Rudder

In rudder 2.8.x rules were not categorised. I used "labels" to categorise rules myself, in my case based on group names:

-
    - CentOS desktops: edit common files
    - CentOS desktops: install common packages 
    - RHEL servers: edit common files
    - RHEL servers: install common packages
    - Ubuntu servers: edit common files
    - Ubuntu servers: install common packages

In rudder 2.9.0 rules are categorised, so they look like this and are more organised:

- CentOS desktops
    - edit common files
    - install common packages 
- RHEL servers
   - edit common files
   -install common packages
- Ubuntu servers
   - edit common files
   - install common packages

The same I would like to see with directives. Now if I use a technique 20+ times, like Enforce File Content, the directive list gets long. For now also in directives I use "labels":

- Enforce File Content
    - CentOS desktops: edit common files
    - RHEL servers: edit common files
    - Ubuntu servers: edit common files
- Install RHEL/CentOS packages
    - CentOS desktops: install common packages 
    - RHEL servers: install common packages
- Install Ubuntu Packages
    - Ubuntu servers: install common packages

I might make enemies with this proposal, but I want to give it a try:

In the rules overview you don't see a tree of directives, so why do I see a tree of techniques in the directive screen? I think it would be nice to choose the technique to use while creating or editing a directive. In the same way you choose (a) directive(s) and (a) group(s) from a list when you create a rule. For me it's not very useful to see the technique names as categories of directives. It would be really much more useful to see categories in directives, like this:

- CentOS desktops
    - edit common files
    - install common packages 
- RHEL servers
   - edit common files
   -install common packages
- Ubuntu servers
   - edit common files
   - install common packages

And then if I click on the directive, I can see from which technique it comes. At the moment I have 20+ directives of Enforce File Content and there are more to come. The "labels" do help a little bit, but it's difficult to manage. My proposal is to change the directives overview to be much like the rules overview. The directives overview could be empty in the beginning, like the rules overview. And then, if you create a directive, you can choose the technique and technique version from a list.