Feature Proposal: New topic link should not have a question mark

Motivation

A question mark breaks the reading flow. This proposal:

• Convention is to use red text.
• For color blind people (5%) we need to differentiate the link more, for example with a dotted underline.
• To show a popup/layer when clicked, the link should have a class (the current foswikiNewLink). This can be picked up by skins.

Description and Documentation

This is setting NEWLINKFORMAT from DefaultPreferences. This proposal is about setting a new default.

Examples

Impact

WhatDoesItAffect:

%WHATDOESITAFFECT%

edit

Implementation

-- Contributors: ArthurClemens - 07 Oct 2012

Discussion

(Sven copied the discussion from the task)

Do we really want this? It's hard enough clicking the ? to create the missing topic. Wouldn't using the Wikipedia format of using a red dotted underline to show missing links be better? Certainly it's a larger target to hit with the mouse. TWiki seems to have also switched to the Wikipedia format.

-- GeorgeClark - 25 Sep 2012

Making the whole word a link would indeed be better. Only I don't like the alarming reds on the page. So a plus could still indicate that you will be adding a topic.

-- ArthurClemens - 26 Sep 2012

Don't we allow + in topic names? Yes, we do, just tested it on trunk. And on Foswiki.org - Sandbox.TestWithPlus Won't this be confusing?

-- GeorgeClark - 26 Sep 2012

no, we don't (allow plus), but there are users that want it (plus is used as a urlencoded space)

given that we're talking about a DefaultPreferences, (Set NEWLINKFORMAT = $text? ) why not use an ICON - something that won't be conflagrated with any text?

   * Set NEWLINKFORMAT = <a class="foswikiNewLink" href="%SCRIPTURLPATH{"edit"}%/$web/$topic?topicparent=%WEB%.%TOPIC%" rel="nofollow" title="%MAKETEXT{"Create this topic"}%">$text<img src="%ICONURL{newtopic}%" /></a>

That way we SvenDoesNotWantThisTopic

BTW, Please make a featuer proposal topic - that way after we've done it there won't be lots of complaints that it wasn't a feature proposal

-- SvenDowideit - 26 Sep 2012 - 05:54 - 26 Sep 2012 - 05:54

To avoid further confusion:

1. This is about changing the contents of already changeable NEWLINKFORMAT
2. The proposed plus char would replace the question mark. Neither are part of the actual link or would get integrated into a new topic name

For me it is about increasing readability. The ? stops the reading, as would a very prominent icon. Icon is fine if it is unobtrusive.

For base skin I am working with an icon font that could work in this case.

To be on the safe side I will move this to a feature proposal.

-- ArthurClemens - 26 Sep 2012

to be clear, I agree that ? is terrible, I think + is only marginally better, whereas an icon is unlikely to be confused with some character that could otherwise be part of a topic name.

(and yes, when I used that ICON, i also cringed about its loudness)

-- SvenDowideit - 07 Oct 2012

True, clicking on a single one char link to do something so important as creating a new topic was always a usability problem. Clicking on the complete non-existing WikiWord makes a lot more sense and is more finger-friendly on touch devices.

However, I don't think that we need an extra character or icon at all to indicate that the WikiWord does not exist yet. The current proposed new look with this plus added to the link text looks odd, even more as the link does not seem to be clearly distinguishable from proper links. Adding any graphics after the link text is problematic as the non-existing and exising WikiWord will both take different horizontal and probably vertical spacing.

Instead, the new WikiWord link should be colored appropriately to be distinguishable from proper WikiWord links. Btw: all WikiWords in the content area should have a text-decoration:underline.

Example:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. UnknownWikiWord Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea vs ExistingWikiWord takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

I've added a bit of lorem ipsum to check that line spacing won't change ... which it would if there was some icon in there in the middle.

-- MichaelDaum - 07 Oct 2012

I fully agree with the Michael's suggested approach. It's consistent with Wikipedia, which many people are familiar with, and is also consistent with where TWiki has taken it's rendering as well.

That said, we should consider an accessibility skin or some sort of alternate default that provides an alternative to the color. The subtle coloring and reduced contrast due to the gray background makes it more difficult to read for some visual impairments.

By the way, we DO allow plus in topic names by default. You need to disable the WikiWord check, but it works fine. (I think Sven just committed a fix that makes them work for parent topic names as well.) So is Sandbox.TestWithPlus+ a missing wikiword or a valid topic?

-- GeorgeClark - 07 Oct 2012

I agree with the usability remarks - Michael's underlines and George's color concern (color blind people see red as black).

The red link does not reveal what it does, but it is a convention in wiki world.

The new topic link can be made a bit more distinctive by using a dotted bottom border:

-- ArthurClemens - 07 Oct 2012

While we're here - why not make the new topic link an ajax modal dialog that gives the user the CreateNewTopic UI - rather than jumping straight to a confusing edit?

-- SvenDowideit - 08 Oct 2012

Proposal updated.

-- ArthurClemens - 23 Oct 2012

Proposal implemented.

-- ArthurClemens - 27 Oct 2012

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