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I caught myself today trying to change the "keyword" field from a bug. It took some time until I realize that it is read-only and I have to select the desired keywords on the right side list. It is not very intuitive and there is room for improvements. Perhaps you can just eliminate the field and leave only the listbox.
I also hate the way keywords, cc list are represented ("select to remove" clearly indicates that there is usability issue). I've been suggesting to move management of those into a popup dialogs. That will also make UI more compact.
It has been discussed what way to follow? The popup way from Eugene seems to be good. The actual UI seems like a copy'n paste from web UI (including the browser limitations...). helpwanted? ;)
I believe that popups would be consistent with PDE editors, and not using list widgets, would also help with coloring and hyperlinks and will allow more compact UI. But Mik doesn't seem like it for some reason.
I agree that it should be consistent with the PDE editors, support showing icons, and hyperlinks. Not sure what I disliked about previously proposals to improve this, but I also find our current UI very problematic. Here's what I would like to see: * Keywords is a 3 line list that has an "Edit..." button next to it. The edit dialog is like the PDE's (including filter box), but has check boxes. * The CC section is an ~8 line version of the same thing. We consider keeping "Add CC:" because it would be nice like to have Ctrl+Space work there without having to open a dialog. Marking "helpwanted" since we can integrated this for 2.0M1, but probably can't get to it until later.
That is what I've been arguing. Neither keywords, nor cc should be shown as lists. It is more efficient to show them as text. That would also allow to select/copy, coloring and the hyperlinks. Then "Edit..." button could bring an appropriate editing dialog (list with checkboxes for keywords, and list with entry field and add/remove actions for cc and bugs). As for cc, probably most common action is add self. So, I don't think it is a good idea to waste screen estate for the entry field in addition to the list of emails. Though the whole section could be a text area that would allow the Ctrl-Space.
(In reply to comment #5) > That is what I've been arguing. Neither keywords, nor cc should be shown as > lists. It is more efficient to show them as text. How could we show a cc list as text?
(In reply to comment #6) > How could we show a cc list as text? What is a problem? Just use coma separated list of emails/names.
(In reply to comment #7) > What is a problem? Just use coma separated list of emails/names. > I'm just wondering how bug#11624 cc list would look this way ;)
(In reply to comment #8) > I'm just wondering how bug#11624 cc list would look this way ;) It will look better then 8 rows list. Just make text area to grab the horizontal and vertical space, enable wrapping and the vertical scroll bar (that will be consistent with the new comment area). In worst case it could show "..." and let to see all the emails in the popup editing dialog.
I don't like the idea of the CC list being text. For 2.0 I want "people" to be a more structured entity, not less. That means that you should be able to interact with the CC list in a structured way, e.g. drag from it to the Assign to field. While programs Microsoft Outlook supports this kind of interaction for structured interaction with text areas (by turning them into hyperlinks that can be dragged) we won't be able to do that for Mylar 2.0, and would be better off figuring out how to show more than 8 rows when the list is long. Btw, I almost never use "add me to CC", but I do agree that this should be fast, and it could be a single click (e.g. an "Add me" button that replaces the check box).
Mik, can you please elaborate why can't we do the linking dragging for the text area? If I recall correctly Platfor/Text added some improvements for drag and drop for Eclipse 3.3
I saw that go by too, but I've never seen Ecipse handle dragging of structured text properly in this way. The only reason this works (barely) well enough in Outlook is that you can select and drag a name with a single gesture. But this name is a linked reference, which is what it turns into once a hyperlink detector realizes that it is a structured thing. It then no longer supports freeform editing and requires double-click to edit. I really doubt that there will be enough in 3.3 to support this, although I've asked for it several times on hyperlink bugs like bug 88293. And I'm pretty sure that we'll get more out of having more structured support for people than we will for having better freeform text-based support.
So, what I'm thinking for the first prototype: 1 - Turn the Add CC:/CC: section into a list with Add/Remove buttons, like PDE editors. 2 - Regarding the keywords section, what about removing the read-only textbox and turning the list into a list with checkboxes?
(In reply to comment #13) > So, what I'm thinking for the first prototype: > 1 - Turn the Add CC:/CC: section into a list with Add/Remove buttons, like PDE > editors. +1 > 2 - Regarding the keywords section, what about removing the read-only textbox > and turning the list into a list with checkboxes? The only potential problem here is visibility of selected elements. The list box dimensions can't be too large so the situation might arise where a few keywords are selected but aren't visible in the list box due to position in sorted list no?
(In reply to comment #14) > > 2 - Regarding the keywords section, what about removing the read-only textbox > > and turning the list into a list with checkboxes? > > The only potential problem here is visibility of selected elements. The list > box dimensions can't be too large so the situation might arise where a few > keywords are selected but aren't visible in the list box due to position in > sorted list no? > Hummm... you are right.... Eclipse.org bugzilla has 22 keywords on database. Well, on this case I think it should be better to use the PDE-style section, like on Add CC:/CC: section. Do you agree? Suggestions?
(In reply to comment #15) > Hummm... you are right.... Eclipse.org bugzilla has 22 keywords on database. > Well, on this case I think it should be better to use the PDE-style section, > like on Add CC:/CC: section. > Do you agree? Suggestions? Yes, I think this is the way to go..at least for now. The combination of two of these style add/remove sections might take up too much real estate. But we can worry about that later and after it gets some mileage. Note that I have some large changes to commit to the editor (likely today) but you should be able to just drop in replace the addCC code if I'm not mistaken. I'm really looking forward to a better cc: ui!
(In reply to comment #16) > Note that I have some large changes to commit to the editor (likely today) OK, no need to worry about this.
Created attachment 60227 [details] Screenshot First attempt to fix the keyword field. Doesn't look very good... IHMO, it takes so much space for a not so frequently used field. Also it looks odd because the attributes section has a "tabular" look. I'm wondering if we could turn it into a new expandable section between attributes and attachments. The section title would be composed by the keywords, so you don't have to expand it to see what is selected, e.g.: "Keywords (none)" or "Keywords (helpwanted, documentation)". If you agree, I'll work on a second implementation based on this idea.
I've been suggesting to make keywords a read-only text area (not the list widget!) and do all editing from the popup dialog that would be called from "Edit" button next to the text area. This way you won't need any expandable areas and editing dialog would provide required usability features. PS: same suggestion been made for CC list.
(In reply to comment #19) > I've been suggesting to make keywords a read-only text area (not the list > widget!) and do all editing from the popup dialog that would be called from > "Edit" button next to the text area. This way you won't need any expandable > areas and editing dialog would provide required usability features. > Let's try booth alternatives and see what is the better. > PS: same suggestion been made for CC list. I'll play with the keywords field first, and once we have a clear idea of what is the better approach, change the CC list.
I agree it is taking up a rather large amount of screen real estate. I'll be interested to see the alternatives...
Created attachment 72654 [details] Patch with Check Box Table Here is a patch that I created that uses and edit button and a checkbox table to allow the user to choose which keywords they want.
Patch applied. Lets give this a try and see what people think of it.
New UI is definitely much nicer, but it could use few improvements: - Editing dialog should be resizeable - Keywords entry field should provide completion proposal
Marking resolved since Shawn has completed the key work outlined. Shawn: consider adding the resizing if it's a quick fix for you. Eugene: please file proposals as a separate enhancement request.
Created attachment 74164 [details] Resize Patch Attached is the patch for resizing the Keywords Dialog
Created attachment 74165 [details] mylyn/context/zip
Patch applied.
