smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

Bloke · 2011-11-14 09:19:55

tye wrote:

I’ve just read I contributed somehow

You put me on the road to including the callback so credit where credit’s due.

I was just using a Invision Power Services forum

I don’t have an account so I can’t see the link. I could register I suppose but it’s one more spam list to get off. Can you post / mail me a screenie or something please?

1 or 2 more click without a page refresh to find exactly what I am after is… the way the web seems to be going these days

True but in this case it would require a page refresh because of the paging system, content counts and the batch tools at the bottom of the list. Hence I’d like to minimise clicks if possible because of the inconvenient delay going back to the server.

Last edited by Bloke (2011-11-14 09:20:55)

jakob · 2011-11-14 10:32:58

I don’t have an account so I can’t see the link.

I also get the error but I think he meant the search box at the top right of the page with the “search-in” dropdown inside the search box (where it says “gallery”). This is a less neat version of a similar approach.

Bloke · 2011-11-14 10:47:56

jakob wrote:

I think he meant the search box at the top right of the page

Got it, thanks. Missed that.

That’s quite neat. Not sure how to leverage it to enable people to pick items from a list though. Anyone any ideas on this theme?

masa · 2011-11-14 12:13:24

I really like the immediate action of the current selects: click, point, let go and you’re there. That needs to be preserved.

I’m not sure everybody would need all 4 selects in the articles tab, there could be spacing issues. Perhaps that could be made a preference setting.

After thinking about this for a while now, I think the logical place for the selects is right underneath the respective column label:

In the default state they read “Display all” and in the filtered state they display whatever you had chosen. I’d say, that should make it obvious enough for a user whether any filters are applied upon returning to the tab.

Last edited by masa (2011-11-14 12:14:18)

joebaich · 2011-11-14 12:31:23

Masa’s suggestion is much better than the one I was putting together so I binned it and would vote for his.

Bloke · 2011-11-14 12:33:10

masa wrote:

I’m not sure everybody would need all 4 selects in the articles tab

The select lists available at the moment are configurable (albeit via a hidden pref right now) in the beta. I might expose that in a prefs page at some point, but it adds a lot of code overhead so I’ll leave it for now. When I add the new ones I’ll extend the prefs to include those so you can configure which ones you see.

I think the logical place for the selects is right underneath the respective column label

Brilliant. That’s so obvious I’m ashamed I never thought of it myself. If I can make them discreet enough it shouldn’t take up much vertical real estate and hopefully won’t look too odd if you only decide to permit filtering by one of the selects (imagine your mockup with only one dropdown under Category, for instance).

The only slight issue might be that people may think the filters are additive, which of course they’re not: they are mutually exclusive. Do you think that’s a possible problem? If so, is it fixable?

Many thanks for the mockup and idea. I’m sure this avenue has legs and can be put to great use.

masa · 2011-11-14 12:44:55

Bloke wrote:

The only slight issue might be that people may think the filters are additive, which of course they’re not: they are mutually exclusive. Do you think that’s a possible problem? If so, is it fixable?

Well, I don’t know, whether that would complicate things too much, but when I first looked at my finished mockup, my immediate reaction was “Wouldn’t it be nice, if you could filter by more than one select?”

So would that be possible to do?

Bloke · 2011-11-14 12:47:24

masa wrote:

Wouldn’t it be nice, if you could filter by more than one select?

Yes it would! Unfortunately Txp’s built-in filter feature — upon which this plugin sits — is set up to only allow filtering by one thing at a time. It would require some core changes to enable this :-(

masa · 2011-11-14 12:58:29

Never mind then, you still have the option of sorting by column label.
Although I guess, you’re right in that users might assume it would work.

Bloke wrote:

If I can make them discreet enough it shouldn’t take up much vertical real estate and hopefully won’t look too odd if you only decide to permit filtering by one of the selects.

You’re right, I don’t see a problem with a bit of blank space as a trade off. I haven’t tried it, but perhaps giving the table row in which the column labels and the selects live a pale bg colour would sort of make it look neater.

tye · 2011-11-14 23:49:24

I like masa’s solution too :) – but am just wondering what would happen to the table layout if you had a long names in the drop downs… would it break the layout or can you fix that with css?

Bloke · 2011-11-15 00:00:39

tye wrote:

what would happen to the table layout if you had a long names in the drop downs

It’d probably get bigger! And my CSS-fu isn’t that clever to fix it.

One other drawback I just figured of this layout is that you have to have Show Detail on to be able to filter by cat. As it stands you can filter by category without actually seeing the categories on the screen, which is an advantage for small displays. Hmmmmm. Any clever ideas anyone?

Last edited by Bloke (2011-11-15 00:00:59)

tye · 2011-11-15 00:05:56

ok – back to thinking board for me

masa · 2011-11-15 00:14:15

Bloke wrote:

One other drawback I just figured of this layout is that you have to have Show Detail on to be able to filter by cat. As it stands you can filter by category without actually seeing the categories on the screen, which is an advantage for small displays.

I was hoping I could sneak this one past you somehow ;)

Any clever ideas anyone?

Couldn’t the categories be displayed by default?

I had noticed that the selects get wider the longer your cat names are or the deeper they’re nested, but I thought there’s a way to limit the select element’s width e.g. max-width?!

tye · 2011-11-15 00:23:37

masa wrote:

I thought there’s a way to limit the select element’s width e.g. max-width?!

I haven’t tested in a while – but IE (surprize surprize) used to have a huge problem with this – it would make the select and dropdown to the set width, truncating any options which were longer than the width :(

sacripant · 2011-11-15 10:34:00

@ Masa: great idea

@ Bloke:

I never understood why there is a pagination? Why limit the number of results? 15 – 50 – 100?

Why not show all by default, even if 1000 results. I can understand for images: too many thumbnails to display. But for the articles, files and links, I see no advantage.

If there are all results.

It is possible to use the search function of the browser.
It’s easier to just scroll to find. Rather than combine “next page” + scroll, “next page” scroll, etc..
It is possible to filter with Javascript (jQuery) without server request.
It is possible to filter with multiple criteria (allways with jquery).

I wish this plugin provides an option to remove the pagination and return all results.

what is your opinion?

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#16 2011-11-14 09:19:55

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#17 2011-11-14 10:32:58

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#18 2011-11-14 10:47:56

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#19 2011-11-14 12:13:24

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#20 2011-11-14 12:31:23

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#21 2011-11-14 12:33:10

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#22 2011-11-14 12:44:55

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#23 2011-11-14 12:47:24

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#24 2011-11-14 12:58:29

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#25 2011-11-14 23:49:24

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#26 2011-11-15 00:00:39

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#27 2011-11-15 00:05:56

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#28 2011-11-15 00:14:15

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#29 2011-11-15 00:23:37

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

#30 2011-11-15 10:34:00

Re: smd_browse_by: browse articles, images, files and links by category

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