Come together with the global Drupal community in Rotterdam, 28 Sept – 1 Oct 2026. Sessions, contribution, connection, and Early Bird savings until 8 June.Problem/Motivation
The style of UI text for Drupal core modules varies greatly, especially with modules that are new in core for Drupal 8. Some don't comply with our UI text standards (for example, for the module description displayed on the admin Extend page); for others, wording used in documentation has changed between Drupal 7 and 8, or the wording in the UI text on the administration pages is very different from the wording used on the embedded help text for the module.
All Drupal 8.x hook_help text has been reviewed and rewritten in #1908570: [meta] Update or create hook_help() texts for D8 core modules. We can therefore use this text as a starting point to review the other UI text.
Proposed resolution
The following can be fixed in separate issues:
- Update the module descriptions on the Extend page: #2570985: Update the module descriptions on the Extend page
- Update the explanation texts on the Configuration page: #2570997: [Meta] Update the module descriptions on the Configuration page
- Update the explanation texts on the Structure page: #2570999: Update the module descriptions on the Structure page
- Check that all links to the online documentation is in the same format, instead of refering for example to "handbook". See also #2493475: Fix online docs references in Help to conform to our standards
The following should be checked on all the administration pages of each module separately. All admin pages for a module are automatically linked from its help page. In most cases the text are in the *.module file, underneath the hook_help text.
- Links: Do all links go to the right places, and do the link names correlates to the page they link to? Links to pages of other modules that could be disabled need to be configured correctly. See https://www.drupal.org/node/632280.
- Proofreading: Good grammar, clear writing, correct punctuation, spelling, etc.
- Content: Is the UI text concise, striking a balance between explaining/describing relevant issues, without giving unnecessary information?
- Accuracy: Read the UI text vs trying out what it tells you to do and make sure it's correct, and that page titles, field labels, tab labels, etc. that you see on the screen match with what is in the UI text.
Remaining tasks
If you review a patch or the existing UI text for any or all of the above, add a comment to the issue telling what you have checked. If you checked all four issues for the text on the module admin pages and they look good, set the status to "reviewed and tested by the community" if there is a patch, and if it is still a "review existing UI texts" issue, add a note that the existing UI texts are fine and mark the issue as "fixed".
a) Add a issues for all the core modules as child issues to this one [in progress]
b) Get all the issues to "fixed" status [in progress]
If you find a new problem in UI text for a Core module:
- If there is already an open issue, add a comment to that issue (and maybe a new patch)
- If the existing issue(s) for that module have all been marked "fixed" or "closed (fixed)", then open a new issue, and in the "Issue summary and metadata" section of the new issue, add this meta issue as its parent.
Comments
Comment #1
jhodgdonSeems like a good idea, but I think the issue summary needs a bit of work. Maybe we need a specific list of things to look for? There's a LOT of UI text in modules. I'm not sure what types of things are likely to be problematic.
And for instance in the summary the "standards" link is for the hook_help(), and I think that's not what this issue is about, so that part of the summary needs editing to make it clear what the purpose of this issue is and what it covers. Thanks!
Also this is quite likely to be demoted to Normal by the Issue Priority Police. It does not affect functionality directly.
Comment #2
Sree commentedCan you please make the tasks 'UI Texts' more specific as there is huge bunch of text in every module?
Comment #3
ifrikI'll look at a few modules during the Frontend United sprint this weekend, an the update the issue summary.
Comment #4
ifrikI've updated the issue description.
Comment #5
ifrikComment #6
jhodgdonProofreading. "text" is not countable. ;)
I'm also not sure what this means in the summary:
No idea really... what would someone be checking, and on what page(s)?
Also not sure where the Links are that should be checked for the Links item that follows it, or which text is to be checked in the Proofreading, Content, and Accuracy sections. There is a LOT of UI text in a lot of pages. Are you just saying we should check the Help block at the top of admin pages, or is this greater in scope?
Comment #7
Sree commentedChecking the Help block at the top of the admin pages might be good for now as checking the whole bunch of text would be a real big task which might be good to go at later stages!
Comment #8
jhodgdonPerhaps we should also wait on this for a bit. There's a D8 usability test coming up on June 22-23, which could result in some changes to the UI.
https://groups.drupal.org/node/470398
Comment #9
ifrikI'll update the issue description before the sprints at DrupalCon Barcelona start.
Comment #10
ifrikComment #11
ifrikComment #12
ifrikComment #13
ifrikI've made separate issues for updating the texts on the Extend, Configuration and Structure pages because those are clear tasks that can be much more easily done per page instead of per module.
Comment #14
ifrikI've updated the issue summary to move some tasks into separate issues.
Comment #23
quietone commentedThere is only one child issue open and standard practice is to close the meta when there that occurs.
Therefore, closing. If this is incorrect reopen the issue, by setting the status to 'Active', and add a comment explaining what still needs to be done.
Thanks!