Difference between revisions of "Features/Show Thumb Drives As Hierarchical"

Latest revision as of 14:05, 22 November 2011

Summary

There is a desire from many users to replace the part of the Journal UI that represents files on thumb drives and SD cards as if they were Journal entries, instead of what they actually are, which is files within directories. I suggest that only Journal entries should be represented as such, and that thumb drives and SD cards should be represented conventionally.

Owner

This should link to your home wiki page so we know who you are

Name: James Simmons

Email: <nicestep@gmail.com>

Current status

Targeted release: (SUGAR_VERSION)
Last updated: (DATE)
Percentage of completion: XX%

Detailed Description

There is a desire from many users to replace the part of the Journal UI that represents files on thumb drives and SD cards as if they were Journal entries, instead of what they actually are, which is files within directories. Representing these files as if they are Journal entries creates an expectation in the user that they will behave as Journal entries do, and in fact they do not. It also makes it difficult, perhaps impossible, to deal with directories on the thumb drive or SD card.

Benefit to Sugar

Plan Ceibal has created an Activity "Leer Pendrive" which simply displays the contents of removable devices as a GTK file chooser and lets people copy selected files to the clipboard, from where they can be pasted into the Journal. I understand there was a big demand for this. I followed this up with my own Activity, Sugar Commander, which lets you copy files directly to the Journal without using the clipboard. I understand that this Activity has a following and is routinely included on XOs in Australia. Neither of these Activities allow you to copy from the Journal to a thumb drive, and there is a legitimate need to do this.

The beneficiaries of this feature will be teachers, older students, and others who need to deal with thumb drives and SD cards and move data in and out of the Journal.

Scope

See the code for the Sugar Commander Activity for a simple implementation of this idea.

UI Design

Have a look at the Sugar Commander Activity:

http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4291

How To Test

Features/Show Thumb Drives As Hierarchical/Testing

User Experience

If this is done well, when the user switches from viewing the Journal to viewing the contents of a removable drive he will see a conventional representation of files and directories like a GTK file chooser and will be able to copy files from this into the Journal and copy Journal entries into the file system. He'll also be able to create directories on the thumb drive, rename things, etc.

If the feature is implemented well then children who never use thumb drives, etc. won't know the new feature is there.

Dependencies

What other packages (RPMs) depend on this package? Are there changes outside the developers' control on which completion of this feature depends? In other words, does your feature depend on completion of another feature owned by someone else or that you would need to coordinate, which might cause you to be unable to finish on time? Other upstream projects like Python?

Contingency Plan

If you cannot complete your feature by the final development freeze, what is the backup plan? This might be as simple as "None necessary, revert to previous release behaviour." Or it might not. If your feature is not completed in time, we want to assure others that other parts of Sugar will not be in jeopardy.

Documentation

Is there upstream documentation on this feature, or notes you have written yourself? Has this topic been discussed in the mailing list or during a meeting? Link to that material here so other interested developers can get involved.

Release Notes

The Sugar Release Notes inform end-users about what is new in the release. An Example is 0.84/Notes. The release notes also help users know how to deal with platform changes such as ABIs/APIs, configuration or data file formats, or upgrade concerns. If there are any such changes involved in this feature, indicate them here. You can also link to upstream documentation if it satisfies this need. This information forms the basis of the release notes edited by the release team and shipped with the release.

Comments and Discussion

See discussion tab for this feature

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <noinclude>
 [[Category:Feature Page Incomplete]]
-[[Category:Feature|<Feature Name>]]
+[[Category:Feature|Show Thumb Drives as Hierarchical]]
 <!-- You can add categories to tie features back to real deployments/schools requesting them, for example
 [[Category:Features requested by School Xyz|<Feature Name>]] (the |Feature Name option sorts the entry on the category page under the first letter of <Feature Name>). -->
 </noinclude>
-'''Comments and Explanations:'''
-There are comments (in italic) providing guidance to fill out each section, see also the [[Features/Policy|Feature Policy Page]] for a more detailed explanation of the new-feature process. '''Copy the source to a ''new page'' named Features/''Your Feature Name'' before making changes!  DO NOT EDIT THIS TEMPLATE.'''
-<!-- All fields on this form are required to be accepted.
- We also request that you maintain the same order of sections so that all of the feature pages are uniform.  -->
-<!-- The actual name of your feature page should look something like: Features/Your Feature Name.  This keeps all features in the same namespace -->
 == Summary ==
-''A sentence or two summarizing what this feature is and what it will do. This information is used for the overall feature summary page for each release.''
+There is a desire from many users to replace the part of the Journal UI that represents files on thumb drives and SD cards as if they were Journal entries, instead of what they actually are, which is files within directories.  I suggest that only Journal entries should be represented as such, and that thumb drives and SD cards should be represented conventionally.
 == Owner ==
 ''This should link to your home wiki page so we know who you are''
-* Name: [[User:AcountName| Your Name]]
+* Name: [[User:Jdsimmons| James Simmons]]
-''Include you email address that you can be reached should people want to contact you about helping with your feature, status is requested, or technical issues need to be resolved''
+* Email: <nicestep@gmail.com>
-* Email: <your email address so we can contact you, invite you to meetings, etc.>
 == Current status ==
@@ Line 31: / Line 21: @@
 == Detailed Description ==
-''Expand on the summary, if appropriate.  A couple of sentences suffices to explain the goal, but the more details you can provide the better.''
+There is a desire from many users to replace the part of the Journal UI that represents files on thumb drives and SD cards as if they were Journal entries, instead of what they actually are, which is files within directories.  Representing these files as if they are Journal entries creates an expectation in the user that they will behave as Journal entries do, and in fact they do not.  It also makes it difficult, perhaps impossible, to deal with directories on the thumb drive or SD card.
 == Benefit to Sugar ==
-''What is the benefit to the platform?  If this is a major capability update, what has changed?  If this is a new feature, what capabilities does it bring? Why will Sugar become a better platform or project because of this feature?''
+Plan Ceibal has created an Activity "Leer Pendrive" which simply displays the contents of removable devices as a GTK file chooser and lets people copy selected files to the clipboard, from where they can be pasted into the Journal.  I understand there was a big demand for this.  I followed this up with my own Activity, Sugar Commander, which lets you copy files directly to the Journal without using the clipboard.  I understand that this Activity has a following and is routinely included on XOs in Australia.  Neither of these Activities allow you to copy from the Journal to a thumb drive, and there is a legitimate need to do this.
-''Make sure to note here as well if this feature has been requested by a specific deployment, or if it has emerged from a bug report.''
+The beneficiaries of this feature will be teachers, older students, and others who need to deal with thumb drives and SD cards and move data in and out of the Journal.
 == Scope ==
-''What work do the developers have to accomplish to complete the feature in time for release?  Is it a large change affecting many parts of the distribution or is it a very isolated change? What are those changes?''
+See the code for the Sugar Commander Activity for a simple implementation of this idea.
 ==UI Design==
-''Does the feature have a direct impact on the work flow, or does it need a UI? Link here mockups, or add detailed descriptions.''
+Have a look at the Sugar Commander Activity:
+http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4291
 == How To Test ==
 {{:{{PAGENAME}}/Testing}}
 == User Experience ==
-''If this feature is noticeable by its target audience, how will their experiences change as a result?  Describe what they will see or notice.''
+If this is done well, when the user switches from viewing the Journal to viewing the contents of a removable drive he will see a conventional representation of files and directories like a GTK file chooser and will be able to copy files from this into the Journal and copy Journal entries into the file system.  He'll also be able to create directories on the thumb drive, rename things, etc.
+If the feature is implemented well then children who never use thumb drives, etc. won't know the new feature is there.
 == Dependencies ==