Macros for newbies | blank states + scary set up

[amilica]

@MichaelHamann

My proposal here is to have such a wrapper for every macro, regardless if it displays output or not. The background is that when a user edits a page, the user has no idea what part of the page is which macro, and it is currently not possible for the user to see easily which yellow boxes correspond to which macro without double-clicking on each of them.

Just to make sure I understand the proposal:

Do you propose to have this wrapper only in edit mode or in view mode, too?

[MichaelHamann]

@amilica

Do you propose to have this wrapper only in edit mode or in view mode, too?

Only in edit mode.

[mflorea]

@MichaelHamann

My proposal here is to have such a wrapper for every macro, regardless if it displays output or not.

I’m guessing that you had only block level macros in mind when you wrote this. I don’t see how this would work with inline macros. Regardless of this, I’m not convinced by your proposal. I can see the benefits for editing, but you lose the WYSIWYG aspect. I would rather use a popover / floating (contextual) menu to show the macro name and provide macro actions. You can see such a menu already when the selection is inside a macro that is editable inline. We can extend that menu.

[lucaa]

Hello all,

somewhat related to the macros experience in edit mode, note that I have created these 2 issues today Loading... and Loading... . I’ve linked them both to the issue open by @amilica . While they are not solutions that will fix all problems, they are low hanging fruits, from my pov, that could improve the situation with a rather small cost.

Thanks!

[amilica]

Hello! To try to have a doable plan for this topic:

#1 On hover, next to the move icon, we’d display an edit icon button and the name of the macro. JIRA Issue

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#2 For the issue of differentiating macro boundary and content boundary: I think it highly depends on color contrast or just general accessibility:

• choose a different colour for content boundary (maybe main color or link color, if it has enough contrast in all cases)

or

• use a dashed line for macro boundary

@CharpentierLucas let me know which you think is best and if there is any rule that might interfere with the choice.

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#3 As I proposed in this proposal too, we need to start linking .org documentation in macros even if it’s not exactly how we’d like it to be done. I know, it’s only in English, it’s not always available, but when it is, it’s SO helpful

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#4 Empty macros render the “macro: content“ message. It’s good, but we could make it much nicer easily.

• add more padding (especially vertical)
• some round corners (by radius variable)
• add a light gray background (by color variable)
• instead of “macro: content“ just write “Empty macro. Use the edit icon or double click to configure it.“

What do you think?

[tkrieck]

Note that I have a related proposal also for Cristal/XS: https://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Proposal/MacrosEditorIntegration