Submitted by Armando on 2010/05/03 14:51
While waiting for a more sophisticated numbering feature in IQ, why not just include a feature/function which would renumber selected items using the "Order" field in 2 different ways :
 
1- Restart numbering : from 1 to Last item in selection
2- Continue numbering : from x to Last item in selection
3- Loop numbering : from x to y
4- Field : [user specified field -- Order would be the default field.]
 
"x" or "y" are a user defined values.
 
(since IQ's pasting mode "loops" (or "repastes") the pasted patterned whenever there are selected available, option #3 would be very usefull when renumbering a recurring pattern of items)
 
How would this work, UI wise ?
 
1- the feature would be accessible from the item context menu --> renumber.
2- A popup window would offer the 3 options mentioned above.
 
 
i think that this would greatly facilitate any kind of manual ordering using a number field (like the order field). I'd certainly use it often. (Right now I use a column of number stored in a text field, copy a certain amount of numbers and paste it in the number field. It works, but it'S cumbersome.)
 
The "order" field numbers can easily be saved in other field(s) for future reference (e.g. : if changes are made, another kind of sorting is tried by the user... copy the whole column --> paste it in another one). It has some advantages.
 
Comments ?  Worth it (in terms of how the amount of work needed to implement the feature...) ?
 
 
p.s. : I mentioned the "order" field, but this could be extended to any-field
 
[Edited for better clarity]
 
[Added option #3 to my list of renumbering features included in the popup]

Comments

 I like the idea, if not a big deal to implement.
(I'm embarrassed to say I didn't realize an "order" field existed in the sample, and was making my own field for manual sorting purposes)
 
I'd see it as a candidate for 0.9.27 (I'd like to have nothing get in the way of finalizing 0.9.25, and getting the new filter system in 0.9.26)

Should I add this idea to Mantis ? Is it worth it ?

Tom

2010/05/08 17:09

Permalink

[quote=Armando]
Should I add this idea to Mantis ? Is it worth it ?
[/quote]
 
I'll add my vote for it
 

Mantis
 
0966 Function to "renumber" selected items (using the "Order" field, or other number fields)  New feature
 
 
 
P.S.
 
In this mantis issue, I included an alternate way of numbering which would use the "#" column to generate the numbering and store it in a separate text field (of course, I'm not sure if that's possible) and use a Regular expression to add leading "0" to numbers (for sorting).
 
============= Quote from mantis :

An alternate/complementary numbering system could use :
1- the # column (which uses a more conventional and scientific numbering scheme) and
2- a text field to store the # columns data (which is volatile)

The idea would be too copy/paste the # column's content (or use the grid's component's ability to generate this numbering scheme and copy it...) to a text field.

The first 9 numbers (1 to 9) of each level would need a leading "0" for proper "text" sorting.

e.g. :
01.01.01
01.01.02
01.01.03
01.01.04
01.01.05
01.01.06
01.01.07
01.01.08
01.01.09
01.01.10
01.01.11
01.01.02

This could be achieved easily with RegEx.