When merging Gin into core, the sticky actions were tucked into a feature flag. I think we should figure out how to handle this properly, because Drupal CMS will want to opt in to the sticky actions to keep the experience consistent.
I believe there are some issues and concerns with the sticky actions as they were implemented in Gin, but I am not sure what they are.
$settings['core_admin_theme_use_sticky_action_buttons'] = 'always'; to settings.php to see the sticky actions behaviourNot sure yet. I definitely want to maintain this feature, so I think we first need to understand what the concerns are so we can decide how to address them.
TBC
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These first three screenshots show places where the action is always at the top right:
Then these are comparisons of the same pages with and without:
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| #12 | Screenshot 2026-10-14 at 5.42.54 pm.png | 136.3 KB | pameeela |
| #12 | Screenshot 2026-10-14 at 5.43.06 pm.png | 161.45 KB | pameeela |
| #12 | Screenshot 2026-10-14 at 5.43.23 pm.png | 182.04 KB | pameeela |
| #12 | Screenshot 2026-10-14 at 5.43.36 pm.png | 213.57 KB | pameeela |
| #12 | Screenshot 2026-10-14 at 5.45.35 pm.png | 95.99 KB | pameeela |
Comments
Comment #2
pameeela commentedComment #3
jurgenhaasUnfortunately, the sticky action buttons have been deferred from being included in default_admin for now. The reason behind it is that (a) there is no UX approval yet, and (b) it's not working reliably as it had been implemented in Gin.
So, for now, that functionality is not even available, so we can't turn it on with config or setting either.
Comment #4
pameeela commented@jurgenhaas oh, when was it removed? I was able to test it using the latest 11.4 release.
Comment #5
jurgenhaas@pameeela it never made it into Core. Some buttons do appear in the top bar, which are primary tasks, but not action buttons.
Comment #6
pameeela commentedAhh, I see what you mean. Well, that's better than nothing :)
So what would you see as a good way to move this forward? I am now a bit concerned about this as if it is not implemented that means a pretty major UX change for existing sites when they upgrade to 12. I would love to find a way forward that works for everyone!
Comment #7
jurgenhaasWait, I was wrong. Your hint about the feature flag was absolutely right, and that's in default_admin for all Drupal core versions.
You can change
neverto eitheralwaysorcontent_formsto use them just in content edit forms or always. And that's still in main and Drupal 11.x. So, that was the compromise back then to hide this until the UX approval was made available and to keep the code for it around, as it seems to be so close to being perfect.Major concerns have been, AFAIK:
During the Gin-merge we agreed to let this merge finalize and then go through a proper UX-research to decide on how to move it forward.
Comment #8
pameeela commentedOK good, I thought I was losing it for a second because I was sure I tested it!
These two points are interesting because even without this enabled the following are still in the top bar:
Even in Layout Builder the buttons are at the top of the form (under the title which I would say is worse, but still they are not at the bottom).
So I wonder if we can revisit this conversation in light of the current state, which is that many screens already use the top right as the primary call to action, and drill down into the specific concerns?
This is specific but I also find it a little strange. If all forms have their actions in the top right, I don't think this would be confusing?
Comment #9
jurgenhaasI totally agree. I've always been an advocate for the sticky buttons only. My thought is that consistency is the best UX, but then, I'm not an expert.
The confusing bit may be for config forms, not content, e.g. this one:
But even then, I'd go for consistency.
Happy to move this forward again. Earlier this year, it's been @ckrina who was involved, but I'm not sure how much she's still around for this sort of things. Otherwise we would ask Emma to help us out?
Comment #10
emma horrell commentedAdding my thoughts here and echoing comments already made - good UX would advocate for consistent placement of the actions where Gin users have come to expect them to be (in the top right). I've watched people use Gin and have observed this expectation.
If there are concerns about clutter in the top right then 'More actions' can take care of that
I don't know the full details but wonder if the wide screen reach issue could be improved by the alignment of actions to to the content container (from the screenshot it looks like they're aligned to the viewport).
Comment #11
yannickoo@jurgenhaas wouldn't it be nice to have a way to have both? I am expecting the form actions at the bottom but I am fine with the additional ones at the upper right corner. Is it time to restore the option in the theme settings?
Comment #12
pameeela commentedComment #13
pameeela commentedComment #14
pameeela commentedAdded some screenshots to the IS showing the current state with some comparisons.
I have no objection to making this configurable, but I do think it should be sticky by default since that's consistent and would make the most sense to a new user. I think existing users could reasonably prefer the old way so having that supported seems fine.