[Sugar-devel] [Feature] Start an activity from another, activity

[James Cameron]

On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 04:12:24PM +0200, Tony Anderson wrote:
> Browse (as most browsers) downloads any mime_type it does not know
> how to display. I modified Browse not to display pdf (should be done
> in the Read activity).
>
> The Read activity does not display plain text (e.g. Rachel Gutenberg
> collection - Great Books). This is something that probably should be
> addressed.

Which version of Sugar and Read are you using?  This discussion is
supposed to be about the current version of Sugar and Read, for
planning the next version.  You have to be familiar with the current
version to be part of the discussion.

> The Show in Journal doesn't really seem to have any significance
> (like switch to the Journal). Similarly Continue is a place holder.
> The only button is 'OK' which must be clicked to get rid of the
> alert.

I don't think you meant to say there are three buttons.

There are two different alerts, both with two buttons.

The first alert "Download started" is notification that download is in
progress.  This is needed because there is no other indication in
Browse that download started, and is happening.  It also provide a way
to cancel the download, but only once.

The second alert "Download completed" is notification that download is
finished.  Again, it is the only notification in the context of the
activity.  The Show in Journal (at the moment) is the only way to do
anything with the download, again in the context of the activity.

A proposed change to Browse is that this "Download completed"
notification also include a button label to "Start" or "Display" the
downloaded journal entry.

Underneath this proposal, is the feature
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Start_activity_from_another_activity

> All I am suggesting is that you can patch Browse to use Sugar-launch
> to open the activity you want (e.g. Read).

The feature we are discussing is to add this functionality to the
toolkit so that it doesn't need to be added in detail to Browse and
every other activity that may need it.

> So far, I have found more confusion by the choice of default
> activities to open certain mime_types. Currently, it appears that if
> there is only one activity to handle a mime_type, it is opened by
> clicking on the icon. If there is more than one activity, the top
> one is the default and is launched by a click - except when the menu
> opens with 'start with' or 'resume width' (I am not sure of the
> difference there - but it adds text to any instructions). If there
> is no activity to handle the mime_type, the resume option is not
> available.

That's a peripheral issue, but it does mean that the toolkit will have
to present the alternate launchers when they exist.

> I am not sure moving this logic to Browse will enable automatic
> identification of which activity is appropriate to open a mime_type
> serviced by more than one.
> 
> I guess I am not clear on what problem you are trying to solve.

The delay in user experience caused by the extra touches, keystrokes
or mouse actions, compared with the delay in other desktop systems.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/