UX: the very small shopping cart icon isn't obvious for installing a package

[psobolewskiPhD]

Searching for a package to install is pretty obvious and works nicely. But actually installing it isn't as obvious? There is a checkbox and a combobox with Install (and versions), but nothing happens when picking a version and/or choosing install. I struggled with this for a bit! Of course, the key is clicking the very small shopping cart icon in the upper right, but the iconography wasn't clear to me. Also I didn't notice the very small change in contrast when it's active. Perhaps a text button that just says "Install" or something similar could be used instead? Or it could be made significantly larger? or change color? I now realize that it's intended to install and uninstall, etc. all in one transaction, but I suspect most users either remove packages or install packages. So maybe when clicking checkboxes for Installed packages, the button could say "Remove" and when clicking for All packages, it could say "Install"?

[RRosio]

Thanks for sharing this feedback @psobolewskiPhD it's great to hear your thoughts on this!

There are some coming changes to the version handling and with that the way that the bulk package actions are handled (https://github.com/mamba-org/gator/pull/328). Because of the uncertainty around what workflows users might be following and also the significant change that the new behaviour would be, the current implementation in PR 328 has a UI toggle (and setting for selecting the default). The two modes are:

• DirectPackageAction where selecting a version from the dropdown will install that package version and bulk actions are either bulk update or bulk remove;
• Batch Package Actions which is the original behavior of Gator (with some changes to version handling).

Happy to add that in this PR, the icons are also replaced with descriptive text for both modes!

The goal is to test the Direct Package Action UX and make improvements to it, as well as gather user feedback, so that we can feel confident dropping the old behavior entirely.