[rkward-devel] feature request: drag&drop between workspace and file system

[Thomas Friedrichsmeier]

Hi!

On Sunday 09 September 2012, meik michalke wrote:
> i think it would enhance the overall user experience a lot of you could
> somehow simply drag&drop objects from the file system to the current
> workspace. i don't know if it's possible do detect/treat workspace .RData
> files seperately; but at least a dialog could pop up and ask, and then
> either open the dragged workspace or come up with the already filled out R
> object import dialog.

Yes, sounds reasonable. I'll have to read up on the details, but AFAIK, we 
should basically get a URI / URL, and then we could basically treat that the 
same way as if it had been clicked in the integrated file browser. Put it on 
the list (i.e. request tracker).

Some questions on the details, though: What's the target area for drops? 
Everything? What happens when e.g. dragging to a script window? Import dialog 
comes up or paste the filename?

> maybe a context menu could be a first step here
> ("import this .RData file to current RKWard workspace"

You mean in the integrated file browser? What's wrong with left-click, here 
(although, indeed, the user should be asked whether to import the workspace 
into the current workspace, or whether to replace the current workspace)?

> /"export this R
> object as .RData file").

Sounds reasonable, too. Of course the follow up question would be: Why only 
offer export in a context menu? Why not sort, plot, summarize, test, ... for 
applicable objects? I think at this point we should think about a framework 
for plugins to declare that they offer "doing something with an object".

E.g. the "write_table" plugin could announce that it offers "Export / CSV" for 
"single" objects of type "data.frame, matrix", and it wants to be called with 
the object name filled into "data" and perhaps "sep" set to "','". Would you 
like to come up with a draft of a format specification for this sort of info 
(probably to be placed in the .pluginmap)?

The next follow up question is how much exactly do we want to offer in the 
context menu?

Regards
Thomas
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