Blog Improvements: Authors, Inputfield, Cleanup

1 Initial Problem

With increasing experience in the use of the blog (with many users and over longer lifetimes of a blog) different aspects come up again and again negatively.
Small improvements should improve the usage with ILIAS 6.0.

Aspect one:
In the list of authors, users of accounts deleted in an installation are displayed as "Not shared". A large number of users who can no longer be identified may accumulate over time. The posts of the deleted users are not collected in a common pool of all deleted users. There is an extra entry for each former user. (See screenshot)

Aspect two:
The list of authors is overcrowded with information and the usernames are presented unpleasantly. (See screenshot)

Aspect three:
The display and positioning of information is inconsistent when previewing blog posts and when blog posts are open.
Date convention is different. Position of name/user name and date inconsistent.
Line for the optical separation of the blog post title formatted differently.
(See screenshot)

Aspect Four:
The preview offers a link "Permalink". In our opinion, this link is useless, since it leads to the opening of the blog post, just like the linked title.
(See screenshot)

Aspect five:
The text input field in which the title of a new blog post is entered is much too small. Even with shorter titles you can't get along with the space. With 22 characters the field is exhausted. (See screenshots)

Aspect six:
Note text for assigning rights in group blogs is difficult to understand.

is: 

• de: Neben den eingetragenen 'Blog-Autoren' können auch Benutzer mit einer der folgenden Rollen Einträge hinzufügen: ROLLENNAME
• en: In addition to the list of ‘Contributors’, users with one of the following roles can also add postings: ROLE NAME

2 Conceptual Summary

Aspect one:
Alternative 1: All posts of deleted users are offered aggregated under a name "deleted user".
Alternative 2: The deleted users should no longer be listed under authors.

Aspect two:
No display of the user name if a clear name has been released.
Naming convention: [Firstname] [Lastname] (Written without comma, but still sorted by last name)

Aspect three:
The author is always indicated below the line.
The date is given as [today | yesterday | dd. month yyyy, hh:mm].
The line is taken from the preview as a thin grey line.

Aspect Four:
Rename link for "Permalink" to "Link" (former suggestion to abandon link is rejected)

Aspect five:
Doubling the width of the input field. Alternative: Input field grows with the width.

Aspect six:
New text:

• de: Benutzer mit der Rolle ROLLENNAME können auch Beiträge in diesem Blog verfassen. Sie werden nicht in in der Tabelle aufgeführt, denn sie erhalten das entsprechende Recht durch ein  übergeordnetes Objekt.
• en: User with the role ROLE  NAME can write positings. They are not listed in the table belwo, because they get the respective permission from an encompassing object. 

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

Blog » Preview
Blog » Preview » Blogpost
Blog » Content Tab
Blog » Authors Tab

3.2 User Interface Details

See conceptual summary.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

none.

4 Technical Information

No technical issues.

5 Privacy Information

Deleted users are already not shown with their names and will not with this feature. Users with inactive profile will only be shown with their username but not with fullname - as default in ILIAS. No additional personal data will stored through these changes.

6 Security Implications

No security relevant changes known.

7 Contact

• Author of the Request: Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila]
• Maintainer: Killing, Alexander [alex]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

8 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• Technische Hochschule OWL

9 Discussion

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 17 APR 2019 : Thanks to Oliver for identifying these painpoints in the blog and to offer solutions for fixing the issues. Some comments and recommendations from my side:

• Aspect 1: It's very good to get rid of the useless and misleading "Nicht freigegeben" information. If a user does not have a public profile, the user name is presented instead of the 'Lastname, firstname [username]' entry (that might be changed with this suggestion as well). The right label instead of "Nicht freigegeben" would be "Deleted User". According to our privacy policy, user names are removed from the system when the user has been deleted. So we can only show there "Deleted User". But it does not make sense to have this entry for every single user. Therefore, I would agree with suggestion 1 and list one entry in the block "Authors" called "Deleted User" (and this should always be the last of the list!) and to offer one aggregation when clicking on this link where all postings from all deleted users are listed in a chronological order.
• Aspect 2: I fully agree with this suggestion, especially because it prevents user from thinking that this is the link to the personal profile of these users.
• Aspect 5: I never liked this mix of title input and submit button in the tool bar. How about only offering a button "Create New Posting" and then open a modal where one can enter the posting title and submit it. After submitting the title, ILIAS redirects you to the already known screen where one can create a posting. Yes, it is one click more. But it feels much more elegant than the current solution.
• Aspect 6: We also have to consider an additional role for the blog that gives the related permission. So only focussing on parent objects is not enough.

Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt], 17 APR 2019 : 

• Aspect 1: typically a deleted user is represented by "Deleted". See the rather unsettling screenshot of forum. 

• Aspect 5: The mix of title input and submit button in the tool bar is a common pattern known from other objects like glossary. 

In other cases I retrieved the "create" button came without the title field and clicking it called a form.

I could not find another example: if only a title is given the text input is in the tool bar and if more than a title is given an form is presented.

I would prefer to keep this kind of consistency and not introducing a new way without streamlining  the other instances because it is more elegant than the current solution.

Killing, Alexander [alex], 24 Apr 2019: I support the general idea.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 24 APR 2019 : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for 6.0 with the following modifications:

1. Aspect 1: we do not show an entry for 'Deleted Users'  and offer no aggregation of postings from users that have been removed from the system.
2. Aspect 6: we need to modify the language entry according to the influence of a local role created for this blog.

Kruse, Fabian [Fabian], 02.05.2019: I appreciate most of these suggestions, but cannot find a discussion of aspect 4. I would like you to reconsider this suggestion, as the permalink indeed is something completely different from the link hidden beneath the title of a post.

This is relevant whenever somebody wants to share a post. If you simply copy the title link, it might not work anymore for people clicking on the link. Opposed to this, the permalink will always work.

While there is always a permalink found at the end of a post page, this requires opening every single post in order to share it. With the current implementation, this is NOT required: You can simply share the permalink while browsing the blog.

I do this with the official ILIAS blog all the time and think that this behavior is required if we wish to keep ILIAS blogs relevant as platforms for outside communication.

Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila], 13 JAN 2020: Please Reschedule.
To not disturb the case described by Fabian Kruse we would like to change aspect four.
We don't want to remove the permalink, but rename it to "Link". ("Permalink" is not a word that everybody knows.)
When clicking on "Link" the link should be copied to the user's clipboard. At best with a tooltip "Link to Clipboard" at "Link".

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 09 MAR 2020 : We highly appreciate these suggestions and schedule them for ILIAS 7. Decisions made in the last JF are still valid. The "Permalink" per posting (aspect 4) is kept but relabed to "Link" and a tooltip is added to clarify that this is a copy to clipboard action.

Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila], 09 MAR 2020: If the profile is not published, the user name is displayed until now. If in ILIAS 7 only the real name (first name last name) is displayed, this should only apply to users with a published profile.

Screenshot

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 25 JAN 2021: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature as already decided on the JF in March 2020 incl. relabeling of "Permalink" to "Link".

10 Implementation

Killing, Alexander [alex], 16 Feb 2022: Implemented as listed, except Issue 6, since it is unclear what excatly should happen. As written by Matthias, the original proposal is even more confusing, since permissions must not be given by parent objects, but could also come from the blog itself. The JF "we need to modify the language entry..." is unspecific and imo wrong. The whole text is ONLY presented, if an additional role gives permission at all.

Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt], 08.04.2022:  Alexander is correct. User assigned to local roles created iwithin the blog will be listed in the table. This additional local role created within the blog will be listed in the drop down in the Blog-Contributors tab. The message is only displayed if users have permission from an object "above". 

• Suggested EN: Additionally to Blog-Contributors users with the role %s can write postings. They are not listed in the table below, because they get the respective permission from an encompassing object. 
• Suggested DE: Zusätzlich zu den Mitwirkenden können auch Personen mit der Rolle %s Beiträge in diesem Blog verfassen. Sie werden nicht in in der Tabelle aufgeführt, denn sie erhalten das entsprechende Recht durch ein übergeordnetes Objekt.

Streamlined presentation of names of authors

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 2022-04-25 by Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]

• Aspect 1 49673 : Auswirkung der Löschung von Benutzern auf den Blog
• Aspect 2 49887 : Anzeige von Autoren im Blog 
• Aspect 3 49887 : Anzeige von Autoren im Blog
• Aspect 4 2006 : Bestimmten Blogeintrag anzeigen
• Aspect 5 1921 : Beitrag hinzufügen (amended)
• Aspect 6 1997 : Bekannte Benutzer als Mitwirkende hinzufügen (amended)

Approval

Approved at 2022-04-27 by Stake, Sebastian [sstake].