3.6 Network Admin Help Text

[DrewAPicture]

One of the ​Doc team's action items for 3.6 is to work on overhauling the Network Admin help tabs, many of which contain outdated and, well, unhelpful information.

Our goals:

• Focus on writing action vs description-based help text
• Aim for a consistent voice
• Pave the way for future Help UI changes in how we structure the information

Any Network Admin screen is fair game but by no means do we intend to change strings just for the sake of change. It was the consensus of the team to focus on this effort earlier in the release cycle than usual so that translators will have plenty of time to work on new strings and provide feedback.

Following some ​feedback from @nacin, @markjaquith, and @aaroncampbell, it was decided the best format for concatenating help tabs strings should follow this format going forward:

$example_string = '<p>' . __( 'This is some help text' ) . '</p>';
$example_string .= '<p>' . __( 'This is some more help text' ) . '</p>';
 
get_current_screen()->add_help_tab( array(
'id'	=> 'example',
'title'	=> __( 'Example' ),
'content'	=> $example_string
) );

[DrewAPicture]

/network/index.php (Dashboard)

[DrewAPicture]

23163.diff gets the ball rolling with changes to the main network index help text.

Before:

Overview:

Until WordPress 3.0, running multiple sites required using WordPress MU instead of regular WordPress. In version 3.0, these applications have merged. If you are a former MU user, you should be aware of the following changes:

• Site Admin is now Super Admin (we highly encourage you to get yourself a cape!).
• Blogs are now called Sites; Site is now called Network.

The Right Now box provides the network administrator with links to the screens to either create a new site or user, or to search existing users and sites. Screens for Sites and Users are also accessible through the left-hand navigation in the Network Admin section.

After:

Overview:

Welcome to your Network Admin. This area of the Dashboard is used for managing all aspects of your Multisite network.

The menus on the left side allow you to:

• Add and manage sites or users
• Install and activate themes or plugins
• Update your network
• Modify global network settings

Quick Tasks:

The Right Now widget on this screen provides current user and site counts on your network. New users and sites are easily created by clicking the ‘Create a New Site’ or ‘Create a New User’ links.

You can also search for any user or site in your network by using the search boxes. Users can be searched by entering all or part of a username or email address. Sites are searchable by path or domain, depending on which type of network you have.

[DrewAPicture]

23163.1-DJ-SM.diff​ is a second pass at /network/index.php from Drew & Siobhan.

Overview: ​http://cl.ly/image/330Y243r2O2q

Quick Tasks: ​http://cl.ly/image/2g2h3B1Y0x3H

[DrewAPicture]

/network/index.php (Dashboard) 2nd pass

[DrewAPicture]

23163-sites.diff​ is a first pass at /network/sites.php

​sites.php discussion on make/docs

Before:

Tab: Overview

Add New takes you to the Add New Site screen. You can search for a site by Name, ID number, or IP address. Screen Options allows you to choose how many sites to display on one page.

This is the main table of all sites on this network. Switch between list and excerpt views by using the icons above the right side of the table.

Hovering over each site reveals seven options (three for the primary site):

• An Edit link to a separate Edit Site screen.
• Dashboard leads to the Dashboard for that site.
• Deactivate, Archive, and Spam which lead to confirmation screens. These actions can be reversed later.
• Delete which is a permanent action after the confirmation screens.
• Visit to go to the frontend site live.

The site ID is used internally, and is not shown on the front end of the site or to users/viewers.

Clicking on bold headings can re-sort this table.

After:

Tab: Overview

This area of the Administration Screens is used for managing the sites in your Multisite Network.

From here you can:

• Add, modify or remove sites from your network
• Search for sites in your network
• Perform bulk actions on multiple sites at once

Tab: Site Management

The site management screen allows you to modify aspects of one or many of your sites at once.

Hovering over each site reveals seven options (three for the primary site):

• Clicking Edit takes you to a multi-part settings screen for that site
• Clicking Dashboard takes you to the Dashboard screen for that site
• Clicking Deactivate, Archive, or Spam performs the specified action with a confirmation screen
• Clicking Delete deletes a site from your network, following a confirmation screen
• Clicking Visit takes you to the front-end view of the site

[DrewAPicture]

/network/sites.php

[DrewAPicture]

Due to other docs projects taking priority, we've decided to push this to future release.

It would be nice to at least get 23163.1-DJ-SM.diff​ in and work to getting more screens tackled at a later time.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 23657:

Update Network Dashboard help text. props DrewAPicture, raggedrobins. see #23163.

[SergeyBiryukov]

From [23657]:

To search for a user enter all or part of a username or email address

Actually, just a part of a username doesn't work, it also requires an asterisk. So, a user like samplesubscriber01 can be found by sample*, but not just sample. This might need an additional clarification.

[wonderboymusic]

these are all marked 3.7-early

[nacin]

Anything in particular that needs to occur here?

[DrewAPicture]

I think this might go hand-in-hand with the Admin Help project as they're looking at fixing up the content once the UX is figured out. Let's wait to see how that develops.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Could we fix comment:11 for now? Perhaps change "all or part of a username" to just "a username"?

[DrewAPicture]

clarification on wildcard

[DrewAPicture]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

Could we fix comment:11 for now? Perhaps change "all or part of a username" to just "a username"?

23163.2.diff​ should work for that:

To search for a user, enter an email address or username. Use an asterisk to search for a partial username, such as user*

[DrewAPicture]

I guess we could do s/asterisk/wildcard too.

[SergeyBiryukov]

How would 23163.3.diff​ look? Makes commas/periods more consistent.

[DrewAPicture]

switcheroo

[DrewAPicture]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

How would 23163.3.diff​ look? Makes commas/periods more consistent.

Fine with me. I also just now realized the strong tags were not in the right place on the last two list items. 23163.4.diff​ fixes them + your changes.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 25457:

Clarify a string in Network Dashboard help text. props DrewAPicture. see #23163.

[earnjam]

Any thoughts on setting a milestone on this? I noticed the sites.php help tab has some incorrect info since the MP6 merge.

"Clicking on bold headings can re-sort this table."

Sortable columns do not have bold headings anymore.

[DrewAPicture]

Replying to earnjam:

Any thoughts on setting a milestone on this? I noticed the sites.php help tab has some incorrect info since the MP6 merge.

Hello :)

If you'd like to create a patch we could certainly discuss including it for 3.9. This effort has sort of waned since it this ticket was created, but contributions are certainly welcome anytime.

[Ipstenu]

Drew, the patch 23163-sites.diff does this. Do you want a separate one to just fix the bold mention?

(I checked that patch for need of a refresh and it works fine)

[DrewAPicture]

Haven't had a lot of time to work on this in the last year or so. Closing as maybelater.