In some countries, postal codes are defined with a dash in the middle,
so we're using a colon to define ranges instead. We could also use two
dots, like in Ruby ranges, but IMHO this would cause typos since people
would enter codes separated with three dots or just one dot.
We were making some typos during development in the name of the keys and
tests were still passing.
We're also removing some texts that were never used.
Some developers work on CONSUL installations where Spanish and/or
English aren't part of the available locales. In those cases, the
`dev_seed` task was crashing because we were using attributes like
`name_en` and `name_es`.
So we're using attributes for random locales instead.
We're using a proc so we don't have code like this all over the place:
random_locales.map do |locale|
I18n.with_locale(locale) do
phase.name = I18n.t("budgets.phase.#{phase.kind}")
phase.save!
end
end
This would make the code harder to read and would execute a `save!` once
per locale, which would make the task much slower.
We could also avoid the procs writing something like:
def random_locales_attributes(**attribute_names_with_values)
random_locales.each_with_object({}) do |locale, attributes|
I18n.with_locale(locale) do
attribute_names_with_values.each do |attribute_name, (i18n_key, i18n_args)|
value = I18n.t(i18n_key, (i18n_args || {}).merge(language: I18n.t("i18n.language.name")))
attributes["#{attribute_name}_#{locale.to_s.underscore}"] = value
end
end
end
end
And calling the method with with:
random_locales_attributes(name: ["seeds.budgets.name", year: Date.current.year - 1])
However, this code would also be different that what we usually do, we'd
have to apply some magic to pass the `language:` parameter, and the
strings wouldn't be recognized by i18n-tasks, so we aren't sure we're
really gaining anything.
Originally there was a link pointing to the FAQ page but it was removed
in commit e14b7b67fb because by default the FAQ page in CONSUL only
contains a placeholder text.
We aren't sure where this link should point:
* FAQ page, only if the FAQ page is published
* Help page, only when the help feature is enabled
* CONSUL technical documentation page
So, for now, we're choosing the easiest solution which is removing the
text completely.
We already support Errbit and Airbrake as error monitoring services.
Since some people might not want to setup Errbit and might prefer
Rollbar over Airbrake, we're referencing it in the custom gemfile.
We haven't updated the gem for years and don't know whether it
still works with our current Ruby and Rails versions.
Besides, dependabot keeps opening pull requests to update it. In theory
we could just ignore the dependabot pull requests for this dependency,
but unfortunately right now we can't add a dependabot config file
because it would open pull requests on forks as well.
Finally, there are other companies offering similar services for Rails
applications, and it's up to each CONSUL installation to decide which
one is better for them. We might add a self-hosted performance
monitoring tool in the future.
Since other CONSUL installations might be using Newrelic, and in general
we recommend adding an application monitoring tool, we're suggesting it
in the custom gemfile. In the name of neutrality, we're also adding
Sentry. We might add other services in the future.
So now:
* In the first few phases, no filters are shown (just like before)
* During the valuation phase, we show "Active" and "Unfeasible"
* During the final voting, we show "Active" (which now refers to the
selected investments), "Not selected for the final voting" and
"Unfeasible"
* When the budget is finished, we show "Winners", "Not selected for the
final voting" and "Unfeasible"
Now each investment is shown in one (and only one) of the filters
(except when the budget is finished; in this case we don't show selected
investments which didn't win), and we remove the confusing "Not
unfeasible" filter by only showing it during the valuation phase (before
filters are selected) and renaming it to "Active". We also rearrange the
filters so the default one for each phase is shown first.
The idea of using the "Active" text for investments which can be
selected during the selection phase and voted during the final voting is
experimental. Right now, for simplicity, since we assume filters will
always use the same text, we're removing the "Active" filter when the
budget is finished, since having both "Winners" and "Active" filters
would be confusing.
Placeholders are hard to read due to their low contrast, and users might
want to read them after they're already gone, and so they cause both
accessibility and usability issues.
The installer creates the application in the following path:
home_dir: "/home/{{{ deploy_user }}"
We update the variable "deploy_to" in the deploy-secrets
file to be consistent with the installer.
While we are modifying the file we also update the "user"
variable in staging and preproduction sections with the
installer default value: "deploy_user: deploy" the same as
we already have in the production section.
The interface was a bit confusing, since after clicking on "See
unfeasible investments" (or similar), we were on a page where no
investments were shown.
Besides, since commit 7e3dd47d5, the group page is only linked from the
"my ballot" page, through a link inviting the user to vote in that
group, and it's only possible to vote selected investments (which is the
default filter during the final voting phase).
The only reason we had these links here was these links weren't present
in the investments page. But they're present there since commit
04605d5d5, so we don't need them in the group page anymore.
We removed it in commit c322b2c4a because it was hard to know the
difference between "Feasible" and "Not unfeasible". We're renaming the
"Not unfeasible" filter instead.
We're also moving the "selected" filter so it appears before the
"unselected" filter, just like the "feasible" filter appears before the
"unfeasible" filter.
The text "Groups and headings" might cause users to think both groups
and headings have the same hierarchy, and wonder whether what they
immediately see are groups or headings.
Using "Heading groups" we make it clear that what comes immediately is a
group, and then we see each group has headings.
Since the message might appear several times on the same page, it's
useful to give a bit more context. Besides, usability tests show that
when there's a group with no headings, there's no clear indication on
the page that the group is actually a group and not a heading.
We're also adding some emphasis to the group name in the "Showing
headings" message, to be consistent with the emphasis we've
added the the group name in the "No headings" message.
Captions benefit blind screen reader users who navigate through tables,
particularly in this case because we potentially have several tables
with headings (one table per group), so when navigating through tables
it might be hard to know which group the headings belong to.
In this case they also benefit sighted users. Usability tests have shown
the "Groups and headings" section is a bit confusing, so adding a
caption like "Headings in Districts" helps clarifying Districts is a
group and the table refers to headings in that group.
The very same table is rendered in the "headings" step of the budget
creation wizard. However, in that case the information of the caption is
redundant because the page is specific for headings belonging to a
certain group. We're making the element invisible but still keeping it
for screen reader users in order to ease their navigation through
tables.
The population field is optional and only used for statistic purposes,
and the content block feature is also secondary, so IMHO it's OK if we
don't display it in the index; if administrators need this information,
they can see it by going to the "edit heading" page.
With this change it's easier to navigate the table on small and medium
screens. Actually, the whole page is easier to navigate, since we
greatly reduce the cases where a horizontal scrollbar is present.
The buttons to create polls associated with a budget were too prominent,
appearing on the table as if they were as used as the link to manage
investments. Most CONSUL installations don't use physical booths, and
would probably wonder what that button is about.
We're moving it to a more discrete place, at the bottom of the budget
page. This way we can also split the action in two: on budgets not
having a poll, we display the button in a not-so-accessible position (at
the bottom of the page), since this button will only be used once per
budget at most. Once the poll has been created, it means this feature is
going to be used, so we display a link to manage ballots more
prominently at the top of the page. If the budget has finished the final
voting stage without creating a poll, we don't show either the link or
the button because this feature can no longer be used.
We're also adding some texts indicating what this feature is about,
since it's probably one of the least understood features in CONSUL
(probably because the interface is very confusing... but that's a
different story).
Since now from the budget page we can access every feature related to
the budget, we can remove the "preview" action from the budgets index
table, since this feature isn't that useful for budgets once they're
published.
Now the budgets table doesn't take as much space as it used to, although
it's still too wide to be handled properly on devices with a small
screen.
Both the calculate winners and delete actions benefit from some kind of
hint.
The "calculate winners" hint informs administrators that results won't
be publicly available unless the "show results" option is enabled.
The delete action was redirecting with an error message when the budget
couldn't be deleted; IMHO it's better to disable it and inform
administrators why it's disabled. Alternatively we could remove the
button completely; however, users might be looking for a way to delete a
budget and wouldn't find any hint about it.
We're now removing the "Delete" action from the budgets index table,
since most of the time it isn't possible to delete a budget and so the
action takes up space and we get little gain in return. We could keep
the "Delete" icon just for budgets which can be deleted; however, the
alignment of the table rows would suffer, making it harder to find the
intended action.
Calculating winners before the balloting is over is useless (results
aren't published at that point) and can lead to the wrong results since
users are still voting and results might change.
And we were showing the button to calculate winners even when a budget
had finished. However, in this case the action to calculate winners did
nothing, which resulted in administrators seeing nothing happened after
pressing the button.
Before, users needed to navigate to the list of groups in order to
add, edit or delete a group.
Also, they need to navigate to the list of groups first, and then to
the list of headings for that group in order to add, edit or delete a
heading.
Now, it's possible to do all these actions for any group or heading
from the participatory budget view to bring simplicity and to reduce
the number of clicks from a user perspective.
Co-Authored-By: Javi Martín <javim@elretirao.net>
In the past it would have been confusing to add a way to directly
enable/disable a phase in the phases table because it was in the middle
of the form. So we would have had next to each other controls that don't
do anything until the form is sent and controls which modify the
database immediately. That's why we couldn't add the checkboxes we used
when using the wizard.
Now the phases aren't on the same page as the budget form, so we can
edit them independently. We're using a switch, so it's consistent with
the way we enable/disable features. We could have used checkboxes, but
with checkboxes, users expect they aren't changing anything until they
click on a button to send the form, so we'd have to add a button, and it
might be missed since we're going to add "buttons" for headings and
groups to this page which won't send a form but will be links.
Since we're changing the element with JavaScript after an AJAX call, we
need a way to find the button we're changing. The easiest way is adding
an ID attribute to all admin actions buttons/links.
Having links in the middle of a form distracts users from the task of
filling in the form, and following a link before submitting the form
will mean whatever has been filled in is lost.
And the budgets form is already very long and hard to fill in. Having
the phases table in the middle of it made it even harder. And, since
we're planning to add the option to manage groups and headings from the
same page, it's better to have a dedicated page for the form.
Usability tests showed some users were struggling when seeing the word
"Required" as a legend (it's actually styled as a title), since this
isn't a common pattern when filling in forms. They were expecting
something like "Fields with * are required", and so the "Required" text
alone made them feel the sentence wasn't complete.
We could also add an "*" to required fields in addition to the
"Required" text. In this case, however, some users wondered what the
asterisk was about: "It can't mean 'required' because they've already
said these fields are required".
We'll probably have to revisit required and optional fields again. For
now, we're just doing a small improvement.
The integration between Airbrake/Errbit and DelayedJob wasn't working
because we require our dependencies in alphabetic order, and so by the
time `airbrake` was required, `delayed_job` wasn't loaded.
So we're manually requiring the integration.
It could be argued that seeing which proposals a user follows is a good
indicator of which proposals a user has supported, since we're
automatically creating follows for supported proposals since commit
74fbde09f. So now, we're extending the `public_interests` funcionality,
so it only shows elements users are following if they've enabled it.
This is an improvement over using the `public_activity` attribute in two
ways:
* The `public_interests` attribute is disabled by default, so by default
other users won't be able to see what a user is following
* Who has created proposals/debates/investments/comments is public
information, while who is following which elements is not; so enabling
`public_activity` shouldn't imply potentially private information should
be displayed as well
We've considered removing the `public_interests` attribute completely
and just hiding the "following" page for everyone except its owner, but
keeping it provides more compatibility with existing installations.
Its value is difficult to read due to the low contrast between the color
of the field and the color of the placeholder text, and we already have
the same information in the hint above it.
Since targets didn't have a title but only a long description, every
form allowing to select targets was pretty much unusable: we either
displayed just the code or the whole description.
Now, with a concise title, it's easier to find and select the desired
target.
The titles have been copied from The Global Goals page [1].
Note we're using the `short_title` I18n key for the `title` method and
the `long_title` I18n key for the `long_title` method. We can't use
`title` as I18n key instead of `short_title` because it would affect
existing translations.
[1] https://www.globalgoals.org/
