App provided sections with translations and icons?

[tomneedham]

Discussion issue.

With the changes to how settings panels are registered in 10.0 it is currently not possible for an app to self-register a settings 'Section' (left hand grouping) themselves. This was partly by design (to encourage sensible grouping and not just a free-for-all lets-go-crazy situation) and partly to reduce the scope of the massive PR that was required to merge in the changes.

My hope was we could create a sensible collection of sections registered in core, with appropriate translations (https://github.com/owncloud/core/blob/master/lib/private/Settings/SettingsManager.php#L195) and icons. The SettingsManager only shows sections which actually contain panels and the rest are hidden.

Question: Do we still want to allow apps to register their own panels, or can we come up with a set of internal sections that meet the requirements?

Adding a section to core currently involves adding one line to the SettingsManager class and a line in the core.css to provide the correct icon file. Personally, I think directing apps into predefined sections will result in a much better UI/UX for users, but we need to ensure we have a nice collection of sections to catch the panels.

Current list:

Personal

SectionID	Description	Icon
general	Generic user settings like profile / avatar	person/user
storage	Quota, mounts, file handling	folder
security	App passwords, two factor...	padlock
encryption	Encryption settings	padlock
additional	Legacy apps / misc	dots

Admin

SectionID	Description	Icon
general	General admin settings / tips / info	cog
storage	Mounting settings, file handling, upload	folder
security	Security tips	padlock
authentication	User backends	padlock
encryption	Encryption settings / status	padlock
sharing	Sharing settings	share
monitoring	Logs / monitoring info	search
apps	App management	list
updates	Update management	update
additional	Legacy apps / misc	dots

@PVince81 @DeepDiver1975

[PVince81]

Some sections require an independent section and cannot easily share sections with other sections because it would break the UX.

See customgroups example:

Another example is the apps list.

If we would try having this crammed into a subsection, it means the scrolling panel would need to have a fixed height and it would feel weird to manage apps/groups within a very small container.

[DeepDiver1975]

Question: Do we still want to allow apps to register their own panels, or can we come up with a set of internal sections that meet the requirements?

any app can register panels and sections

[tomneedham]

any app can register panels and sections

Yes, but at the moment we just uppercase the id and give it a generic cog icon: https://github.com/owncloud/core/blob/master/lib/private/Settings/SettingsManager.php#L406. Translation isn't supported properly here.

[PVince81]

We need a proper solution.

@pmaier1 @felixheidecke from a design perspective, do you agree that apps should be able to add panels in the settings page ? I think not all apps can fit in existing ones.

For example custom groups doesn't fit into "Authentication" where LDAP goes. So it needs its own section, with a name that can be translated.

Setting to 10.0.1

[tomneedham]

This is fixed/implemented here: #27634 just need to add a couple of tests when I get some time hopefully this weekend

[tomneedham]

#27634 is merged

[lock]

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