30 April 2014, 17:01

As a part of Mahara workshop in Ljubljana, Slovenia (on March 4th, 2014 - more in latest Mahara Newsletter) there was also a developer workshop. In that workshop we discussed many things related to usability. They are summarized below (and explained in more detail on Mahara Bugtracker):

1. Choose internal image in TinyMCE without attaching it first. (See related bugs: Bug #1038580 and Bug #1235569) This applies to:
   • Adding images from Mahara to Journal posts
   • Adding attached images to Textboxes: if user adds an image and want to embed that image into a textbox content he/she is unable to do so.
2. Copying of Textboxes should create real copies. (See bug: Bug #1296390)
3. Display name on publicaly available pages: don't show "by" or don't show name at all. (See similar bug: Bug #548021)
4. Finding or searching for pages shared with me or by me. (See related bugs: Bugs #857793 and Bug #897586)
5. Better tag support:
   • Adding images to a page based on tags. (See bug: #Bug 1296392)
   • Adding artefacts (blocktypes) to a page based on tags. (See bug: Bug #1296396)
6. Group creation:
   • Guided group creation. (See bug: Bug #1296401)
   • Creating simplified groups. (See bug: Bug #1296404)
7. Group journals vs. ability for users to sheir their journals with the group. (See related bugs: Bug #833583 and Bug #547332)
8. Members of the group should be listed based on their role. (See related bug: Bug #781990, Comment #6)
9. Multilinguality of Mahara artefacts. (See bug: Bug #1296407)
10. Administration role management. (See bug: Bug #1296555)

02 May 2014, 22:09

2. There is a very recent discussion about the "Copying of Textboxes" issue under this link: https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=6257. The idea is to either create a new block type for non-reusable text boxes or change the existing ones so that not all textboxes are reusable by default and make the user more aware of the issue when he chosses to make them reusable. Besides, make the notes a full artefact type (right now, you cannot creat a new note under content)

05 May 2014, 10:52

Hi Gregor,

Thanks for posting this! Regarding #4, "Finding or searching for pages shared with me or by me", one of the bugs you've linked (https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/857793 ) had a fix released in Mahara 1.5. Is it the part about making the search filter persistent, that you still want added?

Cheers,

Aaron

05 June 2014, 21:25

Hi Gregor!

Tobias was kind enough to implement a patch for item 3, making it possible to hide the user's name from a page: https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/548021

However, I'm cautious about allowing users to create pages where the author is anonymous. It kind of changes the dynamics of a community if people can create anonymous content, and it also poses a potential for abuse (by people creating pages that pose as "official" ones).

So, I'm curious what the use-case was that your users wanted this functionality for? If we know what they're trying to achieve, we can try to see if there's a way to do that while also addressing my concerns about accountability and security.

Cheers,

Aaron

08 June 2014, 7:42

Aaron hi.

As far as the anonymous pages vs. author of the page goes I forgot actually what  it was about. Tried to go throught meeting notes (available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KjmpaD4Yut-jJtSPSPltg2rDj9TzdsIsetY9_wHbohI/edit) but there also isn't much about that.

I've also sent email to Klaus, but he hasn't responded yet.

If I remember correctly the prefix "by" was the one thing that bothered them the most. The Austrian side proposed two things which either could work:

1. remove the word "by" and leave just the page author's name (also translation issue?)
2. remove page author's name completely

As far as your securitiy concerns goes the first solution (removing "by") would be better, but it should be checked with Klaus if that is what he meant?!?

HTH, Gregor

08 June 2014, 18:25

Hi Gregor,

Removing the "by" is just a small fix, which should be fine. I don't see a translation issue as that string is translated easily. But it would be OK to remove.

I'd prefer not to remove the author itself because pages and collecions are user-generated content and should be marked as such.

Cheers

Kristina