #14.
I'm going to work on consolidating some of the script to tidy it up and make it easier to extend if need be.

I'll have a look at the self closing idea as I agree it would be nice to have.

I did have a quick read on popups api, but as it mentioned modal I wasn't keen on using it. And as Storm had it's own popup code I just used that.

I won't be able to do any coding until tomorrow at the earliest.

I'm still not convinced that this is ultimately the best way to go forward - the menu is ok but if there are any other suggestions on the table, it'd be great to hear them so that they can all be weighed up.

Is it just the menu you're not convinced by? I just need a way to shortcut a lot of things, I don't want to have to filter lists all the time or go via two pages when I could go straight there.

Maybe if we make the list tickable and put the links in a toolbar at the top, but then the multiple selection is only useful on deletions or combined view filter.

I've implemented the option to enable the shortcut menus in admin/storm
When enabled the shortcut menus appear on the project/task/ticket lists
When disabled the original edit/delete links appear

Same test site as #14

I don't have better idea for solving this, and it is a big problem. Since this is usable, I am very happy with it.
That, of course, does not mean that we can not think of something better, so let your ideas flow - not only solutions, but problems that you see with this one.

As a side note (and because I noticed the stormteam user couldn't access the storm configuration), I've implemented a permission for:
'Storm: access administration pages'

And updated storm.module, storminvoice.module, stormorganizationmodule, stormtaskmodule, stormtimetracking.module to check for this permission as opposed to 'access administration pages'

This enables you to allow a role to have Storm administration without having full system administration.

Patch (without #22) icons attached

I'm coming round to the idea, but the think that's niggling me is that it takes additional clicks - but I suppose it really is only equivalent to opening or closing a fieldset or something - perhaps it is the way to do it though. I'll have a think.

In the meantime, i'm quite keen to hear from others too though - both new users and also those with higher usage who might benefit from extra speed.

No problems with an extra permission though - it'd be useful.

hmmm, I'd say it takes the same amount of clicks, but without the overhead of the additional page load in between.

I'll implement the additional permission, but would like feedback as to wether or no to check for 'storm: access administration pages' as well as 'access administration pages'. i.e. should someone who already has 'access administration pages' be allowed to access storm admin pages or should we keep the two seperate? Further to this, should we seperate this in to a seperate issue?

I'm all for hearing for other ideas on how to speed up the usage of storm.

I'd ideally like to extend this area to include shortcuts for filtering. So from a organization list you could view the open tickets etc. But I think that's beyond the scope of this issue.

Having said all this I'd like to stress that I've made this patch optional, and by default it isn't turned on, so it doesnt actually affect anyone unlese they want to turn it on.

Thanks

Mark

I've branched the permission discussion to #535016: New permission: 'Storm: access administration pages.

Could I leave you to post an issue for the shortcuts for filtering one with the details of what you're thinking? I don't know if #433294: Add filter status when lists are filtered is relevant at all to this - I think that will help usability a lot (think how the users list is filtered).

Ammended patch as add teammember had incorrect path.

Updated patch for latest dev version

Will this make it into the next release?

I think I've supplied a good patch which can be enabled/disabled via admin setting.

It would save me having to update the patch against latest devs :)

Afraid not this release.

However, the -dev shouldn't change too much between now and the release, and don't worry about keeping the patch up to date with minor changes.

The release normally causes a few more people to visit the issues lists though, so it will give a much better chance of a few more comments too.

I'll put it in - I think my hesitation on this issue is because i'm not a great fan of the way Storm does popups at the moment.

However - it will be a timesaver, and as @Mark_Watson27 says it can be enabled and disabled via the admin setting.

I've committed the icons, so here is an updated the patch to reflect that - noone need use the tarball anymore.

@magnity, I'm looking at the popup code with a view to doing some jQuery popup and will try to make it auto-disapear as per @homoludens on #15