Display error messages to editors only

[kevincrafts]

Can we explore ways to display the various error messages, such as "Error retrieving people from the API endpoint. Please try again later." to site editors only? Hide them with CSS if you don't have an editor role maybe?

These error messages are of little help to the editors. In this case I believe the error is due to having too many filters selected, so it's never going to work no matter how much they try again later.

But the errors also give a bad impression to site visitors, where error messages across a site are publicly displayed. In these cases I believe it's better to just show nothing.

[timurtripp]

It's up to the editors to properly configure their site so errors don't display unless the user is on an unreliable internet connection or in an area of poor cell service, and the user genuinely needs to "try again later" (refresh the page when on a better connection). On the Faculty Publications block I also included a retry button for this purpose.

Alternatives to an error message could be:

• The loader disappears to nothing, the downside being the user thinks there's just nothing there and doesn't try reloading the page.
• The loader stays spinning forever, the downside being the user sits there for a minute or two and then leave in frustration when nothing happens.

The particular error in the screenshot shouldn't appear if the filters are simply too specific/not returning any people, so if it is then that would be a bug. It's worth discussing this more as a group.

[timurtripp]

Using the example of the Faculty Publications block, if the filters are too specific or incorrectly entered it says simply "There were no publications returned." and it's up to the site editor to fix that. "There was a problem fetching the publication data. Please try again later." and the retry button should only appear if the user's internet connection is bad or the host is experiencing temporary reliability issues.