[Sugar-devel] Journal feature request--more data in main display

[Gary C Martin]

Hi Eben,

On 5 Jul 2009, at 23:52, Gary C Martin wrote:
> On 4 Jul 2009, at 04:19, Eben Eliason wrote:
>> I'll throw this idea back out there for fun, too. I don't  know if
>> there's a way to do even this without adding too much complexity, but
>> we did make some mockups of an "advanced" sort bar, which instead of
>> sorting on columns allowed creation of hierarchical sorting by
>> metadata. For example, I could use the "what" filter to select  
>> "audio"
>> files, and then use the sort bar to say: "sort by artist, then by
>> album, then by track". Any Journal entries which had metadata keys  
>> for
>> "artist", "album", and "track" would then appear sorted accordingly,
>> and the section dividers would show the values for the various keys  
>> so
>> that the hierarchy was logically browsable.
>>
>> It's a powerful idea, but so far we just haven't thought it to be
>> worth the added complexity. Keeping the Journal as simple to use as
>> possible is paramount.
>
> I'll maybe try have a go at a simple mock-up. Could either be part of
> a row titling the current columns, as in a subtle little arrow button
> with several sort by options in it – "sort by modified", "sort by
> created", "sort by size". Or perhaps as a regular button & palette in
> the toolbar (though toolbar is filling up fast with icons and is
> likely too 'featureitus' scary already in my mock-ups).


I rather like this approach to exposing row sorting, if you don't mind  
that my mock-ups have grid and list as the primary views (rather than  
your action-view, object-view):

	http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Proposals/Journal#Extended_list_view_palette

The list view palette is extended to cover sorting feature  
requirements. View by last edit (modification date), is the current  
presentation of the Journal. View by creation date, would list objects  
creation date (do we store this?); when in this mode rather than "16  
min ago", the time column would display the real creation date "Today  
12:30pm", "July 5th", "November 10th 2008". View by storage size,  
would sort by storage space taken up so that large files could be  
removed if short on space, the column usually used for showing time  
would instead show Kb/Mb type information (no extra columns need, and  
helps show what sort context a list view is in.)

Regards,
--Gary