[rkward-devel] Import preview? (CSV)

[Thomas Friedrichsmeier]

Hi!

On Sun, 6 Dec 2015 15:00:09 +0100
jan <d_jan at ymail.com> wrote:
> A while ago we improved the import dialog for CSV. Though it had
> become much better, I suppose that a preview could really help
> beginners and advanced users alike

[snip]

For what it's worth, a very first take on the problem can be seen in
branch work/generalized_preview . Activate the "Plugins under
development" (Settings->Manage R packages and Plugins->Manage RKWard
Plugins), start up Analysis->Preview test.

Obviously, neither the example is useful, nor is it a good idea
usability wise, so far. The central question I'd like to hear
feedback/brainstorming on is: Where should the preview window go?

- Right now it is "attached" in the main window. That does not seem any
  good, it's just the choice that did not need any extra code, so far.
- Another possiblity would be a "detached" / floating window
  (including menubar, etc.), as we use for plots / plot previews.
- The "usual" placement would be at the bottom of the dialog, I think.
  But:
  - Our data preview may be a bit taller than usual due to the
    "header" (Name, Label, Type, ...). That may need adjustments in
    dialog layouts, or the header could be squeezed for previews,
    initially.
  - The bottom area of dialogs is already occupied by the "Code"
    preview. Arguably, it seems unlikely that a user would
    desperately want to see both at the same time. Is there an
    intuitive way, the two could "share" the bottom area of the dialog?
- Keep in mind that we are going to support several different types of
  previews:
  1. Plot previews (as already established)
  2. Data previews (as in the example)
  3. File previews (HTML files and / or text files)
  4. Possibly we might also want to offer a kind of "minimal" preview,
    which would simply display a few numbers inside the plugin dialog
    (example use case: power analysis plugin).
  4) May be a different beast, but for 1-3), it may or may not be a
  good idea to offer a consistent placement.

--

As a side-note, one "collateral feature" in work/generalized_preview is
that you can now view a data.frame inside package:datasets (or any other
environment) in an editor window (read-only).

Regards
Thomas
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