Filtered Tree View

[zargron]

The following ideas obviously aren’t just my own. I spent quite some time trawling through the forum gathering the ideas and comments of others to add to my own. When I say “some” time, it was actually quite a lot of time. There has been a lot of discussion on this topic over a long period of time hasn’t there?! IMHO Kinook, you really should resolve this filtered tree issue sooner than later.

REQUIREMENT OVERVIEW
Create and save filtered tree views, in order to better manage large volumes of data, whilst enjoying the benefits of manipulating data items in an outline format.

DESIGN
1) Fundamental to this proposed solution is utilisation of the existing search item functionality.

2) Enhance the option Limit search to selected item in Data Explorer pane. Key to this enhancement involves allowing the user to lock in a particular data item as the one used to limit searching. There should be 3 choices when it comes to this option, and it might read something like this:

Limit search to:
[■] Whole Tree
[ ] Selected Item in Data Explorer pane
[ ] Specified Item ( …\… lineage …\… \ item title )

3) Make the following new options available to a search item:

(a) New option of grid view |vs| tree view. Grid view to present items in the search results pane just as it does now. Tree view however to present the fabled filtered tree in the search results pane. (Basically a mini data explorer in the search results pane.)

(b) With tree view specified, allow users to decide whether the filtered tree defaults to being expanded |vs| collapsed when the search is executed. For example:

Default display of tree to:
[■] Collapsed
[ ] Expanded

4) Exactly the same fundamental items should be returned by the search routine whether grid view or tree view has been specified. (The searching will of course need to be modified slightly to respect the enhancement proposed in point (2) above).

5) With tree view, after the matching items have been located, the following processing should occur:

(a) Find Parents. Recursively navigate from each matching item up the UR database tree, uniquely gathering parent items along the way, until reaching the specified root, or more correctly, limiting item. This limiting item is determined as per point (2) above. It can be the UR database root node (eg. whole tree), selected item in data explorer pane, or a specified item.

(b) Build Tree. Use lineage information to recursively navigate from the limiting root item downwards, building up the tree structure.

(c) Present Tree. If collapsed has been chosen, show the root node with a [+] next to it ready for expansion. If expanded has been chosen, show the tree expanded. This expanded tree will only go down to matching items. Put another way, every leaf node of the expanded tree will be an item that matches the search criteria. If any of these matching items has children, then a [+] should be presented, (allowing the user to expose the matching item’s children).

(d) Highlight. A highlight color, (eg. yellow), to be applied to the item title of matching items.

6) This proposed filtered tree view should operate in a similar manner to the existing data explorer pane. For example, when an item is selected, show its item text and data entry form in the item details pane.

7) Respect current tab navigation behavior. Obviously this involves preservation of the contents of the search results pane, (ie. filtered tree view), as the users moves back and forth between different tabs.

CLOSING REMARKS
The proposed Limit search to enhancement will always be available when searching, whether the user does a grid view or tree view search. UR already has a “Link/Move/Copy Item” dialog box. With minimal modification, this same dialog box could be used to set the specified limiting item. A small [Browse] button could be provided nearby for this purpose.

Straight after search execution, with default to expanded turned on, every leaf node will be highlighted yellow. Non-leaf nodes will of course also be highlighted if they match the search criteria. As the user collapses & expands various parts of the filtered tree view, the matching items will remain highlighted, giving the user a strong visual clue as to which items matched their search criteria.

I have NOT asked for hoisting to be made available in the filtered tree view. Perhaps this can be left for a later version? Besides, I suggest that the Limit search to option provides a form of implicit hoisting anyway.

Comments please.