element-hq / element-hq/element-web

Adding new room aliases UI is extremely confusing

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#13,077 12 comments 67 reactions 1 assignee Claimed by @gaelledel View on GitHub
A-Aliases A-Room-Settings O-Occasional S-Major T-Defect X-Blocked X-Needs-Design Z-Chronic
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Description

### Description

Adding published room aliases UI is confusing to put it nicely.
So what happens when I try to add a new public alias?

I enter the alias (Published Addresses » Other published addresses):
![2020-04-08_13-40-17_screenshot](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1056054/78780368-c3809900-799e-11ea-982c-382c03039dab.png)

Then I get a terribly misleading error:
![2020-04-08_13-40-31_screenshot](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1056054/78780374-c4b1c600-799e-11ea-9787-d3386c96a207.png)
`There was an error updating the room's alternative addresses. It may not be allowed by the server or a temporary failure occurred.`

And then I see that my new alias is added!
![2020-04-08_13-41-10_screenshot](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1056054/78780375-c54a5c80-799e-11ea-8b87-6dc64ff723f7.png)

Well, except it isn't.

The UI right now accepts a completely different workflow, namely:
- add a **local** alias to the room (Local Addresses » Room alias)
- ...after you clicked "Show more"...
- then type the *whole*, *same* alias again (no selection list)
- then it's added without problems, and added really.

### Suggested behaviour
`Other published addresses` shall be a selection list, similar to `Main address`, which would pick one from the locally added addresses. A helpful message above the box would also inform me that I need to add a local address first.

### Version information
- **Platform**: web (in-browser)
- **Browser**: Chrome, Firefox; any version
- **URL**: private, v. 1.5.15

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