Cannot Choose Parent Topic

[mordauk]

With latest trunk, it's not possible (in my install at least) to select the parent forum for a topic. The problem might be related to ​1901.

The parent forum cannot be selected when creating new topics nor when editing.

I haven't had a chance to look into the problem further yet. See the attached screenshot.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Works for me. Will need more information to be helpful.

[mordauk]

Can you attach a screenshot of how it should look?

[netweb]

This threw me at first also and I think we need some help text around this area.

It is an 'ajax' lookup, start typing the forum name for the forum parent, forum name for the topic or topic name for the reply.

Screenshot attached...

[mordauk]

Replying to netweb:

This threw me at first also and I think we need some help text around this area.

It is an 'ajax' lookup, start typing the forum name for the forum parent, forum name for the topic or topic name for the reply.

Screenshot attached...

Ohhh . . . yeah that is definitely not intuitive. I would never have assumed that to work that way. It works perfectly. I imagine a simple "Begin Typing Parent Name" text below or similar would be just fine.

[netweb]

I'm not sure if using a <br> to add the line is in the WP Admin style guides for the diff... ;)

Screen reader text also?

@@ -299,6 +299,7 @@ function bbp_forum_metabox() {
        <strong class="label"><?php _e( 'Parent:', 'bbpress' ); ?></strong>
        <label class="screen-reader-text" for="parent_id"><?php _e( 'Forum Parent', 'bbpress' ); ?></label>
        <input name="parent_id" id="bbp_forum_id" type="text" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $post_parent ); ?>" />
+       <br><i>(Begin Typing Parent Name to populate list)</i>
    </p>
 

[mordauk]

Localizes help text

[johnjamesjacoby]

I don't like the idea of adding more UI here. Would rather we fix the experience. Thoughts?

[mordauk]

I really don't like the extra UI either. What about using something like ​Select2?

[johnjamesjacoby]

Don't want to pull in a new library; suggest should be fine. Just need to dial in the experience.

[mordauk]

Replying to johnjamesjacoby:

Don't want to pull in a new library; suggest should be fine. Just need to dial in the experience.

Sure. I think the most important element here is giving the user an immediate idea of how to select the parent. Perhaps open the suggest box on :focus?

[johnjamesjacoby]

Notes from Jane:

If i saw the text box, even with "enter the name of the forum you want this topic to be in' or some such, i'd think a lot of people would wind up typing a new forum name.

Recall really doesn't work for a lot of people even with autosuggest, especially people with dyslexia and other language disabilities, so there's an accessibility hit by not having the list be an option too.

I agree. I'm inclined to switch it back to the drop-down for 2.2, and revisit this more in 2.3; maybe with a simpler and more appropriate UI that isn't a kludge from existing WordPress core functionality.

[mordauk]

Replying to johnjamesjacoby:

Notes from Jane:

If i saw the text box, even with "enter the name of the forum you want this topic to be in' or some such, i'd think a lot of people would wind up typing a new forum name.

Recall really doesn't work for a lot of people even with autosuggest, especially people with dyslexia and other language disabilities, so there's an accessibility hit by not having the list be an option too.

I agree. I'm inclined to switch it back to the drop-down for 2.2, and revisit this more in 2.3; maybe with a simpler and more appropriate UI that isn't a kludge from existing WordPress core functionality.

I'm inclined to agree with that. Perhaps building something similar to the Add Link (for existing content) could be built. When the user clicks "set parent", a modal would be opened that displays all of the forums. This way they could scroll through the list, instead of seeing them all in a select menu. This would also allow us to load a small number at a time and load more via ajax as the user scrolls through the list.

[netweb]

Yep... Agreed...

[johnjamesjacoby]

Punting. Revert incoming.

[johnjamesjacoby]

(In [4414]) Forums Admin:

• Revert usage of Suggest for choosing a forum parent via auto-complete.
• Revert parts of r4260 and r4261.
• See #1910, #2014.

[netweb]

Currently unable to assign a forum to a category (forum parent) via 'Forum Attributes -> Parent'

Assigning a forum ( or a forum category) to a parent forum works as intended.

(I'm not sure if this is from the reverts above or was happening before the reverts)

[netweb]

Workaround:

• Edit the 'parent' forum properties from 'category' to 'forum'
• Assign any sub-forums to the 'parent forum'
• Change the 'parent forum' properties back from 'forum' to 'category'

[johnjamesjacoby]

To clarify the above:

• Forum categories are disabled in the dropdown.

Fixing.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Fixed in r4438, with some restrictions in place for topics and replies.