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List:       kfm-devel
Subject:    Re: Review Request: Proposal to add a 'lock toggle button' to filter bar to
From:       "Stuart Citrin" <ctrn3e8 () gmail ! com>
Date:       2012-11-24 1:29:01
Message-ID: 20121124012901.29636.54379 () vidsolbach ! de
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This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
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1. coding standards compliance:
    For the next patch file I submit, I will make coding standards corrections and \
clean up the slop.

2. Issue of  "I'm wondering if the 'lock' button has the potential to confuse \
users....." etc.:

    First...disclaimer: I do not claim  to be a usability (or HCI) expert...I  write \
code(occasionally) and that makes me one of the worst to have an objective \
viewpoint...but I will state the following.  There are probably people out there who \
have no idea what "that filter bar thing" is supposed to do.  I can think of certain \
family members and know that they would never, without being shown and explained, \
understand how to use it.  My assumption is, if someone understands and is able to \
use the filter  bar, they will figure out what that little lock button is for.   \
Having said that, tool-tip text  is provided and is currently set to "Keep Filter \
When Changing Folders". Therefore, (beating this to death), if someone hovers their \
mouse over the button, they will see the said explanation, and then know what it's \
for.  (Of course, they need to know enough to actually hover the mouse over the \
button ).

I, personally, do not think the filter text should ever be persistent between \
visibility cycles of the filter bar.  If the filter bar is ever hidden,  then the \
text should be cleared. If the user hides the filter bar or kills the application, \
the assumption should be that they are done using  that particular filter.  \
Otherwise, they are always forced to clear the previous filter text when restoring \
the filter bar.   For the case where they want to restore previous text, they can \
always put it on the clipboard, or on  Parcellite or Klipper and then retrieve it.  \
Yes, I understand, under some circumstances, it would be useful to toggle a \
particular filter on and off, but this would be an outlier case. Converting the edit \
control in the filter bar to a dropdown combobox which stores, for example, the last \
five filters used may be one idea to cover this use case.  However, for the latter, I \
think it starts to be maybe a little too much of a modification.  When I wrote the \
patch, I really tried to keep it relatively unobtrusive in terms of changing the user \
experience and in terms of modifying the actual code.


3. "This also fixes a current bug in dolphin where one is unable to toggle"...and  \
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215138:

The change I made (which actually was to revert the code to the way it had been), \
re-enables the toggle behavior of the"show filter"  button on the application \
toolbar. The stated bug complains about the non-persistence of the filter bar state \
when re-launching the application.

This is a little confusing.  First of all,  the stated bug refers to the fact that \
there is non-persistence of the visibility state of the filter bar when closing and \
restarting Dolphin.  This has probably always been the case.  The visibility of the \
bar on startup is configured  (I just discovered) by \
Settings->ConfigureDolphin->Startup->ShowFilterBar(checkbox) and is independent of \
the visibility state when the application had last been closed.

The change I made was to restore the toggle behavior of the "Show Filter Bar" toggle \
button on the application tool bar.  Previous (as in 2010 and probably some time \
before and thereafter) to cycle through showing or hiding the filter bar, one could \
click this button repeatedly.  You could also toggle the visibility by the default \
short cut key of Ctl-I....which still works for show, but not for hide in the current \
released version.  Somewhere the behavior was changed from 'toggle' to just 'show'.   \
Thus in its current form, to cycle through showing/hiding the filter bar (with mouse) \
one clicks on the tool bar button(top of application) to show the filter bar and then \
clicks on the red 'X' next to the filter bar(bottom of application) to hide it.  \
There is no keyboard shortcut (which I know of ) which is capable of hiding the \
filter bar.

It is not clear to me why the behavior was changed to the current behavior.  Perhaps \
someone felt the word 'Show' on the toggle button was confusing, when the button \
action  would alternate between 'Show' and 'Hide".  Admittingly, this really is a \
separate issue from locking the text,  and I should have not messed with it.  On the \
next patch I submit, I will revert it to how it is in the current git \
master....unless a consensus is reached to put it back as a toggle.




- Stuart Citrin


On Nov. 20, 2012, 5:16 a.m., Stuart Citrin wrote:
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
> http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/107392/
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> (Updated Nov. 20, 2012, 5:16 a.m.)
> 
> 
> Review request for Dolphin.
> 
> 
> Description
> -------
> 
> I wrote a quick add-on for the Dolphin filter bar.   It is a button which prevents \
> the filter text from clearing when navigating to a different folder.  
> Why this might be needed:
> 
> This is an attempt to resolve the following usability conflict: 
> 
> If one navigates to a different folder, the filter is automatically cleared since \
> one does not want a situation where someone forgets a filter is applied and then \
> doesn't understand why all the files within a folder are not appearing.(current \
>                 behavior) 
> versus: 
> A user might want to keep a filter while navigating an arbitrary set of folders, \
> but is unable to, since the filter is automatically cleared upon navigation  
> The implementation to try to resolve this conflict is as follows: 
> 
> 1. A lock filter toggle button is added to the right side of the filter bar. 
> 2. If the lock filter button is clicked(on), then if the user navigates away from \
> the current folder, the filter is not cleared. If the lock filter button is \
> released(off), then the text is cleared on navigation...which is the current \
> behavior.  3. A configurable shortcut is added to toggle the lock filter button, \
> with the default being Ctrl-Shift-I (since the default shortcut for hiding and \
> showing the filter bar is Ctrl-I.)  4. If the user toggles the lock filter button \
> to released (off), then the text in the filter also clears. The assumption here is \
> that if the user no longer wants the text to be locked, he probably also wants to \
> clear the text. 5. When the filter bar is hidden, then the lock filter button is \
> released. The next time the filter bar is shown, the lock filter button will be in \
> the released(off) position and the filter text will have been cleared.  6. At \
> application startup, the lock filter button is always off, and the filter bar text \
> cleared.  
> This also fixes a current bug in dolphin where one is unable to toggle the \
> visibility of the filter bar using the tool bar filter button, or by using the \
> assigned hot key. 
> Note... I think it is 'patch -p2' from the "dolphin" directory (above src directory \
> ) to apply the patch 
> 
> Diffs
> -----
> 
> dolphin/src/dolphinmainwindow.h 7da5801 
> dolphin/src/dolphinmainwindow.cpp 11e03d0 
> dolphin/src/dolphinviewcontainer.h 0300273 
> dolphin/src/dolphinviewcontainer.cpp 6e99437 
> dolphin/src/filterbar/filterbar.h 9546c63 
> dolphin/src/filterbar/filterbar.cpp f3076f0 
> 
> Diff: http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/107392/diff/
> 
> 
> Testing
> -------
> 
> Went through all paths in dolphin.  Tested: 1. Navigate to different folder. Text \
> should clear only when text not locked 2.Ctl-I shortcut to toggle visiblility of \
> filterbar 3.Text clears when filterbar hidden and then shown
> 4. Lock button locks and unlocks text
> 5. Shift-Ctl-I shortcut to toggle lock status of text.  Lock button updates \
> appropriately 6. Status (with non-perisistence from previous instance) of lock \
> button when starting application..i.e. lock status is off on startup 7. Change \
> keyboard shortcuts...works appropriately 8. F3 and split view..tabs..etc.. should \
> still work appropriately 9. Monkey tested...cannot get it to crash
> etc....
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Stuart Citrin
> 
> 


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      This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
      <a href="http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/107392/">http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/107392/</a>
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 <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; white-space: \
-pre-wrap; white-space: -o-pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">1. coding standards \
compliance:  For the next patch file I submit, I will make coding standards \
corrections and clean up the slop.

2. Issue of  &quot;I&#39;m wondering if the &#39;lock&#39; button has the potential \
to confuse users.....&quot; etc.:

    First...disclaimer: I do not claim  to be a usability (or HCI) expert...I  write \
code(occasionally) and that makes me one of the worst to have an objective \
viewpoint...but I will state the following.  There are probably people out there who \
have no idea what &quot;that filter bar thing&quot; is supposed to do.  I can think \
of certain family members and know that they would never, without being shown and \
explained, understand how to use it.  My assumption is, if someone understands and is \
able to use the filter  bar, they will figure out what that little lock button is \
for.   Having said that, tool-tip text  is provided and is currently set to \
&quot;Keep Filter When Changing Folders&quot;. Therefore, (beating this to death), if \
someone hovers their mouse over the button, they will see the said explanation, and \
then know what it&#39;s for.  (Of course, they need to know enough to actually hover \
the mouse over the button ).

I, personally, do not think the filter text should ever be persistent between \
visibility cycles of the filter bar.  If the filter bar is ever hidden,  then the \
text should be cleared. If the user hides the filter bar or kills the application, \
the assumption should be that they are done using  that particular filter.  \
Otherwise, they are always forced to clear the previous filter text when restoring \
the filter bar.   For the case where they want to restore previous text, they can \
always put it on the clipboard, or on  Parcellite or Klipper and then retrieve it.  \
Yes, I understand, under some circumstances, it would be useful to toggle a \
particular filter on and off, but this would be an outlier case. Converting the edit \
control in the filter bar to a dropdown combobox which stores, for example, the last \
five filters used may be one idea to cover this use case.  However, for the latter, I \
think it starts to be maybe a little too much of a modification.  When I wrote the \
patch, I really tried to keep it relatively unobtrusive in terms of changing the user \
experience and in terms of modifying the actual code.


3. &quot;This also fixes a current bug in dolphin where one is unable to \
toggle&quot;...and  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215138:

The change I made (which actually was to revert the code to the way it had been), \
re-enables the toggle behavior of the&quot;show filter&quot;  button on the \
application toolbar. The stated bug complains about the non-persistence of the filter \
bar state when re-launching the application.

This is a little confusing.  First of all,  the stated bug refers to the fact that \
there is non-persistence of the visibility state of the filter bar when closing and \
restarting Dolphin.  This has probably always been the case.  The visibility of the \
bar on startup is configured  (I just discovered) by \
Settings-&gt;ConfigureDolphin-&gt;Startup-&gt;ShowFilterBar(checkbox) and is \
independent of the visibility state when the application had last been closed.

The change I made was to restore the toggle behavior of the &quot;Show Filter \
Bar&quot; toggle button on the application tool bar.  Previous (as in 2010 and \
probably some time before and thereafter) to cycle through showing or hiding the \
filter bar, one could click this button repeatedly.  You could also toggle the \
visibility by the default short cut key of Ctl-I....which still works for show, but \
not for hide in the current released version.  Somewhere the behavior was changed \
from &#39;toggle&#39; to just &#39;show&#39;.   Thus in its current form, to cycle \
through showing/hiding the filter bar (with mouse) one clicks on the tool bar \
button(top of application) to show the filter bar and then clicks on the red \
&#39;X&#39; next to the filter bar(bottom of application) to hide it.  There is no \
keyboard shortcut (which I know of ) which is capable of hiding the filter bar.

It is not clear to me why the behavior was changed to the current behavior.  Perhaps \
someone felt the word &#39;Show&#39; on the toggle button was confusing, when the \
button action  would alternate between &#39;Show&#39; and &#39;Hide&quot;.  \
Admittingly, this really is a separate issue from locking the text,  and I should \
have not messed with it.  On the next patch I submit, I will revert it to how it is \
in the current git master....unless a consensus is reached to put it back as a \
toggle.


</pre>
 <br />







<p>- Stuart</p>


<br />
<p>On November 20th, 2012, 5:16 a.m., Stuart Citrin wrote:</p>






<table bgcolor="#fefadf" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="8" \
style="background-image: \
url('http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/media/rb/images/review_request_box_top_bg.png'); \
background-position: left top; background-repeat: repeat-x; border: 1px black \
solid;">  <tr>
  <td>

<div>Review request for Dolphin.</div>
<div>By Stuart Citrin.</div>


<p style="color: grey;"><i>Updated Nov. 20, 2012, 5:16 a.m.</i></p>






<h1 style="color: #575012; font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 1.5em;">Description </h1>
 <table width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" \
style="border: 1px solid #b8b5a0">  <tr>
  <td>
   <pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: \
-moz-pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; white-space: -o-pre-wrap; word-wrap: \
break-word;">I wrote a quick add-on for the Dolphin filter bar.   It is a button \
which prevents the filter text from clearing when navigating to a different folder. 

Why this might be needed:

This is an attempt to resolve the following usability conflict: 

If one navigates to a different folder, the filter is automatically cleared since one \
does not want a situation where someone forgets a filter is applied and then \
doesn&#39;t understand why all the files within a folder are not appearing.(current \
                behavior) 
versus: 
A user might want to keep a filter while navigating an arbitrary set of folders, but \
is unable to, since the filter is automatically cleared upon navigation 

The implementation to try to resolve this conflict is as follows: 

1. A lock filter toggle button is added to the right side of the filter bar. 
2. If the lock filter button is clicked(on), then if the user navigates away from the \
current folder, the filter is not cleared. If the lock filter button is \
released(off), then the text is cleared on navigation...which is the current \
behavior.  3. A configurable shortcut is added to toggle the lock filter button, with \
the default being Ctrl-Shift-I (since the default shortcut for hiding and showing the \
filter bar is Ctrl-I.)  4. If the user toggles the lock filter button to released \
(off), then the text in the filter also clears. The assumption here is that if the \
user no longer wants the text to be locked, he probably also wants to clear the text. \
5. When the filter bar is hidden, then the lock filter button is released. The next \
time the filter bar is shown, the lock filter button will be in the released(off) \
position and the filter text will have been cleared.  6. At application startup, the \
lock filter button is always off, and the filter bar text cleared. 

This also fixes a current bug in dolphin where one is unable to toggle the visibility \
of the filter bar using the tool bar filter button, or by using the assigned hot key.

Note... I think it is &#39;patch -p2&#39; from the &quot;dolphin&quot; directory \
(above src directory ) to apply the patch</pre>  </td>
 </tr>
</table>


<h1 style="color: #575012; font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 1.5em;">Testing </h1>
<table width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" style="border: \
1px solid #b8b5a0">  <tr>
  <td>
   <pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: \
-moz-pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; white-space: -o-pre-wrap; word-wrap: \
break-word;">Went through all paths in dolphin.  Tested: 1. Navigate to different \
folder. Text should clear only when text not locked 2.Ctl-I shortcut to toggle \
visiblility of filterbar 3.Text clears when filterbar hidden and then shown
4. Lock button locks and unlocks text
5. Shift-Ctl-I shortcut to toggle lock status of text.  Lock button updates \
appropriately 6. Status (with non-perisistence from previous instance) of lock button \
when starting application..i.e. lock status is off on startup 7. Change keyboard \
shortcuts...works appropriately 8. F3 and split view..tabs..etc.. should still work \
appropriately 9. Monkey tested...cannot get it to crash
etc....</pre>
  </td>
 </tr>
</table>




<h1 style="color: #575012; font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 1.5em;">Diffs</b> </h1>
<ul style="margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 0;">

 <li>dolphin/src/dolphinmainwindow.h <span style="color: grey">(7da5801)</span></li>

 <li>dolphin/src/dolphinmainwindow.cpp <span style="color: \
grey">(11e03d0)</span></li>

 <li>dolphin/src/dolphinviewcontainer.h <span style="color: \
grey">(0300273)</span></li>

 <li>dolphin/src/dolphinviewcontainer.cpp <span style="color: \
grey">(6e99437)</span></li>

 <li>dolphin/src/filterbar/filterbar.h <span style="color: \
grey">(9546c63)</span></li>

 <li>dolphin/src/filterbar/filterbar.cpp <span style="color: \
grey">(f3076f0)</span></li>

</ul>

<p><a href="http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/107392/diff/" style="margin-left: \
3em;">View Diff</a></p>




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