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RE: [platform-help-dev] Navigation view - would like to have user -defined filtering

Not surprised that there won't be time based on where you are in the 2.0 dev
cycle.

The first item, regarding searching all of doc.zip, is already in Bugzilla
(see http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=10088). TOC and search
filtering are both items we would like to see put in place, but I will take
a good look at the Lucene search engine before entering these items in
Bugzilla. After that, anything that seems reasonable I would like to enter
at least as P3s so that we don't lose track of them. (They could be bumped
up to P2 later on as appropriate.)

Meanwhile I'd appreciate reading more of people's concerns on these issues
on the mailing list, and I'll definitely keep my ear to the ground on these
discussions.

Thanks,
Christal


-----Original Message-----
From: birsan@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:birsan@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 1:25 PM
To: platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [platform-help-dev] Navigation view - would like to have
user -defined filtering


Given the short time to wrap up the 2.0 release and the other things that
must be done (UI redesign, NL testing and miscellaneous bug fixes) I think
most of the features below should be discussed in a post 2.0 context.
Search filtering by book is in 2.0 and the interface is currently working
when help search is launched from the workbench.
We have been discussing the possiblity of indexing documents that are not
referred directly from the navigation. This will likely not be searching
the entire doc.zip, but rather directories (in or outside doc.zip)
specified in plugin.xml.

Searching headings only is not possible with the current html parser that
comes with Lucene and it is likely it won't change by the time 2.0 ships (I
anticipate any 3rd party parser would have to have NL support, be fast,
easy to integrated, small, approved by the eclipse legal team, etc.)

Its is ok to enter all the features in bugzilla, but I would rather leave
them open for discussion in the mailing list unless people prefer to track
them in bugzilla.

-Dorian




 

                    "Pomeroy, Christal"

                    <cpomeroy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>         To:
"'platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx'" <platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>

                    Sent by:                        cc:

                    platform-help-dev-admin@e       Subject:     RE:
[platform-help-dev] Navigation view - would like to have user         
                    clipse.org                       -defined filtering

 

 

                    03/18/2002 11:44 AM

                    Please respond to

                    platform-help-dev

 

 




Re: Searching
-------------
It would be nice to have the following search options available to the
user:
1) search all in doc.zip (p2), so as to include topics not linked into TOC
2) search in current hierarchy only (p2), as per Dorian's earlier
suggestion
3) search on selected nav nodes (p3), involving a specialized node
selection
i/f
4) search on filtered-in topics (p3), discussed below ... see 'Filtering'
Plus the additional 'AND'ed option of searching headings only in whatever
topics are selected for search (p2).

Notes:
- Implementation of option (4) would do away with the need for option (3),
but (3) could be left in place as a refined search within the filtered-in
set of topics.
- In the previous, unofficial search engine for Eclipse 1.0, there were two
standard search features available in the Advanced dialog: "Enable
filtering
on:", which provided a separate node selection i/f that allowed user to
pick
nav nodes on which to search, and "Search headings only". It would be nice
if these capabilities are available in some capacity in the new Eclipse 2.0
search utility just to maintain 'existing' functionality. This would make
them p2 items in my book, as I've indicated above. It seems that I had best
enter these in bugzilla...

Re: Filtering
-------------
It would be nice to have a filter interface and the following filter-in
options available to the user (these would impact both search and display
of
TOC nav nodes):
1) filter in topics based on selected nav nodes (p2)
2) filter in topics based on selected information types (p3)
3) filter in topics based on selected predefined filters (p3)

Filter options (2) and (3) would assume that you might consider supporting
information-type mark-up or labelling associated with topics. Filter option
(3) would assume that you might consider enabling some mechanism by which
the help system author can set up predefined filters. Initially, this could
involve just selecting TOC/nav nodes, but (for future consideration) would
most effectively be based on information typing, such as user role (e.g.,
analyst, developer, tester) or topic type (e.g., get started, concepts,
reference, task).  I can see that both of these requests would probably
involve considerably more complexity in the help system since it would
likely involve some sort of additional topic mark-up or tagging, and then
supporting mechanisms in the help engine....  and so they would be p3
items.
Bugzilla?

My $0.02 (Cdn)
Christal


-----Original Message-----
From: birsan@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:birsan@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 9:55 AM
To: platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [platform-help-dev] Navigation view - would like to have
user-defined filtering



Agreed.

We may need to reconsider adding  a Search action on a topic's context
menu, that would search the topic subtree rooted at that topic.

-dorian





                    Greg_Adams@xxxxxxx

                    Sent by:                        To:
platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx

                    platform-help-dev-admin@e       cc:

                    clipse.org                      Subject:     Re:
[platform-help-dev] Navigation view - would like to have user-defined
                                                     filtering



                    03/16/2002 12:04 PM

                    Please respond to

                    platform-help-dev









There are cases where a beginner user could get value out of this, not just
an advanced user. For example when using a product I wanted to search for a
given word within the getting started and didn't want all of other hits.
Similarly there were cases where I was looking for sample walkthroughs that
mentioned some other word.

I would however rate this as a p3 (future) item.

/Greg



   birsan@xxxxxxxxxx
   Sent by:                       To:
   platform-help-dev-admi platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
   n@xxxxxxxxxxx                  cc:
                                  Subject:        Re: [platform-help-dev]
                          Navigation view - would like to have
   03/15/2002 07:35 PM    user-defined filtering
   Please respond to
   platform-help-dev






A couple of questions:

  Should search return hits from the current view only or from the entire
  documentation?
  Filtering large amounts of information (like documentation) is a very
  good idea, but I think that filtering of arbitrary subtrees is a bit
  dangerous, as it would imply too much knowledge of what's inside. I
  would think that a top level filtering would suffice. Should the
  filtering set be the same as for search? (that's related to the first
  question)

BTW,  please open a feature in bugzilla so we can track it.
-dorian




                   Leigh

                   Davidson/Toronto/IBM@IBMC       To:
platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx

                   A                               cc:

                   Sent by:                        Subject:
[platform-help-dev] Navigation view - would like to have user-defined
                   platform-help-dev-admin@e        filtering

                   clipse.org


                   03/15/2002 02:16 PM

                   Please respond to

                   platform-help-dev






Suggestion for future release: In the navigation tree, allow me to select
nodes for filtering. This would allow advanced users, for example, to block
out beginner topics that they're not interested in any more, so they no
longer have to scroll down the nav to the chunks that they use 80% of the
time. Or, in a product that ships interfaces for 10 kinds of back-end
system, I could select to view only the ones that I'm interested in - save
some real estate.

My first idea for this was to right-click on the node and have a
checked/unchecked menu item like "Hide from Navigation/Show in Navigation."
(Another idea is an "Add to Favorites" option.) But I realize there is a
model for other views in the workbench - incl Navigator and Tasks - to
provide filtering my means of the "Menu" toolbar button (the inverted
triangle), which has Filter as a selection on its drop-down menu, which in
turn opens a dialog box where the user selects and clears check boxes. So
maybe the Help view should be consistent with the behavior of these other
views.

If you could provide something like this, I think there should be a clear
visual indication that I am currently viewing a subset of the information.
Not sure how you would do that. Maybe tabs - View All, View Favorites.

I think the Synchronize button in a help document should synchronize to the
"All" view?

Leigh Davidson
Editor, IBM Canada Lab

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