468613 - Make selecting forum post type mandatory and give it better visual prominence

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Forum, task, P1)

Description

[David Tenser [:djst]]

This is a carry-over from bug 459841 that didn't make it in the 0.8 milestone.

* The drop-down defaults to a choice, which makes it too easy to skip the step.
Can we default to a blank choice and force people to choose?

* The UI feels a little misplaced there at the top. Can we move it under the
big text box instead of above the toolbar?

Comment 1

[[:Cww]]

Of the new threads that were posted after Dec 2nd and up to December 5th, we have the following numbers (as of December 5th): 602 are unanswered, 472 are "request for more info" which is the default choice, 76 are proposed solution and 64 are solved.  18 are locked (spam or dupes).

Comment 2

[[:Cww]]

Examples of cases where a different status should probably have been used: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=220620&forumId=1

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=220690&forumId=1

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=220740&forumId=1

Comment 3

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

What do you define "force" as? Throwing an error if the user tries to post a comment without choosing an option (keeping the blank default choice)? 

(In reply to comment #0)
> This is a carry-over from bug 459841 that didn't make it in the 0.8 milestone.
> 
> * The drop-down defaults to a choice, which makes it too easy to skip the step.
> Can we default to a blank choice and force people to choose?
> 
> * The UI feels a little misplaced there at the top. Can we move it under the
> big text box instead of above the toolbar?

Comment 4

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Good question. Yes, we wouldn't allow a forum reply to be posted unless they manually select a non-blank option, so keeping the blank default choice is a requirement.

How to present the error is another matter though. Ideally, I'd like a subtle way of highlighting the missing piece when someone clicks Submit (by keeping the Submit button enabled at all times, but if clicked when the blank default choice is still selected, the dropdown's padding would be color highlighted and a notification would appear, reminding the user of what's missing.

A server-side check that throws you back to the previous page with the dropdown label highlighted in red would be required too, for people without JavaScript. This is how we do it when you try to submit a KB article edit that doesn't include a changelog description.

If the client-side warning is too complicated, I suppose the server-side check is fine for now, as long as we don't submit a post without a selection being made.

Comment 5

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

Moving the dropdown below the textarea has landed with bug 469730.

Forcing the user to choose a post type still needs to be implemented.

Comment 6

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Eric, can you still take this one or are you occupied with 1.0 bugs?

Comment 7

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

I'll keep it.

As long as 1.0 and 1.1 freeze a week apart, I should have time to do this and the other 1.1 bugs.

Comment 8

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

Attachment: Error notification thrown on empty "purpose of response"

This isn't precisely what we talked about, but I tried to make it consistent with tiki while also making it something still useful. I think it looks weird.

This is based on the client-side check.

David?

Comment 9

[David Tenser [:djst]]

The attached mockup looks good. What do you think is weird about it?

Comment 10

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

Attachment: Add client-side checking for post 'purpose' to forums v1

For review and testing (once it's in the tree), a preference needs to be turned on: Admin->Forums->Feature force special forum thread status selection

Paul simple patch. If you don't have time, push it onto someone else please.

Comment 11

[Paul Craciunoiu [:paulc]]

Eric, this doesn't seem to work for me on 
tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=220620
I have the "None of the above" option selected and get no message on submission.
I checked the function requireElementValue() and it returns true. This was on being logged out and posting a comment to the thread.

Am I missing something?

Comment 12

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

Make sure Admin->Forums->Feature force special forum thread status selection is enabled.

None of the above is a valid choice.

The patch combined with the aforementioned preference inserts a blank choice in the dropdown, forcing users to choose one of the three statuses.

Comment 13

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

Comment on attachment 372065 [details] [diff] [review]
Add client-side checking for post 'purpose' to forums v1

Since paulc is a bit tied up, you think you could give this a run, Laura?

The description and comment 10/comment 12 give testing notes.

Comment 14

[Paul Craciunoiu [:paulc]]

Comment on attachment 372065 [details] [diff] [review]
Add client-side checking for post 'purpose' to forums v1

Okay cool. Got it working now. Functionality's good.

Comment 15

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

r24457/r24460

Comment 16

[E. Cooper [:ecooper]]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Make sure Admin->Forums->Feature force special forum thread status selection is
> enabled.
> 
> None of the above is a valid choice.
> 
> The patch combined with the aforementioned preference inserts a blank choice in
> the dropdown, forcing users to choose one of the three statuses.

This has been enabled on staging, btw.

Comment 17

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

I filed bug 488724 about the JavaScript-disabled case.

Comment 18

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

Verified FIXED; I was waiting on bug 488724 to get fixed, but I see it's futured, so this can go out to 1.0.2.

Comment 19

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

"Feature force special forum thread status selection" is now enabled on prod.