InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by jan_rifkinson on 2009/05/30 15:53

I opened my master dB file & entered some data

I manually closed the program to refresh the program

I opened program & latest data entry was missing

I did this 3 x

What forces the save? switch focus to new item, switch focus to new tab? interval? If interval, how long? I have data backups set for 3 min intervals to a different drive.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

Comments

Hi Jan,

Can you document the exact steps on a fresh file? as I can't reproduce it here

Hi Pierre. I found the problem. I had date filter set to word days & entry was today, Saturday so IQ was doing it's job & I was too dense to figure it out.

This makes me think that maybe (like filtered column) there should be some kind of display to show that a date filter is in effect, i.e. day work week, week, month, etc. Well, actually it's already evident because of selected filter but maybe it's too subtle.

I admit to not being a sophisticated -- or even a very educated -- IQ user but I sort of understand what to look for & it took me a while to figure it out. What's worse, this has happened to me before.

What do you think about a more obvious date filter notification? Maybe something on the status line?

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

Status bar is possible, but there is already 3 visual cues:

DateFilter toolbar is shown
The DateFilter button on the standard toolbar is highlighted
The D button on the source bar (Alt-S) is highlighted

Jan : the first thing to do when you can't find an item is to open a search grid, empty the source and all filters and sort by date created. Or simply use the quick search window and type a few strings.

(I never lost one item, even after computer crashes, etc. And I never need to restart IQ to refresh grids or whatever, except for the very specific reasons mentioned in the "manual". Why do you need to restart IQ for ?? )

As for the visual cues for applied filters, it's been talked about a few times. I agree that it's not always that evident as which filter is active. It should be more intuitive. I made some suggestions in the past (status bar summary, colors, applied filter toolbar...), I might look for them if I have a few minutes later on. Some things are better now then they were a few months ago though : the yellow bar for active column filters works very well.

[quote=Armando]

[/quote]

You are right on all counts, Armando. I will follow your procedure which makes all kinds of practical sense since there are so many settings a user can employ to create a specialized grid. I restart IQ when I'm desperate & can't figure out what's going on. This is after I look around, I compact, repair, etc. It's called a "Hail Mary", i.e. last desperate attempt when all else fails. I should have more faith in the program to start with & assume operator error.

As Pierre points out there are 3 visual cues to what was going on in my case but I guess my answer to him -- in agreement w you -- is that doesn't seem to be enough, or obvious enough. I agree the column filter notification is excellent but I would say that the status bar might be the obvious place for this kind of notification. I don't know what else it is used for except to show lineage.

To me this is an issue of program friendliness. The friendlier the better. OTOH I can understand Pierre's possible instinct to keep the GUI as clean as possible.

I use a DAM program for my digital images called IDimager. It's a program of great sophistication like IQ but the developer has gone to great lengths to make it "user friendly". He is very graphically oriented & tends to streamline wherever possible.I can leave IDimager for a few months & come back to it with ease. It is a more mature program than IQ but I think Pierre might want to consider where he can make similar improvements in the future.

As always,Armando, thanks for your help & advice.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1