[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #21665: Allow non-editable pages to be classified & organized as "System Pages"

[WordPress Trac]

#21665: Allow non-editable pages to be classified & organized as "System Pages"
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 Reporter:  bootsz                              |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request                     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                              |   Milestone:  Awaiting
Component:  UI                                  |  Review
 Severity:  normal                              |     Version:
 Keywords:  dev-feedback has-patch ux-feedback  |  Resolution:
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Comment (by bootsz):

 Replying to [comment:4 scribu]:
 > The problem with custom page templates is that they're NOT supposed to
 be completely non-editable.

 I’ve been putting some more thought into this issue and keep coming back
 to your point here, which I think is key to properly identifying the
 problem.  I started to wonder: why is it that we often end up with pages
 that are not editable?    Well, here’s an example of one such reason from
 my own experiences:

 Many sites I build use homepages that consist of 2 main components:

 1) A rotating slideshow (w/ images and text).

 2) A multi-column area featuring a combination of pure text, recent posts,
 contact forms, or any other number of features.

 The challenge here is that these “sections” feature content that is
 modular / dynamic / repeatable / whatever you want to call it.  With
 Pages, my only options for adding content are a single text editor and
 setting a Featured Image.   This won’t cut it for a page like the one I’m
 describing.  So instead, I’ll end up setting up some combination of a
 custom widget area(s) and/or Custom Post Types to handle the content, and
 then pull everything together via a custom Page template.

 This works fine, but it causes confusion for users.  If they’re logged in
 and viewing this page, they’ll click “Edit Page” expecting to be able to
 change the page’s contents.  But instead they just see a blank text
 editor.  They’ll need to remember that some of the content is located in a
 Custom Post Type, while other sections of the page are controlled via
 Widgets.  This right here is in my opinion where the user experience is
 failing.

 As a result, I’m wondering if this idea of “System Pages” may be too
 simplistic.  For pages such as the one I've described, such a solution is
 really just a band-aid fix over a much deeper problem, which is that the
 idea of what constitutes a “Page” in WordPress might be too narrowly
 defined.

 I’d argue that a proper solution would involve making Pages more flexible,
 so that more dynamic/repeatable content that is '''page-specific''' can be
 added & edited WITHIN the page editor, rather than scattered about within
 multiple other sections of the admin.

 Could we allow widgets to also be added to a specific page, via some type
 of special page-specific widget areas that appear in the Page editor
 instead of the Widgets UI?  What other types of content could we integrate
 into the Page editor?

 So far the best solution I have found that accomplishes this is the
 Repeater Field for Advanced Custom Fields:
 http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/add-ons/repeater-field/.  This to me
 seems like the kind of feature that could make Pages flexible enough to
 bring more content creation within the Page editor UI.

 I realize that what I'm talking about does not address all cases, such as
 the “page for posts” or archive pages for Custom Post Types.  Those types
 of pages probably do not need to accommodate anything beyond adjusting the
 Title & slug.    Nevertheless, I think the need for more flexibility still
 applies.

 Ultimately, we want to ensure that in all cases clicking “Edit Page” will
 lead to a useful & appropriate UI.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/21665#comment:28>
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