Can't access config module

On a new plinth install, I created a user and logged in. But when I click Configuration, I see this message: "Only members of the expert group are allowed to see and modify the system setup."

Currently there doesn't seem to be any way to add users to the expert group. I think the intention was to remove the expert group functionality? If that's the case, we should remove the expert_mode module, and cleanup any modules/templates/docs that refer to it.

Created by: fonfon

You should be able to set the expert mode of the logged-in user at "System -> Expert Mode". Is there an agreement on removing the expert mode altogether? The "configure" page is the only place where it's used right now, so it's very easy to remove.

Created by: SunilMohanAdapa

Like @fonfon said, you should be able to enabled expert mode using the configuration interface.

On Sunday 07 December 2014 11:40 PM, James Valleroy wrote: [...]

I think the intention was to remove the expert group functionality? If that's the case, we should remove the expert_mode module, and cleanup any modules/templates/docs that refer to it.

On Sunday 07 December 2014 11:54 PM, fonfon wrote: [...]

Is there an agreement on removing the expert mode altogether? The "configure" page is the only place where it's used right now, so it's very easy to remove.

I made a comment about expert modes especially in the context of hiding some of the Tor configuration.

One of the major problems we are trying to solve is to make hard-to-configure things accessible to regular people. If expert configuration is required (by experts), people could use many other configuration tools available like webmin or directly edit the files. If simplicity and automation are not required, there is no need for Plinth to exist. One of the web based administration tools would suffice.

There is no way for people to discover that more options are available unless they already know about the expert mode.

Many times if a feature's UI is well designed, even a complex topic can be explained well and exposed to a regular person. Some projects like GNOME in many cases do this well.

When we encounter a complex topic, we should make one of the two choices. Work hard towards a simple and elegant design and expose it to the user. Or, don't show expose the feature to the user at all if the feature is unimportant. We should resist taking the middle path of expert mode.

Expert mode, if available, will be major distraction for us. We will be tempted not work on simplifying the UI and instead add a complex UI and shove it into expert mode.

Sunil

Ah figured it out...the Expert Mode button was hidden under the top navigation bar. I can see it when the browser is full screen, but when the browser window is snapped to one half of the screen, the top button of the side menu is hidden.

Created by: fonfon

I had this issue with the submenu being beneath the top navbar also a while ago, but not anymore with the latest layout changes. @jvalleroy, could you please create another issue when this happens again, and describe with which browser/resolution it happens?

Created by: SunilMohanAdapa

I agree with @fonfon that the issue should now be fixed after the style re-factoring we did. I tried to reproduce the issue with submenu being beneath the top navbar without much success. I tried large, medium, small and xtra-small sizes supported by bootstrap. I also tried disabling Javascript.

I think this can be closed for now. I'll check the layout issue again in the next version of the plinth package. Also fonfon has opened #70 to remove the expert_mode module.