There should be a way to group params for templates with lots of options

[sayedihashimi]

See related issue #6 .
It would be nice to be able to group these parameters. I know that @KathleenDollard has been thinking to add some grouping support in the Template Engine. This seems like a good template to support that idea. If we do add that, we should add support in VS as well.

cc @vijayrkn @phenning

[phenning]

VS initially had grouping in the UI in the early implementation - in fact the API surface still supports it.

All the controls which were added with the same group name were grouped under a common header in the UI.

I believe there were some concerns after their designers took a look at it, especially for groups which only contained one control - such as "Framework" - we had that as a separate group as well as I believe separate groups for the HTTPS options and Docker. All custom parameters from the template where under an "Advanced Options" group.

We were about to implement a way to specify a group in the symbolInfo object in the host file, but then the UI review on the IDE side happened, so we didn't implemented the schema change on our end.

[phenning]

@sayedihashimi The above was just for context. I think adding the grouping back to the UI would definitely provide some additional value, especially for certain types of templates.

[sayedihashimi]

@phenning ok, we will discuss more when you are back. Try to take it easy during your time off :)

[sayedihashimi]

@RehanSaeed would it be possible for you to describe (or mockup) what an ideal solution for grouping looks like for your templates? I'm starting to plan this feature, and having your perspective would be great.

[RehanSaeed]

Grouping might be useful for the CLI too, so would it make sense to add it to template.json instead of ide.host.json? I was thinking that a groupName property would be enough:

"Foo": {
    "type": "parameter",
    "datatype": "bool",
    "defaultValue": "true",
    "description": "..."
    "groupName": "Some Title Displayed in the UI"
}

Any other symbol with a matching groupName would be displayed together under a title which displays the groupName itself.

[sayedihashimi]

@RehanSaeed can you help me understand what groups you'd like to see in one of your boxed templates? I'm trying to come up with a real world example, so I can then create a mockup from it.

[RehanSaeed]

I have some loose groupings in the README for each template e.g. NuGet Template. However, I might update them if I get tthis feature.

[sayedihashimi]

@RehanSaeed thanks, the link you provided looks good. I should be able to use that to create my mockups.

[sayedihashimi]

@RehanSaeed what do you think about the following proposal for grouping with your API template?
2020.11.19-npd-grouping-params.pdf

[RehanSaeed]

I hadn't thought about making the headings collapsible. Will they all be collapsed by default? That forces the user to make a lot of clicks to be able to see everything.

[sayedihashimi]

@RehanSaeed I think we will add a property to indicate if the section is expanded or collapsed by default. Would you like for all the sections to be expanded by default or certain ones?

[RehanSaeed]

If it's configurable, I don't think it matters too much what the default is. I'll leave that up to the UX designers.

[RehanSaeed]

Any updates on this one, it would really help with my template.

[sayedihashimi]

No update, this work has been stalled.