Personal Dashboards

User wishes to see their dashboard / activity relevant to them

User clicks "My Page" (redirects to their user page). They see their dashboard plugins and can click on a tab for more details.

User wishes to edit their user page

While on their dashboard (/User:username), the user can click "edit" and modify their user page as expected. Once finished editing, they are returned to their dashboard with the changes visible.

User wishes to create subpages

Users can create subpages from their dashboard (/User:username/mypage) by visiting the new URL, or using "Create Page" while on the dashboard home.

Module author wishes to create a customized dashboard page for end users

The author writes a module that will register with MindTouch Dashboard (in PHP or DekiScript). The admin installs and enables the module for the site. When the user navigates their dashboard, the module appears as a dashboard tab, displaying data to the user.

Admin wishes to create a customized dashboard page for end users

The admin writes a DekiScript page (/MyDashboardPage) which generates the desired output. After verifying the page renders correctly, he visits the control panel and adds its path to the list of enabled dashboard pages. At this point, users see "MyDashboardPage" as a tab on their dashboards.

These new dashboard pages can be added without modifying files on the server (uploading new modules, changing LocalSettings, etc.).

Admin options:

• List of pages to include (required)
• Pages are added to the dashboard in the order listed, after all php plugins
• Page permissions: if a dashboard page is restricted for viewing, only authorized users will have it added to their dashboard.

Future Enhancements

Admin Configuration UI:

• Pages are only added if found; pages are shown as not found when they are deleted but still enabled in the dashboard.

Future Enhancements

V2 Options:

• Enable per-user customization of dashboard page list

User has numerous dashboard tabs

Allowed Plugins And Dispatching

• Admin specifies custom plugins with $wgDefaultDekiUserDashboardPlugins[] in LocalSettings.php (similar to Special Pages)
• Dashboard plugins hook Hooks::DATA_GET_USER_DASHBOARD_PLUGINS
  • All registered plugins instantiated when hook fired
  • Only the single active plugin is rendered

Architecture: Plugin Metadata

Plugins will specify the following:

• Required
  • Plugin name - identifies plugin for the admin's enabled plugin list
  • Plugin id - user-facing name (myplugin) used in css identifiers and links. Defaults to plugin name.
  • Plugin title - display title of the plugin in the dashboard tab
• Optional, to be implemented for plugin browsing
  • Plugin description
  • Screenshot
  • Author name
  • Plugin url / homepage

PHP Plugins will explicitly specify the above parameters in the class definition. DekiScript plugins will store their metadata in page properties.

Architecture: PHP Plugins (Implemented)

PHP Plugins

• Installed into /deki/plugins/user_dashboard/my_plugin/my_plugin.php
• Plugins extend base class
  • Plugins register with global dashboard hook
  • Plugin customizations / features
  • • $User - the user who owns the dashboard
    • $UserPageInfo - PageInfo for the dashboard page itself
    • $pluginName - name used to identify the plugin
    • $privatePlugin - if true, plugin only visible to owner of dashboard
    • $displayTitle - name on plugin tab
    • initPlugin() - allow for run-time customizations
    • getPluginId() - customize name appearing on plugin css Ids and named anchor links (#my_plugin)
    • getHtml() - override to render html for plugin
    • includeDashboardJavascript("filename.js") - include js file from plugin folder (only added on plugin render)
    • includeDashboardCss("filename.css") - include css file from plugin folder (only added on plugin render)
  • New features added by extending the base class [ie. getting and setting dashboard options, default AJAX handling, etc.].

DekiPlugin::registerHook(Hooks::DATA_GET_USER_DASHBOARD_PLUGINS, array('DashboardHelloWorldExpanded', 'getDashboardPluginsHook'));

class DashboardHelloWorldExpanded extends UserDashboardPlugin
{
    protected $pluginName = 'hello_world_dashboard';
    protected $privatePlugin = true;
        
    public static function getDashboardPluginsHook(&$plugins, $User)
    {
        $Plugin = new self($User);
        $plugins[] = $Plugin;
    }
        
    public function initPlugin()
    {
        $this->displayTitle = 'Hello, World! (Private)';
        $this->includeDashboardJavascript("hello.js");
        $this->includeDashboardCss("hello.css");
    }

    public function getPluginId()
    {
        return 'hello';
    }

    public function getHtml()
    {
        $html = '<span id="helloworld">Hello, world. From the dashboard plugin.</span>';
        return $html;
    }
}

Goals:

• Do heavy lifting in base class, users specify minimal amount
• Avoid gotchas in terms of forgotten setup parameters

PHP Plugins Wrapping DekiScript

PHP Plugins can wrap a given DekiScript page by extending UserDashboardPage which provides:

• $pagePath - path to page to load
• parent::initPlugin() - called to setup the $pagePath and handle errors

DekiPlugin::registerHook(Hooks::DATA_GET_USER_DASHBOARD_PLUGINS, array('UserHomePage', 'getDashboardPluginsHook'));

class UserHomePage extends UserDashboardPage
{
    protected $pluginName = 'hello_page';

    public static function getDashboardPluginsHook(&$plugins, $User)
    {
        $Plugin = new self($User);
        $plugins[] = $Plugin;
    }

    public function initPlugin()
    {
        $this->displayTitle = 'Home Page';
        $this->pagePath = 'Template:Hello';

        parent::initPlugin();
    }

    public function getPluginId()
    {
        return 'hello_page';
    }
}

This plugin will behave like a regular plugin, but render a given page.

DekiScript Templates

DekiScript pages can be included in the dashboard, requiring no PHP code changes by the administrator.

Configuration:

• Admins will configure the default DekiScript pages in the control panel
• Paths stored as comma-separated values as a configuration setting:
  • ui/deki_dashboard_pages = "Page1, Template:Page2, Sample/Page/Here"

PHP integration: The framework will read the configuration above. If there are dekiscript pages to include, it will create UserDashboardPage objects initialized with the appropriate page. Dekiscript templates appear after PHP templates.

Future Ideas

• Plugin metadata: Loaded from page properties.

• Namespace: Currently, DekiScript plugin templates can live anywhere (as long as specified by admin in settings). In the future, a designated location may auto-load dashboard plugins (such as Template:Dashboard:My_Plugin), or having a specific page property.

Per-user plugin list

Plugin Add

• Find all registered and allowed plugins
• For each create DekiDashboardPlugin instances as above
• Render list of plugins (with description, screenshots as available)
• User clicks "add plugin" which adds plugin to their default page properties ("mindtouch_dashboard_plugins"):
  • Plugin list is comma-separated
  • Dashboard:My_plugin, my_php_plugin, my_other_php_plugin

Plugin Removal

• Delete plugin name from list of of plugins in page properties