Componant list on enter_bug.cgi

[Dave Williss]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "timeless" <timeless at gmail.com>
To: <developers at bugzilla.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 7:33 AM
Subject: Re: Componant list on enter_bug.cgi


> Dave Williss wrote on 5/16/06 2:58 PM:
>> On enter_bug.cgi,  why are the Component list and Version list a
>> scrolled list 5 high instead of being a combo box?
> 
> On 6/28/06, David Miller <justdave at bugzilla.org> wrote:
>> Because there's no combo box available in the standard HTML Forms
>> feature set?  If other sites have them it's probably a javascript hack.
> 
> Actually, Dave Williss was rightfully flamed for the wrong word. But
> he meant dropdown single select. Which is used in a number of places
> in the UI.

"rightfully" flamed?  I wouldn't even consider it a flame.  
We alway refer to those things as a "combo box" here, although I guess
technically it's only a combo box if you can also edit text.  So, OK,
I meant drop down list.

> One very important thing to remember though, is that the drop down
> widgets are really very very painful to use for sizable lists.
> Especially since you get terrible hinting about what might be in the
> list.

But a dropdown list takes up less room on the page, making the overall
interface cleaner looking.

[ snip ]

> 
> Note that you can't have a dropdown with *nothing* selected, whereas a
> select box starts that way, so you can easily force people to actually
> pick a component.
> 
> The alternatives are:
> 
> 1. Component: [ ----------------- |v]
> 
> 2. Component: [ Please Pick a Component |v]
> 
> Both of these are *terrible* UIs, on average the user has no idea that
> they actually *must* pick something and that the form can't *guess*
> the right value.

With the long scrolled list, there's nothing to indicate that you must pick
something there either.  In either case, you have to have some kind of
Javascript validation of the form to make sure something was selected.

The "Please Pick a Component" seems pretty clear to me that I should 
pick a component.  If you want to make it more obvious, remove the 
word "please" :-)