Server: Make app order configurable

[MariusBluem]

Edit by @jancborchardt with spec:

• In general, remember that regular users rarely change anything. As such this is a feature for quite advanced people and it is an investment to maintain and test this properly.
• The app sorting we talk about should be purely user-side. Admins already have means to shuffle apps around, either in the code or using the apporder app. Also, admins should not dictate the personal order of things in your Nextcloud.
• Moving apps should happen via drag&drop directly in the top bar.
• For keyboard accessibility, we could also think about making it possible to move an app by focusing it, then using the arrow keys (if need be with Ctrl or Shift as modifier). Is there a standard there?
• The default order still needs to make sense.
• The app which is sorted first should automatically be used as the default app.
• If an app disables the app which is sorted first (or if it breaks after update) the next app should simply take its place.
• "Reset to default" isn’t really necessary, as you can simply drag something back.
• Changing maximum of displayed apps via dragging the "More" button could be possible. But better to do it in a separate pull request.

What you can do to help:

• :computer: Dive into the code and make this happen. Please follow the spec outlined above, and remember to work step-by-step. :+1:
• :money_with_wings: Donate to the bounty for this issue on Bountysource. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Admins should be able to

• set an default order for apps
• set, whether users should be allowed to change the order of the apps

If users are allowed to change the order by themself, this configuration should be handles via drag-and-drop in the app menu.

We could use https://github.com/juliushaertl/apporder/ as base ...
Follow up: https://github.com/juliushaertl/apporder/issues/29

@juliushaertl @nextcloud/designers

[hitam4450]

I certainly agree! :thumbsup:

Each user should be able to reaarange its app order resp. the default app at login !

[dan-nkl]

Each user should be able to reaarange its app order

But only if allowed to! 😄

[jancborchardt]

So this would be another cool modification of @juliushaertl to include in the core server. :)

Some considerations:

• We should decide if this should be an admin setting at all or only on the user side.
• We need to make sure apps aren’t moved by accident.
• The default order still needs to make sense.
• The app which is sorted first should automatically be used as the default app.
• (Another relevant means of sorting could be frequency of use, although that will result in the list jumping around a lot in the beginning.)

[pixelipo]

Adding one more point to your considerations, @jancborchardt

• what if user (or admin) disables app which is sorted first (or if it breaks after update)

[jancborchardt]

@pixelipo in that case the next app should take its place, probably simplest solution. Maybe there should be some feedback, but that's a slightly different topic.

[patschi]

Because of recent discussion in #5135 any handling of maximum shown apps could be take into consideration as well - fixed or even in a more dynamic way, maybe manageable for each user. For example by moving the "more apps"-toggle to the left/right to show less or more apps. Or may it be out-of-scope of this implementation? If so, we could at least keep it in mind for any upcoming versions.

[jancborchardt]

@patschi that specifically is out of scope in general cause it's a very edge-case customization option which will mainly increase the amount of stuff we need to test and can possibly break. This, apart from the nicer UX, is a big reason why we reduce options and make the defaults great. :)

[tomastd]

One question, how can a user reset a customized app ordering?
It would be nice to have a "reset to default" option, isn't it?

[phlegx]

News about this feature?
Please note also this behavior https://github.com/juliushaertl/apporder/issues/64

[danger89]

I really would love to see this behavior become part of the core of Nextcloud (by default).

[jancborchardt]

I will now hide every non-contributing comment. What you can do instead:

• :computer: Dive into the code and make this happen. All the pointers should be in the thread above. :+1:
• :money_with_wings: Donate to the bounty for this issue on Bountysource. :slightly_smiling_face:

[jancborchardt]

Also updated the original post with specification and answer to all considerations raised.