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Rename Actions and Ownerships To Something More Meaningful on the front-end. #65

@mikebronner

Description

@mikebronner

The current labels "Actions" and "Ownerships" are technical internals leaking into the UI. They're ambiguous and not aligned with how authorization concepts are described in the broader Laravel ecosystem or end-user vocabulary. This issue tracks renaming them to clearer, more intuitive terms.


Terminology Proposal

"Actions" → "Abilities"

Rationale: Laravel's own Gate facade uses the term "abilities" (Gate::allows('edit-post', $post)). Aligning with core Laravel vocabulary reduces cognitive friction for developers. It's also clearer than "actions" (which sounds like UI buttons or event handlers) and more specific than "permissions" (which often implies CRUD at a coarse level).

Alternatives considered:

  • Permissions — universally understood but ambiguous (people conflate permission sets with individual abilities)
  • Capabilities — accurate but uncommon in the Laravel ecosystem
  • Privileges — enterprise-y, not in common Laravel use

"Ownerships" → "Owned Resources"

Rationale: "Ownerships" sounds like a noun-ified concept nobody actually says. "Owned Resources" is plain English — it describes what the user owns, not an abstract concept. It maps naturally to the domain (a user owns certain records).

Alternatives considered:

  • Assignments — implies delegation, not ownership
  • Resource Access — muddies with permission concepts
  • My Records — too informal, not suitable for admin UI

Acceptance Criteria

  • The label "Actions" is replaced with "Abilities" in all Nova resources, views, index tables, form fields, and tooltips
  • The label "Ownerships" is replaced with "Owned Resources" in all Nova resources, views, index tables, form fields, and tooltips
  • Database column names and API contracts are unchanged (UI-only rename)
  • Any Nova resource titles, navigation labels, or breadcrumbs using the old terms are updated
  • No other terminology changes are introduced in this PR (scope-limited)

Test Coverage

  • Integration test: Nova views render "Abilities" where "Actions" previously appeared
  • Integration test: Nova views render "Owned Resources" where "Ownerships" previously appeared
  • Regression test: existing API references and database queries continue to work unchanged

WSJF

Factor Score
Business Value Medium (8)
Time Sensitivity Low (5)
Risk Reduction Low (5)
Numerator 18
Size Small (3)
WSJF Score 6.0

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