InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by David_H on 2017/03/03 14:42

1. Here is what I have figured out so far. Unlike Map View, which works for all items, you need to give an item the field value of "Surface1" to be able to view it in Surface view. Correct?

2. When I drag items around, I am not seeing the interconnecting lines, only the arrow ends. Example attached. I have right clicked but don't see any options. Suggestions?

3. Everything on the Surface opens fully collapsed as one item. Cntrl + # does not expand (works perfectly though on Map View now). How do I expand and collapse (other than clicking one by one)?

Thanks!

Comments

Hi David,

Thanks for trying out the IQ Surface Preview:

Correct. The Surface is very different from MapView. The Surface1 field controls what is shown in the IQ Surface
Bug: To fix it, right-click on a blank area of the surface and select a link color. That should fix it
Confirmed. There is still quite a bit of work to be done before the Surface is complete. Expect more in v93

I'm starting to write the doc for it.

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Thanks Pierre. I'll report things as I discover them here. One thing I notice is that if I want to change line type (straight or curved etc.) I'm most likely to be successful if I right click on the item the line stems from. However if I want to change the link color, I seem to have to click on the line itself.

For links the are 3 cases:

Blank area: Sets the default link color or type
Item: Sets the color/type of all outgoing links of this item
Link itself: Sets the color/type of that particular link
Clicking on the link is not easy... Check for the Hand cursor. The context menu will also list Link Text and Delete Link. You know you've clicked on the link if you see these

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

... very useful implementation ...

in Surface, news items are related dropping above or to the right of item rectangle ... and relation with existing items is implemented assigning Surface as their "home" (not yet fully understood) but ... astucieux

Yup, you'll see, the IQ Surface is full of surprises. Some already implemented, others to come

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

A very basic query:

can I create new sub-items within the Surface view?

EDIT//

see comment below (sub-items were created, just not directly shown)

See the little Maltese-cross type symbol in the screenshot below (pointer is showing it) ?

it appeared when I pressed Ctrl+Enter (trying to create sub-item)

Just wondering what it is?

EDIT//

of course I should have tried clicking it .. but instead:

I removed item for the Surface and added it again, it had a different symbol.

When I click on it I see that sub-items were created, just not directly shown -- so I think I've answered my previous query as well

1. Is it correct that the Surface shows every single item in the IQ database that has the vlaue of "Surface1" simultaneously? I just want to make sure I understand the behavior.

2. Won't that start to cause issues if a user has thousands of Surface items?

3. On what logic does IQ decide to arrange the various (different) surface items?

Thanks

[quote=David_H]

1. Is it correct that the Surface shows every single item in the IQ database that has the vlaue of "Surface1" simultaneously? I just want to make sure I understand the behavior.

2. Won't that start to cause issues if a user has thousands of Surface items?

[/quote]

1. AFAIK

2 would be nice if one could have multiple Surface 'grids' -- Surface2, Surface3 ?

-- maybe Pierre has plans there ?

[quote=Tom]

2 would be nice if one could have multiple Surface 'grids' -- Surface2, Surface3 ?

-- maybe Pierre has plans there ?

[/quote]

Yes of course, multiple surfaces are planned !!

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=David_H]

1. Is it correct that the Surface shows every single item in the IQ database that has the vlaue of "Surface1" simultaneously? I just want to make sure I understand the behavior.

2. Won't that start to cause issues if a user has thousands of Surface items?

3. On what logic does IQ decide to arrange the various (different) surface items?

Thanks

[/quote]

Hi David,

Correct. All items that have the Surface1 field are shown on the Surface (and shown with a green checkmark (bottom left corner)
Currently, thousand items will slow things out, but this should be improved. 500 or so is still manageable. The idea was not to normally put that many items on the Surface...
Right now, when an item is initially added to the Surface, it is put at the origin, with its children as sub-items (collapsed). If the item was previously on the Surface, its properties on the Surface is restored (position, color, detached sub-items, etc)

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Thanks Pierre. What I mean with question 3 was, if I assign 10 different items to the Surface, is there a logic to how they get laid out, relative to one another?

Also, is there any way to relocate them, if for instance I wanted to place a couple of different surface maps next to each other?

[quote=David_H]

Thanks Pierre. What I mean with question 3 was, if I assign 10 different items to the Surface, is there a logic to how they get laid out, relative to one another?

Also, is there any way to relocate them, if for instance I wanted to place a couple of different surface maps next to each other?

[/quote]

Currently, when an existing item is added on the surface (i.e. Field Surface1 was checked), it is placed at the origin
There is only one Surface right now, though eventually, IQ will support any number

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

So here's something that happened today. I started playing with Surface a little again. Since anything added to the Surface that was entered in a grid seems to show up all over the place on the Surface (items laying on top of one another), I tried to drag a few items around so I could actually view them. I think that just by trying to get them off of other items I somehow accidentally made an item a child of it's child. I noticed it when I went to the grid and could not longer find the item, and finally found it by switching to Flat view, and then noticed that the item had itself as a grandparent

. Seems to have happened a few times as i was trying to drag stuff around so may things visible.

Hi,

It is true that it is perhaps too easy to create links. The trick is to ensure that when you drag an item, do not drop it over another one. As a visual clue, a round dot is shown on the item when another item is being dragged over, to show if it would be a child or a sibling.

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I'm currently updating the documentation. See 3. IQ Surface for details

HTH !

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer