Alexander writes:
As my folders grow in size, I become increasingly annoyed and frustrated with the folder object view's propensity towards disorganization. :-)
Yep, I agree.
Is an improvement of this system planned?
Unfortunately, no, but it should. A little while back we spent some time looking at usability but never completed it. For instance, we tried to clean up the error messages and provide helpful hints for certain errors. Also, we tried to make the various "Add xx" screens more informative. Unfortunately (a) we stopped halfway, (b) all of the error messages provide the same hints, and (c) not all of the add forms are informative. I'd appreciate your views on the error messages (as well as everyone else's).
I have a few suggestions myself.
- First of all, only icons are used to distinguish between types of objects. Even GUIs that aspire to object-orientation do not make this error; MacOS, Windows, KDE etc. all provide a separate column displaying objects' types.
Yep.
- Secondly, items are currently shown like so: "Id (Title)". As in: "acl_users (User Folder)". As the list grows, this system becomes exceedingly difficult to "read fast". Reading stuff fast is important as the amount of stuff your brain has to sift through grows. If we can assist the brain in being able to sort this data, we should do it. So we should put the ID and title in separate columns.
I also agree on this, though I couldn't put my finger on why it was so cumbersome.
- Finally there is the sorting. Zope currently sorts case-sensitively, which means if you have "Article", "Documents", "acl_users", then that's exactly the sort order you'd get. The logical sorting method would be "acl_users", "Article", "Document". In most GUIs it is also
Hmm, I contend that this sorting method isn't as common in other systems. Windows does because it comes from a heritage that makes no case distinction. Unix sorts things based on case-sensitivity.
common to -- at least as an option -- group directories together at the top. So if Documents and acl_users were folders, the order would be "acl_users", "Documents", "Article".
That might be appropriate.
In case there is doubt in your minds about the practical effect of such changes, I've prepared a demonstration, here::
http://www.mop.no/~alex/soaptest/oldversion.html (this is how things are done today) http://www.mop.no/~alex/soaptest/newversion.html (this is the proposed reorg)
I like yours better.
While we're at it, columns for "last modified" and "author" would be
Can you add those as well to your demo? Also, do you envision chopping off long titles with the "..." operation? If so, could you add that to your demo as well?
nice, too. I envision a system where you would define columns and sort settings in the control panel somehow. Of course, this raises the question of whether such settings should be available on a per-user basis or as one global setting that applies to all managers.
Yes, it does raise that issue :^) Of course you could just set a cookie. Why don't you try adding <th> column headers that are clickable? Clicking them would (a) set a cookie for the preference and (b) change the sort order. While we're in such territory (and linking to your last post about the disappearing add button), what are some ideas on overhauling the add list? Here are two proposals: 1) Filter the items based on what roles you have. 2) Only list the "core" things and have an entry for a "wizard". This would take you to a page where all add-able things are grouped by Product, with text explaining what they are. --Paul