Some feedback on big list settings component

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Some feedback on big list settings component

danekhollas shared their thoughts on the big list settings component, highlighting four main issues:

  1. Input width: The existing fields are too narrow and don’t match the width of the input field.
  2. Content display on hover: It would be nice to display the whole content on hover.
  3. Auto-save: danekhollas suggested auto-saving to prevent loss of data, especially when users forget to click the green checkmark.
  4. Save/cancel buttons: danekhollas mentioned that the save/cancel buttons only show when focusing out of the input, which can be confusing.

joffreyjaffeux responded to these points, noting that:

  • The input width issue is likely a recent regression.
  • Displaying content on hover might not be necessary if the input width issue is fixed.
  • Auto-saving and save/cancel button behavior are results of how site settings work and would require significant changes.

sam suggested a general fix for all site settings: displaying a modal warning when navigating away from a page with unsaved changes.

jomaxro agreed with sam and suggested applying this fix to user preferences as well.

joffreyjaffeux identified the cause of the input width issue and awesomerobot fixed it by changing the style to only apply to checkboxes and radio inputs. joffreyjaffeux also pushed a simple fix to display content on hover.

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Continuing the discussion from Better handling of site settings with large amount of content (big lists):

Hi there,

couple thoughts on this feature after spending some time with it in auto-linkify theme. :slight_smile:

  1. The width of the existing fields is a bit too narrow and does not match the width of the input field (tested on Latest Firefox and Chromium on Linux Mint):

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  1. It would be nice if the whole content was displayed on hoover.

  2. Maybe I am just stupid, but it already happened to me at least twice that I typed in several entries, but then forgot to click on the green checkmark, navigated away from the theme and then was super-surprised that I lost what I typed in.
    I know this behaviour is consistent with how other settings work, but wouldn’t it make sense in this case to autosave, especially given how much one can loose? Note that it is extra confusing cause when I hit enter after typing, a new field is created and I intuitively expect it to stay there.

Yep, this is also quite confusing.

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hi, thanks for feedback:

  1. is supposed to take full width, thats probably a recent regression or something else

  2. if 1 is working I feel like it’s not really needed. But Im not against this.

  3. (and4) are mostly results of how site settings work and would require to change a lot of things

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Thanks, got it.

Regarding 3., I think part of the issue is that green checkmark appears at the top of the list so if you have a lot of entries it is easier to miss. It might help if it appeared right next to the input field, but I get how that could be less visually pleasing.

:thinking: Hmm, and it wouldn’t work anyway if you edited already existing entries so never mind I guess…

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I am against auto save, but a general fix we should make to ALL site settings is:

If you mess with site settings and try to navigate to a new page we should display “you have changed the FOO site setting and not applied your change, navigate to a new page?” In a modal.

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Would be great to have this on user preferences as well. Been bit by forgetting to save once or twice :smiley:.

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was about to fix 1) but it’s coming from this recent commit Prevent adming setting input from being too small in Safari · discourse/discourse@fc4a6ca · GitHub which is adding style on <input> directly, can you have look please @awesomerobot ?

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I just pushed this simple fix FIX: adds a title attribute on value list input (#6463) · discourse/discourse@da8916a · GitHub

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Yes — just changed it so it only applies to checkboxes/radio inputs, it didn’t need to be that broad.

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Awesome, thanks @awesomerobot and @j.jaffeux! Just upgraded, works great! :+1:

Yes, that would be awesome!

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