[MGNLUI-3464] Provide a way to navigate to a node in a tree based on a path Created: 18/Jun/15  Updated: 09/Feb/17  Resolved: 16/Sep/16

Status: Closed
Project: Magnolia UI
Component/s: actionbar, admincentral
Affects Version/s: 5.3.9
Fix Version/s: 5.3.17, 5.4.10, 5.5

Type: New Feature Priority: Neutral
Reporter: Lars Fischer Assignee: Oanh Thai Hoang
Resolution: Fixed Votes: 1
Labels: support, ux
Remaining Estimate: 0d
Time Spent: 2d 7.5h
Original Estimate: 3d

Attachments: PNG File templates-real-link.png    
Issue Links:
Relates
relates to MGNLUI-4011 Search of Site module doesn't work an... Closed
dependency
depends upon MGNLUI-3976 Copied path from bottom of the Pages ... Closed
relation
Template:
Acceptance criteria:
Empty
Release notes required:
Yes
Date of First Response:
Sprint: Saigon 61
Story Points: 5

 Description   

Developers often want to navigate to a node in a tree after finding a path (in a log message, their debugger, or wherever). Currently navigating to a specific node involves a lot of clicks, expanding nodes level by level until the full path has been expanded. It would be very nice if there was a way to open a textfield, paste the path in and press a button to navigate to the node (if it exists of course).



 Comments   
Comment by Zdenek Skodik [ 08/Aug/16 ]

One can provide the path as URL fragment.

Comment by Nils Breunese [ 08/Aug/16 ]

You're technically correct of course, but finding the right part of the URL string to edit is not a very great user experience. We hear both developers and editors complain about having to do so many clicks in Magnolia to get to a page/node. Why not add a 'Go to path' option, similar to for instance OS X Finder's 'Go to folder' (shift+cmd+g)?

Comment by Andreas Weder [ 09/Aug/16 ]

I see the usefulness of such a feature: I get a path from a colleague and want to go to/select the item it names.

I'd expect the feature to be somewhat clever:

  • I give it a path inside an app and it selects the corresponding item.
  • I give it a URL and it would find out the app to open and select the item the URL points to.

I'm not sure yet how we would exactly offer this: I don't think this is as simple as adding a "go to path" action in every app. That would be one obvious implementation, but using the search field would be another, possibly more viable and powerful one: search detects, if a path is entered, then selects the corresponding item. This would also allow us to tie this into a global (i.e. cross app) search function we wanted to provide for some time and which lately is part of the "content pool" story arc. Yet another option would be to only offer such a (power user) function when the user presses a key - as a matter of fact, I did plan to bring a similar "goto" function as part of more advanced keyboard support:

So, this has to be properly researched and aligned with the next steps PM plans to take for the next major version(s). For sure, this will not make it into 5.5 - that train has already left the station.

I do remember some similar sounding requests that seem to suggest that there's something bigger in the bush here, i.e. such a feature has quite some potential across the entire product. And I would not want us to just add a quick shot to the product, as the benefit of only a slightly more powerful option could be way higher.

So, to summarize: yes, we should look into this. It has to be properly researched first. And for sure, this is not something we would add to the product this year still.

Comment by Mikaël Geljić [ 05/Sep/16 ]

Status is: for now we first allow pasting absolute paths into the search box and find the appropriate node (same way search works for node names).

Comment by Nils Breunese [ 05/Sep/16 ]

Sounds like a plan!

Comment by Oanh Thai Hoang [ 08/Sep/16 ]

There are one known issue related to existing bug (MGNLUI-4011), it happens only in Site module of CE instance

Step to reproduce:

  • Enter site app
  • Input any node name showing in site app or input a path of node to search text box, see reference image

Observation Result: not found any item

We consider this is a bug, and will be fixed in MGNLUI-4011 ticket

Comment by Oanh Thai Hoang [ 15/Sep/16 ]

For release note:

If the given search query string is not abs path, then we don't change anything meaning it will do a old search mechanism. Otherwise we support searching by absolute path (don't include property in path) and the path is case sensitive.

Some examples

  • '/travel-demo' returns one result since its abs path
  • 'travel-demo' triggers the old mechanism
  • In security app search for eric -> as '/eric', we add '/admin' to the beginning of the search query since its the rootPath of the container. therefore search for '/admin/eric'.
  • If user searches for '/admin/eric' (somehow he knows the rootPath) -> we don't add rootPath to the search string and search for '/admin/eric' directly.
  • No abs path detected, have it use old mechanism.
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