Context & Action Info to show in what it is related to

[Udit Desai]

In Stream Settings, on Exclude Tab; there are two text boxes for "Context" & "Action". Right now in the auto-complete results all the contexts & actions are being listed. But we can not make anything out of it just by looking at the Context Name / Action Name.

We can add additional details to display in the tool-tip maybe, just like we did in #338 & #352. Though I'm not sure which details to include in that.
Currently I can just think of the Connector Name related to that context/action. But we can include any extra info that is relevant.

[Udit Desai]

@fjarrett @westonruter
Suggestions required

[Frankie Jarrett]

@desaiuditd This is nice idea for better UX. The unique thing about Actions is that they are not Connector/Context specific. For instance, nearly every Connector and Context uses the "Updated" action, so listing all of those would actually be unhelpful.

I think the general idea was that people would see a record appear in the main Stream Records screen and decide "I don't need to track that" and then proceed to the Exclude tab to select the appropriate item(s) never to track again.

However, I do see your point on this. I'll have to think about this one a little longer.

[Luke Carbis]

@fjarrett What if connectors, contexts and actions were linked hierarchically? This could help with UX, and provide some additional flexibility. Currently actions and contexts exist side-by-side.

For example:

Users (connector) {
    Sessions (context) {
        Login (action),
        Logout (action)
    },
    Profiles (context) {
        Updated (action)
    }
},
Installer (connector) {
    WordPress (context) {
        Updated (action)
    }
}

With this, you could set up the filter menus with headings (and sub headings). You would have 2 instances of Updated in the Actions menu, but one would be under Users > Profiles and the other would be under Installer > WordPress.

When the Users connector is chosen, the WordPress context disappears from the context filter, and the WordPress > Updated action disappears from the action filter. When the Sessions context is chosen, then Profiles > Updated action disappears from the actions filter.

Of course, this can still work with choosing multiple items from the lists.

There is a usage case that this change would detriment. For those people who don't want to see any Updated actions, they would have to choose Updated from the actions menu more than once. I don't think this would be a particularly common usage case.

Plus, it provides access to a (imho) more common usage case of people who want to see Installer > WordPress > Updated actions, but not Users > Profiles > Updated actions.

It's a big change. What do you think?

[Shady Sharaf]

@lukecarbis I perfectly agree with you, there is definitely a need to exclude a combination of Connector/Context/Action rather excluding all instances of a single Action/Context.
How do you think the UI for this would look like ? maybe a tree of checkboxes using the hierarchical order you mentioned ?

/cc @fjarrett Please weigh on the importance of this one.

[Luke Carbis]

On review, I'm not sure the Connector > Context > Action hierarchy would work. However, we should be capitalising on the existing methodology by adding Heading to the lists. I don't think the UI would change much at all. There would be two small adjustments:

1. The Context and Action menus would be given Headings
2. Items would be removed from the Context and Action filters based on the chosen Connector (e.g. if you chose the Settings connector, and the Approved Action, you would never get any results).

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[Shady Sharaf]

@lukecarbis That is true for filters, but the main issue lies within exclusions. Why do you think a single tree of checkboxes, including Connectors/Contexts/Actions wouldn't work ? ( where you can select a whole connector for example ).

[Luke Carbis]

@shadyvb Could you mockup the UI?

[Shady Sharaf]

@lukecarbis Probably something like this

[Brian Krogsgard]

Secondary to these items (look like good discussion above), I'd recommend defining the things on the left hand side as well (issue can be seen in duplicate #476). WooCommerce does a good job with the little question marks next to the items, for reference.

[Frankie Jarrett]

See #476 (comment), closing this in favor of a new issue which will spell out requirements for a UI and connector API revamp.