mahara-contributors team mailing list archive

[Aaron Wells <1423410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Public bug reported:

It's confusing that we make secret URLs and sharing into two separate
screens. Many other web applications also offer the functionality to
create a secret URL, and they group it under the other sharing
permissions.

I believe the reason we have to separate them is because of how we
handle bulk permissions currently. That is, every page & collection in
Mahara has a "accessconf" field in the database, which is a hash of all
their permissions. When you go to the Sharing screen, we look or other
pages & collections with an identical hash (which means they have
identical permissions), and we pre-tick the checkboxes for those ones.

In essence, this means that every visit to the "Sharing" screen is
treated as a "bulk" visit. And since secret URLs apply to an individual
Page/Collection and not in bulk, it forces us to make them separate.

But this is not a great way to do this. It often "gotchas" our users.
For instance, if you go to edit the permissions on a page you've made
Public, you will automatically edit the permissions for all of your
Public pages, and you probably won't realize that, especially if you
have a LOT of pages & collections.

So what we should do is to stop making this screen automatically in
bulk:

1. We retain the checkboxes (or a Select2, see Bug 1423406), to allow
for bulk operations

2. BUT we DO NOT tick any checkboxes in advance.

3. AND we DO NOT make the "current" page one of the options. You cannot
untick it, because you are editing ITS permissions

4. So if you do use the bulk selector under this new paradigm, what
you're saying is, "make these specific other pages have the same
permissions as this current page"

This will have the advantage of 1) no longer surprising users by
automatically bulk-changing permissions, 2) individualize the sharing
screen, so that we can put Secret URLs onto it.

** Affects: mahara
     Importance: Wishlist
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: usability

** Changed in: mahara
       Status: New => Confirmed

** Changed in: mahara
   Importance: Undecided => Wishlist

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1423410

Title:
  Eliminate automatic bulk permission syncing (i.e. ditch
  view.accessconf)

Status in Mahara ePortfolio:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  It's confusing that we make secret URLs and sharing into two separate
  screens. Many other web applications also offer the functionality to
  create a secret URL, and they group it under the other sharing
  permissions.

  I believe the reason we have to separate them is because of how we
  handle bulk permissions currently. That is, every page & collection in
  Mahara has a "accessconf" field in the database, which is a hash of
  all their permissions. When you go to the Sharing screen, we look or
  other pages & collections with an identical hash (which means they
  have identical permissions), and we pre-tick the checkboxes for those
  ones.

  In essence, this means that every visit to the "Sharing" screen is
  treated as a "bulk" visit. And since secret URLs apply to an
  individual Page/Collection and not in bulk, it forces us to make them
  separate.

  But this is not a great way to do this. It often "gotchas" our users.
  For instance, if you go to edit the permissions on a page you've made
  Public, you will automatically edit the permissions for all of your
  Public pages, and you probably won't realize that, especially if you
  have a LOT of pages & collections.

  So what we should do is to stop making this screen automatically in
  bulk:

  1. We retain the checkboxes (or a Select2, see Bug 1423406), to allow
  for bulk operations

  2. BUT we DO NOT tick any checkboxes in advance.

  3. AND we DO NOT make the "current" page one of the options. You
  cannot untick it, because you are editing ITS permissions

  4. So if you do use the bulk selector under this new paradigm, what
  you're saying is, "make these specific other pages have the same
  permissions as this current page"

  This will have the advantage of 1) no longer surprising users by
  automatically bulk-changing permissions, 2) individualize the sharing
  screen, so that we can put Secret URLs onto it.

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