Personal tools are too crowded (tracking)
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	Nemo_bis
	Apr 23 2014, 9:05 PM

Description

Personal tools 2013-09-11

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Compact_personal_tools said:

The [[mw:personal tools]] bar is long, and getting longer

Version: 1.24rc
Severity: enhancement
See Also:
T45170: Sidebar toolbox is too crowded (tracking)

Attached:

Details

Reference: bz64321

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Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
Declined	Feature	None	T66321 Personal tools are too crowded (tracking)
Resolved		Jdlrobson	T12430 Allow site customization of "personal tools"
Declined		None	T46448 Consolidate personal portlet links into collapsed control or dropdown (tracking)
Declined		None	T66789 Compact personal bar should have RTL version of icons
Duplicate		None	T66861 ULS language selector flyout does not work with the Compact Personal Bar on some wikis
Declined		Catrope	T66862 Echo flyout does not open on some pages when Compact Personal Bar is enabled
Declined		None	T66898 Accesskeys are not expanded in tooltips
Resolved		None	T66909 Help link points to redirect
Declined		None	T70310 Display bug in CPB on Firefox 5.0
Declined		None	T67142 Access key strings are missing modifier keys
Resolved		Phoenix303	T67178 Clearing echo count from flyout or all notification page does not clear CPB flyout notification count
Resolved		Anomie	T67246 unread count for watchlist changes is not available via API
Resolved		• Springle	T68089 Add index wl_user_notificationtimestamp to table watchlist
Resolved		None	T67285 When user has many gadgets installed bottom items in the flyout are not visible
Declined		None	T67288 The notifications icon in the CPB is misplaced in RTL wikis
Open		None	T67361 Echo API: display filtered notification lists based on type
Declined		None	T67367 Allow all or part of a mobile formatted screen to be called from desktop site
Resolved		None	T67376 Flyout items after the first few items are not accessible in Opera 12
Declined		None	T67387 Flyout does not render correctly on Internet Explorer and may cause portlet links to become inaccessible
Resolved		None	T67427 Help and privacy policy links to not point to the right pages on some language wikis
Declined		None	T67467 Courses link is not showing up in the gadgets/extension section of compact personal bar flyout
Declined		None	T67471 Echo popup goes off-screen with CPB in RTL wikis
Declined		None	T67470 Hover doesn't work on some touch interfaces or flyout displays incorrectly.
Declined		None	T69195 Accessibility for keyboard users and screen readers in CPB
Open		None	T66195 Allow ULS menu (from gear) to be opened as a modal dialog
Declined		None	T69613 Local IME script selector conflicts with Compact personal bar
Declined		None	T67073 "skins.vector.compactPersonalBar" breaks mw.util.addPortletLink for gadgets, user scripts and other extensions
Declined		None	T66865 Switch from "new messages (N)" to an Echo-like icon
Declined	Feature	None	T66322 Move AdminLinks link out of personal tools
Open	Feature	None	T66323 BetaFeatures: Move "beta" link out of personal tools while keeping equal visibility
Declined		Glaisher	T95669 Add a preference option to disable personal url to sandbox

Event Timeline

• bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 22 2014, 3:14 AM

• bzimport added projects: MediaWiki-General, Tracking-Neverending.

• bzimport set Reference to bz64321.

• bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

Nemo_bis created this task.Apr 23 2014, 9:05 PM

Created attachment 15183
Personal tools 2013-11-04

Attached:

This is not a problem in core, but in WMF-deployed extensions. Core's personal links toolbar is just fine.

The complaint is that the "personal tools bar" has > 1 item in it. Even vanilla Vector has that.

(In reply to Bartosz Dziewoński from comment #2)

This is not a problem in core, but in WMF-deployed extensions.

One of the dependencies is not a WMF-deployed extension and it's the reason I made this bug. It's a tracking bug about MediaWiki in general.

Sorry, wrong tracking bug.

Quiddity changed the status of subtask T46448: Consolidate personal portlet links into collapsed control or dropdown (tracking) from Open to Stalled.Feb 6 2015, 9:20 PM

Nemo_bis added a subtask: T95669: Add a preference option to disable personal url to sandbox.Apr 24 2015, 8:11 AM

Nemo_bis closed subtask T95669: Add a preference option to disable personal url to sandbox as Declined.Apr 24 2015, 8:14 AM

In T95669#1200648, @MZMcBride wrote:

So I guess the question becomes: why can't I disable the watchlist link or the contributions link or re-arrange these personal bar links using a cute graphical user interface? :-) You could have little checkboxes next to each link to disable/enable and you could even possibly have the ability to customize the label (I personally have this because it's dramatically shorter: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stripped_MediaWiki_interface.png).

! In T95669#1201168, @MZMcBride wrote:
Allowing a lot of flexibility in a dedicated interface has some clear advantages, as (again) operating systems and other user interfaces have already shown us. When I'm logged in, I don't need or want my user name at the top of every screen, so I shorten it to "me" (which is similar to Twitter, I believe). I don't really need settings available up there all the time, I don't need the beta link, and I don't need a sandbox link. For other editors/users, these links make a lot of sense. I understand that a dedicated personal bar customization area is a more complex idea, but I think it warrants real consideration as a good long-term strategy.

In thinking more about the compact personal bar recently, I think the extension approach is probably misguided. A more transitory system (that is, basically doing a responsive design) seems like a better option to me. When the window is narrow, collapse into a list to save space; when there's space available, show the full set of links unless the user has opted into a compact bar in his or her user preferences. But this user preference should only exist within the context of a dedicated area for personal bar customization. And if we figure out that lots of people are making the bar compact and prefer it that way, we can re-evaluate the default in the future.