Offer to open a workspace from empty explorer

[bpasero]

The empty explorer currently looks like this:

I see how we want to save space and not show a "Open Workspace" button below the "Open Folder" button, but I think we could maybe leverage @sandy081 work and show a button with a dropdown?

The way this could work is:

• if you just click the button it is as today "Open Folder"
• if you click the dropdown next to it, you can also pick "Open Workspace"

If we go down this path I would think the wording should also be tweaked ("You have not yet opened a folder or workspace").

The UI component I am referring to is this:

[isidorn]

This makes sense. However the reason against it is to not make this any more complicated for new users who have no clue what a workspace is.
Though I am open to try this out.

@sandy081 do you have a code pointer on how to use the new UI component?

[bpasero]

Yeah agree it is a bit more advanced and requires the user to have a *.code-workspace file, so it cannot be the default choice. But this is maybe a chance to get users more familar with workspaces all in all.

[sandy081]

You can use following action item to render an action with dropdown menu

vscode/src/vs/base/browser/ui/dropdown/dropdownActionViewItem.ts

Line 156 in 32a18e3

export class ActionWithDropdownActionViewItem extends ActionViewItem {

To render a button you can use ButtonBar

vscode/src/vs/base/browser/ui/button/button.ts

Line 321 in 6112cc7

addButtonWithDropdown(options: IButtonWithDropdownOptions): IButton {

[isidorn]

Looking at the latest videos done by @burkeholland I am worried that this might just confuse new users additionally - what I already mentioned.

Maybe I bring this up in the UX meeting next week. @misolori
If we find a nice flow for the Create Folder, maybe that is part of the drop down as well.

[miguelsolorio]

I'm still a fan of adding a split button for open folder and allowing extensions to contribute. The open folder can be: Open WSL/Codespace, Open Workspace, Clone Repo, etc. and would help reduce the amount of content that we currently have:

We can definitely bring it up in the UX sync this week.

[isidorn]

Moving to next milestone to do it start of February to get user feedback

[miguelsolorio]

Here's a quick mockup of what this could look like:

[isidorn]

Looks cool!

[sandy081]

In other places where I show this similar button (extensions), I also show the main action in the dropdown (from UX feedback I received). So, to be consistent, shall the dropdown also include main Open Folder action?

[bpasero]

Looks good to me, agree that the primary action must be the first in the dropdown.

[isidorn]

Agree. Also it is a bit funky that some of them have a ... and some do not. Intuitivly for me here we should not use the ...

[bpasero]

They should all use a "..." at the end of the label if additional user input is required to perform the action which I think is true for all.

[isidorn]

Yeah I know that pattern, I am just saying that for me personally in a clean welcome Explorer an Open Folder blue button looks better than the Open Folder...

[isidorn]

In order to have this we would need support from the welcome views since the explorer is using the welcome view infrastructure.
The current syntax is command:ID, we could introduce a commands:ID1,ID2 syntax which would mean use the dropdown action.
@joaomoreno let me know what you think?

Anyways moving to On-Deck, since we will not have time for this this milestone.

[miguelsolorio]

FYI @eamodio

[joaomoreno]

The current syntax is command:ID, we could introduce a commands:ID1,ID2 syntax which would mean use the dropdown action.

Oh man, we're growing this. Calling @jrieken for comments.

[bpasero]

I really like the idea of allowing extensions to add a button with multiple choices because that could mean the overall number of visible buttons is reduced 👍

[jrieken]

Oh man, we're growing this. Calling @jrieken for comments.

Should we just allow to reference a submenu?

[JacksonKearl]

Current semantics are that if the link is by itself on a line, it becomes a button. We could extend this to convert a line that is exclusively links to render as a dropdown button, with the first being the main title.

You have not yet opened a folder

[Open Folder](command:...) [Clone Repository...](command:...) [Connect to Codespace...](command:...) [Open Workspace...](command:...) 

Not sure what referencing a submenu would look like.

[miguelsolorio]

Bringing this back to the surface because it's getting even more crowded: