Review error messages & banners

[cwhicher]

We need to perform a platform wide review of all error messages and banners.

In some instances the wrong error comes up or the wording on the banner is not appropriate for the reason that it has appeared.

For example: Vault not responding but we're showing users the wrong error message prompting them to redefine their search (see attachment with image of message).

To reproduce: I was not logged in, I was trying to search and it was hanging but we served a 500 error instead of 404 when it was vault not responding.

Therefore, we need to review the logic and check that all user facing error handling is clear.

Attachment.pdf

[SebastianPlace]

@cwhicher should I review the success messages too, or just error messages?

[cwhicher]

@SebastianPlace I think all messages and banners. Whether they are success or error. Thanks

[SebastianPlace]

UI Feedback Messages

Banners

Editing (Applies to anything editable)

• Success: "Your changes have been saved."
• Failure: "There was a problem while saving your changes."

Add Comment

• Success: None
• Failure: "Comment could not be created. Please try again."

Add Attribute

• Success: None
• Failure: "Attribute could not be created. Please try again."

Add Interest

• Success: "Your interests have been updated."
• Failure: "Sorry. There was a problem with updating your interests."

Add Tag

• Success: None
• Failure: "Tag could not be created. Please try again."
• Duplicate: "The tag: ${text} already exists."

Delete Attribute

• Success: "Attribute successfully deleted."
• Failure: "Something went wrong when deleting your attribute."

Delete Comment

• Success: "Comment successfully deleted."
• Failure: "Comment could not be deleted. Please try again."

Delete Interest

• Success: "Your interests have been updated"
• Failure: "Sorry. There was a problem with updating your interests."

Delete Tag

• Success: "Tag successfully deleted."
• Failure: "Something went wrong while deleting your tag. Please try again later."

Unfollow (coming from email unsubscribe)

• Success: "You have successfully unfollowed this ${modelName}."
• Failure: "There was a problem unfollowing this ${modelName}, please try again."

Register Dataset

• Success: "Dataset successfully registered"
• Failure: "Oh dear. There was a problem registering your dataset."

Request Dataset

• Success: "Request created successfully."
• Failure: "Oh dear. There was a problem submitting your dataset request."

Email Verification

• Success: "${newEmail} is now your primary email address."
• Failure: "Sorry. There was a problem saving your new email. Please try again later."

Login

• Success: None
• Failure: OR default to "Error: Invalid Email. Please check that you have typed your email correctly."

Change Password

• Success: "Password successfully changed"
• Failure: "Old password is incorrect."

Request Password Reset

• Success: "We have sent an email to ${email}."
• Failure: "We could not send an email to ${email}. Please check you\'ve entered the correct email."

Reset Password

• Success: None
• Failure: None
• Validation: "Passwords do not match."

Signup

• Success: None
• Failure:
• BadRequest: "Error: Invalid email or an account already exists with this email."

Edit Profile

• Success: "Your profile has been updated."
• Failure: "Sorry. There was a problem saving your changes."

Change Email Verification

• Success: "We have sent a verification email to your inbox"
• Failure: "Sorry, we couldn\'t send you the link. Please try again later."

Full Page Error Messages

Search Error

• Shown whenever a search is invalid or any search related service is down.
• Applies to all searches (Regular, Datasources and Collections)

Oops, something went wrong

• Shown for any uncaught error

[cwhicher]

@SebastianPlace thanks for this. Will take a look. With regard to the comment in the original description - do you have any ideas how we can get an overview of the logic of the messages to make sure they are being sent at the right times?

For example: Vault not responding but we're showing users the wrong error message prompting them to redefine their search (see attachment with image of message). To reproduce: I was not logged in, I was trying to search and it was hanging but we served a 500 error instead of 404 when it was vault not responding. Therefore, we need to review the logic and check that all user facing error handling is clear.

[SebastianPlace]

@cwhicher I can't really give you a good overview, unfortunately.

To have the ideal setup for handling error messages we need two things:

• The API should return more specific error messages. I'll need to talk with @Istar-Eldritch about this.
• The frontend should use the messages returned by the API and, if needed, transform them into a message which the user will understand.

So in the case of vault failing, the API should return a message detailing why the search action could not be performed. Then we can confidently tell the users that the problem is on our side, not theirs.

At the moment the frontend is dumb and doesn't know why things happen outside of it's little bubble, it just knows that something isn't right, hence the very general error messages.

[Istar-Eldritch]

I agree. Should be create a uProject just to tackle this during next week? I think is going to be a good amount of work, we have to go through all the interactions and redefine them accordingly. This is not just the error messaging, but also proper validation of the interface between the public API and the frontend.

[RafLeszczynski]

@Istar-Eldritch @SebastianPlace if possible I'm happy to work on that end to end from backend to frontend

[tombyers]

I notice that your list isn't quite comprehensive, @SebastianPlace. It's doesn't include either of these messages for example. This isn't a criticism, just a note that we need to be aware we might have missed some!