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Hierarchal Places

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TheBlackCat
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[Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:13 pm
This is an idea for the place panel in Dolphin, which lists places you want to visit often as well as removable media:

Image

In this idea, there are places that are contained within other places. You can see it in the "Crypto 1" item, which has "subcrypt a" and "subcrypt b" items branching off of it. This idea is only applicable to certain sorts of places. So for instance if you attach an external hard drive containing two partitions, it will display one entry for the entire device, then below that it will show two entries, one for each partition. You can mount and unmount the two partitions independently in the normal manner, but you can also mount and unmount the entire device. This allows you to be sure your device has been fully unmounted before you disconnect it, and makes it easier to unmount all of its partitions.

This also applies to encrypted volumes, which can contain multiple sub-volumes. In the case of encrypted volumes, if there is only one sub-volume the encrypted volumes will be replaced with the sub-volume. Mounting the encrypted volumes automatically mounts the sub-volumes as well, unmounting the sub-volume unmounts the encrypted volume. There is only ever one icon. Presently you end up with two places, one essentially useless place for the encrypted volume and a second for the single sub-volume. They both have to be mounted and unmounted separately. If there are more than one sub-partition they are displayed as sub-volumes of the encrypted volume (which itself can be a sub-volume of a device). They can be mounted or unmounted individually or as a group.

Similarly, it could apply to devices like digital cameras, cell phones, and media players that have both built-in storage space and a separate memory card. There could be a single icon for the whole device, allowing you to easily unmount the entire device. Then within that there would be two (or more) additional devices, the on-board storage and the memory card. The two can be accessed and mounted or unmounted independently.

There is also applies to network folders. If you set a place that is a subfolder of a network drive, the network drive is added to your places and the subfolder is added as a subfolder of that network drive in your places.

It may also apply to nepomuk saved searches, depending on how those are implemented.



This is part of my series of Dolphin ideas

Edit: added a paragraph about devices with on-board storage and a memory card slot based on [device notifier] device name

Last edited by TheBlackCat on Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.


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sreich
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:35 pm
This looks very cluttered, I really don't like it...

There was also another bug report that wished for separators to be able to be added by the user, and be draggable... I think that would be more clean, although I am not sure how it would act/look in the end..
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TheBlackCat
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 3:04 pm
I think you are referring to the Place Groups idea, which also appears in this mockup to save me work but is an entirely separate idea. This idea is about some visual indicator that volumes are really subvolumes of a single device, which is totally unrelated to separators.


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Kryten2X4B
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:21 pm
I really like this, especially if it would allow things like "Add Documents to the sidebar, and it can be expanded to show subfolders at will". The last part would be kind of like a combination of Places and Folders really.


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TheBlackCat
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:29 pm
The difference between this and folders is really that it allows for easy and safe mounting and unmounting of multi-volume devices.


Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
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sreich
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:10 pm
Okay, I see... the only problem I have with it is it's ugliness, and how cluttery it seems... I'm not sure if and how you could remedy this though.
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TheBlackCat
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:35 pm
What do you have a problem with, the labels for groups of places? The only thing this thread is concerned with is the "Crypto 1" place, with the "subcrypt a" and "subcrypt b" places branching off of that. If you have other criticisms, I would be happy to discuss them in the appropriate threads.


Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
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sreich
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:52 pm
TheBlackCat wrote:What do you have a problem with, the labels for groups of places? The only thing this thread is concerned with is the "Crypto 1" place, with the "subcrypt a" and "subcrypt b" places branching off of that. If you have other criticisms, I would be happy to discuss them in the appropriate threads.


Hm, now that you mention it, I think it is the labels, in which case I am ok with this, but it would probably be best to be a right-click option (you know, like how it shows "Hide"), etc.
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Angel Blue01
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RE: [Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Wed May 13, 2009 3:41 pm
I really like this, at least for removable media


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James Tyrer
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[Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:22 pm
Yes, this is a good idea.

Do you want everything to be always displayed, or can the tree branches be expanded and collapsed? Or should it always be collapsed and it would expand by opening additional windows?
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TheBlackCat
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[Dolphin] Hierarchal Places

Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:01 pm
Having it collapsible but expanded by default would probably be the best, assuming that is feasible.


Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
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Ioannis
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Hierarchal Places

Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:57 pm
I like the idea of grouping the mount point of a removable device together, especially since that will allow actions that apply to the device as a whole, such as power down (proper 'safely remove', something missing now). But I agree with other saying that the suggested layout is cluttered.

The name of the device is not important and there is no need to be a tree-like structure, since collapsing it is not something you'd like to do. All it needs a visual grouping, with a group action UI.

http://sites.google.com/site/ioannisorg ... olumes.png

or something to that end


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