527108 - add categories for flags

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Bugzilla :: Administration, task, P5)

Description

[Michael Thomas (Mockodin)]

Flags, which are awesome btw, would be even more awesome if we could break up flags into categories.

Similar to they way classifications work the idea would be to split up what is displayed in to groups. Take for example project and release tracking on a bug:

For Example say these flags:
UI Upgrade I
UI Upgrade II
Tech Review
Universal Access Upgrade
User Interface 3.0
User Interface 3.1
Zorro

4 are projects
1 is an approval sign off
1 is a release grouping

What I would like to see is the ability to do do this:
PROJECTS:
    UI Upgrade I
    UI Upgrade II
    Universal Access Upgrade
    Zorro
RELEASES:
    User Interface 3.0
    User Interface 3.1
DEVELOPMENT AUDITS:
    Tech Review

Comment 1

[Frédéric Buclin]

Are you talking about displaying them in the UI (show_bug.cgi and attachment.cgi)? Why is it not enough to sort them as you can already do?

Comment 2

[Michael Thomas (Mockodin)]

Yes for display. The #1 request from my business users is a simpler display and easier to understand, those being slightly different requests. I think the UI changes that have been implemented since 2.22 have done a good job on simplifying the interface. What my users still want is the easy to understand side. To qualify business users, I mean folks like marketing, where they open requests for features and may heavily monitor progress but other wise don't understand how Bugzilla is used for development tracking.

For example my users have requested the 'Depends on' label to change to 'Blocked by" seems a trivial difference but is viewed, by them, as more understandable to someone looking at Bugzilla for the first time.

Sorting it not enough because, a list of say 30 flags is confusing to them simply do to quantity. Adding a header between types of flags will give them something to associate the flags with beyond the flag naming itself.

Searchability is low to nonexistent on my requirements for flag categories, Though it might make at least getting a subset of flags easier for users. Currently searching for flags using boolean searches with a syntax of '<name>(+/-/?)' is far (far... far... far?) from intuitive.

Comment 3

[Frédéric Buclin]

I'm going to won't fix this as you can already sort them. I could imagine crazy UI when consecutive flags are not in the same category, such as

sortkey = 1, category = foo
sortkey = 2, category = bar
sortkey = 3, category = foo

you would have the foo label twice. And I don't want complex code to work around that.

Comment 4

[Michael Thomas (Mockodin)]

Not really complex, you would simply be sorting on two factors

category sortkey then flagtype sortkey

Display order was not however the intent, though would need to be addressed as well.