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Move Add New Item to Toolbar and into Modal

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1 Initial Problem

The current »Add New Item« input is implemented with legacy UIComponents and needs to go. This opportunity will be siezed to improve its usability and accessibility.

issues to be tackled:

  • The current dropdown can be really big and is thus not very usable on any screen, but especially on mobile screens.
  • The option to import an object is hidden and rather hard to find.

Add New Item menu in ILIAS 9 – no grouping

2 Conceptual Summary

  • The »Add New Item« input  is moved to a Roundtrip-Modal. This goes against the current usage-rule number four for the Roundtrip-Modal. This was addressed with the UI-Coordinators and will be tackled.
  • Inside the modal the items are displayed as a Drilldown-Menu, expanded by an input to filter the contained items, and a two column view for viewports bigger than 768px.
  • if the filter input is used the list of categories and inputs is shortend client-side to a list of items containing the corresponding string in their name. If only one column fits on the screen, the categories are hidden and the items are shown directly. The list will be shown in alphabetical order.
  • After a user selects an item to create she will be dropped down to the current views.
  • The option to import an object is moved to the manage screen and receives its own link in the toolbar. During the first step of the process the object type to be imported will right now need to be selected in a dropdown. Ideally the Import  would hand this information back to the object for it to then call the correct class for the Import, but this is seen as a separate feature. The "Import Scorm Package"-Option is seen as a dialog to create a Scorm Object, not an import dialog.
    This would need three additional changes:
    • If the upload folder for big files is activated it is activated for all object types.
    • We abandon the importing of questions in tests and surveys into question pools from the import screen. This step can always be done in a separate step from the list of questions in Test or Survey.
    • We either alway or never validate imports of ILIAS Learning Modules. I assume it should be the former.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

  • Container objects (category, course, group, folder, study programme, learning sequence object)
  • Item group

3.2 User Interface Details

An ILIAS-Category is shown the current "Add New Item" button showing a little caret right to the title is replaced by a button without it.
The current button to open a dropdown in containers is replaced with a dropdown to trigger a modal.
Shows the current "Manage" screen of a course in ILIAS. The toolbar has an additional link between "Add New Item" and "Adopt Content"
The option to import an item is moved to the "Manage" screen.

Add New Item in modal

A modal containing a search/filter-input at the top and a drilldown-menu shown in two columns below is displayed. The drilldown-menu shows the object-categories on the left side and a list of objects on the right.
Add New Item on a screen bigger than 768px.
A modal containing a searchbar and a list of categories with a drilldown-glyph is shown.
Add New item inside a category on a screen bigger then 768px.
A modal containing a list of object types headlined with the title of the category with a back-glyph is shown.
Add New Item inside a category on a screen 768px and smaller.
Shows a form with the Title "Import Object" containing a dropdown "Object Type" and "File".
Form to import an object, containing a new dropdown.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

  • Client side filtering on Drilldown-Menus.
  • Two-column Drilldown-Menus.

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 Privacy Information

No personal data is stored or processed to implement this feature. 

6 Security Implications

We do not see any changes for special security issues.

7 Contact

8 Funding

Funding needed.

9 Discussion

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 09 NOV 2020 : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 7.

Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]: Please not that the KS definition of the Modal forbids more than 2 steps and navigation as the primary objective.

  • Taking this menu in the Modal will force more that two steps in the Modal, among them some quiet beastly ones. Please reconsider if you actually want to pull through with this:
    1. Select object type
    2. Select creation option 1, 2 or 3. Selcect "Option 3: Copy object type". Type in term click "Continue".
    3.  Get an error meassage "Your search did not match any results" or get a form with search results. Select one object type and click "Continue".
    4. If the object type was a container then you get an overview of the objects contained in the container and have to decide whether to copy, link or omit the contained object. Click Copy Container object.
    5. Progress meter is displayed
    6. ILIAS dumps you at the same place where you started.
  • While I will agree that navigation is not the primary objektive of the modal, imho it would be the first modal that would dump users at a place different from where they started. This should be reflected in the Modal definition / maybe needs a type of Modal.

  1. Select object type
  2. Select creation option 1, 2 or 3. Selcect "Option 1: New Course". Type in term click "Add Object Type".
  3. ILIAS dumps you at the seetings tab of the newly created object.

  1. Select object type
  2. Select creation option 1, 2 or 3. Selcect "Option 2: Import Course". Upload xml-package. Click "Import".
  3. ILIAS dumps you at the seetings tab of the newly created object.

Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt] Please consult Abandon Copying from Create Dialogue - I would consider it a prerquisite for implementing the modal.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 24 OCT 2023: Please consider the following points in this feature request:

  1. This is the perfect moment to rename the English label of this menu to what it really does: 'Add New Object'. We can add objects in this menu. Items is used for stuff below object character. In German it is already 'Neues Objekt hinzufügen'.
  2. The current 'categories' within the 'Add New Object' menu are: Organisation, Communication, Content, Assessment, Feedback and Evaluation, Templates, Additional. The most used category of all – 'Content' – is missing on the mock-up above. I asume it was just forgotten.
  3. I strongly recommend to save the last selected category and open it when the 'Add New Object' menu is triggered again. The vast majority of objects that are added to the repository belong to the category 'Content'. If ILIAS would always present me 'Organisation' and I have already created my container and now want to add content to it, I am quickly annoyed by the workflow due to the additional click.
  4. Please consider that this menu can be configured in 'Administration » Repository and Objects » Repository : Repository Object Types :: Grouping'. The new 'Add New Object' modal must show these groupings if they have been defined.
  5. How is the filter triggered? I do not see a submit button for it. Is it filtering on-the-fly? So I type in some characters and fitting results are shown immediately below? Or do I have to hit 'Enter' on my keyboard (or would this trigger the Cancel button)?

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 30 OCT 2023: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 10.

  • Renaming the feature to 'Add New Object' is fine for us.
  • Please make the category 'Content' the top category in the modal to prevent that users have to make a second click when adding content objects to their courses, groups or categories. If the UI component keeps the last status, this is fine for us, too.
  • The filter does not need a Submit action as it filters immediately after giving an input.
  • A final decision about handling huge file uploads shall be made in a separate meeting with the IRSS maintainer Fabian Schmid.

10 Implementation

Finally the dropdown to select the object type was unnecessary as there already was a check for the object type in the implementation of the import. It is based on the file name. So no dropdown was added to the corresponding form.

Add New Object

Shows the "Add New Object" primary button on the view tab of a catgory.
Add New Object Button
Shows the "Add New Object" modal displaying the catogries on the left and the object types in the selected category on the right. On top there is a field for filtering the nodes
Add New Object Modal
Shows the default "Add New Object" form. Displaying an error because of a missing title. The form has been moved to the new `UI` components and displays two inputs: "Title" and "Description".
Default Add New Object Form

Import Object

Shows the "Import" button on the "Manage" screen of a category. The button is a standard button.
Import Button on Manage Screen
Shows the "Import" modal in the case that no folder for imports is available on the server. It just shows an input to select a file.
Import Modal When No Server Folder is Available
Shows the "Import" modal in the case that a folder for imports is available on the server. It shows a select inputs where you can choose if you want to import a file from your computer or a file already on the server.
Import Modal When A Server Folder is Available

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

  • C28 : Fragenpool aus älterer ILIAS-Version importieren
  • C12850 : Test mit zufälliger Fragenauswahl importieren
  • C12851 : Kurs mit zufälliger Fragenauswahl importieren
  • C70175 : Add Object Modal

Remark: Do the first three test cases match this FR?

Approval

Approved at 2024-06-04 by Jackisch, Ingo [jackisch].

Last edited: 5. Jun 2024, 15:42, Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard]