[Kolab-devel] Thinking about how to better visualize folder structures

[Gunnar Wrobel]

Quoting "Georg C. F. Greve" <greve at kolabsys.com>:

> Hi all,
>
> At
>
> 	http://wiki.kolab.org/UI-Concepts/Folder-Listing
>
> you can find the beginnings of a page that attempts to help  
> coordinate the way
> in which Kolab clients list folders in a more consistent and concise way than
> we have right now.
>
> Please note that this is a draft to solicit input.
>
> So input would indeed be greatly appreciated.

I'm not certain if it is sufficient if the draft only describes the  
folder list display.

With displaying the folder list comes the question on how the user may  
add new items to the list.

I could imagine different UI variants:

1) Within the list display itself a context sensitive command adding a  
new folder below the selected parent seems the easiest option.

2) If context-sensitivity is not available two input elements could be  
combined: A free-text folder name input and a drop-down list with all  
existing folders (+ potential non-existing roots) as parent selection.

3) The most reduced UI variant: a free-form text-only input that takes  
the complete folder name.

My concern is mainly with (3): Either we say

i)   that this type of input is disallowed for creating new IMAP  
folders on the Kolab server

ii)  or we require the canonical IMAP path in case free-form text is used

iii) or the prefixes "(...)" and ">" have special meaning when  
creating new IMAP folders

iv)  or we only allow creation of new folders in the personal  
namespace when using a free-form text field

I do think a free form text input field can be useful/necessary in  
some situations (not only CLI clients) so I'm not certain (i) is an  
option. (ii) seems confusing as well if the listing hides the actual  
IMAP namespace information. Is (iii) or (iv) an option?

Cheers,

Gunnar




>
> Best regards,
> Georg
>
>
> --
> Georg C. F. Greve
> Chief Executive Officer
>
> Kolab Systems AG
> Zürich, Switzerland
>
> e: greve at kolabsys.com
> t: +41 78 904 43 33
> w: http://kolabsys.com
>
> pgp: 86574ACA Georg C. F. Greve

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