Thoughts on "Was this page helpful?"

[wilhelmer]

Quick thoughts:

1. The UI could use some more love, the left-aligned title with the centered buttons looks a little weird, and maybe add a visual separator between content and the feedback section.
2. Using the page title instead of the document path as the event label looks a lot cleaner in the report and helps avoiding weird entries through, e.g., local tracking (file:// protocol). However, I understand that the page title not being unique might be a problem. Maybe add both? Event label = page title, event action = path?
3. Similarly, I'd prefer the page title over path for the {} placeholder. "Feedback for topic 'My Topic'" is much more readable than "Feedback for topic '/my/project/dir/misc/docs/my-topic.html'"

[squidfunk]

Thanks for the feedback!

The UI could use some more love, the left-aligned title with the centered buttons looks a little weird, and maybe add a visual separator between content and the feedback section.

What do you mean by left-aligned title? The title is centered. Furthermore, adding a separator is trivial with CSS – just add a border-top which fits your taste. I didn't want to clutter up the UI, but I understand that some users might want a separation.

Using the page title instead of the document path as the event label looks a lot cleaner in the report and helps avoiding weird entries through, e.g., local tracking (file:// protocol). However, I understand that the page title not being unique might be a problem. Maybe add both? Event label = page title, event action = path?

You can only provide one label, that's a limitation of Google Analytics, and although other analytics solutions may support more parameters, we have to settle for the lowest common denominator when implementing such a feature. It can be overridden by patching the .../analytics/google.html partial. Additionally, URLs provide a 1:1 mapping to the underlying file structure, which reduces cognitive load when trying to find the affected page in order to improve it.

Similarly, I'd prefer the page title over path for the {} placeholder. "Feedback for topic 'My Topic'" is much more readable than "Feedback for topic '/my/project/dir/misc/docs/my-topic.html'"

That should be possible. However, order would be important, as we're currently leveraging Python's format function, but that shouldn't be a problem as we're using query parameters anyway.

[wilhelmer]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5881440/fieldset-legend-text-align-right-bug-in-firefox

[squidfunk]

Thanks for reporting! Fixed in 53ac0451e.

[wilhelmer]

Similarly, I'd prefer the page title over path for the {} placeholder. "Feedback for topic 'My Topic'" is much more readable than "Feedback for topic '/my/project/dir/misc/docs/my-topic.html'"

That should be possible. However, order would be important, as we're currently leveraging Python's format function, but that shouldn't be a problem as we're using query parameters anyway.

It would be great if you could change that. Or maybe offer two placeholders: {title} and {path}.

That's the only thing I can't customize myself, and we're planning to go live with this feature in about two weeks.

Thanks!

[wilhelmer]

@squidfunk Is that on your list or should i make a PR for that?

[squidfunk]

You can create an issue for this. I'll have to check how we can integrate this functionality because I really don't want to introduce named placeholders, so we can use Python's format functionality, as already explained in my original comment.

[wilhelmer]

Another one: You probably don't want the feedback buttons on the front page. Or on other "unrelated" pages like Legal Info. A way to disable the button on specific pages would be nice.

[squidfunk]

We can add a hide.feedback setting to disable it via front matter 😊

[wilhelmer]

If you just changed this

https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material-insiders/blob/53ac0451e06ff3dd54460682a7143e22fb87769e/src/partials/integrations/analytics/google.html#L115-L116

to

// Show feedback
if (!feedback.hide)
    feedback.hidden = false;

... then this could be achieved with a oneliner in each MD file:

<script>document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { document.feedback.hide = true })</script>

Not the most elegant solution, but maybe that's enough for those who need it.

[michael-nok]

I'm really glad you added this feature as I was looking into this exact type of functionality!
Is it possible to use repo_url variable as part of the HREF link rather than manually specifying it?

Also, depending on which instance of gitlab you're using, the format might be /new?issue[title]=[Feedback]+{}

[squidfunk]

Currently not. The link is just plain text (or HTML) that is sourced from mkdocs.yml, but maybe you can somehow parametrize mkdocs.yml. Maybe by using the macros plugin? The link should be kept general, because linking to GitHub is only one option. For example, I'm linking to a custom Google Form on the Material documentation.

[martinbira]

Have to say I'm really excited about this feature. Now I only need to figure out how to send form data with page info from our S3 hosted site :) Worst case, an e-mail...

[squidfunk]

Why do you need to send form data? It's probably easiest to use an external form, e.g. Google Forms.

[martinbira]

I'm just scouting options if there are any objections from our IT department, but yeah I was looking at primarily Google Forms.

[wilhelmer]

Formspree is an excellent choice for static sites, but not cheap if you want spam protection (and you'll want that).

[michael-nok]

I'm not sure if this is a bug, but it doesn't look to work when using Google Analytics 4.

The file partials/integrations/analytics/google.html only touches the feedback form if the analytics code doesn't start with "G-".

[squidfunk]

See #3170.

[Stephen-Gates]

@squidfunk How do to pass the page url you're providing feedback on to the google form? I can see you've done something tricky on https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material-insiders/blob/master/mkdocs.yml#L119 but I'm not technical enough to work out how you determined to add ?usp=pp_url&entry.853143515={} to the url Google Forms provides.

Perhaps the answer could be added to the documentation?

Thanks in advance 😄

[squidfunk]

You need to get a prefilled link for your form and replace the URL field with the {} placeholder. Yes, we could divide the section on GitHub issues with tabs into guides with multiple providers. If you can make it work, could you submit a PR?