Closed state + Show / Hide Closed issue button

Description

You should be able to toggle the visibility of closed issues on the the issue board and their state of closed / open should be very obvious.

Proposal

Add tabs to filter through open/closed/all issues.

Tabs should default to open:

Include a red dot to indicate closed issues:

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Original Proposal

Add a button / checkbox to toggle the visibility of closed issues make it obvious which issues are closed or not, when they are shown.

Links / references

cc @tauriedavis @dbalexandre @marin

Added ~307500 label

mentioned in issue #21257 (closed)

Added ~579196 label

@JobV I added a dropdown for Status, which will have three options, Any, Open and Closed. How about a small red dot in the corner for closed issues?

<img src="/uploads/f3cbfd20ced873ef8214054185863e49/issue-board__closed.png" width: 600px>

@cperessini I like it! Related to #17697 (moved) too!

@cperessini Every where else we have status as tabs. I think it would be better to keep consistency. I like the dot system, though.

@tauriedavis I like the status as tabs

@tauriedavis @dbalexandre I like it, too and I would prefer it, but people are already complaining that the navigation and filter bars take too much space from the board, and I think I agree. Do you think we can do anything else?

If we do go with tabs, I think "All" makes more sense as the default state considering the new behavior of the board.

@cperessini Yeah, I see what you are saying. This is an issue throughout the site that people complain about. Maybe we can open a separate issue to look into it separate from this? I just think whatever the solution, it should be consistent throughout pages.

Added ~480950 frontend labels

Removed frontend label

mentioned in issue #21816 (closed)

I'd prefer the default behaviour to be "Open" issues - it matches the behaviour elsewhere and meets my use case whereby the lists are used to track where an issue is currently being implemented. We don't really have much requirement to manipulate/organise/review/analyse closed issues.

I agree with @liquidstate - maybe there is something I don't "get" about the issue boards, but showing closed issues by default seems counterintuitive - I go to the board to see what needs to be worked on.

I actually assumed that the current behavior was a bug, and came here to report it. :)

Yeah, I also agree. I think defaulting to open like we do throughout the app makes more sense.

Maybe the default behavior should be a project setting? Some might have a workflow that includes closed issues (or wants to move them manually to the 'done' tab) and some want to see only the stuff they have to work on.

@tauriedavis @cperessini looks great; agree on default to open.

Added frontend label

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Reassigned to @iamphill

@tauriedavis @cperessini Are we using the tabs? & does that mean the filters will be below the tabs like issues & merge requests?

@iamphill Yeah, I updated the issue description with mockups.

@tauriedavis awesome thanks

mentioned in issue #21917 (closed)

mentioned in issue #21960 (closed)

mentioned in commit f2f7c2d0

mentioned in merge request !6263 (closed)

If you don't mind I'll quickly jump in even though you seems to all agree on a solution on this.

In my opinion, having closed issue in other board than "done" is confusing. Whatever your workflow you should close it when you are done with the issue so it should be remove from any other steps in between. And you actually do that already : just put an issue in 2 lists drag it from one list to the done section, and you'll close it and remove it from any other list. so Why not keeping it consistant and remove list label when closing the issue directly on closing it with a commit ?

So to me the problem is not how to display close issues on lists but simply remove them from the list.

@gpapin Thanks for your comment. I've had a similar thought. What are your thoughts @cperessini?

I was also moving an issue on the board yesterday but it didn't remove the list label. Is this intentional @iamphill? To reproduce:

• Add a list label via the issue page (ex. UX)
• Move the issue from UX to Development on issue board
• View issue page and UX label is still present.

Hmm... I think so. @dbalexandre does this happen now?

Just my two cents, but the main thing I immediately liked about the boards feature was that I didn't have to actually change how I was using labels at all - it integrates great with the pre-existing use of labels. If I have to change the way I use labels (eg. harassing my team to make sure to remove labels when they close through commits or other methods), I'm likely to just skip using the boards, which now add work instead of saving it.

mentioned in commit 5ba640c2

@gpapin About your question https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/21257#note_14327029

@iamphill @tauriedavis This behaviour is not intentional. I tried to reproduce your steps locally, moving an issue from UX to development on issue board. In the view page, the UX label is not present:

@dbalexandre Weird I just tried again & it worked. I guess I was looking at issues i'd closed on the issue#show page.

@dbalexandre @iamphill Yeah, I just tried again and it worked. Not sure what happened but awesome! :)

Folks, you are already eating up A LOT of vertical real estate on the boards screen, and now you intend to add another line of menus? Almost all of us have 16:9 screens, vertical space is precious. Less and less left for the actual issues is not good.

@tauriedavis I've been thinking about this a lot and I've realized that the board doesn't really change the way that labels have been used until now. Closing issues through commits has always left its labels untouched, and this has been a good thing because we get to keep that information about the issue for reference and for future steps. If you want the board to keep working the way it did in its first iteration, you just have to stick to the Open tab. It's true that there will still be hidden closed issues in columns other than Done, but I think that information is actually valuable. For example, if you see a closed issue in the Development column, it'll tell you that the code got merged without ever going through Testing, which is something do not want.

@JesperWe We are aware of the problem and it was recognized in this thread. We are reworking the way filters work and we will definitely keep this in mind.

mentioned in commit 06151fdd

@cperessini Are you proposing that the way labels are removed be changed? Or just to have the option to view closed issues as well? Sorry if I didn't quite follow your proposal correctly.

@tauriedavis No, I was saying that this change to the board doesn't have any effect in the way that people have been using labels. The board is a new view, but you still get the separation between Open, Closed and All, so nothing changes. I get why people might not want closed issues to show in this new view, but I was trying to show a positive spin on it.

Anyways, from the latest discussion it seems we're gonna be reverting the decision or including a switch so users can choose whatever works best for them.

Mentioned in merge request !6263 (closed)

Mentioned in commit 277f91c9

Mentioned in commit 7ed514b8

Mentioned in issue #21257 (closed)

Let me add another thought here: With the previous version of the board (closed issues move to the done list regardless of their labels) we were able to automatically move issues to the done list when also automatically closing issues via merge requests. As far as I can see, even with all the ideas discussed in this thread, there still would be no option to do so with the updated version. The board could be filtered in all kinds of ways, but there would be no way to automatically move an issue to the done list via commit messages or triggered via merge requests.

Mentioned in commit 8248280a

@walterra Couldn't we add an option in the project preferences so we could select what to do with done issues? Something like this:

Done issues in the board should:
[ ] be hidden by default but stay in the current list with all tags
[ ] be moved to the done list with tags cleared

This way everyone could choose.

@cluxter that sounds like a good approach. I just think we need to differentiate between "Done" and "Closed" more precisely:

Closed issues in the board should:
[ ] be hidden from label lists and show up in the done list
[ ] be moved to the done list with list labels cleared

What do you think about it?

Milestone changed to %8.13

Mentioned in issue #21365 (closed)

@walterra You're right it's better like this.

@tauriedavis So the idea is now?:

• not a status filter
• dot icon to represent closed issues

I came across the need for this here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/22668#note_16077566

This should be related to: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/1369#note_14400430 and be thought of in the design not?

What about a toggle?.. also the filter/search will be revised for this as well I think in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/21747

Yes, correct @dimitrieh.

@JobV What are you thoughts on the issue moving to done when merging an MR? To me this makes sense.

what about if an issue contains multiple MR :P

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Mentioned in commit 49ecd9eb

@tauriedavis @iamphill @cperessini @dimitrieh

In relation to this thread, but also https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/6263, a few things:

We've created the Done list initially to give you a simple workflow. When something is Done, it's closed and gone from the board. We didn't consider the other direction well: IF something is done, but still on the board ,what happens?

Issue boards exist to create a workflow of active, existing issues. Therefore it should only show open issues. Closed issues should not appear on the board. I made the mistake of allowing discussion and even suggesting making this configurable or a switch in the UI. I want to go back to a simpler time: Closed issues appear in the Done Column.

That means that:

1. We no longer show closed issues, except in the Done list
2. IF an issue is somewhere on the board and closed (directly, not through moving), it will no longer be there, independent of its labels. Closing an issue does not influence the labels. Moving an issue on the board to the Done list does the same as before: remove labels of this board and close
3. We don't need to add another row of filters (thankfully)

The main downside this has is that when you have multiple issue boards and an issue is moved to Done on one of the boards, it's closed (and therefore gone). For that reason, we are adding the ability to hide the Done list (which gives you super awesome superpowers, but more on that later).

Mentioned in merge request !6695 (merged)

@JobV totally down on this and makes perfect sense current situation was confusing me a little! Please lets get that in asap

@JobV, so the Done list is hardcoded and will always be?

@JobV Finally, thanks for going back to that decision!

@blackst0ne no, it will be configurable in the near future.

This issue is now closed, thanks for doing the revert @dbalexandre

Status changed to closed

Mentioned in issue #21934 (closed)

Mentioned in issue #22960 (closed)

Milestone removed

mentioned in issue #24215 (closed)