Some user feedback (mostly about the PA browser)

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On 17.04.2012 13:16, Marco Martin wrote:

> supports open, either by an external application or internal viewer if
> supported (only an internal viewer for images exists right now, i would like
> calligra and the ebook reader getting ported to it)

Definitely, yes. Every resource type for which we currently have a default 
viewing application should be opened by it.

> delete, copy between internal memory and removables, browse by date, by tag
> and tagging of resources. as features go, i think it should really be it.

Since when does it support delete and copy? Was this implemented just recently 
and I haven't noticed it yet, or has it been there for a longer time and is just 
hidden so well that I missed it? ;)

> as the name, i'm still on the fence, making it support way different things
> like contacts is quite a mine field, risks to become a broken version of an
> addressbook or whatever, while it would still need the "real" one at least for
> a very long time

Everything that can be added to an Activity should also be browseable via the 
resource browser. We don't need addressbook functionality like editing contacts 
or initiating actions like writing an email. Of course things like moving a 
contact to an external medium would be more difficult (ideally, this would 
create a vcs on the medium, but that is not high priority), but these could be 
disabled if not available. Deleting should work, but even that is not strictly a 
must right from the start. Finding and opening (and SLC stuff) is a must, 
everything else is nice-to-have for anything but files.

One of the central innovations of Activities vs. folders is that an Activity 
treats any sort of resources the same, be it files, contacts, mails, places or 
whatnot. Therefore, we want our users to treat them the same as well. So if we 
break this paradigm already at the browser, this is not good. We throw them back 
at the distinction between files and "other things", telling them "If you are 
looking for a file, use the file browser. If you're looking for a contact, use 
Contacts". Suddenly, the user has to distinguish these things again in order to 
know which application to open. We do not want that.
If the user wants to edit a contact, she should
1. Open the resource browser
2. Search for it (using all the criteria we offer)
3. Tap it to open it in Contacts
4. Edit it

I sometimes have a hard time explaining the advantages of our Activity concept 
vs. good ol' folders, because people say "When I want to collect files related 
to a project, I put them in a folder". It's usually when I say "Yes, but can you 
collect other things there as well, like contacts or events?" that they get it.
This is what Plasma Active is about. "Forget about files and folders and 
applications. It's about the resources you need to accomplish your task!" A 
browser that's only for files totally breaks that.

For example, we should not create a separate bookmark management UI in PA. The 
resource browser should replace it, because it's the central component for 
resource handling.

Maybe this needs a larger discussion, but for me, restricting the resource 
browser to files is clearly not an option, because it touches such a central 
concept.

Cheers,
Thomas