Adding new room aliases UI is extremely confusing

Description

Adding published room aliases UI is confusing to put it nicely. So what happens when I try to add a new public alias?

I enter the alias (Published Addresses » Other published addresses):

Then I get a terribly misleading error: There was an error updating the room's alternative addresses. It may not be allowed by the server or a temporary failure occurred.

And then I see that my new alias is added!

Well, except it isn’t.

The UI right now accepts a completely different workflow, namely:

• add a local alias to the room (Local Addresses » Room alias)
• …after you clicked “Show more”…
• then type the whole, same alias again (no selection list)
• then it’s added without problems, and added really.

Suggested behaviour

Other published addresses shall be a selection list, similar to Main address, which would pick one from the locally added addresses. A helpful message above the box would also inform me that I need to add a local address first.

Version information

• Platform: web (in-browser)
• Browser: Chrome, Firefox; any version
• URL: private, v. 1.5.15

[foldleft]

Thanks for the feedback! This feature will be getting some design review love eventually; for now I’m making some design-preserving changes that give the user better feedback that should help to get them unstuck.

[grinapo]

Right now the UI is in counter-intuitive order: first there is the “pick main alias” and later the “add local aliases”, while the former requires the latter first.

Also “local aliases” is folded, while main alias isn’t. The intent seems to be clear: to show main alias. It is not good for changing the alias, though.

While it would cause a bit duplicate maybe it’d be more logical to

1. show the current main alias (as a static text)
2. have a folded “change aliases”
3. which would contain, unfolded, an “add local aliases” (while also showing them) and a “select main alias from local aliases” choice.