Gutenberg: Most used tag list is missing in Tag option on article

[Rocketeer65]

Describe the bug
Whe you will introduce a tag for an article the link below for the tag cloud is missing (the code at the link is: class="button-link tagcloud-link" id="link-post_tag")

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to New Article
2. Click on Document side tab
3. Scroll down to Tag
4. Link below for choosing from tag cloud is not present (like classic editor)

Expected behavior
A link that is present for choosing from my list of most used tag

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows 10 17134 (last stable)
• Browser Chrome
• Version 68.0.3440.106 (64 bit)

Additional context

• Gutenberg version: Plugin on 4.9.8

[designsimply]

Adding a comparison screenshot of the "Choose from the most used tags" from the classic editor for reference:

^{Seen at http://alittletestblog.com/wp-admin/post-new.php running WordPress 4.9.8 and Gutenberg 3.5.0 using Firefox 61.0.2 on macOS 10.13.6.}

[designsimply]

Noting that this question was asked previously in #1341.

[designsimply]

Note: I moved this to the Ideas milestone because it is a good request for consideration. Issues in that milestone are closed when added and will be re-opened if approved after being triaged at a later date.

[grappler]

FYI I built the feature for a client as part of a client specific plugin. So it is possible. The question comes down to more if such a feature fits in Gutenberg or not.

[mahnunchik]

Any news?

[designsimply]

No news yet!

[DanielSantoro]

@grappler Could you provide the code you used to display that list?

[grappler]

@DanielSantoro As the code is part of a of client specific plugin it is a bit harder to share the whole code. This gist should give you enough information to do it yourself. https://gist.github.com/grappler/969aa4b12c978cf1c4cbf236e77ddbe3

[mahnunchik]

It would be nice to have it in core of wp or like a plugin.

[kirdia]

Hello, is this going to be included in a future version?

[richtabor]

As discussed in today's Gutenberg triage meeting (Slack link), I'm in favor of adding this back into Gutenberg. We have quick selection of categories (via checkbox list) - why not do the same for tags?

Below is a gif of the functionality included in the Classic Editor. I don't suspect it'll be too difficult to implement it in a similar fashion.

[mahnunchik]

@richtabor a hundred thumbs up to your comment!

[OsakaWebbie]

Yet another user asking for this. Please don't remove features with no recourse!

[Rocketeer65]

Actually i'm using the feature that permit to digit first letters of a tag
and present a list of tag used in the past like:
Ann (displays a menu)
Anna Irene
Anna Savare
(and i choose)
This in my use of the tag in my blog

Il giorno lun 3 feb 2020 alle ore 08:23 OsakaWebbie <
[email protected]> ha scritto:

Yet another user asking for this. Please don't remove features with no
recourse!

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[papigiulio]

I'm also in favor of the tag cloud to be re-implemented. I read somewhere that it was suppose to be implemented in V5.0.3 but currently already at V5.3+ so kinda wondering what the e.t.a. is on this.

[OsakaWebbie]

@Rocketeer65 Yes, what you describe is the way it works now. But that doesn't help with hints of what tags have been used before - you'd have to know that you want something with "ann" in it.

In my case (magazine articles), it might be hard to think of what common topics are touched on in the article we're uploading - a display of common ones we have already used would help. And a single concept might be described by many terms that don't use the same letters - for example, the following sets are closely related words that don't have any sets of letters in common:

• school, education, study, teaching
• staff, personnel, hiring, employment
• loneliness, isolation, separation, alienation

I would want to know which of similar terms is used most often, so that we avoid using too many synonyms. That's important for making tag archives more effective and complete.

[mapk]

I updated the issue to request design work to be done. We just need a path forward for development to implement.

[paaljoachim]

The problem with tags is that the tags are not visible. One has to know which tags are there and then begin to write and see the suggestions show up.

What if tags had the same UI as categories?
As a regular checkbox area.

Here is what it looks like today:

Here is an example with a Custom Post Type I use on a client site.
Showing Categories and tags - as both were categories.
It is very easy to see the categories (Kategori) and tags (Stikkord) options.

Having Tags look more similar to categories creates a familier consistency in how both are handled. They look the same but are used in different ways. One could then just use the same UI component as used for categories with tags.

Another good option would be something like the mockup in this comment from @grappler :
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/8867#issuecomment-523502075

In relation to comment from @rich https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/8867#issuecomment-561281160
Having a tag cloud with different size tags do not have much meaning. Words should have the same default size.

The biggest problem with Tags is that they are not visible. Making them a discovery issue for the user. In not knowing which tags are available to use for a post.

[enriquesanchez]

Made a little prototype of how this could look in the editor's sidebar, re-utilizing the same UI found in the classic editor:

[paaljoachim]

@enriquesanchez mockup can work well but I would instead of showing the most used tags show all available tags.

"Separate with commas or the Enter key;
or choose from a list of tags."

Why change it?
Most used means some tags that are very little used will stay invisible. User can very easy forget that they exist. User will need to begin typing in the tag box to possibly see the tags that are very little used. Show a list of all tags will show all the tags that can be used.
This is an important make things discoverable. Not hiding it.

Use case. Adding a summary or notes to make core etc. I am not using tags at all to agenda or summary posts for I do not know which tags are available. So I began typing a, b, c, d and then de and this then showed up.

We really need to improve the discoverability of tags. As a user can not just guess as to which tags are available to use (a user might need to use a tag that has not been much used).

[OsakaWebbie]

Showing all available tags would be fine. The issue is that right now it doesn't show any at all (until we start guessing two letter combinations).

[mapk]

After talking about this in today's triage in Slack the Design Team thought it would be good to see a design that showed the top 5 most used tags in a simple list. Anyone up for designing this?

[enriquesanchez]

Here's a quick update based on feedback:

We could also do without the gray background:

And we could additionally have a link at the end of the list (_"View all"_) to direct the user to wp-admin/edit-tags.php:

[paaljoachim]

I really like the last mockup by @enriquesanchez . As it also gives a link to View all... linking to the tags page (that should open in a new tab.) I also believe there is no use for a grey background color. Using only white for the background seems better visually.

[paaljoachim]

We could add a second column of tag words (as there is space for it). Like so.

[mapk]

I think just showing the list of 5 tags below without any background, and without a "view all" link works best here. Let's move forward with that.

[papigiulio]

@mapk What is the reason you don't like to have the "view all" link added? I think adding that would be a must. Many users are asking for this.

[mapk]

@papigiulio, I'm not opposed to it. 😄 I felt it was a link that took the user away from their focus of adding a tag to the page. Most often than not, the user is going to tag the page with related words they've already thought of. To find out if they have that tag, the user can begin typing and see if any existing tags pop up.

If others feel this is a necessary bit to this, we can include it.

[papigiulio]

Won't users find it more easy to click a tag than typing it? :) Personally I'm using a ton of tags so I sometimes have a hard time remembering which tags I have. Hence having a 'show all' link would make ones work a lot easier. :)

[OsakaWebbie]

I agree - we definitely need a "Show All" option.

[paaljoachim]

I believe the main problem all along the way with tags is that they are hard to discover (as only a very few are available to be seen). We now have a chance to improve the discoverability of available tags. Perhaps we should think totally new and rethink how tags should be discovered and selected.

[olivervw]

The Simple Tags Plugin provides an interesting approach: It has a context-based tag suggestion mechanism. So if the suggested tags are provided based upon the content of the related post it could be quite useful to have a list with a preselection of only a few tags...

[enriquesanchez]

@mapk @papigiulio

I agree that taking the user away from the editor would not be ideal. I think Mark's suggestion comes from the fact that I wrote:

And we could additionally have a link at the end of the list ("View all") to direct the user to wp-admin/edit-tags.php:

In retrospect, I don't think this would be a good UX.

However, if this link opens in a new tab, or just expands the list of tags in place, then I think that would be worth considering.

I do however also see a problem with expanding the list of tags in place. If the user has too many tags, the list would be way too long and unwieldy.

[OsakaWebbie]

Opening in a new tab wouldn't let you select a tag from there - I guess you'd just use it as a reference and go back to the editing page and type them?

The tags are in a fairly small font, and you could let them flow instead of just one per line. I don't see a problem with expanding in place.

[olivervw]

Someone willing to review my pull request ?

[paaljoachim]

Thank you for creating the pull request, Oliver!
I added a comment.

[paynterf]

Please please add the variable-size tag cloud back. Having variable size tags is a wonderful human-interface technique and immediately draws the user's attention to the most-used tags, in a way a fixed-size list can never do. My posts cover a lot of territory, and I used this feature a lot in the classic editor. I can't believe the 'new-improved' Wordpress killed this off.

Removing this feature is right out of the 'programmer-centric' paradigm, where things are done (or not done, in this case) for the coder's convenience, not for the user's.

Please bring this back - properly!

Frank

[mapk]

Hey @paynterf, thanks for the feedback!

Having variable size tags is a wonderful human-interface technique and immediately draws the user's attention to the most-used tags, in a way a fixed-size list can never do.

Is the purpose of this component to tag the post with the "most used" tags or with the most relevant tags? Shouldn't the content dictate the tags used – not tag popularity?

If one wanted to see how popular tags are among your posts, the author could always visit the Tags page in wp-admin.

[paynterf]

Of course the purpose is to use the most relevant tags, but the component
should help, rather than hinder the user in the pursuit of this goal. My
posts on different aspects of robotics cover years, and so I have trouble
remembering whether I typically use 'robot' or 'robots' or 'wall-tracking'
or something else entirely, and whether I have used 'MPU6050' or 'IMU' (or
both) to tag posts where I discuss the MPU6050 IMU. The previous
variable-size tag cloud display made this task trivial, and helped me
evolve a consistent tagging system that gets better and more consistent
over time. Using a consistent tagging system makes it easier for other
post consumers to find what they are after, so they benefit as well.

As many have already pointed out, the current system forces the user to
either make repeated guesses to see what previously used tags pop up, or
just wing it. This is exactly the wrong thing to do - forcing the user to
do the computer's job because the programmer isn't doing theirs.

Just my $0.02

Frank

On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 4:15 PM Mark Uraine [e-mail]
wrote:

Hey @paynterf https://github.com/paynterf, thanks for the feedback!

Having variable size tags is a wonderful human-interface technique and
immediately draws the user's attention to the most-used tags, in a way a
fixed-size list can never do.

Is the purpose of this component to tag the post with the "most used" tags
or with the most relevant tags? Shouldn't the content dictate the tags used
– not tag popularity?

If one wanted to see how popular tags are among your posts, the author
could always visit the Tags page in wp-admin.

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[mapk]

@paynterf those are some really strong examples! Thanks for providing them.

When tags that mean the same thing have become inconsistent in their naming convention, this additional visual layer helps identify the more frequently used tags to ensure future consistency. I get it, and for those reasons, I can see your request as a benefit! 👍

[paaljoachim]

Some examples. So that we can visually get a feel of what this looks like.

Using a variable tag cloud shows the most popular tags in a visual way. Like so.
(From the Classic Editor.)

We can right away see that Code Snippets, Fontawesome icons and Google Analytics tags have been used the most.

A more analytical way would be to do something like the following options.

Another version.

The above shows by adding (number) which tags are used the most. This is a logical way compared to the visual way of having the tag itself change size based on amount of times it has been used.

EDIT:
I am wondering if we are circling back to @richtabor 's above comment:
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/8867#issuecomment-561281160