[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] Save as feature

[Tony Anderson]

Walter added a modal dialog to require a description of a file at close. 
This really has nothing to do with save as. Sugar has always saved 
unconditionally. Changing the name in the activity toolbar is intended 
to give a user-supplied name. This can also be done after the save by 
changing the object name in the Journal activity. The modal dialog was 
dropped as too intrusive.

The 'bug' is that when activity.py (in Sugar) is launched with a handle 
(resumed), that Journal object becomes the activity's object. This means 
with an unconditional save, that that object will overwrite the object 
with which the activity was launched.

Tony

On 04/05/2016 04:55 AM, Sam Parkinson wrote:
> Hi Utkarsh,
>
> I find the save as an interesting feature.  From my knowledge, it was 
> previously built into Sugar, however it was removed due to it annoying 
> people.  I don't know the exact reasoning, but here is what I think:
>
> * When does somebody quit and activity?  Is it the right time to be 
> asking them to title and describe it?
>    - When the bell rings and the student want to go to Lunch.  Not the 
> right time to ask to save stuff.
>    - When the teacher wants to move on to an different activity.  This 
> is defiantly not the right time - the "save as" feature is acting in 
> opposition with the teacher
>    - Those are the 2 most common times that I can think of.  Remember 
> this is for learners.
>    -> Therefore this is a bad time to ask this
>    -> Therefore we will annoy people
>
> * Will we get good quality titles and descriptions?
>    - No, people are rushed and inconvenienced by the modal popup.  It 
> stole their computer.
>    ->  They are not in a good mindset to write titles.
>
> We also see many other services migrating away from the traditional 
> "save as" dialog on exit.  Eg, Google Docs uses an approach the same 
> as Sugar rather than a "save as" dialog.  They set it to a default 
> titles ("Untitled document"), but you can then change that name eaisly.
>
> Maybe we need think about what the problem this feature solves? 
>  Whatever it is, "save as" probably won't work.  We need to find an 
> actual solution to user problems.
>
> Thanks,
> Sam
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 4, 2016 at 9:38 PM, Utkarsh Tiwari 
> <iamutkarshtiwari at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi, Whenever we start an activity from homeview, it gets registered 
>> in the Journal (through datastore.write()). I have inspected the 
>> activity.py file but there is someplace else besides activity.py 
>> where the datastore is being modified(activity instance is being 
>> added). I need to figure this out to implement the "Save As" feature 
>> to intervene the datastore.write() call so that user could provide 
>> the activity name. Could anyone please point me in the right 
>> direction? Thanks, Utkarsh Tiwari On 3/22/16, Tony Anderson 
>> <tony_anderson at usa.net <mailto:tony_anderson at usa.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     Hi, I am not sure what you are asking. Read the excellent comment
>>     in activity.py. There are set_canvas, read_file, and write_file
>>     among other examples of functions in activity.py directly
>>     accessible by the sub-class. Normally, that activity is
>>     referenced by 'self'. Tony On 03/22/2016 12:02 AM, Utkarsh Tiwari
>>     wrote:
>>
>>         Hi, Is there any way to get the currently active
>>         activity(sugar3.activity.activity -> class Activity())
>>         instance ? I need this access to call a function of "Activity
>>         class" in activity.py to activate a feature I have
>>         integrated. Thanks, Utkarsh Tiwari
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