Nicer add-on applets

1

I know, you are all searching for killer features, but a well-polished product with details well thought out and fitting well together don't hurt with possible users/customers.

How about config applets with a link to the addon documentation, like this:

nicerapplets
nicerapplets.png752×600 34.5 KB

I hope that this is not against any Plone corporatey standard - I think it should be part of recommandations for Plone add-ons in fact.

obviously trivial to implement

<h1><a href="http://collectiveambidexterity.readthedocs.io" class="documentFirstHeading" i18n:translate="heading_edit">
          Ambidexterity editor
      </h1>

Also with current implementation there is no automatic removal of applets once the addon is disabled; that don't look very professional IMO and of course clicking on the applet icon for a disabled add-on leads to an error.

It's not that difficult to provide for it, all that is needed is to copy the controlpanel.xml from the default profile to the uninstall one and to add a removal tag:

  <configlet
(...)
      remove="True"

and the applet icon goes away when disabling the add-on.

I have seen that automatic removal was decried but given that all add-ons that I have seen so far lack this simple feature, maybe adding back some automagic in this special case could be possible ? that is, if there is no controlpanel.xml in the uninstall profile and there is one in the default, copy it into the uninstall profile automatically with the remove tag set ?

1 Like
2

I like the idea, effectively providing a in context link to documentation. I suggest you put together a PLIP for this. Discussion to refine the implementation could continue around the PLIP.

3

It was my impression that PLIP are used to discuss complex and important problems for the Plone project. If add-ons developers don't want it there is nothing that the Plone project can do. If they want to implement it, they don't need any Plone change. If and when it begin to be used in the field it could be turned into an official recommandation but as for now I think that launching a discussion would be a waste of time as there are so much more important matters to solve.

4

Feels like a first-world problem. A solution for a problem that likely nobody has.

-aj

5

Feels like a problem we would like to have. More third-world users would be good.