[rkward-devel] Workspace Window, now with mockup.

[d_jan]

Am 06.11.2015 um 13:18 schrieb d_jan:
> Hi,
> 
> ok, so I have now pushed the first "complete" draft of the Workspace
> browser including search functionality into git master. (I'm sure you'll
> find some details to improve, though).

uh, really neat!

I was kinda unsure about the sense of a search function, but then I
needed a dataset to test, typed in "swiss" (or whatever) and I’m
convinced now :D

> 
>> If you accidentally change the setting via the context menu and
>> restart the application, do you get the standard view back?
> 
> The following settings are not saved at all:
>  - Show all environments
>  - Search string
>  - Fields to search in
>  - Show all objects (vs. functions vs. non-functions)
> They do persist within the entire session (workspace tool window), or
> the lifetime of the plugin dialog (varselector), though. I'm not sure,
> whether or not this is entirely desirable. For instance, should you
> forget to go back to "Show all objects", and collapse the filter
> options, it will be a bit hard to discover what's wrong.
>

Indeed. The standard interface design pattern for this is to show some
indicator for the active filters, even if the corresponding settings are
hidden. An example can be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/morville/4274338388/in/album-72157623208685504/
on the upper left: Anytime you activate some filter it will be added to
"current search" where you can easily deactivate them. (try yourself on
http://search.trln.org/search?Nty=1&N=0&sugg=&source=trln&Ntt=statistics&Ntk=Keyword)

If you can dynamically insert, the right place for such indicators would
be on the bottom of the filter/search section of the Workspace UI (not
wrapped in the usually hidden filter settings, but always visible *if* a
filter is set.

If this is not possible, a "reset Filters" Button is much less elegant,
but does the job too.

See these suggestions mocked up here:
https://community.kde.org/RKWard#Filters


One question: The fields with are searched in the standard settings – do
they exlude name, lable and class? Since in the UI it looks these boxes
are unchecked by standard.
However, if I search e.g. for "swiss" I find the dataset with this name
– but only if I did not touch these filter settings before. Seems like a
state tracking bug, if I understand it right. Easy fix: Have the boxes
checked by default and/or have a "all fields" option.


> The following settings are saved _implicitly_:
>  - Show hidden objects
>  - Columns to show
> If you change the setting, and quit RKWard, it will be restored in the
> same way on the next start. These are stored separately for tool window
> and varselector.

seems good to me.

> One thing that I'm not entirely happy with (perhaps you have an idea)
> is searching/filtering in varselectors: Showing the filter controls
> permanently, did not look like a good idea, here. They can be activated
> from the context-menu. Is this discoverable enough?

I think it is o.k., possiby one could add a simple button behind "select
Variables" which does show the same settings as the context menu to make
it more discoverable. It could read "display" or show simply that "down
triangle" you have for activating the advanged search panel in the
workspace dialog.

Cheers,
 Jan