#12550: Improved Find Panel
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Reporter: humdinger | Owner: nobody
Type: enhancement | Status: new
Priority: normal | Milestone: Unscheduled
Component: Kits/libtracker.so | Version: R1/Development
Keywords: | Blocked By:
Blocking: | Has a Patch: 0
Platform: All |
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This is an idea, I posted in a [https://www.haiku-
os.org/community/forum/improved_find_panel forum article] a few years
back. The full-size versions of the thumbnails in it appear to be lost on
the website. I re-create the article here, in the hope it'll endure the
next couple of years unharmed...[[BR]]
Check out the comments to the forum post and the short
[//www.freelists.org/post/haiku-development/Improved-Find-Panel
mailing list discussion], if you're interested.
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Haiku's queries, while lightning fast, are a bit too complicated to use
with the Find panel. You have to navigate through too many drop-down menus
when all you want to do is quickly find a file of a specific type.
Here is a suggestion how this could be improved. Excuse the imperfect
mockups, I'm sure the real thing would be much more pleasing to the eye...
:)
Instead of tuning all search parameters in the Find panel and be surprised
what turns up in the result window, then go back to refine/rinse/repeat,
I'd like to see instant results while typing the search strings. So, it's
more like narrowing down a search by more and more filtering.
=== Quick Icon Bar ===
[[Image(QuickIconBar.png)]]
To speed up everyday searches, there's an icon bar at the top where a user
can drag&drop his most often used query templates. These templates only
consist of the filetype and the layout of the attribute columns which will
determine which attributes can be searched.
=== Query Filetype ===
[[Image(QueryNG-filetype.png)]]
If you don't already have it in your quick icon bar, you choose the
filetype and the partition to search. There are also the expandable
options from the current Find panel for temporary queries and
in/exclunding the trash.
It should be possible to search through a whole supertype, like audio/*,
video/* or image/*, because a user normally doesn't know/care what exact
type the music/video/image is.
You can drag the icon into the quick bar. If it gets too crowded up there,
they can gradually shrink from 64px.
If a dragged filetype already exists up there, its setting (attribute
layout) is updated.
=== Query Strings ===
[[Image(QueryNG-strings.png)]]
When your filetype is set, you have an empty file list below with the
attribute layout typical (or saved with the quick icon bar) for that
filetype. You can add/remove columns via right-click etc. as usual.
Now you begin typing in the textbox above the attribute-column you'd like
to search. After, say, 3 letters the query gets updated live and the file
list fills with results. You can change the criteria with a drop-down menu
above every textbox according to the type of attribute: contains/contains
not, is/is not, begins/ends, larger/smaller, before/after... etc.
The different attributes are always AND linked, as this to me makes sense
in real life: You search for an artist AND an album, but I can't think of
a real use for looking for one OR the other.
=== More Query Strings ===
[[Image(QueryNG-strings-2.png)]]
However, if you need to search for more than one string within an
attribute, you can click on the "+" button and add another search box for
the column. Here you can choose between an AND/OR link with another drop-
down menu. Removing a search box is done with its "-".
Here's the whole panel:
=== Next Generation Find Panel ===
[[Image(QueryNG.png)]]
So, a quick query would now go like this, for example:
* ALT+F
* Click music-icon
* Click into artist search box
* Enter "Breeders" (which I promplty forgot in all the mockup images...)
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Ticket URL: <https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/12550>
Haiku <https://dev.haiku-os.org>
Haiku - the operating system.
