Proposals/Done/1.4 Wishlist

Please see https://blueprints.launchpad.net/mahara for proposed features and those that are being worked on.

A number of the wishlist items for Mahara 1.4, released in 2011, have been implemented one way or another since then. This page is kept for historical reasons. Items marked as 'Not yet done' were added to the wider list of ideas for Mahara.

View access page

*Ability to edit access for multiple views/collections at once.

Display your own friends and *groups with individual buttons.

*Move the user/group search to an advanced section.

*Remove clutter with a clean tabular listing of access policies at the top of the page (rather than the boxes on the RHS).

Put the form to add new policies below the list (rather than on the LHS).

Easier block editing

Generic, reusable, tagged html artefacts will be saved when textbox blocks are saved.  Create an interface (similar to the current artefact chooser) for searching and choosing these saved artefacts when configuring a textbox.

Go through all existing block types, and make it easier to edit the content of the block during configuration on the view editing screen. Use reusable tagged artefacts as above where it is easy to do so; in other cases provide convenient links to a page where editing is possible.

UI Usability/Consistency (easy)

Move search boxes to RHS for consistency (*group members).

*Improve & check consistency of language strings.  Use "Settings" instead of "My Account" and "Edit content" instead of "Edit content and layout"

*Change all Yes/No radios and drop-downs to checkboxes.

Increase the spacing between save/cancel buttons and ensure the order of save/cancel buttons is consistent.

*Reduce confusion in My files by moving the Create folder form and button out of the file upload box.

Remove clutter by using icons more frequently and consistently.  For example,

• Use a minimise icon rather than [x] on the homepage tutorial box.
• *Remove [x] altogether on system messages.
• *Use [x] not delete on My blogs.
• *Remove help cursor from help tooltips & add help cursor when hovering over help icons.
• *Use icons for edit/delete on resume components and my groups page.
• Use [+] [-] icons to expand descriptions in the resume area and resume blocks.
• Create new icons for Edit view access and Edit view content.

*Reduce confusion around joining groups by showing "Invite only", "Controlled membership", etc in place of the join/request links for groups you can't join.

Resume View and Template (easier part of the template work)

Not done yet: Replace the current resume block with a site template so that users can easily create multiple Resume views.

Not done yet: Next to the existing "Create View" button, add a drop-down with the names of all the installed site templates.  The Create View button would create a view using the selected template.

Revisit the way resume field blocktypes are added, configured, and copied and rewrite where required.

Either leave the existing "Entire Resume" block in place, or develop some method for upgrading existing blocks by splitting them into individual resume field blocks.

Staff Template Editor (more extensive part of the template work)

Make template creation easy for admins & staff with some changes to the view creation workflow.  Template 'mode' is selected before using the view editor.  When editing a template, block content is either not configured, or configured using a different form than the one used for normal views.  The exact configuration behaviour will depend on the block type.

When editing a template, all blocks will have an additional 'lock' option that doesn't appear when configuring normal views. When editing a normal (non-template) view, any blocks with the 'lock' option set cannot be deleted from the view.

View Template Editor (probably relatively easy)

Allow editing of the default views for new users, groups, etc.

User friendship groups

Allow users to create friendship groups (as opposed to working groups) which can then be used when defining access for views.

==

UI Usability/Consistency (harder) - not yet done

Remove the use of multiple forms on the resume composite pages, and come up with a new interface for edting these without creating too many new 3rd-level tabs in the resume menu.

Remove seldom-used fields such as ICQ from the Messaging part of Edit Profile.  Ideally, allow the site admin to create custom profile fields.

Groups landing page

Create a Groups overview *page with quick links to the latest forum threads in each group.  This will become the first page reached from the top-level Groups menu item; the existing My Groups page will be moved & renamed.

Navigation

*Simplify the top-level navigation.

*Change 'Home' to read 'Dashboard' when logged in.

Replace 'My Blogs' with top-level 'Journal' menu item.

*Remove 'Profile' and put everything under it somewhere else. (needs more specification).

Help

Update the user guide.

Go through all existing help files and bring them up to date. Create new help files for many new pages which don't have help yet.

Homepage tutorial box, option 1: Remove and replace with a more detailed tutorial to appear on a separate page.

Homepage tutorial box, option 2: Declutter by rewriting with single, short headings, update strings for consistency ("Control your privacy", "Find friends" instead of "Meet friends").

View Theming (easy)

*Disable small headers and view themes by default.

View Theming (harder)

Merge 'view skins' from Gregor Anzelj.  Would allow users to personalise some simple things (colours, fonts) in their views but not the full theme.

Search Improvements

Indexed fulltext search.  Bring the old solr search plugin up to date.

Expand the tag search to allow searching of group views/artefacts by tag.

Printing/PDF export

Create an interface to the wkhtmtopdf open source utility to allow for PDF export of views.

Friendly urls

Shorter, simple secret & public view URLs without query parameters. Must be a site-wide configurable option if we're using Apache directives that are not available on all hosts.

Registration workflow

Use a popup or light box to display and accept Terms and Conditions.

Timezone support

Support for time zones different to that of the installation server.

Not yet done: Allow users to see the correct timezone data for their personal settings.

Institution Separation (aka Walled Gardens)

Ability to isolate the institution and maintain trust relationships (on institution level) with institutions one wish to interact with. See Walled Garden specification for details.