Show "Test Drive" of Profile Pages Just Like Contribution Pages

[CiviTeacher.com]

This is a large usability improvement IMHO, and if it is one that is feasible, I would like to sponsor a core developer to do it with my own $.

Contribution pages have a "Live" and Test Drive" mode available on the "Manage Contribution Pages" section.

No such feature exists for Profiles although there are many profile modes/pages made available in the documentation here:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Linking+Profiles

It would be great to provide links to the more commonly used Profile "modes":
<site root>/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=N
<site root>/civicrm/profile/edit?reset=1&gid=N
<site root>/civicrm/profile/view?reset=1&gid=N
and ESPECIALLY /civicrm/profile?gid=N&reset=1&force=1&search=0

Not only does this improvement make Profiles easier to use for an expert user, but it exposes new users to the power of Profiles in a "hands on" manner that is a real eye-opener.

[Dave Greenberg]

I really liked this suggestion, and initially it seemed like such a trivial change that I jumped on it. However, it turns out that adding any links OTHER THAN the "Create" link is pretty  complex because many profiles aren't configured to support the other modes... Figuring out whether a given profile supports search requires digging in at the field level etc.

Even "view" and "edit" mode are problematic because we've got to "use" the contact record of the currently logged in user (which is always type Individual). If the profile contains fields for Household or Organization type contacts those modes won't work properly.

So, I went ahead and added the "create" link - which I still think will be helpful and was easy to do (screenshot attached):
http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-5494

You can pay it back by helping to update the wiki doc when we create the new doc version for 3.1, and continuing to help on forums, and publishing a case study on your site(s) if you haven't already. :-)

[CiviTeacher.com]

Ok this is a great start.  I think that you are right that because Profiles can vary so widely in the fields they contain, it is difficult to present view/edit modes to the user.

What about the search mode...if a profile is tagged as "search results" could this be added to the list of options too?

If it is possible to add view/edit modes in some form that would be great.  I know it may take a couple of hours to dig into the fields, but I do intend on paying for that if necessary because the usability of Profiles would increase dramatically.

If it's just flat-out not possible to add view/edit modes, it would be great to link (or at least mention) the documentation from the Profile page, so people can learn more about the modes that may apply to their new profile.

Regardless, I'm happy to publish case studies, and I've thought about making some "introduction videos" to CiviCRM.

Thanks!

[Dave Greenberg]

The pop-up help on the main profile admin page includes a link to the wiki documentation ("learn more...").

Taking the next step (conditionally including other modes based on settings, and fields / field properties is approx a $500 project. I've filed an issue for future release. If you're up for funding this for 3.2 - ping me at dave at civicrm dot org.

http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-5501