Improve visual indexing of CI/CD Variables
Problem to solve
The current UI for project level CI/CD variables has several problems that make visual indexing unintuitive. This reduces user confidence in making changes, as well as increasing the potential for human error (e.g. assigning or editing a variable in the wrong environment).
Variable Order
Variables are sorted by key only, which makes it difficult to manage multiple environments. For example, the order may look something like this:
- DB_HOST (production)
- DB_HOST (staging)
- DB_HOST (test)
- DB_PASS (production)
- ...
This would make much more sense if it were ordered by environment, then key:
- DB_HOST (production)
- DB_PASS (production)
- DB_USER (production)
- DB_HOST (staging)
- ...
Column Order
At present, the first field in the list is "Type". When scanning the list of entries, the user has to look at the second column (Key) to find the variable they wish to change. The most important piece of information should be the first field, as it makes finding the correct variable much simpler.
Intended users
Proposal
The proposal is as follows:
- Order CI variables by environment_scope ASC, then key ASC
- Change order "Type, Key, Value, ..." to "Key, Value, Type, ..."