Favorites Window UI Specification
This document is the UI specification of Favorites windows. The Favorites window allows the user to create files and folders outside of a project context.
Author: Jan Rojcek
Changes: available in CVS
Table of Contents:
- Favorites Window
- Add to Favorites
- Remove from Favorites
- New Empty File Dialog
- New Folder Dialog
- Main Menu
Favorites Window
Favorites window allows the user to displays and access all files available on local filesystem by specifying certain folders or files as favorites.
Initially, the Favorites window contains the user home folder as favorite folder.
Figure: Favorites Window: Node Hierarchy
+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Favorites | +-----------------------------------------------------+ | [F] Favorites | | +- [f] <favorite-folder-or-file-1> [<full-path>] | | +- [f] <favorite-folder-or-file-2> [<full-path>] | | ... | | +- [f] <favorite-folder-or-file-n> [<full-path>] | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+ [F] - Favorites node icon [f] - Folder or File icon
Contextual Menu: Favorites Node
Add to Favorites...
Contextual Menu: Favorite Folder Node
Placement of Remove from Favorites action:
New > Empty File... ---------------------------- Folder... Find... ---------------------------- Remove from Favorites ---------------------------- Cut Copy Paste ---------------------------- Delete Rename... ---------------------------- Tools > ---------------------------- Properties
Contextual Menu: Favorite File Node
Placement of Remove from Favorites action:
Open ... <file type specific items> ... ---------------------------- Remove from Favorites ---------------------------- Cut Copy ---------------------------- ... <file type specific items> ... ---------------------------- Properties
Contextual Menu: A Folder Node
Placement of Add to Favorites action:
New > Empty File... ---------------------------- Folder... Find... ---------------------------- Add to Favorites ---------------------------- Cut Copy Paste ---------------------------- Delete Rename... ---------------------------- Tools > ---------------------------- Properties
Contextual Menu: A File Node
Placement of Add to Favorites action:
Open ... <file type specific items> ... ---------------------------- Add to Favorites ---------------------------- Cut Copy ---------------------------- ... <file type specific items> ... ---------------------------- Properties
Add to Favorites
The user can add a file or folder to favorites using using the Add to Favorites... action that appears in the contextual action of Favorites root node, or by using the contextual Add to Favorites action that appears in the contextual action of any file or folders underneath the existing favorite folders.
The Add to Favorites... action opens a file chooser that allows the user to select a file or folder she wants to add to favorites. The file chooser is titled Add to Favorites and contains Add and Cancel buttons.
The contextual Add to Favorites action adds the selected file or folder into the favorites directly.
Adding a folder or file into the favorites inserts a new node at the last position into the favorites tree. If a folder is added to the favorites, it is expanded.
Add to Favorites Alert
If the user specifies a non-existing file or folder in the Add to Favorites file chooser and commits the dialog, then an Information alert is shown informing the user that the supplied file or folder doesn't exist. An example of the message is "/User/me/hello doesn't exist".
Figure: Alert: Add to Favorites
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Add to Favorites | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | o | | | <full-path-name> doesn't exist. | | | | | | | [[ Close ]] | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Remove from Favorites
The user uses this action to remove a favorite folder or file from the Favorites window. Invoking this action removes the item from the favorites tree.
New Empty File Dialog
The New Empty File dialog allows the user to create any file in selected
folder. It is invoked by the contextual New > Empty File...
action in Favorites window.
Figure: New File dialog
+----------------------------------------------------+ | New Empty File | +----------------------------------------------------+ | | | File Name: |_README______________________________| | | | +----------------------------------------------------+ | [[ OK ]] [ Cancel ] | +----------------------------------------------------+
The components of this dialog are:
- File Name text field (N) - specifies the name and extension of new file. Always enabled. Focused by default.
- OK button - closes the dialog and creates the file. Enabled only if a unique file name is specified.
- Cancel button - closes the dialog without creating a file.
New Folder Dialog
Figure: New Folder dialog
The New Folder dialog allows the user to create any folder in selected
folder. It is invoked by the contextual New > Folder...
action in Favorites window.
+----------------------------------------------------+ | New Folder | +----------------------------------------------------+ | | | Folder Name: |_drafts____________________________| | | | +----------------------------------------------------+ | [[ OK ]] [ Cancel ] | +----------------------------------------------------+
The components of this dialog are:
- Folder Name text field (N) - specifies the name of new folder. Always enabled. Focused by default.
- OK button - closes the dialog and creates the folder. Enabled only if a unique folder name is specified.
- Cancel button - closes the dialog without creating a file.
Main Menu
Window Menu
| Window | ------------ Projects Ctrl-1 Files Ctrl-2 Favorites Ctrl-3 ... ------------------
