Page clone and page name

[adrianbj]

I would really like to see the page name automatically get updated when a user edits the title for the first time on the new cloned page.

I have actually ended up disabling this module because I think it is too much to expect a user to also remember to go to the settings tab and modify the name to match the new title.

Actually I think I'd prefer to have the name always get updated on all changes to titles in general unless you specifically check something to say you don't want the changes applied. Obviously I am getting beyond the scope of my initial issue now, but I guess that would require Page Path History to be installed by default to prevent broken link issues.

Maybe a safer and easier option to implement would be a checkbox next to the title field that says "update page name?". Maybe devs could configure this to be on or off by default?

Maybe I should just write a module to do that?

Anyway, some food for thought, but I still think this is really important for the clone behavior to be more user friendly.

[teppokoivula]

Current page name behaviour, however sensible it is when you understand how it works and why it works like that, has caused a lot of confusion for our clients. Been regularly answering questions related to this and seeing quite a few pages with clearly outdated names on some sites.

Part of the confusion could be that while creating a page name automatically matches title.. but when editing it later, name is (by default) hidden from view (another tab) and there's no link between these fields. I'm really not sure how this thing could be approached without causing additional issues, but I do know that current behaviour is problematic.

Perhaps Page Path History could alter the default functionality here, or maybe an additional prompt could be shown whenever the title is changed -- "title change detected, would you like to update page name too?" -- or something like that?

.. and sorry for taking this even more off track, but I feel that this issue really is more about how page name behaves in general than page clone functionality alone.

[apeisa]

Teppo, I got to disagree with you on this one. I think current behavior is only way to go. Automatically changing name based on title? Easiest way to break thousands of links without even noticing it. Popup or other annoyance everytime? No way. I don't know the use case, but it seems that your clients are updating whole page to mean something else... Like "story 2013" => "story 2014"...? Only problem we have had with current behavior is that if we leave some example content for clients, they edit them instead of creating new pages.

I think one way to solve confusion would be showing current url (or just name) just under title (and maybe hint where to change it). But even that should be optional (per template basis), since there are lots of use cases where name or url are both irrelevant. Maybe a module that appends url to title field for certain templates?

What comes to cloning: there I think defining name before cloning would be way to go.

[teppokoivula]

@apeisa: example content has definitely been one of these cases, i.e. main menu page "paatason-sivu" ("main-menu-page" from our default profile) used to be pretty popular. Page names like "..-2" and "..-3" are common too. Most of the time it's really just that headline was misspelled at one point or improved later and name was never updated. Rarely a big issue, but common enough to make one wonder if this really is the "only way to go" :)

Oh, and don't get me wrong; current behaviour suits my needs just fine and I do get why it works like that. Just wondering if there's any way to make it more obvious to those that don't "get it".

[apeisa]

I know. I remember working with cms where default is opposite (updating url by default) and that is much worse. Some real damage very easily ("help, half of our site is not working! ").

I think whole issue would be non issue, if url would be in more visible. I guess changing "settings" to "seo and settings" would be enough :) Buzzwords have magic powers...

[horst-n]

@Antti: +1 for Buzzword SEO :)

Additionally to that I think it would be really helpful if the name-field is visible / editable / and "updated in realtime" when creating a new page and entering the title! After that it should stay out of the way under "SEO & Settings".

[isellsoap]

@adrianbj Maybe open a feature request for this issue in the new repository?

[adrianbj]

@isellsoap - honestly I don't really care about this anymore because my Page Rename Options module (http://modules.processwire.com/modules/page-rename-options/) takes care of it. It is always going to be more flexible than this core enhancement, so I am happy to let this one go, although I do think there is merit in the suggestion by @horst-n so maybe that should be a new feature request? This is sort of already possible with an advanced mode setting, but I think his suggestion would be much nicer.