[QUOTE]
Originally posted by kevina
Great response, thank you. I will respond to your responses (with extracted quotations) :-)
1) Agenda Style Categorizing (in Related Items Pane):
Response)
b and c) From the different requests we have received, it seems to be a type of data pivot or crosstab of the Info Items where the column headers are Info Item names, and the rows are Info Items that meet a criteria and indicate whether they are parented "related" to the Info Items in the headers. Is that a general synopsis of what is being requested?
Yes, that is the general idea. Assume that the gird allowed a column to be chosen from any of the entries in the data explorer - call it the column title. In addition to choosing the data explorer entry, the user would also have the ability to select a "display property" for the column. At the intersection of that column and a particular row the cell would be filled with something that depends both on the item that the row represents and the way you want the cell displayed ... the "display property". For example, if the display property were "name" then the cell would contain the item title for each child (or grand child, etc) of the column title that was linked to the item the row represents. Example: an item called "priority" could have children of "high", "medium", and "low". The "priority" column would show "medium" if the item that row represented was linked to the "medium" item. You would want to allow the selection of "high", "medium", or "low" in the cell and that would cause a link to be created. You might allow an item to be linked to both "medium" and "low" in which case both would be shown in the cell or you could implement "mutually exclusive" capabilities that could be assigned to a category and thus allow an item to be linked to only one of the children.
Other display properties might be "Ancestor" to show the next level up in the hierarchy, "Yes/No" could be to just show if any child were linked to, etc. There are other options, but I hope you get the idea.
2) The grids should be able to show all of the children of a particular parent (not just the direct descendants).
Response) This is already on our list as well, but we haven't arrived at the optimal implementation yet (one thought was a system Attribute that could be assigned and given a value that would flatten the child list (show all children). Does that sound reasonable or do you envision a different implementation?
That might work, or you could create a new grid. For that grid the user provides a list of items from the data explorer (drag and drop probably). For the item in the list you say whether you want just the items linked to that item, or the items linked to that item's children and grand children as well.
Note: currently you can create a quick search with no criteria (maybe named "All Children"), limited to search the bold explorer item, in the Search Pane. To use it, select the item to show all children for (in the Data Explorer Pane), then the 'All Children' Search item to view all descendants of any item.
Good idea!
3) Rich text entry for non-displayed documents in Item Details Pane:
Response) This is available now with the Item Notes Pane. By default this Pane is docked with the Item Attributes Pane, which normally hides it and typically makes it fairly small. You can dock it in a different location to make it larger and/or always visible... One issue with your suggestion is that if the document type (extension) is added to the list to be displayed in Ultra Recall, then the rich text that was previously assigned will no longer be visible/accessible...
Yes, I know about the notes. But the rich text pane is so much more "in your face" and is the place I invision working. To resolve the issue I suggest you think of the rich text pane as having two sections, the top and bottom. Place your link (and the viewer if the extension is in the list) in the top section. Allow rich text entry in the bottom section.
This way, when navigating using the data explorer, what pops up in the item details is consistent across different item types
4) XML other import/export...
Response) XML import/export is already on the todo list, near the top so it hopefully will be available in an upcoming release of Ultra Recall. Do you have a schema in mind for this import/export (such as OPML)?
Yes, I suspect OPML may well be the best solution - with the hope the standard will settle down
6) Automatic creation of attributes...
Response)
a) This feature is available now. It is documented Under Document Summary Attributes in the helpfile (online @
http://www.kinook.com/UR/Manual/?doc...attributes.htm) In a nutshell, if you have the appropriate option turned on (
Tools | Options | Import (more) | Map Explorer summary properties to existing Ultra Recall attributes), and you create Attributes (
Tools | Attributes) that have the same name as the Summary properties you wish to get Item Attributes for, they will be added automatically.
Yes, I saw that. I suggest, though that you automatically create the attributes so people don't have to know the attribute names to create
b) I don't quite understand how your suggested API would work. Can you elaborate?
Define a standard C or C++ or whatever subroutine that would be passed the file name. The routine would be expected to return an array of attributes and their values. Perhaps it could also return a BLOB that you could save in the database the way you do with the supported applications. It might also return rich text to fill the rich text form. It would probably have to be encapsulated as a DLL. Then provide a mechanism to associate those DLLs with a particular file type and an application. You would then call the routine in the dll when a user dropped a file of that type and then you store the data in your database. There could be a similar routine in the DLL you call when the user wants to open the stored document. You pass it the BLOB and let it invoke the associated application. Publish the specs and how to write such a DLL. Then other people could provide the DLL to support their specific applications and files.
Thanks again.