Fixing Incorrect Workspace Breadcrumbs In Frappe And Suggesting UX Improvements
#breadcrumbs #frappe #workspaces #ux #javascript
In Frappe framework, a notable issue arises with breadcrumbs navigation, particularly when DocTypes are incorporated into multiple workspaces. This article delves into the problem of incorrect workspace breadcrumbs, proposes a solution, and suggests a potential core UX enhancement for Frappe. Understanding and addressing this issue is crucial for maintaining a seamless user experience within the Frappe ecosystem.
Problem: Incorrect Workspace Breadcrumbs
The core issue lies in how Frappe handles breadcrumbs when a DocType is linked across multiple workspaces. Specifically, when a user navigates from one workspace to a DocType's List or Form view, the breadcrumbs incorrectly display the first matching workspace instead of the one the user actually originated from. Let's illustrate this with a detailed example.
Detailed Example: Navigating Between Workspaces
Consider a scenario where you have two distinct workspaces, named Test1 and Test2. Both of these workspaces include the Sales Invoice DocType, serving as shortcuts for quick access. Now, imagine a user starts their journey in the Test2 workspace and opens the Sales Invoice list view by navigating to /app/sales-invoice. From this list view, the user proceeds to open a specific Sales Invoice record, such as /app/sales-invoice/ACC-SINV-2025-00005.
In this situation, the expected breadcrumb trail should accurately reflect the user's navigation path, displaying Test2 > Sales Invoice > ACC-SINV-2025-00005. However, the actual breadcrumbs displayed incorrectly show Test1 > Sales Invoice > ACC-SINV-2025-00005. This misrepresentation of the navigation history can lead to significant user confusion and frustration, especially when the user relies on breadcrumbs for orientation within the application.
This discrepancy in breadcrumb display can cause several practical problems. For instance, if the user lacks access permissions to Test1, clicking on the incorrect Test1 breadcrumb will result in a permission error, disrupting their workflow. More broadly, the incorrect breadcrumb trail causes a loss of workspace context, making it difficult for users to return to their original workspace or understand their current location within the application. This ultimately detracts from the overall user experience, making navigation less intuitive and more prone to errors. Therefore, resolving this issue is paramount to ensuring a smooth and efficient user journey within Frappe.
Consequences of Incorrect Breadcrumbs
The consequences of this breadcrumb misrepresentation extend beyond mere inconvenience. The primary issues that arise from incorrect breadcrumbs are user confusion and broken navigation. Users rely on breadcrumbs to understand their current location within an application and to quickly navigate back to previous sections. When the breadcrumbs display the wrong workspace, it creates a false sense of location, potentially leading users to click on breadcrumbs that take them to unintended areas of the application. This disorientation can be especially problematic for new users or those less familiar with the system's structure.
Another significant consequence is the potential for broken navigation. If a user clicks on a breadcrumb that points to a workspace they do not have access to, they will encounter a permission error. This not only disrupts their current task but also creates a frustrating experience. Moreover, the incorrect breadcrumbs can lead to a loss of context, making it difficult for users to return to their original workspace or to understand the relationship between different parts of the application. This loss of context can hinder productivity and make it more challenging for users to complete their tasks efficiently. Therefore, ensuring accurate breadcrumbs is essential for maintaining a clear, navigable, and user-friendly environment within Frappe.
Proposed Solution: Tracking Workspace via LocalStorage
To address the issue of incorrect workspace breadcrumbs, a practical solution involves tracking the last visited workspace on the frontend. This can be achieved using localStorage, a web storage API that allows JavaScript to store key-value pairs in a web browser persistently. By storing the current workspace in localStorage, we can retrieve this information and dynamically inject it into the breadcrumb trail. This approach ensures that the breadcrumbs accurately reflect the user's navigation history, regardless of how many workspaces a DocType is associated with.
The proposed solution leverages a JavaScript override within Frappe to modify the default breadcrumb behavior. Specifically, we override the frappe.breadcrumbs.update function, which is responsible for generating the breadcrumb trail. This override checks the current route and, if the user is navigating within a workspace, stores the workspace name in localStorage. Subsequently, when the user navigates to a DocType's List or Form view, the override retrieves the stored workspace name and constructs the breadcrumb trail accordingly. This ensures that the breadcrumbs correctly display the workspace the user originated from, providing accurate navigation and context.
This solution not only fixes the immediate problem of incorrect breadcrumbs but also enhances the overall user experience by maintaining a consistent and intuitive navigation system. By accurately reflecting the user's path through the application, the breadcrumbs become a reliable tool for orientation and navigation, reducing confusion and improving efficiency. Furthermore, this approach is relatively lightweight and can be implemented without significant changes to the core Frappe framework, making it a feasible and effective solution for this UX issue.
Code Implementation Details
The proposed solution involves implementing a JavaScript override for the frappe.breadcrumbs.update function. This override dynamically adjusts the breadcrumb trail based on the user's navigation history, ensuring accurate workspace representation. The core of the solution lies in tracking the last visited workspace using localStorage and injecting this information into the breadcrumbs.
The code snippet provided demonstrates a self-executing JavaScript function that encapsulates the override logic. First, it stores a reference to the original frappe.breadcrumbs.update method to ensure that the default behavior can be invoked when necessary. Then, it overrides the function with a custom implementation that includes the workspace tracking and breadcrumb modification logic.
Within the overridden function, the current route is obtained using frappe.get_route(). If the route indicates that the user is navigating within a workspace (i.e., the first element of the route array is "Workspaces"), the workspace name is extracted and stored in localStorage using localStorage.setItem("current_workspace", active_route[1]). This ensures that the current workspace is always tracked as the user navigates through different workspaces.
When the user navigates to a DocType's List or Form view, the override checks for a stored workspace in localStorage. If a stored workspace is found, the breadcrumb trail is cleared using this.clear(), and new breadcrumb elements are appended using this.append_breadcrumb_element(). These elements are constructed based on the stored workspace name and the DocType being viewed, ensuring that the breadcrumbs accurately reflect the user's navigation path. The code handles both Form and List views, constructing the appropriate breadcrumb trail for each case.
If no stored workspace is found or if the user is navigating to a different type of route, the original frappe.breadcrumbs.update method is invoked using original_method.call(this). This ensures that the default breadcrumb behavior is maintained for other areas of the application. This approach provides a targeted solution to the workspace breadcrumb issue while minimizing the impact on other parts of the Frappe framework.
(function() {
const original_method = frappe.breadcrumbs.update;
frappe.breadcrumbs.update = function() {
const active_route = frappe.get_route();
const stored_workspace = localStorage.getItem("current_workspace");
// Always update workspace storage when visiting workspace routes
if (active_route[0] === "Workspaces" && active_route[1]) {
localStorage.setItem("current_workspace", active_route[1]);
}
// Only proceed with custom breadcrumbs if we have a stored workspace
if (stored_workspace) {
// Handle Form view
if (active_route[0] === "Form") {
const doc_type = active_route[1];
const doc_name = active_route[2];
this.clear();
this.append_breadcrumb_element(
`/app/${frappe.router.slug(stored_workspace)}`,
__(stored_workspace)
);
this.append_breadcrumb_element(
`/app/${frappe.router.slug(doc_type)}`,
__(doc_type)
);
let document_title;
if (doc_name.startsWith("new-" + doc_type.toLowerCase().replace(/ /g, "-"))) {
document_title = __("New {0}", [__(doc_type)]);
} else {
document_title = __(doc_name);
}
this.append_breadcrumb_element(
`/app/${frappe.router.slug(doc_type)}/${encodeURIComponent(doc_name)}`,
document_title
);
let final_crumb = this.$breadcrumbs.find("li").last();
final_crumb.addClass("disabled").css("cursor", "copy");
final_crumb.click((event) => {
event.stopImmediatePropagation();
frappe.utils.copy_to_clipboard(final_crumb.text());
});
this.toggle(true);
return;
}
// Handle List view
else if (active_route[0] === "List") {
const doc_type = active_route[1];
this.clear();
this.append_breadcrumb_element(
`/app/${frappe.router.slug(stored_workspace)}`,
__(stored_workspace)
);
this.append_breadcrumb_element(
`/app/${frappe.router.slug(doc_type)}`,
__(doc_type)
);
this.toggle(true);
return;
}
}
// Fall back to original method if no stored workspace or other routes
original_method.call(this);
};
})();
Benefits of Using LocalStorage
Leveraging localStorage for tracking the last visited workspace offers several key benefits, making it a practical choice for this solution. Firstly, localStorage provides a persistent storage mechanism within the user's browser. This means that the workspace information is retained even if the user closes the browser or navigates away from the Frappe application. This persistence ensures a consistent and accurate breadcrumb trail across multiple sessions, enhancing the overall user experience. Users can confidently rely on the breadcrumbs to reflect their actual navigation history, regardless of how frequently they access the application.
Secondly, localStorage operates on the client-side, meaning that the workspace information is stored directly in the user's browser. This eliminates the need to make server-side requests to retrieve workspace data, reducing latency and improving the responsiveness of the breadcrumb updates. The client-side nature of localStorage also minimizes the load on the server, contributing to the overall scalability and performance of the Frappe application. This is particularly beneficial in environments with a large number of users or complex navigation patterns.
Furthermore, localStorage is relatively easy to implement and use within JavaScript. The API is straightforward, with simple methods for storing, retrieving, and removing data. This simplicity makes it easy for developers to integrate localStorage into the Frappe framework and to maintain the solution over time. The ease of implementation also reduces the potential for errors and ensures that the solution can be deployed quickly and efficiently. Therefore, the combination of persistence, client-side operation, and ease of use makes localStorage an ideal choice for tracking the last visited workspace and ensuring accurate breadcrumbs within Frappe.
Suggestion: Core UX Enhancement in Frappe
While the proposed solution effectively addresses the immediate issue of incorrect workspace breadcrumbs, it's crucial to recognize that this problem stems from a more fundamental UX consideration within the Frappe framework. Ideally, the breadcrumb behavior should be inherently accurate and intuitive without requiring workarounds or custom implementations. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that this issue be considered as a core UX enhancement within Frappe, warranting a fix directly within the framework itself.
Integrating the solution into the core framework would ensure that all users benefit from accurate breadcrumbs, regardless of their technical expertise or ability to implement custom solutions. This would provide a consistent and reliable navigation experience across the entire Frappe ecosystem, enhancing user satisfaction and productivity. Furthermore, addressing the issue at the framework level would prevent the need for individual developers to implement similar workarounds in their own applications, promoting code maintainability and reducing the potential for inconsistencies.
A framework-level solution could involve modifying the core breadcrumb generation logic to correctly track and display the user's navigation path through workspaces. This might entail storing workspace context as part of the session or utilizing a more sophisticated routing mechanism that preserves navigation history. The specific implementation details would need to be carefully considered to ensure compatibility with existing Frappe features and to avoid introducing any performance bottlenecks. However, the benefits of a core UX enhancement in this area would far outweigh the development effort, resulting in a more polished and user-friendly Frappe experience.
By prioritizing this issue as a core UX enhancement, the Frappe team can demonstrate a commitment to providing a high-quality user experience and ensuring that the framework remains intuitive and efficient for all users. This proactive approach would not only resolve the current breadcrumb problem but also lay the foundation for future improvements in navigation and user interface design.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the issue of incorrect workspace breadcrumbs in Frappe can lead to user confusion and navigation problems. The proposed solution, which involves tracking the last visited workspace using localStorage, offers a practical way to address this issue. However, it's important to recognize that this problem represents a core UX concern within Frappe. Therefore, it is highly recommended that this be considered as a feature request or core UX enhancement for the framework. A framework-level fix would ensure that all Frappe users benefit from accurate and intuitive breadcrumbs, leading to a more seamless and efficient user experience. This commitment to UX improvements will further solidify Frappe's position as a leading open-source ERP solution.