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

[Gary C Martin]

On 29 Jun 2009, at 16:07, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 16:55, Aleksey Lim<alsroot at member.fsf.org>  
> wrote:
>> On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 02:39:22PM -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:
>>> We have about 60 characters worth of blank space in every Journal
>>> entry. It would be a great help if we could display 40-50 characters
>>> from the description field for each entry on the main page. We could
>>> also drop off the word Activity from every Activity name.
>>
>> maybe using several views
>> * one line view
>> * full view(multi lined view)
>> * thumbs
>>
>> btw I hope we'll decide to work on all these object list related
>> features in one place, now we have Journal, Library(partially  
>> implemented)
>> and not implemented Dairy(http://erikos.sweettimez.de/?p=742)
>
> Yup, I personally love the mockups at
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Designs/Journal .
>
> Other opinions?

I like the intent, but I don't think the "activity centric" view has  
concrete enough spec to consider implementing yet. There is just way  
too much magic sauce in those mock-ups to my mind. The closest I've  
seen something like this implemented, is with Apple's iPhoto, where  
imported photos are auto arranged into single expandable "events"  
based on each photos date/time metadata. You're given a couple of  
preferences for adjusting the granularity (one event per week, one  
event per day, one event per 8hrs, one event per 2hrs). Works quite  
well most of the time, you can always manually merge two events into  
one, or split one event into two, if it gets them wrong.

I guess we could make the "activity centric" view work in the same  
way, a fixed time slice that rolls up N hrs work into a collapsable/ 
expandable block that the user can custom name (and/or some auto name  
based on the content).

The still raises lot's of questions, what happens when you resume some  
image you painted from way back to take a quick look? Where does it  
now show in activity centric view? Does it get removed from its old  
block positioning and to some new active block; perhaps it get multi- 
linked so now appears twice (you can still find it in the original old  
place and also find it in new place)?

-=-=-=-=-=-

The grid/thumb view should be a top level button, not as is shown  
buried in a sub palette here:

	http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Designs/Journal#09

  I'd consider 2 primary view type buttons:

1). List view, just as we get now
2). Grid view, much like as implemented in Library

-=-=-=-=-=-

Having said all this, it seems sensible to pick a few solid Journal  
improvements and just make some robust steps forward, like:

- Showing tags under the title would be great (Tomeu, I will help  
where I can)
- Batch entry modification (FWIW, don't like the tick box, that feels  
like an old school html web form hack)
- Better Anything toolbar filter palette (use a grid layout to  
minimise scrolling)
- Perhaps a Tag toolbar filter palette (could be a mini tag cloud)

Regards,
--Gary