Public Lab Research note


GSoC 2021 proposal: Education-related usability upgrades

by Tanish | April 23, 2021 16:58 23 Apr 16:58 | #26311 | #26311

This is a draft shared for feedback.


About Me

I am Tanish BE CSE student at Chitkara University Punjab, India. I have learnt web development from coding ninjas and all my concepts are clear. Also I have also made many projects using CSS and JS (uploaded on LinkedIn). I am very hardworking and have scored 94.2% in 12th. I also have experience of GSSOC (Girl Script summer of code) by GSOC coding time (as GSSOC coding period ends by 31st May , 2021 and GSOC coding period starts from June 7 , 2021) , where I have made merged pull requests .

Github: https://github.com/SharmaTanish

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanish-a54b771b3

Email: tanishsharma0209@gmail.com

Phone Number: (+91)7404927210

Time zone: Indian Standard Time (UTC +05:30)

Project Description

This project basically is to improve the educational users experience over Public lab platform by adding new features and updating previous once. This can be achieved by asking for feedback from educators as they are familiar enough with the platform. You can go through the rough timeline I have made for all the steps taken to make this project successful.

Abstract/Summary

This project going to deal with these features ( along with these I will also try my level best to create new issues for adding more features and also I will try to create first-comer-issue so that we can more expand our contributors community ) :

  1. Separate author names with commas instead of "with", on pages like https://publiclab.org/notes/otimmerman077_stu/02-18-2020/bioluminicence-detector .
  2. Add a listing of draft posts to user profile pages.
  3. add Bootstrap tooltips explaining latitude/longitude tags ("This is a geographic tag for placing this content on a map.") on pages such as https://publiclab.org/wiki/puerto-rico, linking to https://publiclab.org/location-privacy as well .
  4. Filter out known spam from replies to comments, as described in: #8854
  5. Complete email notification opt-outs for moderators, to improve this system for educators, as described in #9114
  6. Refine the display of co-authored posts on profile pages.
  7. Include high-relevance usernames you've used recently, or who are recently active on the site, in autocompletion results while typing into.
  8. Refine design and details of newly relaunched dashboard with community input (building on last term's project at #8513
  9. Ensure comment /replies/ appear on the new spam2 dashboard! #8854 (comment)

Project

Goals and their implementation:

*

Separate author names with commas instead of "with"

As you can see in the below screenshot that the two authors name are separatedby comma , but instead they must be comma which can be done by changing the JS file which takes care of this functionality.

image description

* Drafts listing on profile/tag pages

At the profile page only we can add saved drafts of the user so that he/she can keep the track of his/her drafts created or indirectly the performance status by adding some more features like last at which time/day he/she was active on platform etc . This can be done by saving the drafts of the user in a file and then getting then and display.

We can create a separate section on profile page of user having these drafts each in a

.

* Add tooltips explaining latitude longitude tags on pages linked with a place or a map.

If a user holds on a particular place on map more than 0.5sec then a tooltip will appear showing geographic location of that place. These can use API's etc to recognize.image description

* Filter out known spam from replies to comments

We need to create a new method in comment.rb file to check the status of the comment; this is more described in issue #8854.

* Complete email notification opt-outs for moderators, to improve this system for educators

The steps given to "subscribe to all tags" at https://publiclab.org/wiki/moderation#Moderation+systems is out-dated and needs to be updated with the latest steps to help educators.

*

Invites

By this we can allow educators to create a link by which they can invite a new person which help us to grow our educator's community. This new person will be able to directly make drafts by Signing in.

Also I think for security purpose we should set a working limit of this invitation link let say 5 days or a week etc.

*

Display of coauthored posts

Add refined display of coauthored posts on the profile page, first seeking community reps input to refine design choices.

*

Improvements in auto completion

Auto completion results will Include usernames used recently, or who are recently active on the site with full wildcard matching. I will implement new SQL queries and update existing APIs to achieve this change.

* Refine the design and details of the newly relaunched dashboard with community input.

Here we are supposed to redesign the dashboard and make it more users friendly and smooth functioning. See I think a good design doesn't only mean that it looks good but also it should have proper functioning. So to do this we need to change some pre-existing files.

* Ensure comment /replies/ appear on the new spam2 dashboard!

Comment replies don't currently appear in admin spam moderation dashboard as you can see in below screenshot:

image description

Timeline/Milestones

Community Bonding (May 17, 2021 - June 7, 2021)

I will interact more with the community, share my ideas and knowledge, and provide feedback and support to fellow contributors. I will take any received criticism constructively.

Coding

Week 1 (June 7, 2021 -- June 14, 2021)

* Separate author names with commas instead of "with".

* Look for more bugs and finding more features in website.


Week 2 (June 14, 2021 -- June 21, 2021)

* Drafts listing on profile/tag pages

Week 3 (June 21, 2021 -- June 28, 2021)

* Add tooltips explaining latitude longitude tags on pages linked with a place or a map.

Week 4 (June 28, 2021 -- July 5, 2021)

* Filter out known spam from replies to comments

Week 5 (July 5, 2021 -- July 12, 2021)

* Complete email notification opt-outs for moderators, to improve this system for educators

Week 6 (July 5, 2021 -- July 12, 2021)

* Invites

Week 7 (July 12, 2021 -- July 19, 2021)

*Display of coauthored posts

Week 8 (July 19, 2021 -- July 26, 2021)

*Improvements in autocompletion

Week 9 (July 26, 2021 -- August 2, 2021)

* Refine the design and details of the newly relaunched dashboard with community input.

Week 10 (August 2, 2021 -- August 9, 2021)

* Ensure comment /replies/ appear on the new spam2 dashboard!

Needs

I have some experience in open source but along with this I also need some guidance and support from mentors, as they have shown till now as well.

Open Source Contributions

I have merged pull request in publiclab/plot2 repository:

https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/pull/9434

Along with publiclab I have made following merged pull request:

1. https://github.com/Vishal-raj-1/Awesome-JavaScript-Projects/pull/608

2. https://github.com/girlscript/Girscript-Community-Website/pull/89

Motivation

I believe I am the best person to execute this project as I have quite an experience in open source project. I have participated as open source contributor in Girl Script of Code this year; there I have made merged pull request and currently working on level 3 projects on developing Girl Script Community Website. Also I am campus ambassador at kratigence, IIIT Bhopal. I have also made several projects using CSS and JS uploaded on LinkedIn.

Public lab organization is doing very great work as it is contributing in environmental development in today's polluted world. This attracts me lot towards this organization as I am also very concerned about our environment and also part of Yuva-sewa community of my local area (Yamunanagar, Haryana, India).

Commitment

****How many hours will you work per week on your GSOC project?

I will be easily able to contribute around 40-45 hours a week.

I am sure I will be able to meet the requirements and dedication this project needs. I will communicate effectively with my mentor and receive any criticism open heartedly. I would love to be a part of the project and contribute even if I am not selected for the program.

Also, I would love to have some feedback on my proposal. This can be of great help to me.

Thank you so much.

Regards,

Tanish


6 Comments

Hi @tanish are you applying for GSoC or Outreachy? Thank you for your proposal!

I'm interested to hear more of your thought process in approaching these tasks -- for example, in "Refine the design and details of the newly relaunched dashboard with community input." what are some ideas you have for how to refine that page, and what would you prioritize?

Thanks a lot!

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And likewise for other tasks, what are some of the steps you'd take to begin work on them, like the tooltips or the username autocompletion? Do you need help finding where the code lives for these?

Thanks again!

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Hi @warren !

First of all thank you for your response . I am applying for GSoC not Outreachy , it is mentioned in heading of this post as well. Now coming on to what I am thinking about tasks let say "Refine the design and details of the newly relaunched dashboard with community input." this task , see as you can see in current dashboard it is simply written that what you have performed till now but along with that we can use graphs to show user's weekly performance based on numbers of his/her research notes etc (like we have a performance visualizer on gitlub as well). As this makes dashboard more visualizing and i believe visualization makes our dashboard more user friendly. Also as it is mentioned in proposal that i will add a drafts section on dashboard which help user to keep track of his/her drafts. Along with this we must keep in mind the responsiveness factor of dashboard. I hope this makes sense to you, please tell me your opinion regarding this so that we can modify accordingly.

Thank you

Regards

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Capture.PNG

As you can see in above screenshot that on clicking on a added location on map, a pop-up is already coming, so according to me we should display tool-tips on places other then these added location. What is your opinion regarding this?

Thank you Regards

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Thank you, sorry I'm not sure I follow, but perhaps a sketch of the tooltips could help me understand what you're suggesting? I appreciate it!

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Hi @warren ! As you know when a user click on location icon , hover event is also triggered, so along with the pop-up, tool tip also come so I think they both get overlap which not looks good. You can see in below screenshot:

Screenshot_(1763).png

But on any other place which is not added (,i.e., there is no location icon there) , there is no problem in adding tool tip. As you can see below:

Screenshot_(1764).png

So either we avoid tool tip on overlapping places or we can place tool tips in downward position for these overlapping places only. As you can see below:

Capture.PNG

Please let me know, if this makes sense and please share your opinion regarding this. Thank you Regards

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