File names truncated in table view

[veita]

• Gitea version (or commit ref): 1.6.1
• Git version: 2.11.0
• Operating system: Debian Stretch
• Database (use [x]):
  • [ x] PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MSSQL
  • SQLite
• Can you reproduce the bug at https://try.gitea.io:
  • Yes (provide example URL)
  • No
  • [ x] Not relevant
• Log gist:

Description

File names are being truncated in tabular views. Since we have several repositories with many files with common prefixes it is impossible to select the desired file e.g. from the project main page.

On the other hand, there's more than enough space left for the commit messages. Given, that by common convention, the commit message headline is limited to 50 characters this should usually be the case. So a solution could be to make file name columns wider and decrease the width of commit headline columns. Ideally these could be configuration parameters.

Screenshots

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs during the next 2 weeks. Thank you for your contributions.

[veita]

Prevent this from being closed: The problem persists in version 1.7.1.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs during the next 2 weeks. Thank you for your contributions.

[zeripath]

Hi could you check in try and on 1.8-rc. We put a title attribute on the filenames to help them be more visible.

Would that solve your issue?

[veita]

With Gitea Version: 1.8.0+rc3 there's no visible change.

[zeripath]

OK yeah it looks like #6258 wasn't backported to v1.8

[zeripath]

OK it's now backported to the 1.8 branch.

[zeripath]

Do the changes on https://try.gitea.io look ok for you?

[veita]

The problem still exists in 1.8.0 and 1.9.0+dev-193-g46373e765.

See https://try.gitea.io/veita/gitea-issue-5529/src/branch/master/filenames

Compare with https://github.com/veita/gitea-test/tree/master/filenames

[techknowlogick]

When hovering over I get the full filename

[veita]

OK, now I see. But unfortunately we have many long file names with a common prefix in our repos. Given such a situation, I think it is a little bit cumbersome to perform a binary search hovering over the table to find the desired file. I would prefer a more suitable column width (as GitHub), or a configuration parameter to customize it.

[lunny]

@veita Github is still not so long?

[zeripath]

Hmm, it should be possible to make the length settable - and perhaps make the thing horizontally scroll automatically ?

The problem is that we're getting exponential increase in our settings and I suspect that making things scrollable by default will break things.

So three options:

1. Add yet another settable option as above.
2. Is there a better truncation scheme? Would it be better to do some starting characters ... some ending characters?
3. Add a UI switch that would just display the full names?

I think 2 and/or 3 may be the correct answers - I suspect that most of us when hit by a long filename will read the first 10-15 characters and then skip to the end and read backwards.

[veita]

A fourth solution would be to use a more reasonable default for the column with.

Gitea only shows ~35 characters while GitHub shows ~82 characters with similar font settings.

The large user base and long experience of GitHub suggests that their settings are near the optimum.

[zeripath]

Hmm... I think you're right and we have the balance the wrong way round here. How about:

That is eight wide for the filename, five wide for the commit summary with a title on the cell of the commit message to get the summary?

[veita]

This looks way better than before.

The common convention for the headline of commit messages is a maximum lenght of 50 characters. With your suggestion 50 characters seem to be displayable without an ellipsis, which is good with respect to usability.

[zeripath]

The trouble is it looks worse on tables with not-so-long filenames.

We really need some better styling here.

I think what is wanted is:

<filename><commit>                 <details>  
<filename><commit>                 <details>  
<filename><commit>                 <details>  
<filename><commit>                 <details>  

If at least one commit is long and all filenames are short:

<filename><commit>                <details>  
<filename><commit-------------->  <details>
<filename><commit>                <details>

if commits are all short and at least one filename is long:

<filename>              <commit>  <details>  
<filename--------------><commit>  <details>
<filename>              <commit>  <details>  
<filename>              <commit>  <details>  

and I guess we want a long filename to override the commit?

[veita]

You're right.

GitHub also tries to balance out file names and commit comments.

https://github.com/veita/gitea-test/tree/master/filenames
https://github.com/veita/gitea-test/tree/master/filenames-short
https://github.com/veita/gitea-test/tree/master/filenames-50-chars-commit-message

[lafriks]

This could probably be achieved using flex layout or table columns

[lunny]

And another possible change is github is almost full width but gitea only about 60% width. it's my web browser zoom setting.