Review: MultiTaskingOne admin extension

A quick, in-a-nutshell review of the MultiTaskingOne extension, an alternative (paid) admin interface for hard-core content editors.

It doesn't do everything, but what it does, it does super-fast!

Highlights

• Super-fast - every is AJAX-driven, so no page-reloads, ever.
• Multiple content tabs - open & edit as much content as you like!
• See drafts where you created them - no more running to My Drafts.
• Bulk actions - assign sections to, hide/unhide, & publish multiple items (plus the usual move/remove)
• Drag & drop related content
• Content filtering - hide classes you don't want to see

What it doesn't do

• Ordering of content - sub-items are ordered by type: Drafts, Containers, Singles; so ordering needs to be done in Admin2.
• Base new translation on existing translation - you have to copy & paste content from one tab to another, and flick between tabs to see the base translation.
• New content in a non-default language - all content is created in the default language, which probably works for most scenarios, and certainly speeds things up (no interim page).
• Setup/User/Shop/etc tabs - this extension is just for content, not administration.

David Ennis from Contactivity recently demonstrated this extension, albeit briefly, in The eZ Publish Show's UX session, and I attended a webinar the other week about it.

The Interface

MultiTaskingOne is an add-on to the standard Admin2 UI - it appears as a top tab, but when clicked, the new UI appears - there's a button for jumping back to Admin2.

The screen has a top nav bar, then is divided into 3 columns: main navigation on the left, the central column being the content edit/viewing area (which can be expanded to go full width), and search/bookmarks/recent content on the right.

The first thing that fooled me was opening content - I kept trying to click & double-click the content items, until David gently pointed out the country flags that appeared on hover.  Normal flags indicate published content, faded flags indicate drafts - click to open.

With that out of the way, I was clicking flags and loading up content left, right & centre, and it all felt fairly smooth and straight-forward.  The speed at which you can find content (via search especially) is a major turn-on - I find so much of my time is wasted trying to find things in eZ Publish (I'm a big fan of the new search facility in the Object Relations datatype with Admin2 too).

$$$

It's available for Enterprise and Community versions of eZ Publish - pricing & license model is on a per-site or domain name basis (cost is very reasonable), and is forever (as opposed to annual/monthly).  You can also buy support tickets.  What's not clear is whether you get on-going updates with the license.

Summary

If you have got heaps of content to get into your site, this will help you get it done much faster.  If you're an agency, you could use it just for content loading pre-launch, and use the standard admin on your client's site; or if you've got a site where the updates come in thick and fast, this extension may save you a whole heap of time!

I didn't had a chance to give this extension a thorough road-test, but hope to try it in a real-world scenario sometime soon.  If you want to give it a spin yourself, there's an online demo at Multitasking1.com

Great to see a fast AJAX-powered interface in eZ Publish, and a sign of the growing UI focus within the eZ Publish community!

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Geoff Bentley
eZ Publish Cheerleader 

PS: Where are the reviews of eZ Market extensions?
PPS: I'd throw in some screenshots, but I can't upload images!