Moodle

Forum: Lack of search functionality for teacher on forum view.php

Details

  • Type: Improvement Improvement
  • Status: Open Open
  • Priority: Minor Minor
  • Resolution: Unresolved
  • Affects Version/s: 1.9.8
  • Fix Version/s: None
  • Component/s: Forum, Usability
  • Labels:
    None
  • Affected Branches:
    MOODLE_19_STABLE

Description

I would expect a teacher to also be able to search a forum for a key word; however, in view.php the search button is only added to the navigation bar if there is not an update forum button. I see no reason why we could not have both so that teachers can also search from the view.php. Otherwise, they have to wait until they get to discuss.php to search. There is also a question about usability and placement of the search bar. I will add Olli to the issue and ask him to comment on that. I'll attached a proposed patch in a second. Peace - Anthony

Attachments

  1. Text File
    MDL-22440.patch
    13/May/10 11:01 PM
    1 kB
    Anthony Borrow
  2. Text File
    MDL-22440.patch
    12/May/10 11:39 PM
    1 kB
    Anthony Borrow
  3. Text File
    MDL-22440.patch
    12/May/10 10:13 PM
    0.8 kB
    Anthony Borrow
  1. mdl-22440_2em.png
    83 kB
    12/May/10 10:43 PM
  2. mdl-22440_course.png
    324 kB
    13/May/10 11:06 PM
  3. mdl-22440_patched.png
    84 kB
    12/May/10 10:13 PM

Activity

Ascending order - Click to sort in descending order
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

adding usability as component

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - adding usability as component
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

Olli - I have added you as a watcher to get your thoughts on the placement of the search functionality. I'm just seeing here in the tracker that all the search functionality is in the upper right portion of the screen. I'll attach a screen shot showing what it looks like with both update button and search function. Peace - Anthony

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - Olli - I have added you as a watcher to get your thoughts on the placement of the search functionality. I'm just seeing here in the tracker that all the search functionality is in the upper right portion of the screen. I'll attach a screen shot showing what it looks like with both update button and search function. Peace - Anthony
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

I am attaching screen shot of patched version and the suggested patch for consideration. Peace - Anthony

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - I am attaching screen shot of patched version and the suggested patch for consideration. Peace - Anthony
Hide
Permalink
Olli Savolainen added a comment -

Anthony,

Upper right in fact seems the de facto standard nowadays, though Nielsen called it "confused" still in 2004.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040913.html

Adding margin on the right side of the search button (at least 0.5 but preferably 1em I would say) would allow visual grouping of the button with the search box so people would not need to read the buttons to know they are not related. Some further visual separation would not hurt either I guess but can't say without seeing it.

I am happy the jump navigation is gone in 2.0 so identifying the search becomes easier.

In the future I hope to have a consistent search paradigm throughout Moodle - it seems a common usage scenario that someone would want to serach throughout the course (or in all course forums - umh, what does that search of yours do actually?) if they can't find what they want in a forum.

Show
Olli Savolainen added a comment - Anthony, Upper right in fact seems the de facto standard nowadays, though Nielsen called it "confused" still in 2004. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040913.html Adding margin on the right side of the search button (at least 0.5 but preferably 1em I would say) would allow visual grouping of the button with the search box so people would not need to read the buttons to know they are not related. Some further visual separation would not hurt either I guess but can't say without seeing it. I am happy the jump navigation is gone in 2.0 so identifying the search becomes easier. In the future I hope to have a consistent search paradigm throughout Moodle - it seems a common usage scenario that someone would want to serach throughout the course (or in all course forums - umh, what does that search of yours do actually?) if they can't find what they want in a forum.
Hide
Permalink
Olli Savolainen added a comment -

Anyway, I believe your reaction is right and search should be availably as globally as possible.

Show
Olli Savolainen added a comment - Anyway, I believe your reaction is right and search should be availably as globally as possible.
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

Olli - Thanks for the super-fast reply. I do agree that upper right is standard location for search functionality. I'm thinking of browsers like Firefox and email clients like Thunderbird. The request came from a forum moderator on one of the sites I help oversee. Some padding on .navbar .navbutton .forumsearch (in /theme/standard/styles_layout.css) is a nice touch and does give the visual separation you are talking about to help separate things. At 800x600 resolution, I thought 2 em looked good. Peace - Anthony

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - Olli - Thanks for the super-fast reply. I do agree that upper right is standard location for search functionality. I'm thinking of browsers like Firefox and email clients like Thunderbird. The request came from a forum moderator on one of the sites I help oversee. Some padding on .navbar .navbutton .forumsearch (in /theme/standard/styles_layout.css) is a nice touch and does give the visual separation you are talking about to help separate things. At 800x600 resolution, I thought 2 em looked good. Peace - Anthony
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

attaching another screen shot showing 2em padding

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - attaching another screen shot showing 2em padding
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

I'm switching the title because the word loss implies that the functionality was previously there and this is a suggested improvement to add the functionality that I think we would expect. Peace - Anthony

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - I'm switching the title because the word loss implies that the functionality was previously there and this is a suggested improvement to add the functionality that I think we would expect. Peace - Anthony
Hide
Permalink
Olli Savolainen added a comment -

The separation in the screenshot seems good and sufficient to me, too.

Haha, you're a zotero user too. I've had a love/hate relationship to it for about 18 months already.

Show
Olli Savolainen added a comment - The separation in the screenshot seems good and sufficient to me, too. Haha, you're a zotero user too. I've had a love/hate relationship to it for about 18 months already.
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

Yes, I feel the same way. There are things I really like and I probably would have used it more if I were working on a PhD. Hopefully I will be able to avoid such a thing. Peace - Anthony

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - Yes, I feel the same way. There are things I really like and I probably would have used it more if I were working on a PhD. Hopefully I will be able to avoid such a thing. Peace - Anthony
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

updated patch file with modification to standard theme for 2em padding - keep in mind that this will add the padding even if there is no update forum button

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - updated patch file with modification to standard theme for 2em padding - keep in mind that this will add the padding even if there is no update forum button
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

Rather than adding padding to the forum search - it actually makes more sense to add padding-left to any .navbar .navbutton form. I am attaching a patch of what I implemented on community.jsea.org. Peace - Anthony

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - Rather than adding padding to the forum search - it actually makes more sense to add padding-left to any .navbar .navbutton form. I am attaching a patch of what I implemented on community.jsea.org. Peace - Anthony
Hide
Permalink
Anthony Borrow added a comment -

The padding-left also helps with other areas where we have two buttons in the navbar where they would be scrunched together. The left padding will prevent that. This screen shot show the course view without the padding-left. I opted to go with 1.5em since 1 did not seem enough and 2 was a little too pronounced for my tastes.

Show
Anthony Borrow added a comment - The padding-left also helps with other areas where we have two buttons in the navbar where they would be scrunched together. The left padding will prevent that. This screen shot show the course view without the padding-left. I opted to go with 1.5em since 1 did not seem enough and 2 was a little too pronounced for my tastes.

People

Vote (0)
Watch (1)

Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
Atlassian JIRA (v4.4.3#663-r165197) | Report a problem
Powered by a free Atlassian JIRA open source license for Moodle. Try JIRA - bug tracking software for your team.