Discussion: extra info on book list

[chaley]

I have an alpha implementation of the ability to customize the information shown on the book list. It seems to have acceptable performance, something arranged by strictly limiting the formatting possibilities.

There are three customizable containers available, described as "lines". The first (topmost) extends across the display. The second is split 50/50, and the third also extends across the entire display. You can put as many columns as you like into each container. Each consumes a real line in the container, unless it wraps in which it consumes as many as necessary.

The reason for three instead of two was to allow you to put the "full" lines above or below the "half" lines.

My question: is there anything wrong with this implementation? I know that it won't satisfy all desires. That is OK. What I want to know is if someone thinks that it satisfies few desires. For example, I know that the preference setup could be better, showing some kind of layout with column labels instead of using text and dialogs. Frankly, the amount of work to do that doesn't interest me. However, I am open to wording changes that might improve comprehension, bearing in mind that the number of words in some lines is strictly limited by sizes of phones. Android simply cuts off the lines if they are too long. I also know that some people suggested 70/30 lines, but I am not sure how serious or important that was.

I will release this stuff on the alpha channel as soon as I am reasonably convinced that it won't change a lot. That would be at minimum 2 or 3 days so I can test it on all my devices in all the orientations.

Some screen captures from my 2012 N7 are attached. The settings are tags in line one, "physical book" (a yes/no custom column) in line two left , purchase rights (a custom column) in line two right, and "virtual libraries" (a custom column) in line three.

EDIT: just noticed that I have the wrong dialog title in the selection dialog. That will be fixed.

[Terisa de morgan]

I like it A LOT!

[kaufman]

Just so I am clear.

The first three lines will always be

Title
Series
Author

Then the next three rows are the user defined ones

Is this correct? If so, I think its great.

3 questions.

1) if a user doesn't define any fields for a container, then there will not be a blank line. Correct? But if a row has a field that it empty for that book, there will be a blank line. Correct?

2) I have turned off all my sort keys, so I don't care, but others might. Will the sort key be above the three containers or below?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Just so I am clear.

The first three lines will always be

Title
Series
Author

No. If you have sorted by author then the order is Author, Title, Series. If shown, the date string is line 4.

Then the next three rows are the user defined ones

Is this correct? If so, I think its great.

Yes, this is correct

3 questions.

1) if a user doesn't define any fields for a container, then there will not be a blank line. Correct? But if a row has a field that it empty for that book, there will be a blank line. Correct?

Mostly yes, and no.

Lines 1 and 3 consume no space if there is nothing in them. Line two will consume space if either side has something in it.

Empty values are not displayed, even if in the middle of a group of fields. For example, if I put tags, rating, and author sort into the top box and if the book has no rating, only two lines will show.

EDIT: I know that people will want it so I went ahead I added the options to show empty items. My guess is that this is useful only if showing column names, but who am I to say?

2) I have turned off all my sort keys, so I don't care, but others might. Will the sort key be above the three containers or below?

Above.

[kaufman]

It looks really good. Looking forward to trying it out.

[jackie_w]

Ditto to what kaufman said

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

EDIT: I know that people will want it so I went ahead I added the options to show empty items. My guess is that this is useful only if showing column names, but who am I to say?

You are probably right. I have to play around with it to see what I like best, But I suspect that I will use column names (because it won't add much space to most of the fields I am going to use (tags, number of pages, rating, publication date and library). And I will want blanks because otherwise things won't line up the same.

By the way. I suspect someone is going to ask for the same formatting on the book details page. Its not going to be me though, because I like the book details page the way it is now.

[kaufman]

One thought.

How much work would it be to break the middle row into three parts instead of two. I think that people are going to populate them with short fields (Pages, rating, publication date, etc), and three might be more useful than two.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

One thought.

How much work would it be to break the middle row into three parts instead of two. I think that people are going to populate them with short fields (Pages, rating, publication date, etc), and three might be more useful than two.

You are clearly making assumptions about the size of the display. On my Galaxy Nexus, two lines approaches unusable in portrait, but works for certain column types like short text and yes/no. On my N7, there is enough room to display two dates with names, but not enough room to display three. As such, I cannot justify changing the second line but instead would be required to add another line, 1/3 per container, with all the setup and control on a cell-by-cell basis. I am not willing to do this.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

You are clearly making assumptions about the size of the display.

Actually, I thought of it while looking at your screenshot. It looked like there was a lot of dead space there.

Originally Posted by chaley

As such, I cannot justify changing the second line but instead would be required to add another line, 1/3 per container, with all the setup and control on a cell-by-cell basis.

Its certainly not worth the effort of doing that. Never mind then.

One question as long as I have your attention. If you put things in the left side of the split line, but nothing in the right side, will they still break in the middle, or will they go across the whole display?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

One question as long as I have your attention. If you put things in the left side of the split line, but nothing in the right side, will they still break in the middle, or will they go across the whole display?

If you put something in the middle left or middle right it will consume 1/2 the horizontal space no matter what is in the other side. If you don't want that then put it in the top or the bottom line.

Do note that you can put as many fields as you want in any container. Each one will start on a new line and consume at least one line if not blank or if the show-blank option is selected. A field might consume more than one line if it must wrap to show it all.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

If you put something in the middle left or middle right it will consume 1/2 the horizontal space no matter what is in the other side. If you don't want that then put it in the top or the bottom line.

Oh, I have stuff for both fields, I was just curious.

This is going to be a great addition. I'm very excited to play with it.