[5.x]: Some unexpected behaviour when clicking and selecting element table rows

[thupsi]

What happened?

In element indexes with table view:

1. When clicking anywhere on a table row, the element is selected/unselected. That's kind of unexpected, but maybe good for accessibility since the click area to select an element is so large.
2. When clicking on a row and then doing a Ctrl + click on another element, the first element becomes deselected, and the second one is selected. This definitely feels weird and gets me every single time! The expectation would be for both elements to be selected. It may (?) be this way because you are somehow checking a checkbox, but I think most users are thinking of selecting elements like in a classic file explorer UI. This part feels to me like a bug or oversight, and is the reason I'm not posting this as a discussion. I may be missing something, so feel free to correct me if there is good reason (accessibility perhaps?) for this.
3. Double clicking a row cycles the element between selected/deselected states. This is kind of expected, because of no1, but feels like a wasted oppurtunity to open the slideout. As a matter of fact, this is what happens when the index is switched to card view. IMO this (the opening of the slideout via double-clicking on the row) would be very convenient and largely solve the problem of slideout discoverability. I have seen the Improved checkbox-style deselection behavior for control panel items, to account for double-clicks. item on the beta changelog, not sure if it's related. I think it worked like I'm suggesting at some point in the alpha?

Craft CMS version

Craft CMS 5.0.0-beta.1

PHP version

No response

Operating system and version

No response

Database type and version

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Image driver and version

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Installed plugins and versions

[mmikkel]

Missed this thread during the beta, and came here via #14979.

I think the fact that the entire row is selectable is a good change, but agree on your second and third points. Especially the second, and especially considering that Craft 4 does have Finder/Explorer-like behavior for the Cmd/Ctrl key, albeit only in element select modals.

[brandonkelly]

1. When clicking anywhere on a table row, the element is selected/unselected.

That’s intended.

2. When clicking on a row and then doing a Ctrl + click on another element, the first element becomes deselected, and the second one is selected.

Also intended. This is how element indexes (and Matrix blocks) have always worked in Craft. Pressing Command/Ctrl will cause the selection to mimic non-checkbox-based selects, in the same way that pressing Command/Ctrl on non-checkbox-based selects will cause them to mimic checkbox-based selects.

When the items you are selecting have checkboxes (as within element indexes) and you want to select multiple items, there is no need to press Command/Ctrl unless you want that alternate behavior.

3. Double clicking a row cycles the element between selected/deselected states. This is kind of expected, because of no1, but feels like a wasted oppurtunity to open the slideout.

Agree, that makes sense, and makes even more sense coupled with #14968, where entries without thumbnails effectively wouldn’t have a direct hit area for double-clicking anymore, when the Status column is shown. So just made that change for 5.2 (43fb8d8).

[brandonkelly]

Craft 5.2.0-beta.1 is out with that change.