RocketChat / RocketChat/Rocket.Chat

Missing descriptions of Administration menu options and their settings

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#20,996 4 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Description

Description:

There is almost no information describing what some admin settings do, but the ability to have descriptions clearly exists and is demonstrated on some areas within Administration. The options and fields that exist seem so improperly named that I can't find information about through search engines. And when it comes to 3rd party integrations, sometimes can't find the wanted details anywhere in the UI.

Steps to reproduce:
  1. Go to Administration
  2. Visit the following sections and observe what is noted on:

The Administration area needs serious work. There is not description at all on what most settings do. They ask for user input values that often I can't even find with a search engine. The help menu doesn't seem to contain help with these either.

Some examples (of bad settings menus):

  • Omnichannel - Omnichannel enabled us the first option. Not idea what this is. This contains a bunch of sections that make it even more mysterious, like GDPR and RD Station (which simply contains one field for RD Station Token, which is a marketing platform maybe?)
  • Federation - This menu actually has some brief explanations, although not everyone knows what federation is, so sill falls a little short but shows it's possible to do better.
  • WebRTC - This comes with default values in STUN/TURN Servers. Are they valid? Just for demonstration? What even are they? As for WebRTC, what exactly does this mean? Video/voice chat, right? Maybe better to call it that or explain. Also, it doesn't work.
  • Video Conference - This section has no real explanation, just two expandable menus--one for "BigBlueButton" (never heard of it) and Jitsi (which I thought I knew, but given the variables here, realize I completely misunderstood to be a P2P video & voice chat program. Spending time with both has not helped me enable these much-needed services (since WebRTC doesn't seem to work)
  • LiveStream & Broadcasting - Does LiveStream work? So far not for me. As for "Broadcasting", where are the client ID/Secrete/Key obtained? What does broadcasting mean in this context? Frustrating UX.
  • Blockstack - Never heard of it, no descriptions.
  • Discussion - No explanation of whether this means chat or something else.
Expected behavior:

Some examples of better settings menus:

  • LDAP - This has an explanation at the top, a link to a wiki with more information, brief explanations near each main option and explanations in the additional expandable options.
Actual behavior:

See Steps to reproduce.

Server Setup Information:
  • Version of Rocket.Chat Server:
  • Operating System:
  • Deployment Method:
  • Number of Running Instances:
  • DB Replicaset Oplog:
  • NodeJS Version:
  • MongoDB Version:
Client Setup Information
  • Desktop App or Browser Version: macOS, App Store
  • Operating System: macOS 11.2.2

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in the Administration area and review the Omnichannel, Federation, WebRTC, Video Conference, LiveStream & Broadcasting, Blockstack, and Discussion sections named in the issue. Compare them with the LDAP section's existing explanations and links. Done means the affected settings have clear descriptions and users can understand the referenced integrations and values from the UI or linked help.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
documentation, frontend
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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