[EPIC] Comments enhancements

[virgile-dev]

Feature Request

Is your feature request related to a problem or unsupported use case? Please describe.

• Resolved comment can’t be retrieved by users.
• User are not a aware when mentioned in the comments
• User need edit rights to comment

Describe the solution you'd like

• A comment right panel would allow to display the comments history
• A commenter role would allow users without edit right to leave suggestions in the comments
• A mention feature with notifications would let the users know when their input is sollicited in the comments

Describe alternatives you've considered
A clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you've considered.

Discovery, Documentation, Adoption, Migration Strategy
If you can, explain how users will be able to use this and possibly write out some documentation (if applicable).
Maybe add a screenshot or design?

Do you want to work on it through a Pull Request?

[robin-lecomte]

Funny that I worked on these three solutions at Bochum almost two years ago. The mockups exist and I've lightly refreshed them to reflect how LaSuite and Docs has evolved.

Right panel

Happy to move forward with this! The mockups are available in Figma.

Commenter role

We explicitly decided against this role to keep the number of roles manageable.

Benchmark:
Google Docs: 4 roles (Viewer, Commenter, Editor, Owner)
Microsoft Word: 4 roles (Can view, Can review, Can edit, Owner)
Notion: 4 levels (Can view, Can comment, Can edit, Full access)

Adding Commenter brings Docs to 5 roles, above all three benchmarks. And since Owner and Admin are already functionally close, the role system is already dense.
Important trade-off: introducing Commenter effectively closes the door on adding any further role later (Hick's law).

Two open points:
If Docs gets integrated with Drive, do we propagate the new role?
Alternative worth considering: a document-level toggle to "allow reader comments" solves the use case without introducing a role.

Mentions

Good idea. Value stays limited until we have a notification center, so we could start small with email notifications and expand from there ? I’ll make further progress on the mockups if we decide to adopt this feature.

@virgile-dev an in-depth discussion will be needed on this when you return !

FIGMA

[virgile-dev]

Thanks @robin-lecomte spot on feedback as usual. The Right panel is going to move forward while I’m gone.

Alternative worth considering: a document-level toggle to "allow reader comments"

This is indeed a good solution. How would implement that in the UI ? Adding a toggle ? This should work for readers who have access via a linkreach. I’m creating a dédicated issue so we can think this through.

I agree that our currents roles are already plenty. Wondering if there is margin for making them evolve. Could we merge owner and admin ? @sampaccoud since you were at the origin of it would you be open for this change?