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-   -   [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950 (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=75894)

Willem Liu 2011-08-19 11:22

[Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
2 Attachment(s)
The latest sources can be found on Github.

Here are some screenshots:
http://projects.developer.nokia.com/...art/main-p.png
http://projects.developer.nokia.com/...art/edit-p.png
http://projects.developer.nokia.com/...rt/lists-p.png
https://projects.developer.nokia.com...settings-p.png

Video by MeegoExperts:
- version 0.0.5 - Video review

EasyList PHP website:
The PHP code is now attached in the zip file. The ZIP file includes all the PHP files and a SQL file which creates two empty tables: lists and users.

ammyt 2011-08-19 11:26

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
Broken by ENVY :D

Good job.

ade 2011-08-19 11:45

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
You've got yourself a N9 or N950? Lucky you ;)

Did it cost a lot of modifications to make the Maemo version work on Meego, of was it mainly a recompile? Or even a total redesign?

Well, I am still happy with the Maemo version...

Willem Liu 2011-08-19 12:44

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ade (Post 1072949)
You've got yourself a N9 or N950? Lucky you ;)

Did it cost a lot of modifications to make the Maemo version work on Meego, of was it mainly a recompile? Or even a total redesign?

Well, I am still happy with the Maemo version...

You should be happy with the Maemo version:) It's got more functions still :).

EasyList-Harmattan was a total rewrite, because the EasyList-Maemo was written with QWidgets and MeeGo doesn't support the skinning of QWidgets.
I could compile EasyList-Maemo and run it on MeeGo-Harmattan, but the app would look like a desktop app. Very ugly indeed.
EasyList-Harmattan is QML only. It runs quite fast to my suprise, but I still hate the fact that Meego-Harmattan doesn't support QWidgets.
But even if it did support QWidgets I would have to do some redesigning, because I wanted the app to look native. As you can see from the screenshots the app uses native icons to create that feel.

ajalkane 2011-08-19 12:54

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
Thank you! Exactly what I've been missing!

Willem Liu 2011-08-19 21:03

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
EasyList 0.0.6 brings you a Paste option in the menu of the Edit page. This allows you to copy text from any other app and paste that into EasyList. The main benefit is when someone sends you a text message with for instance a shopping list. Then you can copy that message and directly paste it into EasyList. That way you can type less and do more!

But that's not all! This version now also has a Settings page. It allows you to set your preferred sorting method. It also allows you to set orientation locks to suit your own preference.

You can get it from the project page. Enjoy!

kanishou 2011-08-22 08:26

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
Very nice, I was hoping there would be a simple checklist like this soon (certainly beats using Notes for shopping).

I have a few suggestions though:

1) The arrows in the viewheader indicate a filter, viewheaders should not be used for menus (as in Fremantle), since there is a menu button in the lower right. Instead, I suggest that tapping the view header opens the list selection. Also, please show the name of the list in the viewheader, as I would find this far more useful than the application name. :)

2) This is minor, but I find the use of the term "selected" somewhat confusing. It made me wonder at first if there was a different way of selecting items, rather than checking/completing them. I would suggest "checked" instead.

3) The way you handle multiple lists is somewhat clever, but I find it terribly confusing. The only use case that is straight forward with it is the one of cloning lists, which I never need. On the other hand, the common tasks of creating a new blank list or renaming an existing list require multiple steps and are really not very intuitive.

I would suggest to just use the standard method used by other applications in Harmattan: A "+" button in the toolbar to add a new list, and rename (or delete) items via the context menu (long press on item). The input field can then be removed, and instead appear in a sheet when a list is added or renamed. It may seem crude, but I really think it's good enough and nothing fancy is needed.

Another advantage of doing it like this would be that you could switch immediately back to the list view when a list is selected. To delete multiple items, you can still keep the delete button in the task bar and make it work like the delete function in Contacts for example (it opens a sheet with a multiple selection list and Cancel/Delete buttons at the top).

I also do not like that lists just disappear, when they become empty.

Willem Liu 2011-08-22 09:53

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
First of all I'd like to thank you for your valid remarks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074452)
1) The arrows in the viewheader indicate a filter, viewheaders should not be used for menus (as in Fremantle), since there is a menu button in the lower right. Instead, I suggest that tapping the view header opens the list selection. Also, please show the name of the list in the viewheader, as I would find this far more useful than the application name. :)

De view header has been added because it has a functional aspect to it.
  • The most important one is to have a place where the user can click on when the Virtual Keyboard is opened in the Edit page.
  • Second I find it very hard to recognize a minimized application in the open apps overview. Especially when it's zoomed out and there are 3 icons per line. There are some apps (E-mail, Contacts, Recent Calls and Facebook) which utilize a view header. And I must say that I prefer that. Just so I know which icon to click on when I want to re-open the app.
  • Some of the mentioned apps use the same arrow icons to open a menu. So I think it's ok to use it as it is.


Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074452)
2) This is minor, but I find the use of the term "selected" somewhat confusing. It made me wonder at first if there was a different way of selecting items, rather than checking/completing them. I would suggest "checked" instead.

I agree with you on this point and I shall fix this in the next version.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074452)
3) The way you handle multiple lists is somewhat clever, but I find it terribly confusing. The only use case that is straight forward with it is the one of cloning lists, which I never need. On the other hand, the common tasks of creating a new blank list or renaming an existing list require multiple steps and are really not very intuitive.

I would suggest to just use the standard method used by other applications in Harmattan: A "+" button in the toolbar to add a new list, and rename (or delete) items via the context menu (long press on item). The input field can then be removed, and instead appear in a sheet when a list is added or renamed. It may seem crude, but I really think it's good enough and nothing fancy is needed.

Another advantage of doing it like this would be that you could switch immediately back to the list view when a list is selected. To delete multiple items, you can still keep the delete button in the task bar and make it work like the delete function in Contacts for example (it opens a sheet with a multiple selection list and Cancel/Delete buttons at the top).

I also do not like that lists just disappear, when they become empty.

I agree with you on this point as well and I will try to make improvements here.

kanishou 2011-08-22 10:47

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
Cool, thanks. Regarding the view headers:

First, I am not suggesting that you remove it completely. Having it there for recognizability of the app in the overview is okay (that's what it's meant for). But if you make it a popup, it should not open the normal menu. View headers with arrows are supposed to be "filters", I will explain soon what that means exactly.

Quote:

The most important one is to have a place where the user can click on when the Virtual Keyboard is opened in the Edit page.
This is not necessary. Instead the edit view should be a sheet, because then the "Done" and "Cancel" buttons are available at the top where they are not hidden (that's a main reason why the sheet widget was made). Copy and paste don't require the menu, as those functions can be accessed from the popups in the text edit.

Quote:

Some of the mentioned apps use the same arrow icons to open a menu. So I think it's ok to use it as it is.
Those apps use the view header as a "filter", as mentioned above. What this means is that you can switch between a set of modes (or filters), and the active filter is displayed in the view header.

So in case of Recent calls for example, clicking it opens a popup with different filters, and if you select "Missed calls", this will now be displayed in the title.

The Facebook app is a bit unusual, but it's a similar concept. If you click it you get a list of "modes", and if you e.g. select the "Photos" mode, the viewheader will now read "Photos".

This is why I suggested that you make the viewheader's function to switch between the different lists, and show the active list in the viewheader. The easiest way to do this would be to just show the lists edit view when you click the header, and then you can also remove the respective button from the toolbar.


A few more little things: There is no need for a disabled back button in the first view, you can just remove it and only display it when it's needed. And I would suggest to disable the delete button when no item is checked. Finally, the delete query text is a bit redundant, so I suggest to remove the detail text and just leave the title (so instead of "Remove selected items? Do you really want to remove all selected items?" it will just read "Remove selected items?"). That's acceptable, no need to have a body text just because we can. :)

Willem Liu 2011-08-22 11:31

Re: [Announce] EasyList for N9/N950
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074529)
This is not necessary. Instead the edit view should be a sheet, because then the "Done" and "Cancel" buttons are available at the top where they are not hidden (that's a main reason why the sheet widget was made). Copy and paste don't require the menu, as those functions can be accessed from the popups in the text edit.

Ah cool, I didn't know about that. I will try to implement it in the next version.
However I've found the Paste popup button to not work when I've copied something from another application. Hence the Paste button in the Menu.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074529)
Those apps use the view header as a "filter", as mentioned above. What this means is that you can switch between a set of modes (or filters), and the active filter is displayed in the view header.

So in case of Recent calls for example, clicking it opens a popup with different filters, and if you select "Missed calls", this will now be displayed in the title.

The Facebook app is a bit unusual, but it's a similar concept. If you click it you get a list of "modes", and if you e.g. select the "Photos" mode, the viewheader will now read "Photos".

This is why I suggested that you make the viewheader's function to switch between the different lists, and show the active list in the viewheader. The easiest way to do this would be to just show the lists edit view when you click the header, and then you can also remove the respective button from the toolbar.

Thanks for the explanation. I now know what you mean.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074529)
A few more little things: There is no need for a disabled back button in the first view, you can just remove it and only display it when it's needed. And I would suggest to disable the delete button when no item is checked.

About the disabled back button. It's there for uniformity. I put the back button on the same spot on every page so the user always knows that that's the location for the back button and nothing else. But the disabled delete button is a good idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanishou (Post 1074529)
Finally, the delete query text is a bit redundant, so I suggest to remove the detail text and just leave the title (so instead of "Remove selected items? Do you really want to remove all selected items?" it will just read "Remove selected items?"). That's acceptable, no need to have a body text just because we can. :)

I thought that I've read somewhere in Harmattan-MeeGo guidelines that a message box must have a title. That's why I've put it there.

Thanks for the comments. You've given me a lot to work with. I hope I'll find some time soon to improve the EasyList.


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