There have been many conversations around how the configuration panel should handle editing a dimension (field, aggregation, and aggregation options).

Here is my proposal as talked it over a bit with @flash1293

All options in a single popover, with all aggregations available (similar to POC)

Allow users to explore all types of aggregations for the dimension type but simply show an error as to why a selected field does not work with the selected aggregation. Do not automatically change the field to one that is the correct field type. And do not remove options that don't work with the selected field.

Pros:

• This allows for greater exploration of all possible combinations of fields and aggregations
• Keeps the config panel simplified
• The config panel acts as a human-readable summary of their dimension and aligns the aligns the order of the summary with the order of operations in the popover:

Cons:

• May cause users to end up in an error state more often
  • However, this is somewhat mitigated by the ease of switching to other aggregations and the application being quick to respond (re-builds the query each time)
• Users don't think in terms of aggregations, they think in terms of their data

  • Users def are looking for "getting to the field I want" and not the aggregation 🙂 That was one of the main problems with the old visualize editor, that users needed to go over aggregations and we figured that out (in a lot of trainings, discuss forums, etc.) that that's basically not how users think at all. They care about their data, and they also would never want to switch to an aggregation that's not available for that data -@timroes via Slack

  • My comment to that is, in order to get to this popover state, they have already chosen their field (drag and dropped to the dimension). The field selector is there if they realize they chose the wrong field. This means that their main reason for getting to this popover is to change the aggregation and/or aggregation options.

There are essentially 2 ways to create a dimension:

And they are both field-first:

1. Drag a field from the fields panel
2. Click on the config panel to initiate, in which case we can still force them to choose a field first:

Another way to layout the panel

Would be to put the field selection up top, then the aggregation and options below. However, we lose the 3rd point made in the pros section:

IF (and it's a big IF) we must limit the aggregation list based on field selection

Then we're basically back to the current vis editor UI (swap aggregation and field) where it's a top down approach.

Which doesn't align with the human-readable summary and causes more clicks to change the aggregation and options.

cc @wylieconlon @chrisdavies @AlonaNadler