[Chandler-dev] Re: [chandler-users] Re: Automatic Assignments

[Mimi Yin]

Hi Carl,

Not to keep re-routing you just for the fun of it! but I think you'll  
grab more developer attention if we have this discussion over on the  
Chandler Development List. If you haven't subscribed already, you can  
sign up here: http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ 
chandler-dev

We've talked about simply allowing you to define queries using in the  
Toolbar Text Field as a part of Search. So instead of searching for a  
text string, you might able to search on a particular attribute:

Title=Call:

It'd be harder to do things like: Anything in January of 2008 or All  
LATER items without calendar and alarm dates. You'd start having to  
invent your own query syntax ;)

And then you could simply save this query as a dynamically generated  
collection. (Note, under the hood, all Chandler collections are "rule- 
based" *and* will allow inclusions and exclusions, aka items that  
don't match the rule.)

What we don't have today is a way for users to define rules.

We've also talked about using the detail view itself as a way to  
define rules. (Gmail does this nicely with its filter-builder.)   as  
well as GUI rule builders that would allow you to define complex  
rules. But I think a simple way to define rules through the Search  
bar would be a great start.

I'm going to post a response on the users list asking people for some  
specific examples of queries they'd like to define.

Best,
Mimi

On Mar 19, 2008, at 9:13 PM, Carl Lemp wrote:

> What I picture as a first step is a Properties item on the right- 
> click menu for the collections in the side-bar.  On a properties  
> dialog, I could add names/phrases to match (synonyms) for that  
> collection and enable auto-assignment for the collection name and/ 
> or the synonyms.  Something like the syntax and capabilities of  
> Google's advanced search page would be convenient and easily  
> understood by everybody; only using Triage status and item type  
> instead of Language and File Type.  Any items that matched would be  
> assigned to the collection.  In addition to ensuring that an item  
> showed up everywhere it was relevant, this would allow me to treat  
> collections as views into the database of items.  To work well as a  
> view, the rules would have to be applied to every item in the  
> database so that I could define a new collection for an existing  
> database and Chandler would search the entire database to assign  
> all matching items to the new collection.
>
> Could all that be done with a plug-in?  If so, could you point me  
> toward the tutorial on creating plug-ins.
>
> Regards,
>
> Carl
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Grant Baillie <grant at osafoundation.org>
> To: chandler-users at osafoundation.org
> Cc: Carl Lemp <clemp2002 at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:08:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [chandler-users] Re: Automatic Assignments
>
>
> On 18 Mar, 2008, at 17:24, Carl Lemp wrote:
>
> > Mimi, in your response to me and Alan, you mentioned that OSAF
> > support volunteers working on features you don't have time to get
> > to.  That sounds interesting!  Do you have any guess as to how many
> > person days/weeks/months it might take for a novice Python
> > programmer to get up to speed on Chandler internals and then
> > implement a simple auto-assignment of items based on collection name
> > and synonyms for collection names?
>
> Hi, Carl
>
> There is a bit of a learning curve (for novice programmers,
> especially) to getting to the point where you can be writing code for
> a Chandler plugin. If you're interested in trying, I'll happily point
> you at the relevant docs (e.g. there's a tutorial that does discuss
> setting up a plugin).
>
> So far as person-week estimates go, I guess it depends on which items
> you want to make auto-assignments on (e.g. the quick entry field?
> incoming mail? any newly created item?). Can you elaborate on what you
> had in mind, especially w.r.t. where you would expect to find
> collection names, and how the synonyms would be set up?
>
> --Grant
>
>
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