A paradigm shift on how pages are presented in admin

[Guest]

The way it is now, PW2 doesn't come with an easy way to publish or unpublish stuff, I think there's an easy solution for it and would like to suggest that we use the same paradigm as the forum topic list.

A main list showing the existing pages types that had controls to the right of how many pages we have, a button or two with functions like unpublish all, edit,.etc but most importanlty a button that lists the pages under that main page type.  Look, english is not my first language so I'll call them 'publication types' just for my own clarity's sake.

A table would list different publication types, and if you click on a list item, it would show you another table (much like the one that lisits forum topics in this board) and would display things like number of views, CRUD controls for that entry, etc, a button to back up, publish and unpublish that entry, etc.

What do you think?

[ryan]

We've got something on the roadmap for providing this alternate view into pages. I think there are a lot of situations where it will be helpful. For instance, seeing a list of the most recently updated pages, regardless of where they are in the site structure. Or viewing all unpublished pages (like you indicated), or viewing all pages that match a given selector, or have a specified field, etc. The list goes on. So just wanted to let you know this is part of the plan. It will be an alternate tab off of the Page List view, where you can choose that channel-type view when it suits your needs better than the map view.

[martinluff]

All we need to do now is clone you a few times Ryan so you don't keel over adding all these cool features... 

[Adam Kiss]

@martinluff: I don't agree with you there: I think what we need is clear roadmap [with important modules support], so we can do some of the functions ourselves. Pretty much all requests here have meaning, but Ryan cant run around and say yes to everything, that's just not possible.

[martinluff]

Adam, true (and practically the way we actually do 'clone' him) - great to see how Antti and yourself have pitched in. I think Ryan has made a good start on laying out a roadmap. Possibly might be some benefit in polling community interest in proposed items to help set priority? Just an idea...

I'm also definitely a PHP noob - not sure you'd want to let me near your source code ;D But I'll try and help out where I can with other aspects of the project... plus I've been talking about the project with my dev/programmer friends so some might emerge to pitch in with programming.

[Guest]

I understand there are priorities, there are some that you might have overlooked though and this is indeed a possibility, which is why I second the opinion that the roadmap might be submitted up for voting.

I've written a couple ideas on how we might make some changes to ease the module development learning curve, there are some UI things that need revision (some of the terms using might lead to confusion or error, there are changes that would speed up usage and even make PW more accessible).

So, accepting requests as suggestions, rather than a list of demands, might help us have a smoother relationship and might help keep this community coming up with new ideas.

Thanks, and take care

[ryan]

Rebecca, thanks for your feedback. I think what you are saying makes sense. ProcessWire is a new project and ideas are valuable and important. As far as voting goes, maybe we need something more official, but when a lot of people join in and say they want something, that goes a long way (I guess this is like voting).

[ragnarkarlsson]

I think simply knowing what the current roadmap plan is would allow those of us who want to help to focus efforts. Like Martin my PHP knowledge is limited however I am more than happy to pitch in.

Since this is your baby Ryan I'd say we let you decide how that is presented, decided and then fixed! 

[ryan]

I will put some thought into this and come up with a more official roadmap to place on the site.

Thanks,

Ryan

[landitus]

We've got something on the roadmap for providing this alternate view into pages. I think there are a lot of situations where it will be helpful. For instance, seeing a list of the most recently updated pages, regardless of where they are in the site structure. Or viewing all unpublished pages (like you indicated), or viewing all pages that match a given selector, or have a specified field, etc. The list goes on. So just wanted to let you know this is part of the plan. It will be an alternate tab off of the Page List view, where you can choose that channel-type view when it suits your needs better than the map view.

Ryan, I would like to know if this feature is still planed or if it was discarded. I am having the need to display pages in a table-like view in a new admin tab, and I've been playing around with a plugin to so. It looks like a lot of the functionality for this is already in place (ex. search results). I haven't been able to place a pagination, still. Like you said, I feel a table view is very useful in many cases: like displaying a list of pages with the author and tags, etc. I will try to post my code later.

[diogo]

Maybe it makes sense to expand the search process to allow keeping common searches as links that you can use on the search page and even pass to other pages. Meanwhile you can achieve something like this quite easily. Just use the search page and adjust the searches until you get the results that you want. Then copy the url of the results pages and create an admin page with those links. You can adjust the links further by refining the url, remove "&show_options=1" for instance, or turn it to 0, and the sidebar will be hidden. For creating the links page I would suggest using my admin custom pages module () with this code that will style nicely in the admin:

<dl class="nav">
    <dt><a class="label" href="link">all pages with X template</a></dt>
    <dd>See all posts</dd>
   <dt><a class="label" href="link">all pages with tag y</a></dt>
    <dd>See all posts with tag y</dd>
   <dt><a class="label" href="link">whatever else you want</a></dt>
    <dd>Do whatever</dd>
</dl>
 

You can also add some fields to the template. A repeater where you paste the links, for instance, and change the code to something like:

<dl class="nav">
    <?php foreach($page->searches as $search) {
        echo '<dt><a class="label" href="'.$search->link.'">'.$search->title.'</a></dt>';
        echo '<dd>'.$search->description.'</dd>';
    }?>
</dl>
 

[landitus]

That's a good workaround, indeed! I'll keep it in mind. Though I am very close to pulling off a custom table. I just don't want to give up! 

[diogo]

This is a bit more complex but works really well (for pw dev version):

• Create one custom template without fields following my module's instructions and paste this code in the template's file:

• <dl class="nav">
      <?php foreach($page->children as $child) {
          echo '<dt><a class="label" href="'.$child->url.'">'.$child->title.'</a></dt>';
          echo '<dd>'.$child->headline.'</dd>';
      }?>
  </dl>
   

• Create a second custom template with the fields "querystring" and "headline" (give them the name you want, but update them in the code above), and paste this code in the template's file (if changed, update "querystring" to the real name of the field)

  <?php 
  
  if(!$input->get->q) $session->redirect($page->url.$page->querystring);
  
  $page->process = "ProcessPageSearch";
  
  require($config->paths->adminTemplates . 'controller.php');
   

• Create a page under "Admin" and give it the first template. This will list all the children pages of that page using the info from the above fields of each.
   
• Create some pages under this page and give them the second template. Copy the query strings (including the "?") from the search pages that you want to recreate and paste them in the querystring field of these children pages. Don't forget that you can remove the sidebar by deleting "show_options=1".
   
• Maybe you will also want to update the "children" tab of the first template to accept only pages with the second template as children. 

[ryan]

Ryan, I would like to know if this feature is still planed or if it was discarded. I am having the need to display pages in a table-like view in a new admin tab, and I've been playing around with a plugin to so. It looks like a lot of the functionality for this is already in place (ex. search results). 

I actually have been working on a module called Lister that does much of this. Though it's not yet quite as flexible as I'd like it to be for release, so I'm mostly using it in my own projects until I can get the time to take it all the way. 

[landitus]

I'm exited to hear that Ryan! I hope you are able to release it soon!! Do you think it would be able to show images in the table? Like a thumbnail to represent a gallery or an user? This table list view would be be very useful to represent a list of image galleries, or even something more custom like pages created by the current user. That wouldn't necessary be in he plugin, but the elements and hooks could be in place, don't you think?

[renobird]

I actually have been working on a module called Lister

Looking forward to it. I've made my own workarounds, but they are kind of one-offs for each need. Which is a little tedious.