RFC: Tile View for File Windows. Useful?

[Mario]

Consider a folder / category which does not contain files, but has child-folders / child-categories.
(For categories this requires to set the direct assignments only option).

In this case, File Windows show a No Files caption and some information about how to enable the hierarchical display mode as an onboarding feature for new users.

I have, for a long time, toyed with the idea to use the folder/category thumbnail feature for another purpose: an Album / Gallery View in the File Window. This is the principal idea:



The c:\data\images2 folder is selected, empty but has six sub-folders.
The Barcelona folder contains no files and thus has no folder thumbnail. The other 5 folders have folder thumbnails and are show that image in the tile.



Clicking on a tile opens the folder in a regular File Window.

If the user has not specified a folder/category thumbnail (context menu in File Windows  > Additional Functions), IMatch maybe picks the highest rated file or so. Another idea would be pick a random image every time.

Another idea would be to display 4 files, in a 2 x 2 tile. Similar to what IMatch does in the Event View:



The four images would be selected either from the files with the highest rating or randomly.

Especially in the case of categories, a users could create Albums easily that way. Starting with an Album category with  direct assignments only enabled, he creates a couple of child-categories and assigns files to these categories in some way.

Whenever the user clicks on the Album category, he gets this view.
The number of tiles depends on the number of child categories. If multiple "direct assignments only" categories are nested, users can even create drill-down albums with any number of levels.

Any number of albums can be created this way easily and quickly.

I would provide options to choose the tile layout (single, 2x2), the tile size in pixel and font size and color. Keeping it simple.
Maybe allow the user to store these settings per scope, similar to fixing a layout and sort order for specific scopes.

What do YOU think?
Useful or aesthetically pleasing? Nonsense?
Let me know below.

[janb83]

I really like the idea. As I have a quite nested folder structure I immediately noticed this emptiness and switched to the hierarchical display mode. This album cover mode might be an alternative. I definitely prefer an explicit cover choice over random selection though (keep in mind not everyone rates their pictures, so it would be really random unless you use AI somehow).

The icing on the cake would be a way to decide (permanently per parent folder if this view or hierarchical image display should be used. Why? Because, personally, I have some subfolders that just structure content a bit, but it makes sense to view all files from all folders at the same time. For other folders, it makes a lot more sense to use a cover approach as you described.

Forget it, this is already possible with Remember Layout of course.

[Mario]

(...) be a way to decide (permanently per parent folder if this view or hierarchical image display should be used.

Add a feature request in the feature request board. Other users will see it, maybe Like it, comment on it.
This could surely be integrated with the existing Remember Layout File Window option.

[janb83]

(...) be a way to decide (permanently per parent folder if this view or hierarchical image display should be used.

Add a feature request in the feature request board. Other users will see it, maybe Like it, comment on it.
This could surely be integrated with the existing Remember Layout File Window option.

Sorry, I edited it while you were typing. As you say, it's already available. Besides, I cannot add feature requests for enhancements of features that do not yet exist

[Mario]

Remember hierarchical mode together with sort profile / layout would be a feature request.

[janb83]

Remember hierarchical mode together with sort profile / layout would be a feature request.

Ah, sorry, I assumed the hierarchical toggle was already part of the remembered layout.

[Bolitho]

Personally I don't have need/use for it.
I'm totally fine with what is there currently (managing about 260.000 images).

[HaWo]

Personally I don't have need/use for it.

[sinus]

Interesting ... although I think, I would not use this. I see no benefit for this for me.

On the other hand I have changes my mind often - in both directions. 
Say the "File Window Gallery Layout", what we have since quite some time.
At first I thought, very cool ... and it turns out, I do not use it. 

On the other hand the result window, what I think, we have already a very long time, I used almost never ... until I looked deeper in it and realised the power of it.
Now I use it very often. 

Therefore: I see no use for this idea ... but 

[mopperle]

I have seen something similar in other apps. At a first glance it was very nice, but finally it was nothing more than an eye candy for me. The thumbnails where in most cases too small and didnt give any real benefit. Giving a collection a meaningfull name helps me more, than a random/fixed selection of 4 out of (some)hundred images.

But when you have some time left and dont know what to do , realize it for those complaining IMatch looks old style.

[Mario]

But when you have some time left and dont know what to do , realize it for those complaining IMatch looks old style.

So far it is only a quick-throw mockup. Just a small app that fetches child folders / categories and displays them as tiles.
I've copied a screen shot of that into a screen shot of a File Window to show how it would like.
It is appealing. Especially for categories that now can serve as 'albums'.

The thumbnails where in most cases too small and didnt give any real benefit.

You can control the size of the thumbnails. The app automatically uses the thumbnail or cache image, depending on the size you choose. This should work fine for all purposes and from only a few children to many children:



Small tiles and big tiles, depending on preferences.

[mopperle]

Can the text size/colour be chhangd? Dependig on the thumbnail, it might be hard to read (like Paris in your example).

[Mario]

The text size and color will be changeable - for all tiles, not for individual tiles.
You can pick a text color or thumbnail that ensures the text is readable.

[ubacher]

I suppose that it becomes inconvenient/unpractical when one has many many subfolders.
I am fine with what we've got. Each addition is a new source of possible bugs which takes
time to fix. I already think IM is overloaded with features.

[Jim K.]

Personally I don't have need for this feature.

[Mario]

I suppose that it becomes inconvenient/unpractical when one has many many subfolders.
I am fine with what we've got.

Currently you see "No Files" in the File Window when you click on an empty folder with any number of sub-folders.
If this feature is added, you would instead see a tile with a image tile for each sub-folder.

Why would you consider this is more inconvenient or unpractical?
That's why I post here, to learn about what users think.

I guess if you know that the parent folder is empty, you click on sub-folders directly, thus by-passing all of this.
Or you have the hierarchical display mode enabled, so you see all files in one or more levels of sub-folders.

Either way, you would not see the tiles.

This is more for something more  deliberate, like creating Categories as 'Albums', as in my screen shot. Or to use data-driven categories as Albums. Just did that with a data-driven category based on families, and now I have a neat tile view of the families in my sample database:



I would make this an option so people who don't like it, just see the "No Files" caption as before.

[rolandgifford]

If this feature is added, you would instead see a tile with a image tile for each sub-folder.

A tile for each sub-folder showing the folder name could be useful. Any sort of image background adds nothing for me, being able to see the name clearly without any background would be best.

[Mario]

A tile for each sub-folder showing the folder name could be useful. Any sort of image background adds nothing for me, being able to see the name clearly without any background would be best.

You see the folder names in the Media & Folders tree on the left.
In case a name is not readable despite font color, black outline, black drop shadow, you can hover the mouse over it to get something like this:



The black background is shown when the mouse moves into a tile.
There is no real way to make a text always readable, except always using a black background, analyzing the pixels under the text to find a contrasting color or breaking the layout by displaying the title outside the tile. I've tried that but I did not like it very much. Could be an layout option, but I want to keep this simple, without too many options.

[rolandgifford]

A tile for each sub-folder showing the folder name could be useful. Any sort of image background adds nothing for me, being able to see the name clearly without any background would be best.

You see the folder names in the Media & Folders tree on the left.

Indeed. The tiles that you are suggesting could be an improvement (for me) as they would be a larger target for a mouse and could reduce the risk of clicking the wrong one by mistake.

In my case only the folder name is useful information. Anything which gets in the way of me reading that without the need to move my mouse reduces the value of the tile.

[janb83]

As I said, I really like the idea. However, I can see potential problems with real folder names instead of example data like this. Even with families, once you have multiple with the same name you stop using such short "Surname" folder names, and for a lot of other potential folders, names will be quite longer in reality. Unless you follow the DAM book and only have date-based folders, in which case this feature will not be useful for you anways.

A typical subfolder for me has 20-30 character names. Not sure how well those would display.

[Mario]

The tiles wrap automatically and you can use a smaller font if your folder names are long?

[janb83]

Great, smaller fonts should work just fine

[Mario]

I've decided to implement this feature since it is fairly straight forward and a good way to learn about the latest versions of the tools I use for app development.

The File Window Album is enabled by default and kicks in when you select a folder or category that contains no files but has sub-folders / child categories. Hierarchy mode must be off.

You can disable this feature via the File Window settings if you don't like it

There are two layouts available and you can also control the font size and color for each layout type separately.
Here is a screen shot of a folder containing sub-folders:



Here is a data-driven Family categories produced from a variable.
This screen shot shows the configuration mode of the File Window album where you can select a layout, font size and color. If the predefined colors don't suit you, you can enter any possible color using standard HTML color notation:



Let's see if users like it. If not, I can remove it again.
I use categories to organize files into "Albums", and here this produces a very pleasing view. Better than the "No files" before.