We were defining campaigns with `let`. That meant they weren't created
until these methods were used in the tests.
For the test "Do not track erroneous track_ids", that meant the line
`expect(page).not_to have_content campaign2.name.to_s` wasn't really
testing anything, since before this line is executed, the campaign2
wasn't in the database at all, and so obviously its name wouldn't be on
the stats page.
For the test "Track email templates", it meant we were creating the
campaign2 record after visiting the campaign1 page with the browser.
Creating records in the tests after starting the browser might be the
reason why this test has recenty failed in our CI [1]:
1) Email campaigns Track email templates
Failure/Error: ds.add params[:event].titleize, Ahoy::Event.where(
name: params[:event]).group_by_day(:time).count
ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid:
PG::ProtocolViolation: ERROR: bind message supplies 0
parameters, but prepared statement "" requires 1
# ./app/controllers/admin/api/stats_controller.rb:13:in `show'
Using `let!` to create the campaings before the browser starts improves
the situation.
[1] https://github.com/consul/consul/runs/2952333023
The word "budget" in the "Preview budget" link is redundant.
On the other hand, the words "Manage", Edit" and "Admin" are not
really necessary in my humble opinion. Just like in the admin
navigation menu we use "Participatory budgets" instead of "Manage
Participatory budgets", the fact that we're going to manage or
admin or edit something can be deduced from the fact that we're in
the admin section.
Besides, it isn't clear to me why we use "Manage" for projects,
"Edit" for heading groups and "Admin" for ballots. The differences
between these three concepts might be too subtle for me.
The previous paragraphs haven't been corroborated with real users,
though, so I might be mistaken and we might need to revisit these
links in the future.
These actions still take quite a lot of space. Maybe in the future we
could remove the "delete" icon, at least on budgets which cannot be
deleted.
When we see a list of, let's say, banners, and each one has a link to
edit them, the word "banner" in the text "edit banner" is redundant and
adds noise; even for users with cognitive disabilities, it's obvious
that the "edit" link refers to the banner.
In commit 9794ffbbf, we replaced "buttons" with icons in order to make
the admin interface consistent with the planned budget investments
redesign.
However, using icons has some issues. For once, icons like a trash for
the "delete" action might be obvious, but other icons like "confirm
moderation" or "send pending" might be a bit confusing.
It's true that we were adding tooltips on hover. We tried two
approaches: using Foundation's tooltips and using CSS tooltips.
Foundation tooltips are not activated on focus (only on hover), while
CSS tooltips always appear below the icon, which might be a problem when
the icons are at the bottom of the screen (one of our milestone tests
was failing because of that and we can now run it with JavaScript
enabled).
Both Foundation and CSS tooltips have other issues:
* They force users to make an extra step and move the mouse over the
link just to know what the link is about
* They aren't available on touch screens, so these users will have to
memorize what each icon does
* They are not hoverable, and making them hoverable would cause a
different issue because the tooltip might cover links below it, making
it impossible to click these links without moving the mouse away
first
* They are not dismissable, which is considered an accessibility issue
and a requirement in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [1]
For all these reasons, we're using both texts and icons. As Thomas
Byttebier said "The best icon is a text label [2]". Heydon Pickering
also makes a point towards providing text alongside icons in his book
"Inclusive Components" [3].
Note that, since we're now adding text and some of the colors we use for
actions are hard to read against a white/gray background, we're making a
few colors darker.
With these changes, actions take more space in the admin table compared
to the space they took in version 1.3, but they are more usable and
accessible while they still take less space than they did in version
1.2.
[1] https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/content-on-hover-or-focus
[2] https://thomasbyttebier.be/blog/the-best-icon-is-a-text-label
[3] https://inclusive-components.design/tooltips-toggletips/
As mentioned in commit 5214d89c8, there are several issues with
submitting a form when a `<select>` tag changes. In particular, keyboard
users might accidentally fire the event while browsing the options, and
screen reader users will find a form with no obvious way to submit it.
In this case, there's an extra problem: in commit be8a0dbe8 we added a
second `<select>` field to this form, which also submitted on change.
Sometimes users changed one of the values and wanted to change the other
value as well before submitting the form. However, it wasn't possible,
because we would submit it before they had a chance to change the second
value.
So now we don't submit the form on change and add a submit button. This
is similar to what we do in the "Advanced filters" we use in several
places.
Using `currentcolor` is IMHO more expressive, since it shows the
intention of styling the border with the same color as the text.
This is particularly useful for CONSUL installations using custom
styles. Consider the following code:
```
.is-active {
border: 1px solid $brand;
color: $brand;
}
```
If we'd like to customize the way active items look, we'd have to
override two colors:
```
.is-active {
border: 1px solid $brand-secondary;
color: $brand-secondary;
}
```
Consider the scenario where we use `currentcolor` (which is the default
border color):
```
.is-active {
border: 1px solid;
color: $brand;
}
```
Now we only need to override one color to change the styles:
```
.is-active {
color: $brand-secondary;
}
```
Since we are using the same color as the text color in both the public
and admin areas, we can omit the border color completely. Since now
admin elements get the exact same border, we can remove this border so
they'll inherit the same border as used in the public area.
Since we're only changing the style of the border in one case and the
color in the other case, we don't have to duplicate the code for every
property.
This makes it easier for other CONSUL installations to customize these
borders.
By default Foundation uses a `#1779ba transparent transparent`
transparent border. We were overriding the whole border, when we only
needed to override the top border. Furthermore, we were overriding it
twice: once in the public area and once in the admin area. However, if
we use `currentcolor`, we only have to override it once, and in both
cases the border will have the same color as the text surrounding it
(white in the public area and black in the admin area).
Using `inherit` is IMHO more expressive since it means "use the color of
the parent element".
This is particularly useful for CONSUL installations using custom
styles. Consider the following code:
```
h2 {
color: $white;
a {
color: $white;
}
}
```
If we'd like to customize the way headings look, we'd have to override
two colors:
```
h2 {
color: $red;
a {
color: $red;
}
}
```
Consider the scenario where we use `inherit`:
```
h2 {
color: $white;
a {
color: inherit;
}
}
```
Now we only need to override one color to change the styles:
```
h2 {
color: $red;
}
```
Using the same color as text made it impossible to visually recognize
the link. Users might click the link accidentally while trying to select
the text of that link.
Furthermore, sighted keyboard users would be surprised when tabbing
through the interface and realizing some apparently normal text is
really a link.
Since commit dcec003d0 we're only using the menu-text class in the admin
layouts. So instead of defining styles for menu-text and then
overwriting them in the admin section, we can define them just in the
admin section.
Since we don't have <img> tags in the menu-text element in the admin
section, we can remove their styles. And we can also remove the styles
we were overriding twice (like `line-height`).
These styles aren't necessary since commit aabf8493f. Now the "Go back"
link in the budgets section can use the same color as in the other
sections, while the other texts inherit the usual colors.
Now that we load this file before loading the `_settings.scss` file, we
can safely use the `!default` flag.
This makes it easier to override these variables by adding a new file
and loading it before `_consul_settings.scss` is loaded. For instance,
we've got this code related to the `$brand` variable:
```
$brand: #004a83 !default;
$brand-secondary: darken($brand, 10%) !default;
$dark: $brand-secondary !default;
$link: $brand !default;
$debates: $brand !default;
$tooltip-background-color: $brand !default;
```
If we override `$brand` in `_custom_settings.scss`, variables like
`$link` won't be affected by this change. In order to do so, we'd need
to load `_custom_settings.scss` before loading `_consul_settings.scss`.
So why aren't we loading `_custom_settings.scss` first, just like we
load `_consul_settings.scss` before loading `_settings.scss`? Mainly,
compatibility reasons. Some people might have this code in their
`_custom_settings.scss` file:
```
$dark: darken($brand, 30%);
```
If we load this file before loading `_consul_settings.scss`, we'll get
an error because `$brand` isn't defined at this point.
So we're introducing a new file where variables can be overriden before
they are defined while keeping the option to override them after they
are defined.
We're updating the comments in these files to define the new behavior,
and removing the links (which point to places which don't exist since
commit 392d633d2) in order to make it easier to read the comments.
We were overriding these values because the `$body-font-family` and
`$global-radius` variables were defined after the values in the
`_settings.scss` file had been computed.
Now these values are defined before the values in the `_settings.scss`
are computed, so we don't need to override the values which depend on
them anymore.
We were loading all Foundation variables and then overriding them. This
is problematic because we were overriding variables after using them.
For instance, we had this code in `_settings.scss`:
```
$black: #0a0a0a;
$white: #fefefe;
$body-background: $white;
$body-font-color: $black;
```
That meant we were setting `$body-background` to `#fefefe`, and
`$body-font-color` to `#0a0a0a`. Even if we changed the values of
`$black` and `$white` later, `$body-background` and `$body-font-color`
were not affected by this change.
So now we're overriding `$black` and `$white` before setting
`$body-background` and `$body-font-color`. In order to keep our custom
values instead of overriding them, we're using the `!default` flag in
the `_settings.scss` file.
This way of defining variables in the `_settings.scss` file with the
`!default` flag is recommended in the documentation regarding the
settings file [1].
There's also a disadvantage to this approach. Now that we're loading the
`_consul_settings.scss` file first, we can no longer use Foundation
variables inside the `_consul_settings.scss` file unless we define them
in this file as well.
[1] https://get.foundation/sites/docs/sass.html#the-settings-file
