Story
I can add a page easily by selecting an existing page anywhere in a view, then choose to add a page - this creates a sub page of the selected page. In the dialog which opens, I first select a page template, then fill in the initial values. Most fields will have sensible default values which I typically need not care about. It's clear to me, what I have to look at when I intend to add a typical page, and which fields I only have to touch, if I have to do something special right from the start. All important fields are visible right away.
I finally create the page by confirming all choices I've entered so far.
Description of desired behavior
Adding a new page
Critique of the current way to add a page
In previous versions of Magnolia, you could create a new page right away. The newly created page would use a (configurable) default template. While it seemed like this was a quick way to add a page, you actually always had to change both URI and title, since nobody could live with the defaults. The default template chosen for the new page could have been the one you wanted, but the more templates a setup offered and the more generic a parent page was (e.g. a "section" page vs. a "site map"), the more likely you'd have to also change the template, since the one chosen for you wasn't the one you intended to use. Last but by far not least, there was no way for template authors to require a user to provide values for mandatory fields. This required templates to be constructed in a way that they could always be instantiated as pages, even with somewhat useless default values. And you'd had to know that you then had to go to the page properties to set some of the more sensitive values required for your page to work properly.
New way to add a page
Adding a page is now a two step process. You first select the page template, then provide meaningful initial values for all mandatory fields and possibly change some other fields as well. When you're happy with your choices, you finally go ahead and create the page - only then will it get added to your site. This process is modelled using a multi-step process form.
Selecting a page template
This first step is described in Select a page template as it has a number of different aspects, which are best covered on a dedicated page.
Provide initial values
Once the type of page has been fixed by the choice of a page template, Magnolia presents a single-page complex form for filling in values. The immediately visible, important fields for every newly created page are the page name (URI), page title and navigation title as well as a checkbox for hiding the page in the navigation. These fields are grouped in their own fieldset. Other important fields my be added in separate fieldsets depending on the page template.
Less important fields shown in blocks containing overviews include all keywords and metadata related fields. Additional fields shown may be related to language settings and publishing options. Note, however, that not all page properties defined for a page template need to be available in this step - choose the initially available settings carefully to not overload the form.
Note that the user may go back and choose a different page template. No data in the fields entered so far is preserved and thus all has to be filled in again.
Create the page
By clicking the "Create" button, the new page with the selected template and given initial values is created as a sub page of the parent page, which was selected when the "add new page" command was chosen. A second option allows to create the page and immediately create another page using the same page template and the same parent page. This allows to quickly create a number or equal pages in a sub section of a site.
Mockups
