Scalable Dropdowns and More, chat on 2014/10/8

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In 3.9, I started taking a look at solving some long-standing scaling issues with dropdowns, notably those for users (#19867) and pages (#9864). I arrived at a conclusion about our mixed usage of autocomplete and autosuggest far too late to make it for 3.9, and did not add it to my plate for 4.0, but would like to tackle it again for 4.1.

We can solve these issues smartly by using a combination of Ajax-powered autocomplete/suggest and smart defaults, e.g. users with the most content pre-loaded for quick access without having to run a search. As a brief overview of where I see us going with this – a roadmap, if you will: user dropdown, page dropdown, current instances of jQuery UIUI User interface autocomplete (multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site users and new site), tags/nonhierarchical taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. UI, more built-in taxonomy UIs (#14877), and possibly more as we discover appropriate places. Not all of this will happen in 4.1 – think of this as not only a solution to long-standing, painful problems, but also a step in a series of many.

To that end, we will be holding an initial chat at 19:00 UTC on 2014/10/8 to get things moving. @ericlewis and I have begun early development as a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party – for more, see this particular branch, which experiments with using Select 2 as a JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. helper library for the UI.

#4-1, #dropdowns, #plugins

Jon Brown 7:03 am on October 8, 2014

I’m new and don’t know the history… I am not trying to reopen any debate. I’m wondering though if using Select2 is fairly settled? (Not because I have a personal preference between Select2, Selectize.js and Chosen, but rather I’d like to know how others wiser than me decided between them).
- Helen Hou-Sandi 8:47 am on October 8, 2014
  
  No hard decision has been made – that’s why it’s one branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". in the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party repo. Chosen doesn’t do Ajax/search on its own and Selectize is licensed ApacheApache Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is an Open Source software available for free.-only, though.
  - Jon Brown 2:19 pm on October 9, 2014
    
    Ah… forgot APL2 is not compat with GPLV2 only compat with GPLV3. Anyway, was just wondering. I’ve used Select2 and Chosen a bunch in that past. Selectize looked like it had better tests and was lighter was all.
- Dan Griffiths 10:33 am on October 8, 2014
  
  Regarless of the licensing issues, Select2 has by far the best feature set of the three.
Max Bond 10:07 am on October 8, 2014

Don’t focus only on dropdowns!
WordPress problem is wider – how to select wp data objects (post types entities, taxonomies, users) inside other objects.
For example I have two custom post types: order and product. And I need to add product to order. Sounds simple, but there is no standard interface for such select! If needed to add user to order – the same interface should be used.
Autocomplete/suggest – is good, but not enough. May be to use some kind of popup window (like media library)?
- Helen Hou-Sandi 4:39 pm on October 8, 2014
  
  We need to start with fixing long-standing bugs in existing functions, namely wp_dropdown_users() and wp_dropdown_pages() as linked in the TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets above. As I said, there may be more possibilities as we take each step. If you have a citation for autocomplete/suggest not being good enough, I am all ears.
Gabriel Reguly 12:33 pm on October 8, 2014

I won’t be able to attend the chat, but would love if you do take into account the dropdown for sites in multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site installs.

http://wpjourno.com/my-sites-toolbar-menu-wordpress-multisite/

Cheers,
Gabriel
- John Blackbourn 11:19 pm on October 8, 2014
  
  There has been a bit of discussion on this, but not a whole lot: #15317.
Ben Hansen (ubernaut) 6:47 pm on October 8, 2014

sounds great!

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