Additional UI widget or indicators for multiple button scenarios

[phptek]

There may be instances of CMS use where the CMS "admin" (superuser) is also an editor or manager (or publisher etc).

Current functionality is therefore to show the "Save and Publish" button, as well as the workflow-specific action-buttons in these cases, which is obviously not ideal. Initial use of the module in proceeding through a workflow may confuse users as to which action will be performed if/when one or the other of these buttons were clicked.

Proposed solutions:

1). A JS dialogue when either of these buttons is clicked in the above scenario, explaining what is about to happen, and/or;
2). A LiteralField with some "hint" text above the button-action content-area, or;
3). If a workflow is in effect on this content object, show only the workflow's action button - but if the above scenario is true - present a JS dialogue (like a bog-standard window.confirm but fancier) where if a button "Proceed with workflow" is pressed, the workflow action continues or a 2nd button is pressed; "Publish now" the default action would occur as if the user has clicked the "Save and Publish" button.

This would of course need some UI/UX design work before work can proceed.

[LukePercy]

https://skitch.com/clarkepaul/849t1/actions-panel-and-status

Note the above changes are occurring in 3.1 and we should work with these in mind

[sminnee]

I'd suggest the following rough workflow for sorting this out:

• Design: Come up with a layout mimicing Paul's design.
• Dev: Abstract that into a description of actions like "these are the primary actions, these are the secondary actions" that will fit into the 3.1 actions API.
• Dev: Implement, and come up with some graceful degradation for 3.0.

I wouldn't too much about polishing the solution in 3.0 UI to solve the problem if it's solved nicely in 3.1. The module needs to function well in 3.0 but the UI doesn't need to be optimal.

[sminnee]

See https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/silverstripe-dev/GdM4_4nxM8A for some context.

[phptek]

A related issue:

The initial action on a WorkflowInstance shows a button in the CMS content-editing UI next-to "Save Draft". This gets really confusing when - as a author - you accidentally select the workflow action button, and not "Save Draft" and wonder why the heck content isn't showing where it's supposed-to - a newbie issue if you will, but a UI issue nonetheless.

Depending on how the new API is implemented, I would suggest disabling the workflow action button if no version of this content-object yet exists ("Save Draft" has not yet been selected by any author on this content-object). so the only relevant button is "Save Draft" and when selected, the action button is automatically enabled.