Close Side Panel When Clicking in Inactive Gray Area

[jbppraxis]

Which Umbraco version are you using? (Please write the exact version, example: 10.1.0)

15.2

Bug summary

When editing components in the Umbraco backoffice using the side panel, the panel can be closed through action buttons or by pressing the Escape key, which is a great user experience.

However, I noticed that clicking outside the panel, specifically in the inactive gray overlay area, does not close the panel. This behavior seems inconsistent with common design patterns where modal-like panels typically close when users click outside of them.

Expected Behavior:

The side panel should close when clicking in the inactive gray area outside of the panel content.
Current Behavior:

The side panel remains open, requiring users to either click an action button or press the Escape key to dismiss it.

This small enhancement could improve usability by aligning with familiar user interface conventions and providing a more intuitive experience for editors.

Specifics

No response

Steps to reproduce

• Navigate to the backoffice and open the side panel by editing any component.
• Click in the gray overlay area outside the panel content.
• Observe that the side panel remains open.

Expected result / actual result

The side panel should close when clicking in the inactive gray area outside of the panel content.
Current Behavior:

[github-actions]

Hi there @jbppraxis!

Firstly, a big thank you for raising this issue. Every piece of feedback we receive helps us to make Umbraco better.

We really appreciate your patience while we wait for our team to have a look at this but we wanted to let you know that we see this and share with you the plan for what comes next.

• We'll assess whether this issue relates to something that has already been fixed in a later version of the release that it has been raised for.
• If it's a bug, is it related to a release that we are actively supporting or is it related to a release that's in the end-of-life or security-only phase?
• We'll replicate the issue to ensure that the problem is as described.
• We'll decide whether the behavior is an issue or if the behavior is intended.

We wish we could work with everyone directly and assess your issue immediately but we're in the fortunate position of having lots of contributions to work with and only a few humans who are able to do it. We are making progress though and in the meantime, we will keep you in the loop and let you know when we have any questions.

Thanks, from your friendly Umbraco GitHub bot 🤖 🙂

[iOvergaard]

I want to put in my two cents based on my experience implementing Umbraco sites for clients: It was a real hassle for the editors (the people editing the site in the backoffice) that the side panels closed when you (sometimes accidentally) clicked outside the side panel in the gray area. At least in Umbraco 8, you would lose everything you just did in the side panel if that happened.

It happened quite often when the editors would mark text with the mouse (in an RTE for instance) or drag elements around where the mouse then would end up outside the panel thus closing the panel.

This was part of the reason why the new Backoffice does not close side panels this way. That being said, I think that with the new way of detecting changes, we might be able to ask the users if they want to close the side panel if the panel is "dirty", that could be a good compromise.

[nul800sebastiaan]

ask the users if they want to close the side panel if the panel is "dirty", that could be a good compromise.

Yes please, I do this ALL the time in other apps, accidentally click out of something and lose my work! Of course if I hadn't done any work yet then it's fine to just close the panel.