Improvements on the Repository Files View
The general repository files view could be improved upon in several ways in my opinion.
The following image is the intended result:
To explain, I have the same mockup with high lighted areas at the bottom of this issue. The area's are the following:
- “Plus button” could be extended upon to give the user a better expectation to what is inside the button.
- File search could be a real search field, instead of a button as it is now.
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To take better advantage of the responsive nature of gitlab (thus bigger screens), we could add additional columns and space those columns better
- column with the the author of the commit that belongs to the file (row). (Author column could increase “contribution feeling”.)
- spacing of columns could be improved by dynamically calculating the required width of each. (This will improve the space available for information)
- column under "History" is at this moment not used (while it still takes up space!), lets get put the commit hash there. (This is done in various other git hosting services)
- We could introduce file type icons, to improve "first sight perception" out of what the repository consists of.
example with color:
or without (as in the mockup):
- These would only replace known file types (for which an icon is available/required)
- Could also be displayed in the "file holder" header
These improvements came out of an research exercise. Let's get them into an issue, to get them implemented if needed!
ps: if desired I'll create subissues for each improvement