Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidTC
I don't really understand the question? Presumably, the 'Reading List' plugin has some use over tags, or it wouldn't even need to exist. I'm not sure why I would be asked why the lists are more useful than just using tags.
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The reason I asked is because you never explicitly said in your post why you would want such a feature. If your *only* purpose was to get a list of books that have a tag at a point in time, you don't need a plugin - as I said in my original response you can do this already using the search syntax or tag browser. Even your example of newly added books being in a list due to a tag - if all you want to do is see them to work with them then you already have the ability to do this today without the Reading List plugin.
However your last example was a valid one showing what such a feature would achieve when you mention wanting such a list to be synced to a device. If it sounds strange to you, Reading List did not start out with any sync capability at all, it was just about the ability to maintain orderable lists of books. Sync capability came about from deprecating another plugin called Book Sync and rolling its functionality into this one.
In terms of implementing it, it would need some thought. Currently the plugin is all about manually adding items to lists, with menu items to support this with actions such as Add, Edit, Remove. What relevance do they have for a list that is being automatically populated? Do we just make such actions not apply to a tag driven list, so all you can do is "View" it? Probably the simplest approach.
Then there is the question of custom columns - I support doing stuff with custom columns or tags, so you should be able to do custom column driven lists as well.
Then there are other issues around device syncing. If the list is populated on demand (which it would have to be), then that means when you plugin/sync to your device it needs to do a query behind the scenes to figure out what books if any are on the list. So there are potentially some performance implications.
There are also the complications of things like search restrictions. What if you apply a restriction, and then view a list? You are only going to see books within that search restriction. What if that restriction is applied when you plugin your device? Only books matching that restriction will get synced. Now that all may be "ok" but then again it might confuse the heck out of some users.
So I don't think it is as trivial as just adding a checkbox
