[72383] Workflow UX improvement: Apply workflow setting from one role to another role by dfriquet · Pull Request #22441 · opf/openproject

dfriquet · 2026-03-20T15:41:49Z

Ticket

https://community.openproject.org/wp/72383

What are you trying to accomplish?

No more global advanced legacy Copy feature for workflow;
Two separate features:
- Copy from type to type, on a new type creation for example;
- Copy from a type’s role to other roles of this same type.

Screenshots

Workflows Administration OpenProject - Copy dialog

What approach did you choose and why?

The first commit builds solid foundations for lighter controllers, starting with the new Workflows::Copies::FromTypesController — and extracting the Workflows::CopiesController for good measure;
The second commit adds the other feature, to copy workflows from a role;
The third commit removes the legacy Copy feature completely;
The fourth commit is an optional refactoring of the summary route to match the namespaced lighter controllers scheme ;
The fifth commit change the way actions are shown on the index page (see screenshots above), to be more explicit while sticking to the AC.
The eleventh commit change the way actions are shown on the index page (see screenshots above), to be consistent with other enumerations like Priorities;
The I-lost-count-falling-into-the-rabbit-holish commit merges the forms into a unified dialog for both actions;
The last commits plug this dialog into the "unsaved changes" warning dialog…

Merge checklist

Added/updated tests
Added/updated documentation in Lookbook (patterns, previews, etc)
Tested major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, ...)

…72383

…ows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role

github-actions · 2026-03-24T15:47:31Z

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lindenthal · 2026-03-24T18:05:24Z

Hi @dfriquet,
Sorry for this maybe stupid question. I didn’t read all the history.
Is there a specific reason you removed the link to the details page? Why is there an edit button?
Best
Niels

dfriquet · 2026-03-24T18:38:44Z

Hi @lindenthal,

Is there a specific reason you removed the link to the details page? Why is there an edit button?

I turned the link into an Edit button because the More button felt unnoticed at the end of the row, and an Edit button is more explicit and appealing than a link — I expect navigation to content behind a link, not action.

But obviously that’s not the case in OpenProject’s UX patterns. I walked my way around the admin settings and I see that Priorities or Statuses names links to edit pages, with a More menu at the end of the row for Priorities for instance… My bad, I’ll fix it 👌

…s-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role

mrmir

Functionality wise, nice job, especially with all the dialog/state management. I did notice a few things that need changes however, before a deeper code review:

Opening the page for a type does a very obvious two-part load, with the rest of the page coming in first and then the matrix being loaded. If this is something that you touched, is there a way to prevent that? Or is it just a factor of the size of the matrix and something we have to live with for types/roles with many check boxes?
I think the copy dialog needs to be taller to prevent it from scrolling/prevent the 'target roles' dropdown from being cut off and hiding the buttons of the dialog:

I expected to be redirected to the selected role when only one role is selected for copying, but I know being able to multi select them complicates the expected behaviour so it's fine to redirect to the first available role. However, can the flash messages be more descriptive? Maybe something like "Successfully copied to 'Anonymous' role." or "Successfully copied to 3 roles." or "Successfully copied to role: Anonymous". And while we're at it, also for when copying types?

mrmir

I-lost-count-falling-into-the-rabbit-holish

Oops, hopefully not too many more commits, but I found some more points:

The AC/figma mockups show that even when copying to another type, it is possible to select multiple types at once but the implementation is single select only
Can changing roles not be a full page reload easily?
When making changes to the matrix, switching tabs by saving changes, and then switching back to the original tab, there is a flicker with the success banner visible for a short period before it disappears
The status button is scrolling with a wide matrix again 🫠:

Co-authored-by: Mir Bhatia <mirdotbhatia@gmail.com>

dfriquet · 2026-04-16T09:49:13Z

+                href: helpers.edit_workflow_path(@type, role_id: available_role.id, tab: @tab),
+                content_arguments: { data: { "admin--workflow-checkbox-state-confirmation-trigger": "click" }, target: "_top" }


Can changing roles not be a full page reload easily?

Yes, it can, with something like this:

Suggested change

href: helpers.edit_workflow_path(@type, role_id: available_role.id, tab: @tab),

content_arguments: { data: { "admin--workflow-checkbox-state-confirmation-trigger": "click" }, target: "_top" }

href: helpers.edit_workflow_tab_path(@type, @tab, role_id: available_role.id),

content_arguments: { data: { "admin--workflow-checkbox-state-confirmation-trigger": "click" } }

I made this change on purpose so that the browser address bar URL matches the data shown on the page. Without a full page reload, one could land on this page with role_id=3, select another role and now the address bar is out of sync with the role actually edited. Sharing the current URL, for example, does not land on the same view.

That’s a problem from where I sit, but:

it may not be a problem, and we can prefer smoother navigation over URL synchronization;

there is a mechanism I can’t think of to achieve both goals.

Hmm, but then this is a regression from the previous implementation, right? That did both, but I guess with the new components and different loading/reloading, it is a bit more difficult to get those to work together now. I'm not sure which I prefer tbh, so maybe @oliverguenther has an opinion?

I would not worry about that too much for now, given that when we switch to a SelectPanel, the role switches need to be different anyway. You would be able to select multiple roles then. And maybe, in this case it doesn't make sense to keep it in the URL state?

Fair point with the multi role selection changes, I guess it makes sense to keep navigation smooth and forget about the param/url for now

Eventually, it’s not that simple: the role_id change is kept inside the turbo-frame and not reflected in the Tabs links => Clicking on User is author for instance loses the currently selected role. And that would be the same with multi-role selection.

And even if the role selector is in the tab, I guess we want to keep the current behaviour (staying on the same role selection) when switching tabs, right?

If so, I’ll broaden the turbo-frame boundary to encapsulate all dependent moving parts.

And even if the role selector is in the tab, I guess we want to keep the current behaviour (staying on the same role selection) when switching tabs, right?

Yes, so I guess changes to the frame are necessary

A lot of trial and error in the process, but I ended up with something satisfying. That broke some of the pristine/dirty state management — still on it.

dfriquet · 2026-04-16T14:05:16Z

      tag: :div,
      classes: "op-primer-flash--item",
      data: {
+        turbo_temporary: true,


When making changes to the matrix, switching tabs by saving changes, and then switching back to the original tab, there is a flicker with the success banner visible for a short period before it disappears

@mrmir I assumed this may be an OpenProject-wide expectation, therefore made the change at the generic component level. Good idea? 😬

Yeah I don't see why those will ever need to be cached, so this works for me 👍🏽. Let's just hope it doesn't break something in some obscure way...

dfriquet · 2026-04-17T07:29:40Z

+
++#%>
+
+<%= component_wrapper do %>


The status button is scrolling with a wide matrix again 🫠:

This wrapper binds the subheader and the matrix together, and the sticky CSS rule doesn’t fix it anymore. I’m on it.

I tried to find the right combination of sticky/scroll/visible until I shortcut it with an old trick we used to define application-wide:

// Make CSS "ignore" <turbo-frame> in DOM hierarchy. // https://github.com/hotwired/turbo/issues/48#issuecomment-925760725 turbo-frame display: contents

I admit I was surprised to push the first occurrence of this display: contents with all the ViewComponents and Turbo Streams in this project.

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch 8 times, most recently from 23fd062 to c3ee143 Compare March 24, 2026 09:40

dfriquet added 3 commits March 24, 2026 10:48

Copy a type’s workflows to another one. wp/72383

117469a

Copy workflows from a role to another role of the same type. wp/72383

e29c33a

Remove the legacy workflow copy process. wp/72383

6d435d7

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch from c3ee143 to 6d435d7 Compare March 24, 2026 09:48

dfriquet and others added 4 commits March 24, 2026 11:17

Refactor workflow summary into new namespaced controllers scheme. wp/…

4ab123f

…72383

Improve types’ workflow index for actions explicitness. wp/72383

f54b628

Merge branch 'epic/workflows-ux-quick-wins' into feature/72383-workfl…

882e4d1

…ows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role

Deduplicate workflows’ eligible roles. wp/72383

5ebe35a

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch from 51f8201 to 5ebe35a Compare March 24, 2026 14:40

dfriquet commented Mar 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread app/forms/workflows/copies/from_role_form.rb Outdated

dfriquet commented Mar 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread config/routes.rb Outdated

dfriquet commented Mar 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread spec/models/workflow_spec.rb

lindenthal added the pullpreview label Mar 24, 2026

dfriquet added 2 commits March 24, 2026 16:34

Fix last tests after merge and UI changes.

6d13e8a

Merge branch 'epic/workflows-ux-quick-wins' into feature/72383-workfl…

d1a541a

…ows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role

dfriquet marked this pull request as ready for review March 24, 2026 15:48

Base automatically changed from epic/workflows-ux-quick-wins to dev March 24, 2026 16:15

Fix last tests after merge and UI changes, bis repetita. wp/72383

d49639a

dfriquet added the needs review label Mar 24, 2026

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch from 7d55a67 to 6e2efe8 Compare April 9, 2026 07:42

dfriquet added 2 commits April 9, 2026 12:03

Fix a double dialog+alert pop-up on status change. wp/72383

669c827

Redraw the workflow form on empty statuses. wp/72383

b670ac1

lindenthal removed the pullpreview label Apr 9, 2026

Restore persisted state on workflow’s ignore changes. wp/72383

4612050

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch from 63c6154 to 4612050 Compare April 10, 2026 06:10

Sideload workflow matrix to safely revert on ignored changes. wp/72383

fb564e2

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch 2 times, most recently from bb88b2d to 56fe369 Compare April 13, 2026 15:36

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/dev' into feature/72383-workflow…

32831e0

…s-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch from 56fe369 to 32831e0 Compare April 13, 2026 15:41

dfriquet and others added 2 commits April 14, 2026 09:28

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/dev' into feature/72383-workflow…

3ef5c4e

…s-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role

Skip problematic spec

59aa1f1

mrmir requested changes Apr 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

mrmir reviewed Apr 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

Fix typos and phrasing.

5c0979c

Co-authored-by: Mir Bhatia <mirdotbhatia@gmail.com>

dfriquet commented Apr 16, 2026

View reviewed changes

dfriquet added 2 commits April 16, 2026 15:52

Improve UX with better rendering, redirecting and wording. wp/72383

90a97ff

Prevent flash message revival on Turbo restoration visit.

8fa1240

dfriquet commented Apr 16, 2026

View reviewed changes

dfriquet added 2 commits April 16, 2026 16:17

Explicit all roles overwrite on type’s workflow copy. wp/72383

1d8f324

Copy workflow to multiple types at once. wp/72383

8721ac9

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch 2 times, most recently from 5be0199 to c319c1f Compare April 16, 2026 15:10

Fix a spec and Rubocop offense. wp/72383

71e4e8b

dfriquet force-pushed the feature/72383-workflows-ux-improvement-apply-workflow-setting-from-role-to-role branch from c319c1f to 71e4e8b Compare April 16, 2026 15:17

lindenthal added the pullpreview label Apr 16, 2026

dfriquet commented Apr 17, 2026

View reviewed changes

dfriquet added 2 commits April 17, 2026 11:33

Remove a new turbo-frame from the layout chain. wp/72383

c00cdb3

Backup, to reset.

85c7849

		href: helpers.edit_workflow_path(@type, role_id: available_role.id, tab: @tab),
		content_arguments: { data: { "admin--workflow-checkbox-state-confirmation-trigger": "click" }, target: "_top" }

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dfriquet commented Mar 20, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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dfriquet commented Mar 20, 2026 •

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