[UX] Module page: Alphabetize by module name and remove package groupings

[jenlampton]

Describe your issue or idea

This is a follow-up to https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/37 to un-block that issue.

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PR by @klonos: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop/pull/2548

[klonos]

FTR, I am ambivalent on this...

• I personally still find package groupings useful
• On the other hand, I also acknowledge the fact that a module might be suitable for inclusion in more than one grouping, and duplication will add confusion to the UX
• Submodules that do not use their "parent" module name in their name, will now need to start doing that, if they wish to be grouped together. Although package grouping might have been (ab)used as was seen fit by the module maintainers over the years, I always saw this feature as a way to group modules of the same "ecosystem" (think views/webform/rules/), without having to necessarily add the name of the "main" module to the name of the rest.
• I recommended adding a package/alfa toggle at some point, but I know that @quicksketch is already skeptical about adding the core/contrib/custom switch (#3146) ...and I personally find that UX task more important.

[klonos]

I have just filed a PR to get this going. After #37 was implemented, we now have some weird grouping/sorting in this page, which seems to be confusing users (from Gitter):

@JDSaward, Mar 24, 17:18

So at the top of /admin/modules/list I'm seeing fieldsets in order: Administration, Other, Menu, Layouts, System, User Interface, User Interface (yes twice) ...[,many more].. Access Control, Categorization, Views ... Even with the new knowledge I have that tags can be defined, and are, for eg Admin menu in Administration package, I don't understand the mechanism for the ordering... Care to explain?

@klonos, Mar 24, 17:26

...so I can confirm the duplicate User Interface thing, and seems like a bug. I'll look into it later. ...so the sorting at the moment is not ideal, but here how it works (at least that's my understanding): ...modules are sorted alphabetically -> the first is picked (admin_bar) -> it is placed within a fieldset defined by the package = Administration line in its .info file -> all the other modules are scanned to see if they are also defining the same package -> if so, then they are moved in the "Administration" fieldset, sorted in alphabetical order. In the case of admin_bar, no other module specifies package = Administration...moving on ...next module in the list is block -> package = Layouts so gets added to a respective "Layouts" fieldset -> no other module specifies package = Layouts ...moving on ...next module is book -> package = System so gets added to a "System" fieldset -> other modules that specify package = System are pulled from the list and placed in the "System" fieldset, in alpha order ...moving on ...next module is ckeditor -> package = User Interface so gets added to a "User Interface" fieldset ...so on

When you need to use so many words to explain a something that should be immediately apparent, you know there's something wrong 😅 ...so best to remove all grouping (this issue here), and implement #3147 and #3146

While working on this, I needed to remove the title from the single fieldset used to group all modules. I tried to do that by setting '#title_display' => 'invisible',, but that does not seem to work: #3619

Having filed that bug report, I started wondering if it makes sense to have the module table within a fieldset at all. We don't seem to be doing that in other listing pages.

[klonos]

...I would like to get this in 1.13.0 if possible. Added milestone candidate tag.

[jenlampton]

We need to solve the UX issue that the groupings/fieldsets solves before (or when) we remove the groupings. Do you have any recommendations for that?

Maybe https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/3147 would be enough?

[klonos]

I would like to revive this issue 🙂

@jenlampton yes, I think that #3147 would be enough.

[klonos]

Although this is a task and not a feature request, the change is rather substantial, so let's please get it in with a minor release. ...ideally, we'll get #3146 and #3147 in the same release.

[jenlampton]

All of these issues were blocked by a lack of consensus, and tagged "needs more feedback". Should we escalate PMC? Maybe we can get some direction and have a plan for 1.18 :)

[klonos]

Sure, by all means 👍

[klonos]

...in the meantime, I have refreshed the PR sandbox for those that would like to test and get a feel of how this would work.

[stpaultim]

For the record, I don't think this PR is working as expected right now.

CSS is wonky and after you type two letters the filter abruptly disappears and shows some results, but it's not clear if they are the results intended?

[laryn]

Just seeing this one and I'm thinking for a case like Ubercart, it would introduce a lot of confusion to strip out package groupings. Right now that module comes with multiple package groupings for various sub-modules. I guess one solution for that case would be to do as @klonos suggests, but doesn't seem as clean perhaps:

Submodules that do not use their "parent" module name in their name, will now need to start doing that, if they wish to be grouped together. Although package grouping might have been (ab)used as was seen fit by the module maintainers over the years, I always saw this feature as a way to group modules of the same "ecosystem" (think views/webform/rules/), without having to necessarily add the name of the "main" module to the name of the rest.

[docwilmot]

Search by modules tagged Ubercart?

[laryn]

Yes, if we add the word "Ubercart" to all of them, I guess. Unless the intention is to also include tags in searches. e.g.

[klonos]

The Ubercart core and contrib module naming was brought up in Zulip today: https://backdrop.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/218635-Backdrop/topic/Ubercart.20module.20titles.20and.20packages

As I mentioned there, if this change here happens, then prepending Ubercart to the module names would help:

...perhaps Ubercart: Core: Some Module or Ubercart: Category: Some Contrib Module would be helpful

[jlfranklin]

Module Filter is ported and in contrib.