Cell tools for notebook v7

[fcollonval]

Describe the feature

In notebook up to v6, there is a feature to trigger various tools on top of the cells:

This kind of feature is not available on JupyterLab. In external extension, I started introducing a similar feature (not yet publish):

Two questions arise from this work and discussion at the Notebook and JupyterLab meetings:

• What to do in notebook v7?
• Where the code for that feature should live
  • Creating a new project in the JupyterLab organization
  • Creating a new package in the JupyterLab repository focusing on those cell editors

[ellisonbg]

Thanks for bringing this up. A few additional comments, some from the weekly meeting Zoom chat:

• The classic notebook only shows a single cell metadata editor at a time (I had mis-remembered that). To maintain the simplicity and document oriented nature of notebook v7, I think this is important UX feature to preserve from the classic notebook (rather than showing multiple cell editors at a time).
• One of the main usability issues with the classic notebook cell tagging is that you always have to retype the tag name, even when you have applied the same tag to other cells. We fixed that in JupyterLab, where you see the tags applied to other cells and can quickly apply them to the current cell with a click. I don't think we should lose the usability improvement in notebook v7, even if notebook v7 has the metadata editors above the cell.
• I think we have an opportunity to improve the visual design of this and that could help in ensuring it doesn't disrupt the document oriented feel.
• I don't see why we wouldn't also ship this with JupyterLab to ensure users can go back and forth seamlessly.

[fcollonval]

Thanks Brian

I'll upstream the code for those editors in JLab.

The classic notebook only shows a single cell metadata editor at a time (I had mis-remembered that). To maintain the simplicity and document oriented nature of notebook v7, I think this is important UX feature to preserve from the classic notebook (rather than showing multiple cell editors at a time).

I'll do the appropriate changes.

One of the main usability issues with the classic notebook cell tagging is that you always have to retype the tag name, even when you have applied the same tag to other cells. We fixed that in JupyterLab, where you see the tags applied to other cells and can quickly apply them to the current cell with a click. I don't think we should lose the usability improvement in notebook v7, even if notebook v7 has the metadata editors above the cell.

That is a bug because the extension was doing that - thanks for catching it.

I don't see why we wouldn't also ship this with JupyterLab to ensure users can go back and forth seamlessly.

👍

[gutow]

Glad to see this is on the radar. It was one of the things that I noted as a potential issue in my latest tests of V7 notebook.
This is starting to look quite reasonable from an interface perspective as a replacement for the V6 and below.

[mfouesneau]

Now that v. 7.0 is the default release, what's the status of the tools? It seems impossible to add tags in the notebook interface, and the side editor in the lab is not optimal.

[jtpio]

@mfouesneau in Notebook 7 it's possible to set the tags via the side panel in the right area:

notebook-cell-tags.mp4

But it would indeed be nice to also have the same UI / UX as in the classic notebook.

Maybe using a third-party extension like jlab-enhanced-cell-toolbar would be a good solution? https://github.com/jupyterlab-contrib/jlab-enhanced-cell-toolbar

Should it be built-in Notebook 7 or JupyterLab maybe?

[boffi]

But it would indeed be nice to also have the same UI / UX as in the classic notebook.

The interface in the classic notebook is particularly appropriate when I build a deck of slides, because I see at once "what is what" in terms of "slide properties" for all the cells (or at least the cells that I can show in a single screen…).
The current interface requires me to select a single cell to see its "slide properties" and is, imo, not as convenient as the "classic" approach.