428029 - De-hybridize the language tools page

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, defect)

Description

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

I don't think our language tools[1] page is very friendly right now.  When a new user goes to the page, unless they know to scroll down (or have a giant monitor) they won't know there is a list of locales.

We should revise the page to remove the 3 giant recommended add-ons at the top as I feel they are adding little value right now.  I'd like to see a smaller recommended box (maybe half of the style here [2]) that we could put at the top of the page that offers dictionaries and/or language packs in that users detected language.  We used to have a box at the top that attempted to do this, so one could argue a regression keyword for this part.

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3
[2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:4/cat:all?sort=name

Comment 1

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

I like the suggestion to improve user experience on that page. However, I believe we should consider removing the hybrid part from that page and making it a dictionary/lang pack page only. While we would still have two addon types on the same page, I believe combining *three* things on the same page is not the way to go.

Comment 2

[Madhava Enros [:madhava]]

I think I've come around to agreeing with this.  I could see us having two categories: "Language Tools" and "Languages and Dictionaries."  They were combined when we felt like we simply had too many categories and needed to consolidate where two categories shared enough of a theme (no pun intended).

Language packs and dictionaries still feel like they should be in the same list.

Comment 3

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> I like the suggestion to improve user experience on that page. However, I
> believe we should consider removing the hybrid part from that page and making
> it a dictionary/lang pack page only. While we would still have two addon types
> on the same page, I believe combining *three* things on the same page is not
> the way to go.
> 

Yes with (perhaps!) an exception for the quick locale switcher.  A special box or recommendation somewhere - don't mix it in with the results and explain why it's there.

Comment 4

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

All of the above matches with my thinking.

And yeah, language switcher seems to be valuable, there may be more.

It seems to me that those wouldn't need to be more prominent than something in a sidebar.

Comment 5

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

We want to split language tools so dictionaries and language packs are separate from other extensions.  Similar to bug 428033 for themes.

Comment 7

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

Attachment: Language tools dehybridization

This patch de-hybridizes the language tools page.

For that, it was necessary to also change how category highlights are done, incidentally fixing bug 425503 too. I also remove all "breadcrumbs" from the add-ons controller because the two-level highlight code was the last place they were used in.

Comment 8

[Justin Scott [:fligtar]]

Comment on attachment 318119 [details] [diff] [review]
Language tools dehybridization

r=fligtar

Comment 9

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

Thanks for this review, too. The fix is in r12610. This part is done, however there are still some views I need to fix, which I will do as part of the remaining fix to bug 428033.

Comment 10

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

Seems a little confusing that on https://preview.addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ we have:

"Dictionaries" - https://preview.addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/browse/type:1/cat:69
"Dictionaries & Language Packs" - https://preview.addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/browse/type:3

The latter goes straight to the Dictionary and Language Pack page (naturally), so that's fine; anything we can do to make the former category clearer (and more distinct)?

Comment 11

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

How about "Language Tools" like we use for Firefox? Basil?

Comment 12

[Basil Hashem [:baz]]

Yup, that makes sense Fred.

Comment 13

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

This is all verified fixed except for the category-name change mentioned in comment 10 and comment 11, which will happen when / shortly after we svn-up to pick-up the 3.4.1 changes in production; I'll verify it then.

Comment 14

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

Verified FIXED in production; issues mentioned in comment 13 have been addressed.