Last modified: 2013-05-30 12:31:39 UTC
Would it be possible to update all dropdown lists that use <select class="namespaceselector" id="namespace" name="namespace"> to use <select multiple class="namespaceselector" id="namespace" name="namespace"> instead so that we could control-click and select multiple namespaces (but not necessarily all) from the drop down. The list of places that I am aware of the namespace selector include: [[Special:PrefixIndex]], [[Special:Watchlist]], [[Special:RecentChanges]], [[Special:Contributions]], [[Special:WhatLinksHere]], and I am sure there are more... It would be nice to be able to select "Template" "User" and "Project" for example. This would also allow the boxes containing this selector to be a little less cluttered by allowing the "Invert selection" and "Associated namespace" checkboxes to go away.
<select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise; I think MediaWiki usually uses an array of checkboxes instead. You can see it in action e.g. on [[Special:Search]] (this one is for namespaces, too). This also means this would require quite some thought, as that would expand theforms immensely. (Even <select multiple> would.)
(In reply to comment #1) > <select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise; I think MediaWiki usually uses an Why do you think that <select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise? It is a simple dropdown box that allows selection of multiple items on it. UI-wise it is no different than the current dropdown box, but offers additional functionality. > array of checkboxes instead. You can see it in action e.g. on > [[Special:Search]] (this one is for namespaces, too). Yes, using <select multiple> would greatly decrease the size of [[Special:Search]] as well. > This also means this would require quite some thought, as that would expand > theforms immensely. (Even <select multiple> would.) I actually think it would reduce the forms, as stated in my OP and above...
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > <select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise; I think MediaWiki usually uses an > > Why do you think that <select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise? It is a > simple > dropdown box that allows selection of multiple items on it. UI-wise it is no > different than the current dropdown box, but offers additional functionality. No, it's not. It's neither a dropdown box nor simple; it's a big scrollable field with selectable items, with no obvious indicator that you can use Ctrl or Shift or whatever to select multiple ones unless the user is accustomed with it already, and even less of an indicator that you can unselect anything at all. Are we talking about the same thing?... > I actually think it would reduce the forms, as stated in my OP and above... We clearly aren't. For example, the CC list here is a <select multiple>; all other dropdown boxes are plain old <select>s.
(In reply to comment #3) > (In reply to comment #2) > > (In reply to comment #1) > > > <select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise; I think MediaWiki usually uses an > > > > Why do you think that <select multiple> is quite awful UI-wise? It is a > > simple > > dropdown box that allows selection of multiple items on it. UI-wise it is no > > different than the current dropdown box, but offers additional functionality. > > No, it's not. It's neither a dropdown box nor simple; it's a big scrollable > field with selectable items, with no obvious indicator that you can use Ctrl > or > Shift or whatever to select multiple ones unless the user is accustomed with > it > already, and even less of an indicator that you can unselect anything at all. > > Are we talking about the same thing?... > > > > I actually think it would reduce the forms, as stated in my OP and above... > > We clearly aren't. For example, the CC list here is a <select multiple>; all > other dropdown boxes are plain old <select>s. I didn't realize that adding "multiple" changed the behavior of the tag from a dropdown to a list... However, setting a low size= or using something like what is available https://github.com/ehynds/jquery-ui-multiselect-widget might be a solution.
I think these is some sort of support for jquery.chosen in core, which does a similar thing (http://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/) and does it quite well. Assuming we wanted to depend on JS for sane display here this could probably be used. I'm also not sure how easy/hard would it be on the backend side, as appropriate code changes would probably have to be implemented on all those pages separately.
