I recently updated my Discourse instance to the latest version (v3.4.0.beta4 +52), and I’ve noticed that some settings seem to be missing from the “All site settings” page. Specifically, I can’t find any of the settings related to indexing or setting maps.
Additionally, it seems like the “All site settings” page is not displaying all settings at once. I’m getting a message at the bottom that says “There are more than 100 results. Please refine your search.” but I’m not actually searching for anything. This makes it difficult to find the setting I need, as I can’t see everything on one page.
Has anyone else experienced this issue after updating? Any suggestions on how to resolve it or where I can find the indexing settings now?
At the moment, you would have to remove all groups you are a member of from the admin_sidebar_enabled_groups setting to see the filter. It’s hidden when the admin sidebar is enabled.
Honestly, I think this change is overdone. We are not used to it at all. Previously, making adjustments in the settings menu was very convenient and efficient, but now the efficiency is quite low.
I made restoring from backup a while ago. Because of that emails were stopped. I couldn’t find that setting from the admin sidebar, so I must search it. But I couldn’t remember its name, and just plain email gave too many hits.
Thanks for you guys out there is ask.discourse.com and I got name of that setting.
That was now second time in couple days time when I needed to know exact name of setting to find it. And I know there is another too.
Missing that old grouping is headache for us old admins and new ones learn to use new one. But the actual issue is admin sidebar hasn’t all now. And until it has been fixed we would need that old one too.
We haven’t removed any settings here, so there shouldn’t be anything missing - this page will still show all available settings, just as it did before.
As @sam pointed out above, this is how it has always worked - that page has never shown more than 100 settings at a time, so that message isn’t new.
One of the problems the old grouping had was that it was becoming increasingly different to what’s in the sidebar, causing unnecessary confusion, so removing it means we only have one type of grouping for site settings. That being said, I can understand how the not having the settings grouped on this page can decrease the usability.
Some things we’re currently working on to remedy this include:
Grouping the settings on the 'all site settings` page using the same grouping the main navigation sidebar uses.
Visually distinguishing each group to make them easier to scroll through and navigate.
Ensuring that all settings show up somewhere in the main sidebar pages as far as possible.
A UI to track modified settings across different pages so you know what you’ve changed before saving them.
And we’re thinking about an admin-wide search feature, allowing you to search for specific settings from anywhere in the admin.
All of those updates together will mean that the main admin sidebar will be an efficient and useful way to find all settings for your site, the ‘all site settings’ page will be more usable, and specific settings will be easy to find.
Thank you and your team for the work. As he mentioned, the current version’s left-hand settings menu doesn’t include all site settings. I have to search for some site settings using keywords like “mail” or “AI,” and some settings I can’t find at all because I can’t remember all the keywords. Regardless, this change significantly impacts both new and existing administrators, creating a steep learning curve.
No, that was never there when we had menu of all settings. Now all site setting doesn’t show everything, as before. It shows 100 first ones. There must use searchbar, and that demands an admin knows exacly name of that setting.
So, you are re-grouping all settings in the new admin sidebar. But there is missinng a lot of settings. So, an admin must know there is a needed setting, and plus that must know name of that setting, to reach it. Otherwise those are never visible.
So there is one solution. Give back the menu of old all settings, until you guys are fixed this new one.
This new admin sidebar is not that new thing But this it was before:
Thanks for the feedback here everyone! Based on this feedback, we have reverted this change and the inner sidebar has now been restored to the ‘all site settings’ page. It’s always great to hear how people use the software and what your workflows are, so please keep this feedback coming.
Here is the pull request for the revert for reference:
We are working on additional improvements to the page that will make navigation easier and more intuitive across the board, and we’ll post an announcement when these updates are ready.
But this it was before: