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Allow uninstalling modules and the modules which are dependent in the same action

Open on Drupal.org →
Created on 14 July 2023, almost 2 years ago

Problem/Motivation

While discussing 📌 [PP-3] Figure out what to do with the install/uninstall modules page Postponed at 📌 Drupal Usability Meeting 2023-07-14 Needs work we identified several issues with disabled checkboxes on the uninstall modules page:

  1. Disable form elements are not recommended from an accessibility or usability perspective, we should avoid using them.
  2. If the user wants to uninstall a module, along with all of the modules which depend on that module, it is currently not possible to do this in a single action. The user must first identify the modules that depend on that module, uninstall those, then they can finally uninstall the original module. This gets quite tedious when you have multiple levels of dependencies.
  3. The uninstall module experience does not provide feature parity with the install module experience. The install modules list allows the user to select any module which is currently not installed (assuming no dependencies are physically missing), and if that module has dependencies, Drupal will automatically install those, and inform the user of this on the confirm form.

Steps to reproduce

Proposed resolution

Allowing users to select even modules which other installed modules depend on would solve the usability and accessibility issues with disabled checkboxes. After the user selects one or more of these modules, the confirm form would then provide a list of modules which will also be uninstalled should the user choose to proceed.

For example, if the user selects the Migrate module, the confirm form would list the Migrate UI module as a module which would also be uninstalled (assuming the user had Migrate UI installed).

We want to draw the user's attention to this, so styling this information as a warning message, and using a bulleted list, would help to ensure that the user is aware that other modules will also be uninstalled.

This also provides parity with the install confirm form, the install module form shows not only the modules the user selected but also any modules that the selected modules depend on.

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Data model changes

Release notes snippet

📌 Task
Status

Active

Version

11.0 🔥

Component
System  →

Last updated about 4 hours ago

No maintainer
Created by

🇬🇧United Kingdom AaronMcHale Edinburgh, Scotland

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  • Usability

    Makes Drupal easier to use. Preferred over UX, D7UX, etc.

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Comments & Activities

  • Issue created by @AaronMcHale
  • Comment over 1 year ago →
    🇫🇷France vbouchet

    I think the proposed solution / approach only describes the easy path: dependent modules can be uninstalled. But there are situations where a dependent module can't be uninstall because it is used by entities (whatever it is config entity or content entity).

    As a first step, we should probably authorise uninstall of modules which all dependent modules are uninstallable as well.

    Please find a patch to initiate that work. I have not updated the tests on purpose as I do expect discussion.

    I used the form states api to check dependent modules when a module is checked for uninstall.

  • Open in Jenkins → Open on Drupal.org →
    Environment: PHP 8.2 & MySQL 8
    last update over 1 year ago
    Custom Commands Failed
  • Comment over 1 year ago →
    🇮🇳India _utsavsharma

    Fixed CCF for #2.

  • Open in Jenkins → Open on Drupal.org →
    Environment: PHP 8.2 & MySQL 8
    last update over 1 year ago
    30,419 pass, 2 fail
  • Status changed to Needs review over 1 year ago
  • Comment over 1 year ago →
    🇮🇳India _utsavsharma
  • Status changed to Needs work over 1 year ago
  • Comment over 1 year ago →
    🇺🇸United States smustgrave

    Test failures.

    Also believe will need test coverage.

  • Comment 13 days ago →
    🇺🇸United States nicxvan
  • Comment 13 days ago →
    🇮🇹Italy afagioli Rome

    "This gets quite tedious"
    Not sure "tediousness" can be an issue.

    Multi-step uninstall is pretty common to me. I find this process useful instead to better understand how that Drupal instance is made of.

    Following though..

  • Comment 2 days ago →
    🇺🇸United States nicxvan

    Postponing this only because uninstall can be destructive. I think manually checking the dependency tree is important.

    Imagine we add this them someone uninstalled system, suddenly their site is just gone.

    I think I would need a very convincing argument that the convenience of single step uninstall is outweighs the risks of accidentally uninstall to many modules.

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