Advancing the Pages data view

[jameskoster]

List layout

• Simplified design: puts greater emphasis on preview, optimises for displaying more rows, makes each item feel more like a clickable button.
• Use an icon instead of the featured image. Special pages marked e.g. Homepage with a unique icon.
• Hide all fields except title by default.
• Add quick edit (there’s a PR for this).
• Consider removing the author avatar and status icon when those fields are visible (they're a bit distracting with the new per-page icons, and the status icons are repeated in the sidebar creating some tension).
• Visualise hierarchy, including search.
• Allow fields to specify that their name should be displayed when that field is toggle on.

Table layout

• Showcase hierarchy in table/list layout #55957
• Data views table layout: Enable fields to be visually combined with title #58012
• Fall back to icon when no featured image is set

In both List and Table layout we should show the parent page in search results. One way to do this could be through a 'Parent' field that is automatically made visible when the search result includes children. In order for this to work we'd need to update List layout so that fields are able to specify that the field name should be included additional to the value. Here's a mockup:

General

• Show counts in sidebar.
• Trashing – make a decision on whether to remove the confirm dialog
• Permanently deleting – add confirm dialog

Fields + Filters

• Add date filter
• Add discussion filter
• Add a field to show number of comments
• Add filter for number of comments (could be a boolean initially)

Homepage UX

• Set homepage action
• Include dynamic pages. Perhaps start with Include homepage in page lists when set to display latest posts #60772.

Note

I acknowledge that some of the updates to list layout will also affect the Templates page, plus any third party consumers of the data views component. Let's discuss how to implement with minimal disruption.

[jarekmorawski]

Looks great! Good, thorough work and an important improvement to the current UI. Did you explore making the parent item expandable? It'd work well as a pattern Woo could apply to product variations.

[fcoveram]

Nice work. Great improvement.

There are a few things that caught my attention, but I might be missing some context, so feel free to dismiss them.

Menu item order

The items could be grouped to convey their relationship more quickly. It occurs to me the following order, separated by a line divider.

• View
• Edit
• Details
• Rename
• Duplicate
• —Divider—
• Set as homepage
• Set order → "Order" alone is now clear about what it does/opens
• —Divider—
• Move to trash

DataView Item depth level

The indentation level of an item conveyed by the hyphen length is easy to distinguish when parent and sibling items are next to it, but in a search result, it’s hard to identify its depth.

I wonder if there is a need to identify that level. If so, I see room for improving the hyphen by, perhaps, mixing it with the vertical line to communicate how deep the page is.

[jameskoster]

Menu item order

I like all the suggestions here :)

I wonder if there is a need to identify that level. If so, I see room for improving the hyphen by, perhaps, mixing it with the vertical line to communicate how deep the page is.

That's an interesting question, I wonder if it's important to understand the exact level, or if simply knowing the item is a descendent (and seeing the direct ancestor) is adequate. I could go either way, did you have a mockup for this?

[fcoveram]

I wonder if it's important to understand the exact level, or if simply knowing the item is a descendent (and seeing the direct ancestor) is adequate.

Knowing the ancestor adds value, for sure. It's a solid first step if the improvement keeps going.

…did you have a mockup for this?

Nope. But I can try an idea and share it here.

[fcoveram]

I tried a few ideas and these two are the solid ones. Yet, it lacks context and instead of providing clarity, it adds noise by introducing a new language.

Since no feedback has been collected from users or the community pointing out needs for page order and position, the em dashes string could continue as is.