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Packages API documents have serious usability issues.

Discussion in 'Documentation' started by bitinn, Mar 30, 2019.

  1. bitinn

    bitinn

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2016
    Posts:
    961
    I will illustrate this issue as following:

    1) Suppose you are on the Addressables document site, and you read:

    Screen Shot 2019-03-31 at 0.15.17.png
    2) Cool, let's find it, go to Scripting API tab, search for ReleaseAsset on the left panel:

    Screen Shot 2019-03-31 at 0.16.43.png

    3) Nothing shows up, why? because it's a method, and you can't search for methods here. Alright, let's search for Addressables class:

    Screen Shot 2019-03-31 at 0.19.43.png

    4) Great, now it shows everything under the sun, because this package is full of class with "Addressables" in name. Alright, maybe we are going this the wrong way, let's use the top search bar, search "ReleaseAsset" again:

    Screen Shot 2019-03-31 at 0.23.16.png


    5) again, top results is useless, because it just show any page that contains this word. Same for Addresslabes.ReleaseAsset:

    Screen Shot 2019-03-31 at 0.25.37.png

    6) of course, doing this enough times, you will eventually remember where these pages are and stop searching. but at that point, is the search even needed?

    Thx and I hope this suggestion get pass onto a dev someday.
     
    bitinn, Mar 30, 2019
    #1
    joshcamas and Sylmerria like this.

  2. CharlesWard

    CharlesWard

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2017
    Posts:
    23
    Hi bitinn, thanks for the feedback. On the first issue, the feature just filters what is in that list. Do you think that if it also filtered according to methods and properties contained in a linked file, it would still be an effective filter or would it just duplicate the general search function at that point?

    On the general search problem, the example you site is an unfortunate typo in the doc. If you search for Addressables.ReleaseAsset instead of Addresslabes.ReleaseAsset (note spelling) then the first search hit is the Addressables class containing the ReleaseAssets function.

    I certainly agree that the presentation of the results could be better and the search more effective and we are actively working on making the content and presentation of our documentation better. So thanks again for your feedback.
     
    CharlesWard, Jun 10, 2019
    #2