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Page Editor » Multiple Actions to Page Elements

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This request is part of the project for a New Page Editor.

1 Initial Problem

  • Actions like Cutting, Copying and Pasting individual Page Editor Elements have not been adapted to the new general Page Layout of ILIAS 6. 
  • Multi-Actions allow executing actions one more than one element at once. Carrying out multi-actions on Page Editor Elements has not been adapted to the new gerneral Page Layout of ILIAS 6. 

2 Conceptual Summary

Delete Multiple Elements or Single Element

  1. Double clicking elements to select them and execute possible actions on them in the slate.. The selected elements get a visual emphasis. 
  2. Select Delete in Tool-Slate.
  3. ILIAS presents a confirmation dialogue. (client-side-rendered Modal) 
  4. User provides confirmation.
  5. The elements are deleted from page.
Cut Multiple Element or Single Element
  1. Double clicking elements to select them and execute possible actions on them in the slate. The selected elements get a visual emphasis. 
  2. Select Cut in Tool-Slate.
  3. ILIAS takes the selected Elements into the clipboard. (The page elements are not shown anymore.)
  4. Message »Selected elements have been cut. Please click the desired target placeholder and select ‘Paste’.« is shown. The message is no longer displayed after pasting the page elements.
Copy Multiple Elements or Single Element
  1. Double clicking elements to select them and execute possible actions on them in the slate. The selected elements get a visual emphasis. 
  2. Select Copy in Tool-Slate.
  3. ILIAS takes the selected Elements into the clipboard.
  4. Message »Selected elements have been copied. Please click the desired target placeholder and select ‘Paste’.« is shown. The message is no longer displayed after pasting the page elements.
Paste Multiple Elements or Single Element
  1. User clicks on Create Button.
  2. ILIAS presents Create Menu.
  3. User selects the first entry Paste.
  4. ILIAS pastes the copied Elements from Clipboard. Message »Selected elements have been copied/cut. Please click the desired target placeholder and select ‘Paste’.« is not shown anymore.
Addition for a upcoming PullRequest: For a confirmation of the insert, a low green tone opacity overlay with fading could be used.


De/Activate Multiple Elements or Single Element
  1. Double clicking elements to select them and execute possible actions on them in the slate. The selected elements get a visual emphasis. 
  2. Select De/Activiate in Tool-Slate. ["(De-)Activate Elements" should changed to "(De-)Activiate"] [German "De-/Aktivieren"]
  3. ILIAS de/activates the selected Elements.
  4. Disabled elements are visually highlighted. (Dotted line)
Note: If Activate and Deactivate are applied simultaneously to page elements with different statuses, the status is inverted in each case.

Select All (via Blank Slate) (Jour FIxe Discussion on 08 JUN 2020)

  1. Clicking the ShyButton "Select all" in the last explanation text in the Blank-Slate
  2. All page elements are selected and the Multi-Action Tool is displayed.
  3. An action can be executed.
Select All (via Multi-Aktionen-Tool)
  1. Clicking the Button "Select all" in the Multi-Action Tool. [German "Alle auswählen"]
  2. All page elements are selected.
  3. An action can be executed.
Deselect All (via Multi-Aktionen-Tool)
  1. Clicking the Button "Deselect All" in the Multi-Action Tool. [German "Auswahl aufheben"]
  2. No page element is selected anymore. The blank slate is displayed.
Formatting
  1. Select one to n page elements
  2. Clicking the Button "Format" in the Multi-Action Tool ["Assign Chraracteristics" should changed to "Format"]
  3. Round Trip Modal with the form "Paragraph Formats"  is shown.
    • We then no longer use the textual DropDown, but rather the layouted DropDown.
    • If page elements that do not support formatting are selected, they are ignored.
    • If several page elements that are different from each other are selected for formatting, the paragraph formats of all page elements are offered in the form.
  4. Entries in the dropdowns are selected and saved.
  5. Page is reloaded with the changes made.

Multiple Action Buttons
The buttons that were below the content should be grouped.

  • Group I:    [Cut]  [Copy]  [Delete]
  • Group II:   [Select All]  [Deselect All]
  • Group III:  [Activate/Deactivate]  [Format]

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

All screens in which at least one page element was selected when editing the page.

3.2 User Interface Details

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

  • Grouping the buttons
  • visual confirmation of pasting

4 Technical Information

Killing, Alexander [alex]: 17 June 2020: I would currently object the format editing part due to "technical complexity" reasons. I would not mix different element types (blocks and text) in one workflow, since this would make the form handling very complicated technically and also from the user perspective imo. What about media object formats? I think this has conceptual flaws. (Also currently the text is saying a round trip modal should be used, the mockups show a form in the slate.

Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila], 17 JUN 2020: The possibility to edit text and section together in the form already exists in ILIAS 6, but it is to be extended to other types of page elements if more than one style is available for the page elements affected.

5 Privacy Information

No new personal data that will need to be stored or processed to implement this feature. 

6 Security Implications

We do not see any special security relevant changes.

7 Contact

8 Funding

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

  • …

9 Discussion

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 26 MAY 2020 : I have a few questions according element editing:

  1. Am I right that it will be necessary in the future page editor to first double-click any page element before executing "Select All"?
  2. Have you thought about selecting multiple elements by hovering with mouse pressed as an additional option to quickly select elements?
  3. Have you thought about supporting CUT, COPY and PASTE actions on selected elements by using keyboard shortcuts (e.g. X, C, V)?

Working session "Multiple Actions to Page Elements", 12 JUN 2020
Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard], Wessels, Karin [karin.wessels], Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt] & Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila]:

Ad 1) No, an initial selection of a first element is not necessary, because a ShyButton "Select All" is already available on the blank slate. After use, all page elements are selected and the Multiple Actions Tool is displayed in the Slate.
Ad 2) At the moment we do not see this need. A first significant improvement should be that once I have started the selection process, I can select with a single click afterwards. We are not looking for a kind of "draw area" like in Excel or Windows File Explorer or MacOS Finder.
Ad3) We move the topic towards ILIAS 8 or discard it later.
Technical Issues:

  • a) All insert shortcuts would have to be intercepted and passed through a separate function » side effects?
  • b) When cutting and copying we would have to make sure that something is selected and then we would have to bend the actions, otherwise we would have to let them pass, otherwise I can't copy text from the page (sometimes very practical) » side effects?
  • The behaviour does not match the standard copy and paste behaviour anymore » Not very intuitive.
  • Idea: Shortcut for the actions of the multi-action tool via right-click (Desktop) or Longclick/Forcetouch (Android/iOS)
  • We'll put it on a Bucket List for ILIAS 8

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 22 JUN 2020: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 7. We keep the option to format different types of elements at once like it is already possible in ILIAS 6. But this intends that this multi-select objects workflow is just for assigning style classes but not for aligning objects (left | center | ...) or similar actions.

Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila], 08 OCT 2020: Additional Development Issue:

In the current implementation, after cut or copy there is a strongly focused process of pasting. 
This brings several problems with it:

  • only one pasting at one position (also no pasting in other tabs)
  • inconsistency in the display of create buttons in both modes (The Selection Mode should not show Create Buttons.)
  • a new intermediate screen in the slate, which allows to cancel pasting
Maintianer and Working-Group Page Editor have addressed the problem and propose the following change:
  • The selection mode should only be used to select one or more page elements and trigger a multi-action. No elements can be added in the selection mode. No create buttons are displayed.
  • After the execution of an action (Cut, Copy, Delete, Activate/Deactivate, Formatting) the page is automatically continued in the editing mode.
  • "Paste from Clipboard" is then available as the first entry in the drop-down of the Create button.
  • Furthermore:
    • For Cut & Copy: A blue message box is used to communicate that the content is in the clipboard.
    • As in ILIAS 6 and earlier the clipboard content is kept until the end of the session. This still allows multiple pasting - no change in behaviour. "Clearing the clipboard" should handled with ILIAS 8.
  • To enable quick access to the selection, a cmd+click on a page element is also to be evaluated. The mode changes to Selection. Every other page element can also be selected by clicking only. A hint to this option is added to the blank slate.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 12 OCT 2020 : We highly appreciate the suggested changes in the editing behaviour and accept them as outlined above by Oliver.

10 Implementation

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 12 NOV 2020 by Zenzen, Enrico [ezenzen]

  • C42472: Seitenelemente auswählen - Löschen
  • C42470: Seitenelemente auswählen - Ausschneiden
  • C42471: Seitenelemente auswählen - Kopieren
  • C42469: Seitenelemente auswählen - (De-)Aktivieren

Approval

Approved at 12 NOV 2020 by Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila] as agreed with Universität Bern.

Last edited: 16. Nov 2023, 17:00, Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]