We have incorporated the usability improvement from my past post in v18.1 by default. It affects SingleChoiceAction with ShowItemsOnlyClick = False and ItemType = ItemIsOperation and should improve UX for the majority of our users. We also want to enable the same behavior in an upcoming minor update (e.g., v17.2.6 or next). Our team would appreciate your feedback to help us decide on the latter.
Questions/Risks
While this behavior is always desired for the New & Clone Actions, because their meaning is clear from the context, certain custom and built-in Actions like Show In Report, Change State may be affected when they keep only a single sub-item. Examples:
17.2.5 and older versions:
18.1 (and 17.2.6+, if the majority likes it):
Notice that we've replaced a dropdown/triangle glyph with a simple button. We believe that this visual change is still not breaking (and thus is acceptable for a minor version), and it all is more logical than it was before. Before, when ShowItemsOnClick = False, you could still press the SingleChoiceAction's button blindly, i.e., without expanding its items using the triangle glyph. To help you avoid mistakes, the button is now displayed in the ChoiceActionItem's tooltip. You can also control the default Action item behavior using the DefaultItemMode property. If you do not like the new behavior, you can always set ShowItemsOnClick = True in the Model Editor.
Question: Are you OK to have this new behavior as default in v17.2.6+ too?
Please answer with +1 or -1 with comments in this post. If you need to test your real apps live before making a decision, I can provide you with v17.2 or v18.1 hotfix builds. Thanks for your help in advance.
UPDATE:
Thanks to everyone! With v17.2.6, this behavior is enabled by default.
UPDATE:
Thanks to everyone! With v17.2.6, this behavior is enabled by default.
Does this only affect SingleChoiceActions with only 1 element in them?
ReplyDeleteYes, Manuel: single active/visible sub-item
Delete+1
Delete+1 ;)
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeleteMuch better (more intuitive).
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeleteThough I would prefer something like
Show the selected records in the report 'Contact report'
-1
ReplyDeleteFor a high recognition value an action should not change from dropdown to simple button
Would you please elaborate on this a bit and send me specific examples where it will be undesired at dennis no spam at devexpress dot com? We think that for Actions that are very dynamic (e.g., their items structure and count change often) an XAF developer can specify ShowItemsOnClick=True explicitly to preserve the same appearance and avoid confusion.
DeleteI have no specific examples to send, I only think that for example the "Show in Report" action should look the same in every list view, regardless on how many reports are there. But I think I'm alone in this...
DeleteThanks for your thoughts, Olaf. We think that removing the triangle glyph while preserving the same caption is a minor visual change, which justifies the result. Anyway, we will continue monitoring user requests in this regard.
Delete+1
ReplyDeleteAlex
+1
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeleteThe option to turn this off using ShowItemsOnClick is key.
+1 (as we'll have a way to control this behaviour).
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDelete+1
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ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeleteI have an Action that it's child items are filled dynamically. This Action is named 'Choose Import Profiles'.
ReplyDeleteI wonder the confusion the users will have when there is only one ImportProfile and the 'Choose Import Profiles' they are used to, suddenly disappear.
Yes, they will ask where the button went, giving extra work to our support.
I would not change this because it is not hurting anyone, but once we have a chance to set the behaviour back, well, I don't know.
But, if was me, I would not change it.
I guess it's -1.
Yes, there is still a way to always expand the SingleChoiceAction with only one sub-item (ShowItemsOnClick=True). I wanted to clarify that in your particular case, the 'Choose Import Profiles' Action will not disappear. It will have the same caption, just a little triangle and dropdown will be removed. Yes, I admit that it may require some time to get used to it, but this behavior looks better as it saves user clicks.
DeleteI like this feature, but I don't agree with the way these changes are being managed. We've been bitten in the past by regressions being introduced in maintenance releases.
ReplyDeleteThe level of testing we do on maintenance releases is much lower than we do on major releases. This is because my expectation is that maintenance releases should contain bug fixes only and that improvements and new features are introduced in major releases only. I think this was less of a problem when there used to be 3 major releases per year - but seems to have gotten worse lately.
Thanks for your sincere feedback, Adam. I'll email you to discuss this further.
Delete+1
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ReplyDeleteIn the case of the Report and State Machine it could optionally display the name of the item instead. Another option could be configured for doing the same with the icon.
+1
ReplyDeleteOnce my customer has asked me to realize this behavior.
+1
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ReplyDeleteThanks to everyone! With v17.2.6, this behavior is enabled by default.
ReplyDelete