Reverse the order of label and group in VBO field names [#1363760]

Drupal Gardens may include VBO. As such, we usually start by evaluating the user experience - which I just started to do.

I noticed right away that i couldn't find Bulk Operations. Apparently adding VBO now begins by adding a field. I instantly thought, 'why?, this feels like it's a display format' (unformatted list, table, VBO), and then through watching a few screencasts, realized that it used to be a display format in D6 - which leads me to the question...

Is this not the final idea. Is it a result of being an alpha version? If the plan is to eventually move this out of a field, what other features might be 'in progress' and how would I know what the end state is going to be?

Comments

Comment #1

bojanz CreditAttribution: bojanz commented 7 December 2011 at 15:48

Hi Jeff.

No, it being a field is the final implementation.
VBO used to be a display format that reimplemented Views tables.
This had several problems:
1) When the Views table changes, VBO doesn't follow along, since it's just immitating.
2) You could only use it to show the table. Start thinking about VBO on a grid, and you're out of luck.
We had a project that used several custom display formats, so we immediately ran into this issue.

By having VBO as a field, we can use it with any display format (table, grid, unformatted, our own custom ones, etc). And it is a bit less confusing if you view it as adding the "selector" field to the view, which is what it basically is.

The current status is pretty final.
I'm not very happy with embedding the action settings into the views modal form (editing the VBO field).
We made that dialog really small, and in many cases there's too many operations (rules, actions...), and if one adds a big configuration form... you get the picture. Haven't figured out anything nicer for now (that's how it worked in D6 as well).
A big chunk that's missing is #1057158: Provide an action for modifying entity values and I'm planning an initial version soon. Tweaking the UI there shouldn't be a problem once the code starts working right.

Comment #2

Noyz CreditAttribution: Noyz commented 14 December 2011 at 03:11

Makes sense. I get it.

There are two small things you could do that I think would have a very strong impact...

1. Change field name from Content: Bulk Operations to Bulk Operations: Content. Rationale:
- A bulk operation is not content.
- Human scanning starts on the left, so leasing with Bulk operations will make the item easier to find: https://skitch.com/jeff.noyes/gtfge/firefox
- Doing so should also let you filter the view by "bulk operations" https://skitch.com/jeff.noyes/gtfge/firefox
- Bulk operations would get listed together. E.g. if you add a 'comment' relationship, Bulk operations will be listed as:
- Bulk operations: comments
- Bulk operations: content

2. When configuring a Bulk operation, lead with 'Select Operations' field set ( It might also be more meaningful to re-title as 'Field Operations'). Rationale:
- Not everyone will know what a 'bulk operation' is. This section helps to connect the dots. This is especially true in Drupal Gardens where our users will discover the field (many while discovering Views) rather than going to D.O, downloading VBO, installing, enabling, etc.
- On must select operations, while the other operation seem to have good defaults.

The operation may be performing bulk operations on content, but it is not

Comment #3

Gábor Hojtsy

he/him

Hungarian

Hungary

CreditAttribution: Gábor Hojtsy commented 12 January 2012 at 11:56

Looks like we are trying to cover too much ground at once here that is not really in the form used by regular drupal.org issues. So broke out 2. to its own issue to re-energize some discussion there hopefully: #1402536: Swap operations selection with form configuration. Feedback welcome there, thanks!

Comment #4

bojanz CreditAttribution: bojanz commented 16 January 2012 at 16:21

I agree with #1, and posted my comments on #2 to #1402536: Swap operations selection with form configuration.

Comment #5

bojanz CreditAttribution: bojanz commented 25 January 2012 at 01:53

Title:	User interface questions	» Reverse the order of label and group in VBO field names
Status:	Active	» Fixed

Since #2 has a separate issue, repurposing this one for #1.

Also, committed a fix for #1 :)

So this:

1. Change field name from Content: Bulk Operations to Bulk Operations: Content. Rationale:
- A bulk operation is not content.
- Human scanning starts on the left, so leasing with Bulk operations will make the item easier to find: https://skitch.com/jeff.noyes/gtfge/firefox
- Doing so should also let you filter the view by "bulk operations" https://skitch.com/jeff.noyes/gtfge/firefox
- Bulk operations would get listed together. E.g. if you add a 'comment' relationship, Bulk operations will be listed as:
- Bulk operations: comments
- Bulk operations: content

Has now been implemented. I've also renamed the VBO fieldset in the field settings from "Views Bulk Operations" to "Bulk operations" for consistency (displayed as all caps on Seven, of course).