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Revision of Private Notes Overview

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1 Initial Problem

The "Private Notes" (Personal Workspace menu) consists of legacy components and cannot be accessed via the central Kitchensink components, nor does it benefit functionally from changes to the framework.

In addition, the page currently uses a combination of multiple selection and content display, which should be revised.

In the context of these adjustments, the existing functions should also be reconsidered and conceptually revised. For example, the question arises as to whether ILIAS should actually be able to use object-independent notes and, if so, what goal is being pursued with this.

2 Conceptual Summary

Notes are used to briefly store personal thoughts and keywords about an object in ILIAS in order to remember them later. The page "Private Notes" offers the possibility to collect the notes scattered in ILIAS in one place and thus to get an overview of where notes have been made. From here, they can be viewed, edited and, if necessary, deleted.

The private notes shall display the following attributes:

  • Content of the note
  • date when the note was created
  • path to the object to which the note was attached
Each note should still be editable and able to be deleted.

2.1 Add Toolbar

Print
The action "Print" is moved to this toolbar.

Procedure:

  1. Click on "Print".
  2. A Print button invokes the browser print feature. (same procedure like Remove PDF Generation from Wiki)
  3. Nothing changes here.
If the notes are filtered (i.e. not all are visible) only the filtered notes are printed.

HTML Export

  1. Click on "HTML Export".
  2. An HTML file is created and downloaded.
  3. Nothing changes here.
If the comments are filtered (i.e. not all are visible) only the filtered comments are exported as HTML.

Sort Ascending / Sort Descending

With the introduction of ListingPanels, the current "Sort Ascending" is offered as an sortation view control in the toolbar in Comments Screen and Comments Modal.

  • en: Creation Date, asc. / Creation Date, desc.
  • de: Erstellungsdatum, aufst. / Erstellungsdatum, abst.
The default setting of the view control should be Creation Date, desc..

Additional Information

As requested by the JF, we have adjusted the existing labels. Our proposal has no general validity. The labels of sorting options should be discussed and decided elsewhere.
If you want to follow the discussion, check out the following BR (see Mantis 26634).

Add Note

If an object has been selected via the filter, the toolbar is extended by the Add Note entry. If the user clicks on the button, a modal will open and a note can be added to the corresponding object.
The modal can be reused and notes are now created about a modal in all places in the system.

2.2 Introduce new filter

In order to find the desired notes quickly, the new filter is to be used, which allows the notes to be filtered according to different criteria:

  • Filter by Text (textinput)
    • searches all texts (user name, content of comments and object title)
  • Filter by Object (multiselect)
    • new: Entry "All" (default)
    • lists all objects that already have a personal note (f.e. Discussionforum, Introduction of Algebra)
All notes are displayed chronologically (last note on top) and grouped by object type (course, forum, group,...).

The filter should be collapsed by default and the object filter should be set to all.

2.3 Transfer to ListingPanel

A standard listing panel is to be used to display the notes. This allows the content of the note as well as additional information and actions to be displayed.

  • On personal notes screen (Personal Workspace > Notes) the Standard Listing Panel should be used.
  • Wherever notes are displayed (e.g. Learning Module > Notes > Modal), the Standard Listing Panel should be used. 
All notes are displayed chronologically (last note on top) and grouped by object type (course, forum, group,...).

Transfer of the previous content to the Standard Listing Panel:

  • List Title = Private Notes
  • Subtitle = Object Title
  • Item Title = Date dd.mm.yyyy
  • Content = Note
  • Key Value Pairs
    • Origin = The object to which the note is assigned
  • Actions
    • Edit
    • Delete

Additional Information (not part of the request):

The ListingPanel is primarily used to present the comments. With the introduction of the Listing Panel, the possibility of deleting multiple comments is eliminated. This is not a private comment issue, but a common issue with the introduction of panels. To enable multiple action in panel as well, this issue is discussed in another feature request. For the concept of the Manage screen, see Introduction of a new Manage screens

2.4 Actions

Edit
If a note is edited, a modal opens in which the note can be edited. This is the same modal that is displayed for the object when editing a note from there.

Structure of Modal

  1. Header with title of the modal and close-Glyph
  2. Content:
    1. Visual indication of which object it is
    2. Text input with existing note (editable)
    3. Button "Update Note"
    4. In chronological order all other notes at this point as standard listing panel (difference to note page: without "Object Type" property).
  3. Footer with "Cancel" button.
Clicking on the "Update Note" button saves the updated note, closes the modal and returns to the personal note page. A message indicates that the changes have been saved. The note has been updated and the date adjusted. (as before).

Clicking on the "Cancel" button closes the modal and returns you to the personal note page. The note is not updated.

Delete
If a note is deleted, a message box appears asking whether you are sure that the note should be deleted.

2.5 Notes without reference

Notes without references can be selected via the filter. Afterwards, these notes behave similarly to the other entries (objects) in the filter. A note can be created via the "Add Note"-button.

2.6 Abandon Add Note Input Field

Currently, notes can be added directly from the personal notes. To do this, an object must first be selected, then a new note can be added to this object.

To simplify the page, it should only be used to represent and edit or delete existing notes. Therefore, we recommend to remove the Input Field and the "Add Note" action from this screen. Via "Origin" of an existing note, users can go directly to an object and add new notes from there.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

  • Personal Workspace > Notes
  • All ILIAS Objects > Actions > Notes > Modal

3.2 User Interface Details

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

Use existing KS-elements like Standard Listing Panel and Standard Filter

3.4 Accessibility Implications

  • When displaying the modal, the focus should be directly in the input field.

4 Technical Information

No technicall issues.

5 Privacy

See Notes and Comments PIVACY.md.

6 Security

No technicall issues.

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], 17 MAR 2022: Thanks for this initiative to revise a feature that has been untouched for a long time and to get rid of legacy UI elements. I fully understand the new concept of shown data for public comments (show the author's avatar and present its name as title of the list item. And I also appreciate the intention to streamline both views (public comments and private notes). But for private notes I see a hugh redundance of information. All privates notes that will be presented are from the same user. So the two most outstanding items of information are the same for all my private notes. IMHO, that is not an improvement of information architecture ...

I see two options to improve this view without changing general elements of this highly appreciated feature request:

  1. Using the Standard Listing Panel for "Private Notes" without lead image (and show lead images for public comments only). The visual redundance of presenting always the same user avatar will be prevented and only the shown title is always the same. Advantage of this solution would be that private notes and public comments get the information for the item title from the same source (user).
  2. Keeping the "Standard Listing Panel with Lead Image" but do not use the user as source for item title and related lead image but the object to which the note belongs. For private notes this is a very important information and one with a hugh variety within the list of my private notes (as long as not all my private notes have only been made in one object...). Advantage of this solution would be that it uses the options to display relevant information in the best way and does not bore users with redundancies.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 21 MAR 2022 : We prefer to show the title of the object as title of the panel and - if possible - the date of the comment as title of the item. This would avoid redundancy of information. In addition, also this feature needs an HTML export due to GDPR and labels for view control to sort items should be improved (see comments in Revision of Public Comments Overview). And please complete sections 4 to 6.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 04 APR 2022: Thanks for revising the feature request. We highly appreciate the suggestion and accept the feature for ILIAS 8. 

10 Implementation

The implementation contains the major switch to the KS elements. The forms have been transformed to KS forms as well. However the implementation does not include the intended move to mix embedded (in the page) listings with modal workflows. Reasons:

  • The current implementation completely acts in one area (one DIV), list presentation, add dialog, edit dialog, deletion dialog are all in the same area. This area can be either embedded in the page or in a modal. But it stays in this area.
  • Mixing embedded and modal interations would create redundant listing presentations (one embedded, one in the modal).
  • This would also result in a lot of code overhead, e.g. if a new comment is saved, the code would need to check, if a) we are in a modal, but with a "background embedded presentation", then close the modal and rerender the background presentation or b) we are in a modal without background presentation. In this case don't close the modal and rerender the modal. This would be necessary for all kind of actions like create, edit and delete. We should avoid this additional code.
This is also the reason why the "Add Comment/Note" button should always be at the same place (not in a toolbar, that is not present on the info screen or "far away" like in the learning modules or wiki pages. The Add button is always directly on top of the Listing Panel, it only hides the Add form.

For more details see the "Implementation" section on Revision of Public Comments Overview.

Test Cases

  • 2022-08-09 by  Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]
  • 32093 : Open notes in the Personal Workspace
  • 1424 : Creating a Private Note
  • 1427 : Sorting Notes
  • 36038
  • 49978 : Printing Notes

Approval

Approved at 2022-05-11 by Stake, Sebastian [sstake].

Last edited: 18. Apr 2023, 11:04, Zenzen, Enrico [ezenzen]