[Design] Distinguishing a collection as a "user collection"

[Mimi Yin]

Hi Alec,

Thanks for writing this up...See more in-line.

I would add Sections in the table to the list of things that are User  
collections.

On Mar 2, 2006, at 9:19 AM, Alec Flett wrote:

> Andi just checked in the ability to have bidirectional references  
> between ContentItems and InclusionExclusionCollections - this is  
> really great news. This means we can start to ask, what exactly is  
> a "User collection"?
>
> We've been delaying the decision about what a 'user collection'  
> really is, from a technical standpoint... but I think that in order  
> to figure that out, we need to figure out what it means from the  
> user's perspective. We need to handle this because internally we  
> make ample use of Collections for different technical reasons. At  
> the moment the domain model treats them all the same (for instance  
> they all have a 'color' attribute) - and then it makes it really  
> hard to fill in the "Appears In:" line in the detail view. We have  
> to actually query the sidebar to see what "user collections"  
> exist.. yuck! Further, we want bidirectional references between  
> items and their "user collections" so that users and parcel writers  
> can make use of the value of "Appears In" without writing duplicate  
> code.
>
> From a user's perspective, it seems like a User Collection both:
> 1) appears in the sidebar
> 2) is listed in the detail view under "Appears In:"
>
> Now one of the issues is that going forward, its not clear if both  
> of these rules will continue to hold. For instance:
> * if I "tag" something with "scooby" and later drag the "scooby"  
> tag into the sidebar, should the "Appears In:" list 'scooby'?

The design proposal for 0.7 is to replace the Appears in: field with  
a generic Label field. Labels that are also collections in the  
sidebar will be delineated with something simple for nowm ie. (*) or  
(C).

> * Are 'Library' collections included - i.e. is "Appears In"  
> supposed to include "My Items" when appropriate? What about other  
> "library" collections like Trash, Inbox, etc...

Yes, these have always been considered collections, just out of the  
box collections that can't be deleted as opposed to user-defined  
collections.

> * And what about Spheres? Do they affect this in any way?

Yup, they are groupings of items based on an attribute that appear in  
the sidebar. Sphere: Home is a collection just like Project: Foo is a  
collection.

> * What about rule-based collections - do they show up in "Appears In"?

To the user, All collections are rule-based. Sphere: Home is defined  
as all items that have the attribute Sphere: Home. In the future we  
can imagine having more complex labeling rules. (ie. Take all items  
that are From: Jane and also Label those items Sphere: Home. But the  
rule only works in 1 direction. Just because you label an item  
Sphere: Home, doesn't mean it gets labelled as From: Jane.)

> * Later, if there is a UI to present a list of collections to the  
> user (i.e. maybe some sharing UI, or a parcel writer wants to let  
> the user choose a collection in a dialog box or something) - how do  
> they choose which collections to display?

I'm not sure I understand this question. To display in the summary pane?

>
> Some ideas that have floated around that define a user collection,  
> from a technical perspective:
> a) anything that appears in the sidebar (more or less what we do  
> today)
> b) anything with some well-known attribute (i.e.  
> '.isUserCollection' or something)
> c) a particular Kind of collection - i.e. our  
> InclusionExclusionCollection is pretty chandler-specific, behaves  
> well in the sidebar, and isn't really useful anywhere else.

Except as a Section as well?

I think we should cover Inclusions and Exclusions again, because I'm  
not sure we're all on the same page with this one.

The From: Jane and Sphere: Home example above, is the item that gets  
added to Sphere: Home, but isn't labeled From: Jane, considered an  
inclusion?

If I create a collection From: Jane and then drag 1 item out of it  
that is technically From: Jane, but I don't want it in the  
collection, the item still displays From: Jane, but loses the (*)  
designation that shows you that it belongs to the From: Jane collection.

Presumably, this is only true for a certain set of attributes,  
attributes we've been calling "intrinsic attributes". Things like  
Date received, Date created, Body text, etc. Attributes that make up  
the intrinsic characteristics of an item.

As opposed to Label attributes, labels that users attach to items to  
help them organize their data (ie. Project: Foo, Status: Later)



>
> At the moment, Andi has hooked up the machinery to IECollection -  
> implementing "c" would be as simple as renaming  
> InclusionExclusionCollection to UserCollection. However this  
> doesn't address some of the open issues above.
>
> Thoughts? Other ideas on what defines a user collection to the user?
>
> Alec
>
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