The current tool detail pages look a bit underwhelming. Maybe it would be nice to add automatic screenshots of the web-based tools, or give users the option to add a screenshot/logo to their tool.
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Currently the toolinfo.json spec allows an "icon" to be declared which is shown (an example is the color logo on https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/tools/wikimedia-toolhub). We also have a feature that is deployed on the demo server, but not yet in production, which allows everyone from the community to help fill in missing values like the icon across tools which are using older versions of the toolinfo.json standard.
Beyond that, there are "Screenshots" and "Video" annotations in the list of annotations that James planned back in 2018.
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@bd808 great, i didn't know that! It doesn't show that value in the 'Add or remove tools' screen though. Also, it might be useful to add a link to the documentation to the 'add a toolinfo.json' screen, and maybe provide the Toolhub page as a good example on how it will look like if all the values are filled.
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Fair point. We made the creation screen a smaller set of values in part to avoid overwhelming folks with all the things that are possible in a toolinfo record. Perhaps we should revisit this idea.
Also, it might be useful to add a link to the documentation to the 'add a toolinfo.json' screen, and maybe provide the Toolhub page as a good example on how it will look like if all the values are filled.
Another good idea. Maybe it could be combined with T266036: Publish toolinfo jsonschema as part of Toolhub some how as well. If @Husky doesn't know what can be done with the newer toolinfo.json spec I feel confident in saying that I have not done a very good job of documenting and publicizing it. ;)
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Depending on how many extra fields there would be on that screen i think that as long as optional fields are marked as such (and maybe placed at the bottom of the screen) this will be fine.
Another good idea. Maybe it could be combined with T266036: Publish toolinfo jsonschema as part of Toolhub some how as well. If @Husky doesn't know what can be done with the newer toolinfo.json spec I feel confident in saying that I have not done a very good job of documenting and publicizing it. ;)
Well, i guess at least adding a link with the spec to the add/remove tool screens would be helpful ;)
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Ooo, Yes! I'm emphatically in agreement with this proposal! (I think I mentioned it to James in 2018)
User-story: I often have difficulty remembering any non-generic keywords for a tool (especially a name), but can immediately visually identity what I'm looking for (if I've seen it before).
User-story2: Screenshots are enticing for getting me to find new tools I didn't realize I wanted to know about.
This is partly why I really appreciate the lists located at Wikidata such as https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Tools/Visualize_data
(E.g. "What's that tool that outputs spider-web-esque diagrams?")
or (E.g. "Oh, that tool looks neat. I think [Alice] would like to know about it. I'll send them a link.")
That said, I know there are some drawbacks/challenges of including screenshots, including:
- Any tools that are missing a screenshot might get overlooked/less attention (i.e. competing against the more visually-grabbing results with images)
- Many tools cannot be easily depicted with a screenshot (e.g. bots) so would either always lack a screenshot, or would need a generic (non-confusing) placeholder.
- Many tools are subtle GUI tweaks, and need custom screenshots in order to highlight what they do (i.e. cannot be easily automated, because they need a red circle drawn around what they change.)
But I hope we can solve these. :-)
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As I mentioned before there is an "icon" property that can be set both in the core toolinfo record and in the community maintained annotations. Icons are currently used in the "card" display for a tool (search results, lists) as well as on the detail screen for a tool. Any image hosted on Commons can be used as the icon for a tool. "Icon" is less of a description of what the image must be and more a description of how the image is used in the Toolhub user interface.
Some examples:
- https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/tools/wikimedia-toolhub
- https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/tools/pywikibot
- https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/tools/hatnote-listen
- https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/tools/programs-and-events-dashboard
- https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/lists/288
- https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/lists/290
I'm not sure what more image heavy search results or lists would look like. If we most tools had images I suppose we could try some image grid display rather than the card view. I am interested to hear other concrete ideas about how images could be better used to help in tool discovery.
I have some lingering doubts about the feasibility of automatic screenshots or of a toolinfo record rendered by Toolhub being a reasonable place to display a lot of images/video. Help pages for tools really should live out on the wikis somewhere rather than in Toolhub itself in my opinion.
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Those examples help, thank you!
Also, noted on the request for concrete ideas.
I completely agree that Toolhub should not be a full-documentation location.
One very tentative idea:
I'm looking at [search vs tool-page] here:
https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/search?q="listen_to"
versus https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/tools/hatnote-listen
and thinking that even just the change from 50px to 100px is significantly more helpful.
Idea: Thus, maybe it would be relatively-simple to add a binary-toggle [true/false] for the existing 'icon' property to double-size it, for instances where it's a screenshot?
The main drawback is it would give less space to the Name.
One additional complexity is the question of "is 100px enough?"
I'll keep thinking about it, whilst trying to restrain the change-complexity. :)