[Patternfly] Pattern for form actions

[Gabriel Cardoso]

> +1 to everything Matt said, but I'd also like to add to his point that you really probably don't need the 'Clear Changes' button. It's the same as the infamous HTML 'reset' button which has been pretty universally considered a bad idea because people don't use it (except by accident), and it's destructive. Instead, users are much more likely to either edit the data in the fields if they want to change it, or use the back button (or a cancel button) to abandon the form if they decide not to complete it.

Thanks for the feedback Emily. I found an article that explains why we should not use Reset buttons. It is not new but I guess the rationale still makes sense: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/reset-and-cancel-buttons/

> Agree with you that having the three buttons side by side does not feel right.  But I think the problem I have with the Delete button as you've placed it is the following.  I expect that the buttons placed in the lower right of the form are going to take action on the changes I made to the form itself, e.g., Save, Cancel, Clear.  When you place the Delete button there it confuses matters in my opinion.  Delete what?
> 
> Deleting the artifact is really a higher level decision.  In other words, the first thing the user needs to define here is what they want to do relative to the item in question.  Am I here to edit it?  Am I here to delete it?  I think what I would do is to introduce a set of separate actions in the header of the object to either delete or edit.  So by default the form is read-only.  Clicking edit puts the form in edit mode and then the cancel and save buttons appear.  I don't think you necessarily need the Clear in this case, but you could include it.  I recognize that this forces the user to make one additional click to edit the form, but I think it will be absolutely clear what they are doing.
> 
> What do you think?

Matt, your explanation clarified some things to me. The user can View, Edit or Delete. These actions are in the same level. When editing, he can Cancel or Save. My problem is that I was putting actions from different levels in the same place. So I agree with you, we should have Edit and Delete in the same level.

It would be good if we have that as a pattern, don’t you think?

Thanks,
Gabriel

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Gabriel Cardoso
User Experience Designer @ Red Hat

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