[Zope] Improving the folder view

[Paul Everitt]

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