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[Feature Request]: Contextual Hover-Help Tooltips in UI #233

@crivetimihai

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@crivetimihai

[Feature Request]: Contextual Hover-Help Tooltips

🧭 Epic

Title: Contextual Hover-Help Tooltips
Goal: Surface concise, always-visible explanations for every primary action in the Admin UI by adding lightweight hover (and focus) tooltips.
Why now: New administrators often ask what "Add New Tool" or the ⚙️ "Test" icon actually do. Embedding the guidance inline eliminates context-switching to docs and reduces onboarding time.


🧭 Type of Feature

  • Enhancement to existing functionality

🙋‍♂️ User Story 1 – Creation Buttons

As a: Gateway administrator
I want: clear tooltips on every "Add New …" button
So that: I instantly understand what gets created before clicking.

✅ Acceptance Criteria

Scenario: Tooltip on "Add New Server"
  Given I am on the "Virtual Servers Catalog" panel
  When I hover OR keyboard-focus the "➕ Add New Server" control
  Then a tooltip appears within 200 ms reading
       "Creates a new Virtual Server by combining Tools, Resources & Prompts from global catalogs."
  And the tooltip disappears when the control loses hover/focus

Scenario: Tooltip on other creation buttons
  Given I am on each catalog panel (Tools, Resources, Prompts, Gateways, Roots)
  When I hover/focus the respective "Add New …" control
  Then I see the tooltip text listed in "Tooltip Copy Map" (below)

🙋‍♂️ User Story 2 – Action Buttons

As a: Gateway administrator
I want: hover help for critical row-level actions (⚙️ Test, 🔄 Activate/Deactivate, 🗑️ Delete)
So that: I avoid unintended destructive operations.

✅ Acceptance Criteria

Scenario: Tooltip on Deactivate action
  Given a tool row shows "Deactivate"
  When I hover/focus the link
  Then a tooltip reads "Temporarily disables this item (can be re-activated)."

Scenario: Tooltip on Delete action
  Given a row shows "Delete"
  When I hover/focus the link
  Then a tooltip reads "Permanently deletes this item – cannot be undone."

🙋‍♂️ User Story 3 – Accessibility & Theme Support

As a: keyboard-only or screen-reader user
I want: tooltips to appear on focus and expose ARIA aria-describedby text
So that: the guidance is available without a mouse and in both light/dark modes.

✅ Acceptance Criteria

Scenario: Keyboard focus
  When I tab to any actionable element with a tooltip
  Then the tooltip becomes visible
  And the element has aria-describedby linking to the tooltip content

Scenario: Dark mode
  Given I toggle dark mode
  Then tooltip styling remains legible (contrast ratio ≥ 4.5:1)

📝 Tooltip Copy Map

Location Control Tooltip text
Virtual Servers Catalog Add New Server Creates a new Virtual Server by combining Tools, Resources & Prompts from global catalogs.
Global Tools Add New Tool Registers a new Tool from an existing REST or MCP endpoint.
Global Resources Add New Resource Uploads or links a reusable data asset (file, URI, or text).
Global Prompts Add New Prompt Creates a reusable message template with parameters.
Gateways / MCP Servers Add New Gateway Registers an external MCP server and imports its catalogs.
Roots Add New Root Registers a base directory that MCP servers can browse for files.
Row action – Test Test Execute this Tool with sample inputs.
Row action – Activate Activate Re-enable an inactive item.
Row action – Deactivate Deactivate Temporarily disable this item (can be re-activated).
Row action – Delete Delete Permanently delete this item – cannot be undone.

📐 Design Sketch (optional)

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant UI
    participant Tooltip

    User->>UI: hover/focus Add New Tool
    UI->>Tooltip: show(text, position)
    User-->>UI: mouseout/blur
    UI->>Tooltip: hide()
Loading

🔗 MCP Standards Check

  • Pure front-end change; no protocol impact
  • No breaking changes to existing MCP integrations

🔄 Alternatives Considered

Approach Pros Cons
Inline help text under each control Always visible Visual clutter, harder to scan
Link to docs Zero code Forces context-switch; slows workflow
Onboarding tour Rich guidance One-off; doesn’t help day-to-day

Chosen: Always-available tooltips—minimal effort, maximal clarity.


📓 Additional Context

  • Use a lightweight Tailwind + Alpine pattern (relative wrapper ➜ absolute tooltip) to avoid extra JS libraries.
  • Ensure tooltip hides on scroll to prevent orphaned bubbles.
  • Follow IBM accessibility guidelines for timing (appear ≤ 200 ms, disappear ≤ 300 ms).
  • Not yet in scope: strings added to i18n bundle

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enhancementNew feature or requestfrontendFrontend development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)good first issueGood for newcomershelp wantedExtra attention is neededtriageIssues / Features awaiting triage

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