## Problem to solve GitLab is a single application with features that span the entire DevOps lifecycle. For some, however, there are features that are either not relevant to their project or platform and therefore go unused. For example, if your organization has fully embraced Atlassian's Confluence for internal documentation, you might not find a need to create a Wiki inside your GitLab project. For this reason, among others, we have settings at the project-level to disable certain features. Doing so prevents the feature from being used by any members of the project and hides the feature from the GitLab UI (specifically, no icon appears in the left navigation and anyone attempting to navigate directly to the feature's main pages will get a 404 error). However, our application of this pattern is inconsistent and there are a number of features that _could_ be disabled and hidden that are not. ## Proposal 1. Review the list of available project settings and whether they can be disabled 1. Determine which features _should_ be disabled but _currently can't_ 1. Create issues for each feature that needs to be disabled ## On by default **Important note** Keeping with our "on by default" principle, we are not changing the default behavior for _any_ feature. When a new project is created, all features that are available to the user/project should be **on by default**. Someone must explicitly navigate to the project settings to disable a feature if they do not wish to use it or see it in the left navigation bar. ## Visibility vs. Availability An important distinction should be made here that we are evaluating the ability to **disable a feature**. In turn, disabled features should not appear in the left navigation bar. The scope of this epic is not to introduce separate visibility or user-level customization options for the left navigation items. ## Current visibility settings | Visibility setting toggles | |----------------------------| | **Issues** | | CVE ID Requests | | **Repository** | | Merge Requests | | Forks | | Git Large File Storage | | Packages | | CI/CD | | **Container Registry** | | **Analytics** | | **Requirements** | | **Security and Compliance** | | **Wiki** | | **Snippets** | | **Pages** | | **Operations** | | Metrics Dashboard | CVE ID Requests, Forks, and Git Large File Storage are not reflected in our navigation. These should likely be moved to another area of settings outside of visibility settings. Epic to discuss further: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6936 ## Project features by Left Nav Item | Left Nav item | Removed by | Manual disable status | Issue | Dependencies | Issue | |---------------------------|----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------| | **Project Information** | | ✅ Cannot be disabled | N/A | | | | Activity | | ✅ Cannot be disabled | N/A | | | | Labels | | ✅ Cannot be disabled | N/A | | | | Members | | ✅ Cannot be disabled | N/A | | | | **Repository** | Repository | ✅ Section can be disabled | N/A | | | | Files | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Commits | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Branches | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Tags | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Contributors | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Graph | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Compare | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | Locked Files | Repository | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | | | | **Issues** | Issues | ✅ Issues section can be disabled | N/A | | | | List | Issues | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Boards | Issues | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Service Desk | Issues | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Milestones | Issues | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Iterations | Issues | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Requirements | Issues, Requirements | ✅ Can be disabled individually | N/A | | | | **Merge requests** | Repository, Merge requests | ✅ Can be disabled | N/A | If the Issues section is disabled, you can still see "Milestone" on MRs even though they are disabled | | | **CI/CD** | Repository, CI/CD | ✅ Section can be disabled | N/A | | | | Pipelines | Repository, CI/CD | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Editor | Repository, CI/CD | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | Disabling pipelines disables editor | | | Jobs | Repository, CI/CD | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | Disabling pipelines disables jobs | | | Schedules | Repository, CI/CD | ✅ Cannot disable individually | N/A | Disabling pipelines disables schedules | | | Test Cases | Issues, Repository, CI/CD | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | **Security & Compliance** | Security & Compliance | ✅ Section can be disabled | N/A | | | | Security Dashboard | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Security dashboard should be disabled if vulnerability report is | | | Vulnerability Report | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | On-demand Scans | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Dependency List | Repository, Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | License Compliance | Repository, Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Threat Monitoring | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Policies | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Policies should be disalbed if threat moniroting is | | | Audit Events | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Configuration | Security & Compliance | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | **Deployments** | Repository | ❌ Section should be able to be disabled | | | | | Feature Flags | Repository, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Should be disabled is environments is | | | Environments | Repository, CI/CD, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Releases | Repository | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | **Monitor** | Operations | ❌ Should be updated from Operations to Monitor | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/339591 | | | | Metrics | Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Should be disabled if environments is disabled | | | Logs | Repository, CI/CD, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Should be disabled if environments is disabled | | | Tracing | Repository, CI/CD, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/238087 | | | | Error Tracking | Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/238088 | | | | Alerts | Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Incidents | Issues, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/235990 | | | | On-call Schedules | Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Escalation Policies | Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | **Infrastructure** | Operations | ❌ Should be updated from Operations to Infrastructure | https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/339591 | | | | Kubernetes clusters | Repository, CI/CD, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Serverless platform | Repository, CI/CD, Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Terraform | Operations | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | **Packages & Registries** | | ❌ Should be able to disable section | | | | | Package Registry | Repository, Packages | ❌ Should be split with infra registry | | | | | Container Registry | Container Registry | ✅ Can be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Infrastructure Registry | Repository, Packages | ❌ Should be split with package registry | | | | | **Analytics** | Analytics | ✅ Section can be disabled | N/A | | | | CI/CD | Merge Requests, Repository, CI/CD, Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | Code review | Repository, Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Disabling merge requests doesn't remove this page | | | Insights | Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Insights includes issues and mr dashboards. Each dashboard should be disabled if the corresponding feature is disabled. If both are disabled, this page should be removed | | | Issue | Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Disabling issues doesn't remove this page | | | Merge request | Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Disabling merge requests doesn't remove this page | | | Repository | Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | Disabling reposiroty doesn't remove this page | | | Value stream | Analytics | ❌ Should be able to be disabled individually | | | | | **Wiki** | Wiki | ✅ Can be disabled | N/A | | | | **Snippets** | Snippets | ✅ Can be disabled | N/A | | | | **Settings** | | ✅ Cannot be disabled | N/A | | | | General | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Integrations | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Webhooks | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Access Tokens | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Repository | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | Disabling repository doesn't remove this setting | | | CI/CD | Repository, CI/CD | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Monitor | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Pages | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | Disabling pages doesn't remove this setting | | | Packages & Registries | Container Registry | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | | Usage quotas | | ✅ Cannot be disabled individually | N/A | | | <details><summary>prev tables</summary> | Nav Item | Should allow disabling? | Can currently be disabled? | Notes | Issue | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Repository | ✅ | ✅ | | | | Repository > Commits | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Repository > Branches | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Repository > Tags | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Repository > Contributors | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Repository > Graph | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Repository > Compare | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Repository > Locked Files | ❌ | ❌ | | | | | Issues | ✅ | ✅ | | | | | Issues > Boards | | | | | | | Issues > Labels | | | | | | | Issues > Service Desk | ✅ | ✅ | | | | | Issues > Milestones | | | | | | | Issues > Iterations | | | | | | | Merge Requests | ✅ | | | | | | Requirements | ✅ | ✅ | | | | CI/CD | | | | | | | CI/CD > Pipelines | | | | | | | CI/CD > Jobs | | | | | | | CI/CD > Schedules | ❌ | ❌ | | | | CI/CD > Test Cases | | | | | | | Security & Compliance | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > Security Dashboard | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > Vulnerability Report | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > On-Demand Scans | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > Dependency List | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > License Compliance | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > Threat Monitoring | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > Configuration | ❌ | | | | | | Security & Compliance > Audit Events | ❌ | | | | | | Operations | ✅ | | | | | | Operations > Metrics | | | | | | | Operations > Logs | | | | | | | Operations > Tracing | | | | | | | Operations > Error Tracking | | | | | | | Operations > Alerts | | | | | | | Operations > Incidents | | | | | | | Operations > Serverless | | | | | | | Operations > Terraform | | | | | | | Operations > Kubernetes | | | | | | | Operations > Environments | | | | | | | Operations > Feature Flags | | | | | | | Package & Registries | ✅ | | | | | | Package & Registries > Package Registry | | | | | | | Package & Registries > Container Registry | | | | | | | Analytics | ✅ | | | | | | Analytics > CI/CD | | | | | | | Analytics > Code Review | | | | | | | Analytics > Insights | | | | | | | Analytics > Issue | ❌ | | This should be hidden in the left nav if Issues is disabled | | | Analytics > Merge Request | ❌ | | This should be hidden from the left nav if MRs are disabled | | | Analytics > Repository | ❌ | | This should be hidden in the left nav if Repositories are disabled | | | | Analytics > Value Stream | | | | | | | Wiki | ✅ | | | | | | Snippets | ✅ | | | | | ## Features that don't align to a left nav item | Feature | Should be disabled | Can be disabled | Notes | Issue | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Forks | ✅ | ✅ | The impact of this settings applies to the UI in the repository, not in the left nav | | | Git LFS | ✅ | ✅ | | | | Pages | ✅ | ✅ | Pages does not currently have a left nav icon. Disabling the feature should **not** remove the Pages menu item from `Settings > Pages` | | </details> ## On Information Architecture The scope of this epic is not to redefine or reorganize the information architecture of the left navigation. That work is necessary but will be tracked in a separate epic. Examples of things that could use improvement but are not part of this epic: - Disabling Group-level features - Consistently applying a design pattern for single-view items in the left nav - Figuring out how to represent the "first page" in a left nav group (solving for things like `Issues > List`) - Promoting features to separate left nav items - Reorganizing features within a left nav group - Letting users customize a left nav item's visibility, independent of the availability of the feature - Implement a persona-based or task-based left navigation There are some open issues for rearranging items within the left nav. The execution of those will make the above table out of date but the intent for each feature should still be relevant. We're not trying to maintain a single source of truth for the state of the left nav, rather to highlight which features on the left nav are behaving inconsistently.