Mobile row actions are rather long

[arunsathiya]

The row actions for items (like posts, pages or reusable blocks) are rather long on mobile view at the moment.

The attached image is how they look at the moment. If I remember correct, they were not spaced out so much in the past.

I see some work here on this ticket https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/45024 for spacing mobile row actions, but unsure if the same changes are causing the current issue.

I also did some basic search before posting this ticket; if there's an existing report for this, happy to be pointed at it!

[arunsathiya]

The row actions on the reusable blocks section of a WordPress site

[arunsathiya]

More info: This seems to be happen at 782px and lesser.

[sabernhardt]

@arunsathiya Hi and thanks for the report!

As you noticed with ticket #45024, changeset [43670] increased the link spacing on smaller screens. This intentionally creates more space between the links, mainly so it is easier to tap them with your finger.

It is supposed to arrange the links in three columns and then reduce to two at 480px and narrower, but the selector needs to be revised for the two-column adjustment. Also, the links can be quite spread out when the device/browser is between 600 and 782 pixels wide, so it's worth considering four-column layout there (or a better option).

[sabernhardt]

correcting the selector for 2-column layout

[sabernhardt]

option with 4-column layout for wider mobile widths

[sabernhardt]

4 columns at 750 pixels wide (Firefox's Responsive Mode)

[sabernhardt]

Related: on #48546, @aliveic suggested using flexbox and flex-wrap instead of grid.

[estelaris]

adding dev-feedback for core to check the spacing in code.

This updates the row actions CSS to use flexbox with a full-width layout, placing the extra space between each action item. It also updates the min-width of each item to 10em, just to keep that larger touch-target. That's an arbitrary amount, we can tweak that if another value looks better.

At 782px, it switches to the full-width flexbox layout:

Around 660px the last item wraps

Around 510px the 3rd item wraps

Around 375px, each item it on its own line

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47895

[danfarrow]

It’s looking good to me!

Animated gif showing Firefox dev tools flexbox overlay to reveal the enlarged touch targets:

[danfarrow]

(just to clarify, my comment is in relation to @ryelle's patch)

Replying to danfarrow:

It’s looking good to me!

Animated gif showing Firefox dev tools flexbox overlay to reveal the enlarged touch targets:

[sabernhardt]

Users screen: the current user's View link can be far from the Edit link

[sabernhardt]

two links on second row can also be far apart

[sabernhardt]

Note: the PR was changed since it was attached to the ticket, so there is no min-width and the screenshots within that description no longer apply.

Overall, PR 825 improves the mobile layout. In some situations, though, justify-content: space-between is not ideal. I think I prefer removing that rule (so it's the default flex-start).

I'd like a change here in 5.8. If we're comfortable with the flexbox now, that would close both this and #48546 together. Otherwise, I could refresh the simple selector correction 47895.patch​ on this ticket and the flexbox discussion could move to the other ticket.

[ryelle]

Ah, the space-between was to spread out the actions, to prevent accidental touch-taps. But on those items with 2 actions (like the current user), it ends up being less usable. There's probably enough padding on each item to be sufficient touch targets. I've updated ​the PR and added a screenshot there.

Edit: I'm also uploading the screenshot here, because I forgot it doesn't embed anymore…

New iteration, with space-between removed:

<img width="662" alt="Screen Shot 2021-05-26 at 10 34 35 AM" src="​https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/541093/119679100-153beb00-be0e-11eb-9b3c-f6ec609447e9.png">

[notlaura]

I tested this change and can confirm the row actions are no longer justified space-between, and I am seeing the same as @ryelle's most recent screenshot.

[ryelle]

In 51073:

List Tables: Update spacing in action items on small screens.

Switch the display to flex. The action items use their intrinsic space, rather than a fixed grid, which prevents too much space between items on larger mobile screens.

Props arunsathiya, sabernhardt, danfarrow, notlaura, aliveic, y_kolev
Fixes #48546, #47895.

Committed in r51073.

[sabernhardt]

#46942 was marked as a duplicate.