[MGNLCDEP-8] Dependencies tab should show where a certain page is used rather than showing which content it depends on. Created: 17/Dec/10  Updated: 21/Jun/19  Resolved: 15/Nov/13

Status: Closed
Project: Content Dependencies
Component/s: None
Affects Version/s: 1.0.1
Fix Version/s: None

Type: Improvement Priority: Major
Reporter: Federico Grilli Assignee: Federico Grilli
Resolution: Outdated Votes: 0
Labels: None
Remaining Estimate: Not Specified
Time Spent: Not Specified
Original Estimate: Not Specified

Template:
Acceptance criteria:
Empty
Task DoD:
[ ]* Doc/release notes changes? Comment present?
[ ]* Downstream builds green?
[ ]* Solution information and context easily available?
[ ]* Tests
[ ]* FixVersion filled and not yet released
[ ]  Architecture Decision Record (ADR)
Date of First Response:

 Description   

The way this feature is currently implemented is not very interesting, at least in the context of a web page, as one can look at the page itself and see which contents it refers to. However, this can prove useful in the context of workflow activation when an administrator looks at the dependencies of the page being activated and has on overview of the activation status of the contents the page depends upon. This should help avoiding publishing pages with broken links, images, etc.



 Comments   
Comment by Boris Kraft [ 20/Dec/10 ]

Actually I think looking at the web page to see which content it refers to is not always that easy. A more complex page with many paragraphs (some teasers), some docs that are uploaded, others from the DMS… will make it hard to "see" the forrest for the trees. Hence the feature is useful in itself.

Regarding the other way round (your issue here), I would argue that as an author I should not need to care where my content is being used. Sometimes I would not even know, nor be allowed to see from where it is used (e.g. a different section on the site to which I have no access links to my page).

If my content is as I want it to be, I should not care who is using it where. Hence, I would drop this feature until somebody comes up with a good reason for it. Remember that less is more. More (useless?) information will make the product less user friendly, not more so.

Comment by Federico Grilli [ 20/Dec/10 ]

Good point. I'll talk about it with Philipp, as he told me to create this ticket. Maybe he has some more persuading reasons for this feature than those coming to my mind.

Comment by Philipp Bärfuss [ 21/Dec/10 ]

Both use cases are valid and I can't see why we should make only one list available. Both lists support various use cases.

a) where is this content used

  • if I plan to delete/change the content
  • this list is also shown when we are deleting a page

b) what content is the page using

  • before publication, is all content ready, what do I have to activate
  • this list is also shown in the workflow dialog

If this lists aren't available in the page itself the user can only see what he missed to publish once the publication is launched. It is also cumbersome I you have to try to delete a page to find out where the page is used.

When I showed the dialog in the training, everybody including me was expecting to see where the content is used.

Comment by Boris Kraft [ 21/Dec/10 ]

I am still not convinced. As you say, we already show a) when deleting a page. This is the most relevant moment.

Truth being told, it is not very useful there nonetheless, as you can't directly act on it and it is not available later on. But it won't be much more useful directly on the page either. It might make more sense to have a report that asynchronously shows which teasers and links point to no longer existing content. However, these are topics for the next UI not this one.

I hesitate to introduce something whose value is dubious, no matter what customer expectations are. Could we postpone this until version 5 or until we have clear customer requirements on this?

Comment by Magnolia International [ 21/Dec/10 ]

Just my 1.5 rappen: someone on irc was asking exactly for this just the other day ("how can I find references of a document: which pages of the website are using a document?") - sure enough, a report type of page would be a better answer to this, but the dialog's tab is a quick win, because you can't expect someone to "delete and cancel" to read this (not mentioning the unreadability of the alert box when the document is used in more than 3 places)

Comment by Boris Kraft [ 21/Dec/10 ]

Excellent point. For documents it feels more natural. Although my previous arguments still hold, people indeed do want to know where docs are used. However, this info would be needed on a document's tab, and we don't have this right now.

Comment by Philipp Bärfuss [ 22/Dec/10 ]

I am not convinced but now that we can't find a conclusion we just postpone it. So the page dialog shows only the used content and not where the page is referenced from.

About the DMS tab: that is very much true and could be easily added.

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