🤔Question: How to create Categories? how is the category field populated?

[JD-Gonz]

📜 Description

How do I populate the categories section?

I feel like I must have missed something during setup, but I do not see any options within my category section when creating a new announcement, nor am I able to dynamically create categories at the time of announcement creation.

👍 Expected behavior

I would expect to be able to create categories on the fly or have a preset list I control (maybe via app-config?) to choose from.

👎 Actual Behavior with Screenshots

Category field isn't populated and I cant add my own option.

👟 Reproduction steps

1. click on new announcement.
2. fill out the fields.

📃 Provide the context for the Bug.

No response

🖥️ Your Environment

we are in the process of migrating to react: 18 partly to satisfy the needs of this plugin but this issue happens on both react 17 and 18.

➤ YN0060: │ @types/react is listed by your project with version 17.0.69, which doesn't satisfy what @procore-oss/backstage-plugin-announcements (pc996a) and other dependencies request (but they have non-overlapping ranges!).
➤ YN0060: │ react is listed by your project with version 17.0.2, which doesn't satisfy what @procore-oss/backstage-plugin-announcements (p99ba3) and other dependencies request (but they have non-overlapping ranges!).

my package.json files, and I am using the new backend system

packages/app = "@procore-oss/backstage-plugin-announcements": "^0.6.0"
packages/backend = "@procore-oss/backstage-plugin-announcements-backend": "^0.6.0"

yarn backstage-cli info

OS:   Linux 5.15.133.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 - linux/x64
node: v18.19.0
yarn: 4.1.1
cli:  0.26.2 (installed)
backstage:  1.25.2

Dependencies:
  @backstage/app-defaults                                          1.5.3
  @backstage/backend-app-api                                       0.6.2, 0.7.1
  @backstage/backend-common                                        0.21.7
  @backstage/backend-defaults                                      0.2.16
  @backstage/backend-dev-utils                                     0.1.4
  @backstage/backend-openapi-utils                                 0.1.9
  @backstage/backend-plugin-api                                    0.6.17
  @backstage/backend-tasks                                         0.5.22
  @backstage/catalog-client                                        1.6.4
  @backstage/catalog-model                                         1.4.5
  @backstage/cli-common                                            0.1.13
  @backstage/cli-node                                              0.2.5
  @backstage/cli                                                   0.26.2
  @backstage/config-loader                                         1.8.0
  @backstage/config                                                1.2.0
  @backstage/core-app-api                                          1.12.3
  @backstage/core-compat-api                                       0.2.3
  @backstage/core-components                                       0.12.5, 0.14.5
  @backstage/core-plugin-api                                       1.9.2
  @backstage/e2e-test-utils                                        0.1.1
  @backstage/errors                                                1.2.4
  @backstage/eslint-plugin                                         0.1.6
  @backstage/frontend-plugin-api                                   0.6.4
  @backstage/integration-aws-node                                  0.1.12
  @backstage/integration-react                                     1.1.26
  @backstage/integration                                           1.10.0
  @backstage/plugin-api-docs                                       0.11.3
  @backstage/plugin-app-backend                                    0.3.64
  @backstage/plugin-app-node                                       0.1.16
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-atlassian-provider         0.1.8
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-aws-alb-provider           0.1.8
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-gcp-iap-provider           0.2.11
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-github-provider            0.1.13
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-gitlab-provider            0.1.13
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-google-provider            0.1.13
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-guest-provider             0.1.2
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-microsoft-provider         0.1.11
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-oauth2-provider            0.1.13
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-oauth2-proxy-provider      0.1.9
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-oidc-provider              0.1.7
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-okta-provider              0.0.9
  @backstage/plugin-auth-backend                                   0.22.3
  @backstage/plugin-auth-node                                      0.4.12
  @backstage/plugin-auth-react                                     0.0.3
  @backstage/plugin-azure-devops-backend                           0.6.3
  @backstage/plugin-azure-devops-common                            0.4.0
  @backstage/plugin-azure-devops                                   0.4.2
  @backstage/plugin-badges                                         0.2.57
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend-module-azure                   0.1.36
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend-module-msgraph                 0.5.24
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend-module-scaffolder-entity-model 0.1.14
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-backend                                1.21.0
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-common                                 1.0.22
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-graph                                  0.4.3
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-import                                 0.10.9
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-node                                   1.11.0
  @backstage/plugin-catalog-react                                  1.11.3
  @backstage/plugin-catalog                                        1.18.2
  @backstage/plugin-events-backend                                 0.3.4
  @backstage/plugin-events-node                                    0.3.3
  @backstage/plugin-explore-backend                                0.0.26
  @backstage/plugin-explore-common                                 0.0.2
  @backstage/plugin-explore-react                                  0.0.37
  @backstage/plugin-explore                                        0.4.19
  @backstage/plugin-gcalendar                                      0.3.26
  @backstage/plugin-github-actions                                 0.6.14
  @backstage/plugin-graphiql                                       0.3.6
  @backstage/plugin-home-react                                     0.1.12
  @backstage/plugin-home                                           0.7.2
  @backstage/plugin-notifications-common                           0.0.3
  @backstage/plugin-notifications-node                             0.1.3
  @backstage/plugin-org                                            0.6.23
  @backstage/plugin-permission-backend                             0.5.41
  @backstage/plugin-permission-common                              0.7.13
  @backstage/plugin-permission-node                                0.7.28
  @backstage/plugin-permission-react                               0.4.22
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-azure                0.1.8
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-bitbucket-cloud      0.1.6
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-bitbucket-server     0.1.6
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-bitbucket            0.2.6
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-gerrit               0.1.8
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-gitea                0.1.6
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-github               0.2.6
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend-module-gitlab               0.3.2
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend                             1.22.3
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-common                              1.5.1
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-node                                0.4.2
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-react                               1.8.3
  @backstage/plugin-scaffolder                                     1.19.2
  @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-catalog                  0.1.21
  @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-explore                  0.1.20
  @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-pg                       0.5.25
  @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-techdocs                 0.1.21
  @backstage/plugin-search-backend-node                            1.2.20
  @backstage/plugin-search-backend                                 1.5.6
  @backstage/plugin-search-common                                  1.2.11
  @backstage/plugin-search-react                                   1.7.9
  @backstage/plugin-search                                         1.4.9
  @backstage/plugin-signals-backend                                0.1.3
  @backstage/plugin-signals-node                                   0.1.3
  @backstage/plugin-signals-react                                  0.0.3
  @backstage/plugin-signals                                        0.0.5
  @backstage/plugin-tech-radar                                     0.7.2
  @backstage/plugin-techdocs-backend                               1.10.3
  @backstage/plugin-techdocs-module-addons-contrib                 1.1.8
  @backstage/plugin-techdocs-node                                  1.12.2
  @backstage/plugin-techdocs-react                                 1.2.2
  @backstage/plugin-techdocs                                       1.10.3
  @backstage/plugin-user-settings                                  0.8.4
  @backstage/release-manifests                                     0.0.11
  @backstage/test-utils                                            1.5.3
  @backstage/theme                                                 0.2.19, 0.5.3
  @backstage/types                                                 1.1.1
  @backstage/version-bridge                                        1.0.8

👀 Have you spent some time to check if this bug has been raised before?

• I checked and didn't find similar issue

Are you willing to submit PR?

Yes I am willing to submit a PR!

[billabongrob]

@JD-Gonz on the main announcements page, you should ellipses on the top? Here's an example of ours.

[JD-Gonz]

@billabongrob Thank you so much! I feel like an idiot 😅
You are spot on. Unfortunately, we simplified our header background which has effectively hidden those ellipses

Thanks again for the quick response!

[JD-Gonz]

@billabongrob as a follow-up, Is there any permissions associated to category creation and the restriction of users that aren't allowed to create announcements to also not create categories, or is there an intentional reason for anyone to create categories?
router.ts doesn't have any sort of check for the posting of categories like it does announcements.

[billabongrob]

The only permissions i'm aware of are:

• announcement.entity.create
• announcement.entity.delete
• announcement.entity.update

It looks like you're right about the permissions though - verified with one of my work pals. cc: @kurtaking

[kurtaking]

FWIW, I think categories are too hidden and would like to surface that another way if anyone has ideas. I can see how people may struggle to find it separate from the theme hiding the ellipsis.

[JD-Gonz]

Personally I would have expected to just be able to create them dynamically within the New Announcements form.
Say I type something into the Category field and no matches return, I would have expected that if I press enter it could create one for me.
I actually really enjoy the way Q&A plugin implemented their Tags field.

it's a similar concept to what I described where the drop down contains the existing tags but if you have a new tag you can just create it right there by pressing enter.

[kurtaking]

Personally I would have expected to just be able to create them dynamically within the New Announcements form. Say I type something into the Category field and no matches return, I would have expected that if I press enter it could create one for me. I actually really enjoy the way Q&A plugin implemented their Tags field.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We should adopt that and how they are doing images. I would love an issue created and/or a contribution PR. 😄

[billabongrob]

I believe the images/file uploads is being tracked in #268
Moved the category work to #314 if anyone has the bandwidth to tackle.

[JD-Gonz]

Thank you for opening up some tickets for these.