It seems there are always more things to do on Voice than there are hours to do them! Though in an attempt to help prioritise what to do, and for discussion in User Group Chats and on the Forums, here is a big old list of ideas of Voice improvements!

Mostly they are things that need developer time, but some could be led by the community.

Suggestions of new features are always welcome, as are thoughts on anything on this list.

Security

  • Add two-factor authentication of administrator login using a code sent to email. Also use this for creating accounts and resetting passwords instead of clicking link in email.
  • This two-factor auth will improve security and also the flow of the site e.g., when applying for a new site or trying to join a site, as you don't need to leave to click a link and end up somewhere you didn't expect to be.
  • More checks of object_ids given in URLs. (this is more of an audit than a particular change)

Documentation

  • Update screenshots and info for new WYSIWYG.
  • Help sheet about making pages with sections and background images.
  • Help sheet about setting up Google Analytics or similar.
  • Help sheet on Filtered Item List and Pagination
  • Updates reflecting the way FAQs now work.

Help!

  • Answering things on forums - assign this as a task to members of the community?
  • Assign experienced admins to new admins as mentors to help create their site?
  • Volunteer input into documentation resources.
  • A "panel of experts" who can be contacted for help/advice.

Content Management

  • Enable the "content categories" feature for everyone, even though it isn't perfect. Add documentation about it.
  • Allow YouTube videos as an asset type, for adding to galleries and including on pages.
  • Add an Image Editor into the assets library, for simple tweaks like cropping and resizing images.
  • Allow pages to be excluded from sitemap and search (and all search engines), so they can't be discovered unless you know the URL.
  • Allow "Quick Edit" mode to be accessed without needing full site admin. e.g., so you could create a Content Editor role for your site, allowing people to create/edit content but not admin everything else.
  • From a Members Area of a site, allow easy access to the Assets Library of the parent site.
  • A way to manually set the Publish Date of an item (instead of "now") so new pages don't necessarily appear at the top of the list in Includelets.
  • Site Map and Assets trees can get very big and unwieldy. Make these expandable/scrollable, or rethink how they work.
  • Some sort of 'content creator' role that can create/edit pages but not publish?
  • Make "Five Area" the default (and only!) page layout, since having fewer areas is pretty much pointless and just adds confusion.
  • Bulk management of Assets (e.g., select lots to move to a folder)

Backend/Admin

  • Make this properly responsive and work well on tablet/mobile devices. Currently things break pretty badly on small screens!
  • Allow multiple of the same apps to be created. So instead of just turning on/off from the list, you would select the app and the URL and create it, and then have the ability to create more than one on different URLs if you needed it. e.g., two different calendars, or two different File Storage apps.
    This would also remove the Weblog/Noticeboard confusion as they're the same as each other just with different permissions.

Themes

  • Option to centre all headings
  • Font size configuration.
  • More colour options in all themes (like Clarity theme has?)
  • Easier editing of footer/banner links/buttons.

Survey Tool

  • Option to delete all responses to a survey.
  • More control over which surveys to show in the Includelets.
  • Improve data export/viewing of completed surveys.

Job Listings

  • Option show contact link/button instead of apply button.
  • Make this a more generic "listings" app that could be used in different ways - e.g., for adverts. Add categories?

Calendar

  • Some sort of booking system, allowing people to sign up for events and get reminders etc.
  • Ability to edit recurring events (i.e., to change the recurrence rules for future events without affecting those that have already taken place).
  • Make it easier to subscribe to calendar (in google calendar etc). Maybe just make it easy to get the subscription link?

Weblog/Noticeboard

  • Rename to "blog" as nobody calls it a Weblog since the 90s!
  • Allow non-admins to more easily attach images to blog posts.(Currently need to be a site admin in order to pick image from Assets Library, but should allow non-admins to upload from their computer)

Notifications

  • Add notification for changes/additions to File Storage.
  • Other apps maybe missing notifications too, that could usefully be added? E.g., upcoming calendar events.

Reports/Stats

  • Are the existing visitor stats any use? Are they reliable enough given the number of bots trawling sites these days? Do they actually give meaningful useful information? (The number of hits is a bit of an arbitrary metric, more important is who is doing what?)
  • Maybe switch to a Google Analytics or similar system? (or at least make it easier for sites to use their own preferred analytics)

General

  • Easy cookie banner configuration, if sites want to use tools like Google Analytics.
  • Ensure all caches are flushed when adding/removing a domain name and on theme change.
  • Reduce server load by improving bot detection and blocking them. Would also improve visitor stats reliability.
  • An easy way for sites to add their own Terms and Conditions pages.
  • Add drop shadow to link dialogue as a style.