[RFC|Accepted] Cleaning up the ACP UI

[stevemaury]

Cleaning up the ACP UI (For those of you who want this in a nice easy-to-follow outline form, download the attached zipped .rtf file)

I. General tab

1. Quick access

A. Spiders/bots

This is not something to which frequent access is needed. Suggestion – Move to Users and groups tab under Users.

B. Moderator log

Why does one need quick access to the Moderator log? And why single it out? Why not include the Admin log? This is another duplicate control. Suggestion – delete it.

C. PHP information

Why does one need “Quick” access to this? People check PHP information daily? Weekly? I think not. Suggestion – keep on System tab and delete from here.

2. Board settings

A. Attachment settings

Unnecessarily duplicative. Suggestion – delete.

B. Avatar settings, Signature settings and User registration settings

All should be moved to Users and groups tab under category Users.

C. Private message settings

Should be under Client communication.

D. Post settings

Should go in the Posting tab, no?


E. Client communication

Mass E-mails should be moved from System (huh?) to here.


3. Server configuration

All should be moved to the System tab.

II. Forums tab

1. Forum based permissions

Unnecessarily and confusingly duplicative. Leave Permissions settings on the Permissions tab and delete from here.

III. Posting tab

1. Messages – Why are Messages in the Posting tab? And what do Topic icons have to do with “Messages”? And why do we need to duplicate the Private message settings from the General tab, Client communications (where they should be). Suggstion – Rename “Messages” to Post settings and see I(2)(D) above. Delete the Private message settings.

2. Attachment settings – Probably should be a separate tab.

IV. Users and groups

1. Manage users – delete all the permission items.

2. Manage groups – delete all the permission items

3. User security – If these are security settings, they should all go to (ahem) “Security settings”. And Prune users is a security setting, how? It should be moved up under Manage users, all of which would have the effect or removing this category.

V. System

1. General tasks – Rename to “General”. What do Spider/bots have to do with the System? Move to Users and groups as suggested in I(1)(A) above and remove here. Move Mass E-mail to Client communications as suggested in 2(E) above and remove here.

Manage Report/denial reasons should move to Posting tab under its own category. It has nothing to do with “System” and everything to do with posting.

[A_Jelly_Doughnut]

This would be a start, at least.

The ACP has deeper UI issues than just the organization of pages, but one thing at a time, right

[Meis2M]

ajax tabs is good too 4 acp

[Rotsblok]

ajax tabs is good too 4 acp

I'm sorry but what has this to do with the first post?

[Erik Frèrejean]

ajax tabs is good too 4 acp

IMHO thats a "nice to have", but I don't see the real benefit of ajax tabs. There are places in the ACP where ajax can come to its full potential but that is a different topic that the one we're in right now .

[Meis2M]

Yes... i know , sorry.. i saw the discuss about acp

[tbackoff]

I disable the "quick access" part of the ACP 'cause I don't most (any?) of those items. I'm curious behind the reasoning for this though:

Private message settings - Should be under Client communication.

Client communication deals with "backend" settings, right? How would PM settings fall under that category? PMs are a board function. Just my thoughts.

[Nelsaidi]

Likewise every "feature" is a "board feature", its about catagorsing them, and I see the proposal as fit and would help greatly when you havent got the ACP memorised.

Ie, i dont use the ACP much but when I do its difficult to find what I need, this seems to be helpful.

[imkingdavid]

I don't agree with moving almost all of the settings things from the main page. It's good to have a quick way to access things without clicking into a bunch of different categories.

That being said, I agree that some aren't really needed often (or really at all, after they're set). Maybe there should be a poll put up in here for people to vote for the sections of the ACP that they use the most often, and then those could go into the quick access section.

[Nelsaidi]

On second thought, a forum based permisions is good where it is - when editting a forum, it means a whole other click (which is alot, considering we're trying to reduce them [no?] and make it easier to find information) to leave forum based permisisions, which is a core feature and very forum related, on the forum page.

Also, the selection box for forums, can that not be made full width and taller - and some spacing between? This is a personal request, but it would help boards with alot of boards because its a hassle to find boards in it.