Show Advanced KnowledgeHide Advanced Knowledge

Add New Item Group in ILIAS Page Editor

1 Initial Problem

This is one part of a bigger feature request to simplify the interaction between the ILIAS Page Edior and the creation of ILIAS Objects. It was decided to takle this problem in smaller requests addressing specific issues. The problem this request tries to takle is that it needs a lot of clicks to add an Item Group to add ILIAS Objects to the page of container elements, if you forget to do it beforehand (close the ILIAS Page Editor -> create Item Group and add ILIAS Objects -> go back to the container's Object List -> open ILIAS page editor -> add newly created Item Group).

2 Conceptual Summary

An option to create Item Groups directly from the ILIAS Page Editor will be added. For this:

• The dialog "Insert Resource List" is expanded by one option "Create new Item Group"
• Some changes in wording are made (see below).

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

• The ILIAS Page Edior ("Customize Page") in Container Objects (Change in wording).
• The "Insert Resource List" view of the ILIAS Page Editor in Container Objects.

3.2 User Interface Details

Changes in existing Views:

• It is proposed to use this change to streamline wording. Instead of "Insert Resource List"/"Materialienliste einfügen"  "Insert List of Items" / "Liste von Objekten einfügen" should be used, as this seems to be the only instance of this wording. The "Objekt" term is generally regarded as problematic, but no better wording has been found during the discussions and this would increase internal consistency.
• The existing Options are renamed:
  • "Resources of Type" -> "All Items of Type"
  • "Item Group" -> "Existing Item Group"
• The list of Options in the "Insert Resource List" dialog is expanded by an option "Create New Item Group"/"Neuen Objektblock erstellen". The title of this dialog is changed to "Insert List of Items" / "Liste von Objekten einfügen"

Adding  a new Item Group:

When selecting "Create New Item Group" then existing sequence of views for creating an Item Group is used. Once the Item Group is created the usual link back to the Course is replaced by a link to the Page.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

There will be no new UI concepts introduced in this FR.

4 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

5 Contact

• Author of the Request: Stephan Winiker
• Maintainer: Alexander Killing
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

6 Funding

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

• …

7 Discussion

Killing, Alexander [alex], 24 Jan 2020: I support this idea.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 31 JAN 2020 : I like this suggestion very much. We should also think about changing the default of the radio boxes from 'All Items of Type' to either 'Existing Item Group' or 'Add New Item Group'. When I see pages using this feature they always use it to embed item lists and never to have lists of one type. This original feature is really seldom used and therefore should no longer be default.
In addition, the behaviour of this feature in ILIAS 6 is a bit weird. You add a resource list in the editor. But then you leave it and the slate is presenting the tree again. Maybe it makes sense to move this dialogue to a modal with ILIAS 7 and to stay in the editor.

Seiler, Yvonne [yvseiler], 2 FEB 2020: Many thanks for your commitment to this cause. I am strongly in favour of adding the item groups to the foreground.
As Matthias writes, our users are also looking for them for a while until they see where they can add the item groups to the page editor. Changing the default to "existing item groups" is something I find very supportive.

I would also like to give some thought,

1. whether the word "Materialienliste einfügen / Add Resource List" could be changed, and the word "Item group" could be brought to the foreground, so that users could see more quickly where they could add the item groups.
2. I also wonder what happens with this option here if added item groups "automatically" already appear in the page editor. Wouldn't adding already existing item groups be omitted here? (see FW " Page Editor » Presentation of Item Groups in Page Editor".

Thank you for the initiative to make it easier for the user to work with the object blocks!

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 03 FEB 2020 : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for 7. We would like to follow Matthias' suggestion and make "Existing Item Group" as default option (placed on top) and use "Create New Item Group" as alternative default in case no item group exists in the container. Option "All Items of Type" would become last of the list.

8 Implementation

No technical issues.

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.