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Limited View of postings

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1 Initial Problem

In a forum thread with multiple topics (branches), the actor could easily lose track if there are dozens of postings and sub threads. Sometimes the actor wants to work with a single sub thread.

2 Conceptual Summary

Because a forum thread is a hierachical structure of postings, a simple filter is not sufficient (there are other feature requests like Forum: Custom Metadata for Postings addressing the 'Search and Find' issue).

Therefore we would like to introduce a new icon for every posting, added next to the author/datetime information. An correspdonding action MUST be added for the icon. This applies also for meaningful HTML attributes (e.g. title).

A click on this icon and has the following effects:

  1. The list of posting is filtered by the selected posting (with available drafts also shown) and it's successors (sub tree).
    • The primary button to create a new sub thread (on root level of the thread) is not displayed.
    • If you click the action in the context of a leaf (a posting without any replies), only one posting will be presented.
    • It is possible to 'dive into the tree structure' recursively. Means: If the view is already focussed to the desired posting (and children), you can again click on the children's icon.
  2. Only the selected posting and it's sub tree is displayed in the Tool Slate tree component.
  3. An 'UI Message' of type 'Info' has to be placed above the list of threads. The message contains a link to reset the action. Clicking on this link results in a complete reset. There MUST be no 'level-by-level reset' if the actor used the functionallity for a hierarchy repeatedly.
  4. Using the print view will respect the current state, so only the selected posting and it's successors (sub tree) are displayed.

Therefore we would like to introduce a new mode for the existing `UI Mode View Control`. Currently the following modes exist:

  1. By Reply
  2. By Date
We suggest a new mode 'With Posting Branch Limitation' (work title, we need a better one). If this mode is selected, the presentation will be initially similar to the 'By Reply' mode, with the following exceptions:
  • If a posting node is selected in the `UI Tree` within the `Tool Slate`, the selected node MUST be highlighted (border or background).
  • Only the selected node and it's successor (replies, children and grand-children) MUST be displayed in the content part of the page.
  • The node selection MUST be also respected if the actor executes the 'Print Thread' action/command: Only the selected node and it's successor (replies, children and grand-children) MUST be displayed.
    • If a leaf is selected, this posting ist the only one presented in the conter part of the page
    • If the root node is selected, the mode/view behaves similar to the 'By Reply' mode/view.
  • The action/command 'Add Posting' MUST NOT be available, but the actor MUST be able to reply to visible postings.
  • Selecting another posting node MUST reset the view: The selected posting MUST be used for the determination of the postings being displayed.

Therefore we would like to introduce a new action for every posting, added to the respective Split Button. The action should be named 'Nur diesen Thread zeigen/View Thread Only' and should result in a detailed view being presented for the given posting structure.

A click on this action has the following effects:

  1. The list of posting is filtered by the selected posting (with available drafts also shown) and it's successors (sub tree).
    • If the list is filtered, the primary button to create a new sub thread (on root level of the thread) is not displayed.
    • If you click the action in the context of a leaf (a posting without any replies), only one posting will be presented.
  2. Only the selected posting and it's sub tree is displayed in the Tool Slate tree component.
  3. A new button 'Ansicht wiederherstellen/Reset View' is added to the toolbar. A click on this button resets the view.
  4. Using the print view will respect the current state, so only the selected posting and it's successors (sub tree) are displayed.
We thought about a new filter (presented above the table), but this would result in a UI Dropdown with all posting titles as selectable options. In our opinion the approach described above is superior over a filter.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

  • Forum / Thread / Posting List
  • Forum / Thread / Posting List / Tree in Tool Slate
  • Forum / Thread / Posting List / Print View

3.2 User Interface Details

Click Dummy: https://xd.adobe.com/view/12d20e7b-c759-4586-a3b0-f0b440833089-4781/

Focus a Sub Tree (Credits: Yvonne Seiler)
Reset the View (Credits: Yvonne Seiler)

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

  • UI Nodes in a UI Tree MUST be able to display a highlighted state. Therefore PRs for the UI components MUST be created.

4 Technical Information

None

5 Privacy Information

None

6 Security Implications

None

7 Contact

  • Author of the Request: René Sens, Bundesverwaltungsamt
  • Maintainer: {Please add your name before applying for an initial workshop or a Jour Fixe meeting.}
  • 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.

  • …

9 Discussion

Klees, Richard [rklees], 2020-09-14: I think "View Thread only" could be understood to show the previous postings as well, but I understand that only the follow up postings to the posting where the action was used will be displayed. I think "View Answers to this Posting only" (or something similar) would be more accurate and also be better to understand.

I'm also unhappy with the modal behaviour you want to introduce here. Users can hide a potentially enormous amount of content from the thread, and as far as I understand that status will persist over various interactions on the page, although I do not understand completely how far this will reach. Will, e.g., the other postings be hidden when I log out from the installation and then login again later on? The only hint that there might be content that I cannot view is the "Reset View"-button on top of the page. I expect this to be way to unobtrusive, because the button is a standard button and also in a location that normally would not be used to signal the usage or activation of a mode. So I expect users to hide postings by the new functionality and being confused later on where all the other postings are. This will be even more severe for users that use screen readers, I expect. I think we need to find a better way to display the activation of that modal behaviour.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 14 SEP 2020: We see the need of this feature, esp. for huge forums. But the current suggestion still needs some improvements on GUI level to make the feature easier to understand. The replacement of the "Add New Posting" button by "Reset" might be confusing for example.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 07 DEC 2020 : Thank you very much for the updated feature request. Using a view control for this specific presentation of forum threads sounds good. The only problem we still have is how to define the starting node from where the postings are still presented (while others are hidden) in mobile view because the tool slate is in a separate view and users might not understand where to click to define the node.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 19 APR 2021 : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 8. As glyph we prefer the "target" glyph (needs to go through KS).

10 Implementation

Implemented as described above.

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 10.06.2021 by Matuschek, Nadia [nadia]

Approval

Approved at 17.08.2021 by Sens, Rene [Sens].

Last edited: 19. Aug 2021, 12:28, Matuschek, Nadia [nadia]