Idea for project page to help with on-boarding

This is great input, thanks a lot @ultimike

But, sometimes having too much documentation is an issue as well, and folks don't know where to start (or get overwhelmed in it).

Absolutely! So, a couple of "Getting started" paths as you outlined should really be helpful.

As there are so many aspects of ECA, I really wonder how to approach this, though, so that we have a chance to satisfy most folks who're looking for some quick start advice. How about 2 chapters (one for the time constraint and another one for the dive-deep noobs) which provide a list of links on which chapters and videos should be consumed in which order? And the project page here on d.o would just link to those 2 chapters in the ECA Guide?

Both pathways should have an example showing a common example or two. For me, understanding the BPMN interface (which doesn't actually call "events, conditions, and actions" by the same name) is a big hurdle, and then understanding that for most tasks the templates do 90% of the work.

Finally, for common templates, just understanding the deep integration with tokens and the general data flow would be super-helpful.

It's a complex module, so folks aren't going to learn it in 15 minutes, but they can get oriented in 15 minutes (I believe).

-mike

This is not forgotten, still aiming to address these suggestions. There had been some related suggestions from @lostcarpark in Slack, and we've also captured those in https://gitlab.lakedrops.com/drupal/documentation/eca/-/issues/63 - leaving that link here for the record.

I agree @ultimike, onboarding new users could get some more attention. It's too difficult to get started with ECA. Both for those who just want to give it a try, but also for people who seriously want to use it. If you visit the official documentation page at https://ecaguide.org/ and go through the pages "Installation" and "Usage" pages, you probably hit a dead end, as a new user ...

Steps to reproduce

Want to try ECA and fail get it up and running, by having too many options, and different parts, and not a few simple straightforward steps to reach success.

Also, while having multiple modellers gives flexibility, it is another source of confusion. Instead of giving the user these two simple commands, which would get new user up an running, the user is left in limbo, trying to figure out how it all is glued together:

composer require drupal/eca drupal/bpmn_io
drush in eca bpmn_io

The icon navigation can be another blocker. What does a square mean, a triangle? Perhaps the meaning can be stated below these geometric shapes?

Proposed resolution

1. Document the fewest steps necessary to get set up, and build a simple rule
2. Choose a single model (BPMN.iO?) and use that everywhere
3. Add text under each geometric ECA shape

Remaining tasks

1. Write and add this documentation. Alternatively, place a link to an article such as Creating Drupal processes with the event condition action module prominently, to make sure new users sees this, and get a good impression of ECA, successfully executing an ECA rule.
2. Decide if the BPMN.iO modeller should be singled out as the default. The two alternatives can of course still be mentioned, but be positioned less prominently.
3. Decide if it's possible to add text under each ECA-shape.

(Parts of it originally posted in issue 📌 Make it easier to get started Closed: duplicate , closed as duplicate.)

I've now turned the project's main page description into a README.md file which is part of the git repository. That way, contributions to improve the content of that page can now be made through issue forks and merge requests. This is therefore now open for collaboration on that content, if anyone has the skills and some time to do so.

Thanks @jurgenhaas, I made a MR to the README about installing, to get quickly started.

I quickly added items under "Proposed resolution" and "Remaining tasks" ... Perhaps we can evaluate if any of them are solved, or more tasks need to be added? Thanks!

Thanks for updating the IS @ressa, this is great.

So far, the project page has been promotional, while end user documentation was intended to be on the ECA Guide. I would love to continue with that separation, especially when it comes to project browser, where the installation instructions as an example would make sense. In that context, the project description should be encouraging to use the module(s). Getting help should come from the dedicated resource, the ECA Guide in this case.

Happy to learn otherwise, so please challenge me on that one if needed.

Still, everything you suggested should still be done. What I'm saying is, I'd love to put prominent links on the project page to encourage users to get to the detailed instructions over at ecaguide.org

Adding 📌 Improve "Entity: Set field value" task/action form Active :

I think that the Custom properties form for this (and many other) tasks can be improved to make it more usable to new(er) users of the ECA module.

Also adding issue for making BPMN the default modeller.