Continually evolving list of issues with current widgets setup

[richardtape]

Some of the current issues

UI-wise

• Finding the right widget to select is often cumbersome - no filters/search
• Finding the right sidebar to drop into is equally cumbersome - no filters/search
• Dragging and dropping widgets to a sidebar can be incredibly frustrating if there are large amounts of either
• Widgets screen UI is complete different to every other screen in the dashboard
• There's no way to easily duplicate the same set of widgets across multiple sidebars
• The language 'sidebar' doesn't fit with how many themes use widget areas now
• When there are multiple sidebars (say 10+) and multiple widgets the widgets screen becomes incredibly overwhelming for many users
• When saving widget options, the spinner isn't really a great way to give feedback that something actually happened -either successful or otherwise
• There's no immediately obvious way for many people to see what dragging and dropping a widget to a sidebar actually does ... customizer?

Dev-wise

• Programmatically assigning a widget to a sidebar is cumbersome
• No way to export/import widget options (without plugin)
• Widget options revisions?
• Displaying different widgets in different siebars on different templates is becoming more-and-more widespread. Widget Logic plugin is...problematic for most users
• What sort of no-js support is needed? (issue with using media overlay if we need to offer serious support)

[jtsternberg]

Lots of great stuff here. Regarding the last dev point, I'm curious how core handles the media modal no-js support. I would think we could reload the page with just the media modal and the reload on save.

[richardtape]

the media-modal no-js support is... well, non-existent really. Disable javascript in Chrome developer's toolbar settings. And reload the add new post screen. Bye bye 'Add Media' button.