Hi!
I've noticed the "Add Content" pane in Panels can be hard to navigate, with a lot of content types many average users just simply won't use. Even if you know what you're doing and use a lot of different content types, it still is sometimes difficult to find your way around that dialog.

To this end, I've begun work on a top-level organizer for Panels, which adds another tab ("Panes") on the main Panels page. There, all the different panes are listed, at which point you can either hide them or put them in a different category (Or create your own category).

I can do any one of three things:

a. Rewrite what I have as a patch to core Panels
b. Finish up what I have and submit it as a sub-module that's included with Panels
c. Submit it as my own project

It seems like basic functionality that should be included with Panels, so I'm quite willing to go the route of A; it doesn't seem like there's much benefit to keeping it as its own separate module (I.e., B.). While I'm totally willing to submit it as my own module (I have a few things in the pipeline and would like to get Git vetted at some point), I figure it's best to offer it as a patch first.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Comments

merlinofchaos’s picture

There's already a UI that lets you hide content that you think won't be used (though it's on a per panel application basis, since content is often specific to a use case, so for example mini panels has its own content list compared to panel pages. Panelizer can specifically inherit panel pages list if you tell it to).

I'm pretty ambivalent about recategorizing content. It's fine if you'll never modify a site, but as a site collects new modules and thus potentially new content, that can make things worse in the long run. So at best that should be a separate module, added and used with full knowledge of the potential downside.

aendra’s picture

Hi! Thanks for getting back to me!

There's already a UI that lets you hide content that you think won't be used (though it's on a per panel application basis, since content is often specific to a use case, so for example mini panels has its own content list compared to panel pages. Panelizer can specifically inherit panel pages list if you tell it to).

Wait, whut? Where is this located?

...as a site collects new modules and thus potentially new content, that can make things worse in the long run. So at best that should be a separate module, added and used with full knowledge of the potential downside.

To confirm, the potential downside you're referring to is that using some kind of organizer means you have to add new panels content types to it for them to show up as new modules are added?

merlinofchaos’s picture

The UI is at admin/structure/panels/settings I think.

And what I mean is that if you change the categorization, as new content is added it will likely still have the old categorization. If you don't keep on top of it, you'll end up with a mishmash.

aendra’s picture

Is that on the "General" tab? Because every time I've ever gone to that page, the "General" tab is blank. Is it supposed to be populated?

Additionally, the "Panels Pages" tab has "New content behavior" -- Is that what you're referring to? I had absolutely no idea that controlled what's displayed in the "Add Content" dialog... Regardless, even if I uncheck everything in that panel, there are still 5 categories -- including "Activity" and "Widgets", categories from whence I've never used a content type ever.

Noted re: content categorizations -- to clarify, my module doesn't actually change the default behaviour of any of the content types; it has a translation table that is populated on the admin page, which is then used when I hook into template_preprocess_panels_add_content_modal(). Would altering that hook's $vars object have any effect on the long-term health and maintenance of a Panels system? It's a purely aesthetic change.

Thanks!

merlinofchaos’s picture

It's on the 'Panel pages' tab, actually.

The 'categories' on that page don't match the visible categories. They match internal categorization based upon child plugins. Every item in add content is* represented there.

merlinofchaos’s picture

Activity and Widgets are almost certainly under 'block'.

merlinofchaos’s picture

And it's probably okay for your module to alter the vars there, yes.

gillarf’s picture

How did you get one aendrew?

I also want to recategorise content types, and would love to see what you've done.