row_actions() plugin hook

[simonw]

We now have:

• table_actions(datasette, actor, database, table, request)
• view_actions(datasette, actor, database, view, request)
  from view_actions() hook, to avoid showing table actions on view pages that don't work #2297
• query_actions(datasette, actor, database, query_name, request, sql, params)
  from query_actions plugin hook, refs #2283 #2288
• database_actions(datasette, actor, database, request)
• homepage_actions(datasette, actor, request)
  from Homepage actions button on / index page #2298

The only one missing is row actions, to be shown on the row table.

[simonw]

There's a slight complication here. Displaying it on the row page is easy - it can look exactly like table/query/etc actions:

But the other natural place to display row actions would be on the table page itself - similar to how we have column actions there (which are actually a JavaScript plugin thing, not a Python plugin thing):

Cog icons next to the primary key cells could make sense. In fact, the https://github.com/datasette/datasette-write-ui plugin already adds something like that:

There's one big catch: a table page could show 100 rows at a time. Executing the row_actions() plugin hook 100 times could be a very nasty performance hit, depending on what plugins are installed.

Instead, I'm inclined to say that this plugin affects the row page but NOT the table page... but we add a separate JavaScript hook mechanism (similar to makeColumnActions()) at a later date to handle the inline action items on the row page.

We could even have a cog icon that does a dynamic fetch() when clicked to fetch operations for the selected row - though we would still ideally have some kind of mechanism to decide whether or not to show the icon at all (an icon that has no menu options isn't very pleasant).

At any rate, I'm OK bumping the mechanics of the row-level cog icon on the table page to a later date. I think it's still worth having a row_actions() hook that affects the row page without solving that first.

[simonw]

Documentation: https://docs.datasette.io/en/latest/plugin_hooks.html#row-actions-datasette-actor-request-database-table-row

Live demo (signed in as root): https://latest.datasette.io/fixtures/facetable/1