[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] Chage in filter in home view

[Gary Martin]

Hi Gonzalo,

On 26 Sep 2012, at 14:55, Gonzalo Odiard <gonzalo at laptop.org> wrote:

> The Search in the home, used to search activities, 
> in the favorites or in the list view, is cleaned after one activity starts and is closed.
> Is a recent change, and is very annoying, why is the reason behind this change? 
> Should I fill a ticket or is a design decision?

We did discuss it in the mailing list here [1], and then was re confirmed by Manuq after the OLPC-A team meeting in the separate mail thread (between us and Martin) where we were checking off tasks (should be in you inbox dated September 14th, Subject: Design meeting).

There were three choices if I remember:

 1) make the search query 'sticky' between views so that a search would be active from one view to the next
 2) make each view's search query cache a copy of the search (this is the behaviour we had before)
 3) start with a clear search query when you expose/switch views (this is the change that just landed)

Behaviour (1) was rejected, as a search query doesn't often make sense in all views (searching for an AP or Buddy in Neighbourhood is not much use when you switch to the Home Favourites view). Option (2) has given us some mischief when users enter a query (on-purpose, accidentally, or unknowingly) and later return to a view and wonder why icons are greyed out, or even missing in the case of the Home list view. Option (3) seemed to provide the more consistent behaviour for users later returning to a view after having left it in a search query.

Can you describe how it is annoying, what were you trying to do with search, was it a complicated search string you needed to preserve, or a result state you particularly wanted to keep? UI freeze is not for another couple of weeks, reports/feedback on feature chenges is most wanted! :)

Regards,
--Gary

[1] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2012-August/039342.html

> 
> Gonzalo