284901 - Allow Admin UI to require JavaScript

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Bugzilla :: Administration, task)

Description

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

I think we should change the Bugzilla HTML development standards to allow admin
UI pages which require JavaScript.

I fully agree that the _user_ UI should not require JS, as a) it may be used by
text browsers or old browsers, or b) users may have JS switched off.

However, the admin UI is (presumably) trusted by the admins, and is much more
complex than the user UI, for example in areas such as group management. We
would be able to produce much more usable UI if we could require JS. Yes, we
could do "usable" and "compatible" versions of each UI, but that's harder work,
and it's more fragile.

[I've opened this as a bug so the discussion can be recorded, and so if we ask
the same question in six months time, people won't have to repeat themselves. If
we do this, the bug should be marked FIXED; if we decide there's no circumstance
under which we'd do this, it should be WONTFIX.]

Comment 1

[Joel Peshkin]

I'm willing to go half-way on this.

I don't want to rely on javascript for any kind of validation of data even if
the user is authorized to do everything.  Can we limit this sensibly?

Comment 2

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Gerv:

> I think we should change the Bugzilla HTML development standards to allow 
> admin UI pages which require JavaScript.

I agree.


Joel:

> I don't want to rely on javascript for any kind of validation of data even if
> the user is authorized to do everything.

Sure.  Not all admins are superusers, anyway, so we shouldn't rely on
JavaScript-only validation.

Comment 3

[timeless]

i'm heavily opposed. half the time i use something like wget and half the time i
use a user scriptable useragent. in neither case should i be required to accept
javascript sent from bugzilla in order to perform administrative tasks.

in the latter case, it significantly complicates the logic required for my
scripting engine, in the former it means that i can n longer use perl / cmd to
perform operations. i'm fairly certain i'm one of the most active users of the
admin pages @bmo (well, probably of all pages at bmo, and probably by some
transitivity of all standard bugzilla pages period).

Comment 4

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

No reason the submit portion has to be anything fancy, you can generate whatever
you want to submit, and that's what you'd be doing from scripts.  The javascript
is just to present it to the user better in their browser.  I agree with going
ahead and doing this.  

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

OK, if Dave and Myk say yes, I'd call that FIXED. :-)

Gerv

Comment 6

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

Actually, this needs a Developer's Guide patch. :-)

Comment 7

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

The Developers Guide now says this.
http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/developer.html#templates-webtech

Gerv