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VisualEditor: Dialogs should have a "cancel" button next to "Apply changes"
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

What it says on the tin: The transclusion editor should have a "cancel" button next to "Apply changes". This would close the editor without saving any changes.
Possibly it should require a confirmation if one or more templates have been selected.


Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement
See Also:
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52386

Details

Reference
bz52462

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Medium.Nov 22 2014, 1:47 AM
bzimport set Reference to bz52462.

This functionality is currently provided by the "X" in the top-right corner (as for all dialogs). Is a duplicate button needed?

Yes, I've seen it mentioned a couple of times that people aren't sure what state clicking the "X" will leave things in. Will it cancel everything they've done, cancel only unfinished/unapplied changes, or close with everything in its current state finished or not.

(In reply to comment #2)

Yes, I've seen it mentioned a couple of times that people aren't sure what
state clicking the "X" will leave things in. Will it cancel everything
they've done, cancel only unfinished/unapplied changes, or close with
everything in its current state finished or not.

  • A "rubbish bin" icon (on lightweight inspectors, but not dialogs) is Option 1.
  • An "X" icon (on dialogs, but not inspectors) is Option 2.
  • The "apply changes" button (on dialogs, but not inspectors) is Option 3.

Clearly this isn't "obvious" enough; we should consider what more we can do.

I think a cancel button makes perfect sense from a UX point of view for dialogs.

Closing would be an alias of cancel, but that's not the primary flow for a user.

Closing windows is always a bit of awkward and uncertain action to take.

A user at en.wp has reported that they were unaware that the ^ button on the save page dialog would return them to the article. Consequently they were under the impression that the only options were to preview the changes, save the changes or abort the edit, i.e. there was no way to go back and make addition changes or fix ones they had already made.

A cancel button as discussed in this bug would solve this, although I think labelling it something like "return to editing" would be better than "cancel" here (which could imply discarding the edit).

This was done as part of the window redesign work.

There is still no "Cancel" button on the link tool.

As noted previously, there no "Cancel" button on the link tool (dialog? insert window?). Also, there is no "Cancel" button on the Formula dialog (insert window?).

I'm reopening this bug because otherwise - in "Resolved" status - this bug is much more likely to be ignored. If in fact the link tool and the Formula window are outside the scope of this bug, feel free to close the bug - then we'll know that we need to open a new, separate bug to address those two issues.

(In reply to John Broughton from comment #8)

If in fact the link tool and the Formula window are outside the scope of this>
bug, feel free to close the bug

They are. This bug is about dialogs.

Design questions about non-dialogs is a distinct question – raising another ticket is probably a good idea if you think they should be changed.