InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by Armando on 2009/03/18 15:57

Is there a keyboard shortcut for that ? If not, it would be very handy.

i.e.

Let's say focus is on item "e" :

- a--

- b--

- c--

- d

- e

- f--

- g

- h

And I want to collapse this hierarchy branch only, up to "c".

One possibility would be ctrl-shift-0.

Or there could be.... new sets of shortcut

- like alt-shift 1 (...2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) allowing to act upon current branch only, but in a reverse way : alt-shift-1 would collapse to previous level (parent), alt-shift-2 to the (grand-parent).

- or ctrl-arrow, like for the properties pane...

Could add to mantis if necessary.

Comments

You'd like to hoist item "c" ?

IMHO hoisting would be a terrific addition, Pierre.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

hoist/dehoist would certainly be great. I think it's been added to mantis a while ago. (Not the same as tagging BTW... As scratch grid etc. don't allow the user to see the items in context of the original grid.)

But in that particular case, I'm more thinking of collapsing specific hierarchy branch up to a certain level, and keeping them in the context of the other sibblings -- can be done scrolling up and doing ctrl-shift-1, but a bit awkward to do in big hierarchies...can be pretty cumbersome (especially that the scrolling is not always smooth).

Just want to add something that's somewhat related.

... what's missing in a one pane Outliner like IQ (and that is related to a previous post by another user) : a view of items "marked as" (OR considered as) headings. Without this, it makes it very hard to navigate inside long structures without having to incessantly scroll up and down, or collapsing all levels / expanding all levels... A function allowing one to collapse levels as explained above would be useful to alleviate that problem -- without completely solving it.

(and BTW : the hierarchy hyperlinks at the bottom of the IQ window are pretty useful, but not always since they only show the hierarchy of items and their main parents... Which can often be a bit useless, unless one is specifically working in such a narrow hierarchical context. Much more useful would be to show the hierarchal structure as displayed in the current grid. DOn't know if other would agree... But that would certainly help circumventing the absence of a "structure tree" displayed on the left, or wherever, showing where the item sits in the whole hierarchical structure...)

(Hoist / Dehoist : mantis issue 290 )

Actually it might be extremely useful if it showed the entire hirearchy (independent of the grid) so user can jump around w a single click

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

>if it showed the entire hirearchy (independent of the grid)

what do you mean exactly ? If an item has multiple parents, then how does IQ decide which hierarchy to display ?

Just an idea... have you considered using the Properties Pane Parents section. It shows all parents in reverse hierarchy

Yes, thanks Pierre. That's what I actually do, sometimes (together with the "siblings" section) but it involves a lot of clicking, depending on the depth of hierarchy, and it's always reset. Better than nothing, but not optimal.

I've improved the parents display. The current display expand level (parent level 1,2,3,4) no longer resets when nagivating in the grid

Thanks !

I'll try this today.

(Have a nice day!)

Ok, it's an improvement over the previous properties pane hierarchy display, but it still feels a bit awkward.

I know that the reversed hierarchical display in the properties pane is to avoid problems in case of infinite recursion, but it makes it unintitive since what one sees in the grid is reversed, compared to what's displayed in the properties pane. I can assure you that it is very awkward as it is now. Coherent, yes, but highly unintuitive IMO.

Hypothetical solutions :

1- Why couldn't the "parents" hierarchy (in properties pane) be always expanded by default : all parents down to the currently selected item ? (a bit like what's shown in the status bar.) That would make it much more easy to use.

2- The hierarchy displayed in status bar could reflect the one in the grid (not the "ideal" one, constituted of "main parents"... Often never displayed in any grids... Well, in my case)

Another aspect that makes it very hard to navigate inside big hierarchies is the difficulty to navigate quickly between siblings. One could use the siblings section, but... It shows every possible siblings, even those that are filtered out, etc. and the ordering is hard to get.

Hypothetical solution :

3- The sibling section (in properties pane) could maybe -- optionally ? -- show only currently shown items in the grid, and following the current order (according to the sorting filter) .

There could be other ways... But there's definitely a big problem (for me) in relation to hierarchical navigation. It slows me down a lot as I'm constantly struggling trying to find my way quickly in the hierarchy... as my co-workers are waiting!

And, BTW, I still think that there should be a set of shortcuts to collapse parents of selected items (only -- not the full hierarchy tree al together... This is not the same ) like explained in first posts.

[quote=Armando]

[/quote]

Actually, it is not related to recursion, but to having multiple parents. The same as you as a person. You may or may not have a hierarchy of descendants, but you definitely have a hierarchy of ascendants (parents, grand-parents, etc)

>Actually, it is not related to recursion, but to having multiple parents.

yes... right ! Thanks for the clarification.

Any chances of having a way to navigate more easily into the current grid's hierarchy -- horizontally, between siblings, and vertically, between parents (by implementing some of the suggestions mentioned above or... even better ones) -- without having to scroll up and down and collapsing/expanding all the time ? I'm surprised I'm the only one facing this problem... Guess my grids are longer than average.

I 'd like to know, if possible -- will plan accordingly.

Give me a few days (I'm busy preparing for moving) and I'll add navigating functions

Ok. Thanks for taking that into consideration.

Good luck with the moving process... (and my offer is still valid)