[wp-hackers] Commenting on new admin screens?

[Ryan Boren]

On Jan 16, 2008 2:28 PM, Jennifer Hodgdon <yahgrp at poplarware.com> wrote:
> I realize the new admin screens may still be in flux, but are we allowed
> to file bugs on them yet, and/or comment on them? If so, do you want new
> bugs filed, or is there a central bug in Trac that serves as a place to
> comment on things? If not, when will it be OK to comment and file bugs?
>
> I have a couple of comments on the new Post/Page Edit screen. For
> instance, the new tag entry area needs to have the standard "display"
> filters applied to displayed tag names -- displaying raw names from the
> DB is not good for some plugin users, and it is done in both the pop-up
> list and in the existing tags section below.

Bugs like that are fine to file.  We just want to hold off on the
"move this over here and make it rounded and darker blue" type stuff.

> Also, I'm concerned about the way the edit screen is now set up. Any
> plugin that previously added a section to the edit screen, to look like
> a regular screen section using the pre-2.5 scheme, will not conform to
> the new scheme and will not have an open/close box any more.  I like the
> new scheme - much easier to code than the previous scheme - but the fact
> that it is changing is going to mean that plugins will either have to
> check versions and output accordingly, or be very WP-version-specific.
> This will be a major pain for plugin developers.

I'd like to add some API in 2.5 to make doing this easier and more
portable across versions.  Plugins can check for the presence of the
new API funcs and fallback to their old ways if they're not there.
The admin re-design will cause grief for some plugins.  We'll try to
ease the transition, but we can't shackle ourselves.

> And are there plans to put a Manage Tags section in, basically a clone
> of Mangage Categories, but with Tags?

It's not on anyone's schedule, that I know of.   Given the
freewheeling nature of tags, adding a manager for them is not a
priority for me.  Pulling this into core would require care regarding
scalability of the code and UI since it is common for people to amass
thousands of tags.  I'm cool with someone opening a ticket if they
want to pitch the feature and do some work on it, but I can't say that
it will for certain make it into 2.5.

Ryan