[Design] Re: Date column priorities, and reminder column interaction

[Mimi Yin]

See inline...

On Jan 18, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Bryan Stearns wrote:

> Mimi,
>
> I'm working on Bug 6912 (Prioritize event and tickler dates over  
> date send and last modified date in Date column)...
>
> Instead of building a list, sorting it by date, and picking the  
> closest to "now", I'm making a list that starts with a priority  
> value. I sort by that value, and the first I see is the one I use.  
> These are the priorities:
>
> 10 Future event start time (only present if the item is an event,  
> and its start time is in the future)
> 10 Future user reminder (only present if the item has a user  
> reminder whose firing time is in the future)
> 20 Past event start time (only present if the item is an event  
> whose start time is in the past)
> 30 Past user reminder (only present if the item has a user reminder  
> whose firing time is in the past)
> 40 Date taken (photo only)
> 40 Timestamp of a user notification (user notification only)
> 50 Date sent (sent email only)
> 60 Date last modified
>
> Note that the lines with the same priorities will compete on date.  
> Here are a few examples of how this would work:
> - a future event with a future "before" reminder will show the  
> reminder time
> - a future event with a future "after" reminder will show the event  
> start time.
> - in your use case in bug 6912 comment #2, date sent will always  
> lose over the event or reminder time.
> - an event in the past with a reminder in the past will always show  
> the event start time, no matter when the reminder was due.
> - a non-event with a past reminder will show the reminder time.
>
> Is this the right ordering?

Yes! :o)

>
> Also, about coordination between the reminder column and the date  
> column... I just noticed this in a weird spot in the dashboard spec:
>> 3. If the user sets a Tickler that is NOT dependent on an Event  
>> date, a Tickler icon appears in the Reminder column.
>> 4. If the user sets a Tickler that IS dependent on an Event date,  
>> a Tickler icon does NOT appear in the Reminder column, because the  
>> Date displayed in the Date column is NOT the Tickler date.
> This isn't currently implemented. The current implementation (which  
> is what I coulda sworn was what the spec called for at one point)  
> is: the tickler icon appears if the item has any user reminder,  
> expired or not; otherwise, if it's an event, it shows the calendar  
> icon; otherwise, it's blank.

Ooh. This one is pretty important because otherwise, you might have a  
reminder icon next to an event date and not know what the date in the  
date column represents.

>
> And there's this in bug 6912 comment #1:
>> My main concern is that the Reminder/Event stamp column will get  
>> out of sync
>> with the Date column, where the Reminder/Event stamp column shows  
>> that the item
>> has been tickler or is on the calendar, but the Date column  
>> displays Date sent
>> or Date last modified because the user edited or sent the item  
>> after the event
>> date or tickler date past.
> This sounds like the tickler symbol is supposed to appear only if  
> the Date column's value is a reminder time. (This is doable, but  
> conflicts with the spec comment above, as well as what I thought  
> the spec said, which is how I did the current implementation.

Does it? I think it's consistent.

>
> Which should it be?

+ The reminder icon appears if the date column displays a Custom  
reminder date/time.
+ The calendar icon appears if the date column displays an Event  
start date/time.
+ No icon appears in the 'Reminder/Event' column if the date column  
displays any other kind of date.

>
> ...Bryan
>

Thanks for putting this all down on 'paper' Bryan...hope my reply  
helps :o) PING me on IRC if you have any more questions tomorrow.

Mimi