[KDE Usability] Review Request 126622: GSoC 2016 Project Idea: File Trays for Dolphin GUI Mockup

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

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Thank you for taking making the effort to create these mockups!

I still like the basic idea, but the proposed GUI feels much much too feature-laden and "heavy". 

The basic idea is to make selecting a number of files from different places easier (thus solving a real, important problem!). Therefore I see no reason why the interaction with these selected files should be any different from interaction with files selected in the traditional way. If users were living just fine without a toolbar that contains things like cut/copy/paste before, why do they need it in this panel?

One of Dolphin's appealing attributes is that its UI feels "lightweight" (in contrast to Konqueror which it replaced). The main interaction with a graphical file manager is via drag&drop or keyboard shortcuts, which is why no modern file browser has toolbar buttons for things like copy and paste.

Things like "Archive" have been done traditionally via context menu. Why change that in this panel?
It seems like you want to pack additional functionality in a UI which already has great purpose all by virtue of its main function: Allowing for non-volatile selection of multiple files. For any further actions going from there, Dolphin is already equipped with multiple means of interaction that have worked just fine for years. I see no need in reinventing the wheel for them.

- Thomas Pfeiffer


On Jan. 4, 2016, 3:17 p.m., arnav dhamija wrote:
> 
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> This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
> https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/126622/
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> 
> (Updated Jan. 4, 2016, 3:17 p.m.)
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> 
> Review request for Dolphin and KDE Usability.
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> Description
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> 
> **The idea**
> Selecting multiple files in any file manager for copying and pasting has never been a pleasant experience, especially if the files are in a non-continuous order. Often, when copying files between devices we might find that we need to select only a subset of the required files we have selected and this leads to the unwieldy operation of removing files from our selection. Of course, the common workaround is to create a new folder and to put all the items in  but this is a very inefficient process and can be very slow if large files need to be copied between devices.
> 
> My solution to this problem is to add a panel/view in Dolphin where the links to files and folders can be temporarily saved for a session. The files and folders are "staged" on this panel. Hence, the user can add folders and files from several different directories to this panel and can then collectively perform actions on all the items in the tray such as copy, paste, cut, upload images in selection to Facebook, upload files to Dropbox, etc. This makes complex file operations easy by staging the operation before performing it.
> 
> Files can be added to this tray by using a right-click context menu option or by using the mouse scroll click or drag and drop. As an additional option, the session for the File Tray Panel can be saved for later use.
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> My initial idea was to have another split view mode with its button in the toolbar in Dolphin. It will function similarly to the existing split view but with one half of the screen dedicated to the "Files tray". This would make it neatly integrated with Dolphin's existing toolset and it would make dragging and dropping easy. Dolphin maintainer Emmanuel Pescosta suggested using Plasmoids to make the project more cohesive with KDE and to make it usable with multiple applications (eg Gwenview).
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> **GUI Mockup**
> Attached with this Review Request is a Balsamiq mockup for my project idea, building upon what already exists in Dolphin. The Tray panel is activated by a toggle button on the Dolphin toolbar and behaves very similarly to the Split feature. Dragging and dropping folders and files from the active directory on the left and pasting directly from the clipboard will be supported.
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> The File Tray gets its very own toolbar for implementing these functions on all the files placed in the Tray.
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> The "Destination Folder" dropdown has a list of recently accessed folders **and** an option to choose the active directory on the left of the File Tray. 
> 
> "Cut" and "Copy" are self explanatory and will allow for files on the Tray to be transferred to the "Destination Folder".
> 
> The "Search in Files" button will use grep to find a certain string in the files located on the Tray. A search bar drops down when this is clicked.
> 
> The "Archive" button allows the user to compress and package the files in various archive formats.
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> The 3 dots menu hides more advanced features and prevents the toolbar from becoming too imposing.
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> "Create shortcuts" will create symbolic links for all the files in the Destination Folder the user has chosen.
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> "View Git version history" (I'm not sure if this will be useful) will display a GUI with the Git revisions along with the Git log if a .git folder is found in a directory.
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> The File Tray will use the same zoom and icon/details/compact settings as the main window of the file manager. While it may be technically possible to have a distinction, I feel it may be too complicated for many users as there will be many duplicate controls.
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> Also, as the toolbar for the File Tray is quite large, I'm not sure how to design the interaction when the window is scaled to a smaller size. Maybe the buttons overflowing can dynamically move into the 3 dots icon but I am not sure if this is a good practice. 
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> I will be much obliged to hear feedback from the usability and dolphin teams on these GUI interactions : )
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> 
> Diffs
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> Diff: https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/126622/diff/
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> 
> Testing
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> File Attachments
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> 
> FileTray Mockup.png
>   https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/media/uploaded/files/2016/01/04/ec5ec185-0307-4579-afc4-567d2aafa220__FileTray_Mockup.png
> FileTray Mockup.bmpr
>   https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/media/uploaded/files/2016/01/04/46f46679-b243-45dc-9b13-8caac04d7283__FileTray_Mockup.bmpr
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> arnav dhamija
> 
>

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