SoK idea: Improve krunner result displaying and navigation.

Sun May 1 09:04:54 CEST 2011

Take a look at this and see if it's OK:

Improve krunner result displaying brainstorm:
+ Tweak runners result rating
  * Nepomuk runner
   ~ Remove over and over repeated results
  * File search runner
   Priority criteria
   ~ Exact match: for "photos", priorize "Photos" over "Photos - september",
for example
   ~ Priorize folders over files
   ~ Folders that contain several folders or files that match the query,
probably showing them as "subresults"
  * Google runner
   ~ Show a list of actual results from the search (Is this possible?)
+ Change krunner result displaying
  * Group each runner results into its own category
  * Allow user to change the categories' priorities (For example: first,
commands, then, files, then, nepomuk, etc....).
  * Show as many results as it fits in krunner, shrinking the less relevant
ones. (configurable)
  * If there are results from more than a runner, give the user an option to
expand one category and show only its results.
   ~ Show further results in the associated application
  * Show extra actions for each item
  * Give the option of using a compact layout
  * Mockup:
https://picasaweb.google.com/luizromario/Mockups#5601639496208873426
+ Fine-tune krunner
  * Popup some helping text if user waits too long
  * Tell the user when krunner is searching and when it found nothing
  * Put query in a different thread so krunner doesn't freeze while the user
is typing something (if it still isn't).

And I think the KSysGuard part it uses needs some care too.

Anyway, sorry for taking so long, I got stuck sometimes when doing this.

2011/4/30 Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org>

>  On Friday, April 29, 2011 23:57:57 Luiz Romário Santana Rios wrote:
> > 2011/4/29 Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org>
> >
> > > On Friday, April 29, 2011 00:21:11 Luiz Romário Santana Rios wrote:
> > > > 2011/4/28 Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org>
> > > >
> > > > > On Thursday, April 28, 2011 09:15:08 Luiz Romário Santana Rios
> wrote:
> > > > > > Currently, when we type something in, krunner displays the
> > > > > > results
> > > > > > as it finds it, without giving a feedback of whether it is
> > > > > > searching or just didn't find anything.
> > > > >
> > > > > that would be a nice addition.
> > > > >
> > > > > > It also does not separate the results into its different
> > > > > > categories
> > > > >
> > > > > that's because they are organized by relevance. if they are
> > > > > sorted into categories, and if there are 4 categories that
> > > > > match and 5 items in
> > >
> > > each
> > >
> > > > > category then the best match from the 4th category will be the
> > > > > 16th
> > >
> > > item
> > >
> > > > > in the list(!) even though it is more likely to be what the user
> > > > > wants than most
> > > > > of the items above it.
> > > > >
> > > > > i have yet to see a solution for this problem, but am open to
> > > > > such a
> > > > > solution
> > > > > being offered.
> > > >
> > > > Well, I thought about showing only the most relevant results for
> > > > each
> > > > category and priorizing the category with the most relevant results.
> > > > If a
> > >
> > > which is almost always going to be the nepomuk search ;)
> > >
> > > > user want to see more results for that category, they would just
> > > > need to expand it. I'll do some mockups for that and will post
> > > > here.
> > >
> > > sounds good; mockups always help.
> >
> > Here's one:
> >
> http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_V8ZPvFyTxNc/Tbty2kU7CII/AAAAAAAAARs/v_Ut1J
> > 8P4DQ/01%20-%20Expand%20and%20Shrink%20less%20relevant%20results.png
> >
> > It's bad, I know, I suck at making mockups, but it gives part of the idea
> of
> > what I mean.
>
> wire frame mockups like that one are just fine. they let one concentrate on
> the structure rather than get distracted by shiny things ;)
>
> > Notice that I show two different ways of expanding the results
> > in it. I think the button is better, but it takes too much space, so I'm
>
> and what would be the workflow to expand / collapse / run?

> an important part of krunner is being able to very quickly type and
> execute.
> the UI is not fancy, but it is designed for speed.
>

See mockup in the beginning of the message. But, basically, running anything
by just typing and hitting enter wouldn't change much.

>
> > > then the Nepomuk runner needs tweaking in how it rates results.
> >
> > So this is the first thing we should do, I guess.
>
> it's definitely a good starting point. :)
>
> > What I meant was that I think it's better to wait one or two seconds
> after
> > the user stops typing so that krunner doesn't start querying with an
> > incomplete string.
>
> that would probably ruin one of the main features of krunner: match as you
> type.
>

Yeah, you're right.

>
> > I also think it would give focus to the main result, if
> > there's one, but I may be wrong.
>
> it already does.
>
> > Weird. Should it work if I just type in something and then press the down
> > arrow?
>
> yes...
>
> > Well, I will stop and think over this project and get back with better
> > summarized idead and more mockups tomorrow.
>
> :)
>

See above. :)

>
> --
> Aaron J. Seigo
> humru othro a kohnu se
> GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
>
> KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Development Frameworks
>
> _______________________________________________
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> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-devel
>
> --
Luiz Romário Santana Rios
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