Some IMatch 2020 Sneak Peak

[Mario]

Another sneak peak about current developments.

As I said in some other posts, some of the new features I have planned for IMatch 2020 require new ways of presenting data and files.
One part of that are File Windows and entire Views based on app technology. This allows IMatch to break free from the limits of 'classic' Windows user interfaces and to utility all modern browser technologies - from HTML to super-fast 2D and 3D graphics. This will be very helpful for what I have in mind 

But what we also need is classic file window technology - but for HTML and JavaScript. I want tech that's able to replace the classic IMatch file window when needed, while adding more flexible ways to display data, better responsiveness to different screen resolutions etc.

Over the past weeks I have made some good progress on that front and I have now implemented all classes needed for that:

Defining layouts
Different types of display (smart, masonry, tiles, list, a new thumbnail strip, ...)
Asynchronous, on-demand loading of images to be able to handle even thousands of files! This is the hard part!
Sort orders, collections, rating & label, stacked files, color-coding, ... all these advanced IMatch features need to be considered (phew!)
Ways for the app developer to customize everything
...

All this has been written in plain JavaScript and the Vue.js library for ease of use.

Basically I can now "plug-in" a file window into an app panel / file window / view and mix it with whatever other information I want to display to the user.
And this is what will make it possible to implement features I had on my mind for a long time, but had to wait for the technology to arrive.
I'm 100% sure users will like what this all leads to. To early to tell the details - the competition is listeningreading...

Here are some quick snaps from some of the file windows I have available now in normal IMatch apps. Just some of the many possibilities.

[thrinn]

This looks and sounds very promising! Keep up the good work!

[sinus]

I hope of course, the we can use our old own windows layout, what users has created for themselve.

Mario says:
Your existing file window layouts can be used with normal File Windows.
The new file windows will be used for totally different purposes and your existing layouts would not work there anyway.

Besides, not many users create custom file window layouts. I have added more telemetry for the next release to gather more info, but most users seem to be happy with the unmodified "Default" layout. Which was one of the reasons for the simple layout editor, to make it easier for users to customize their default layout at least a bit. Not many users ever open the full layout editor. Even less since the simple editor was introduced.

We always have to keep in mind that the users really active in this community are the "specialist/advanced" users - who do a lot more with IMatch than the average user. Another finding is that most users never change from the "Default"sort profile...

This also defines one of my main goals for this year: Add new features which appeal both to existing users, power users and new users. Make existing features simpler to use (without dumbing them down).

Sorry Markus. I've accidentally overwrote your post instead of quoting it.

[Jingo]

^^^ Mario - looks like you accidentally edited Markus' post with your own answer... 

I am one of those that use a customized view... so long as I can use JS to customize the new App Windows as well - I'm a happy camper!

[Mario]

^^^ Mario - looks like you accidentally edited Markus' post with your own answer... 

Whoops. Dang. Clicked the wrong button. Sorry, Markus. But I've quoted the relevant part anyway, so nothing is lost.

[sinus]

^^^ Mario - looks like you accidentally edited Markus' post with your own answer... 

Whoops. Dang. Clicked the wrong button. Sorry, Markus. But I've quoted the relevant part anyway, so nothing is lost.

Ah, so for once I have written some intelligent things!  ... too bad, that it was Mario!

No, without joke: OF COURSE no problem.
And yes, the sense oft he post is readily apparent.

[mastodon]

Very promising. Please be aware, that some users has not got the time/scope to set everything in the form, that is good for his workflow.
So, please - as before - provide presets, and an easy possibility to share presets.

[Mario]

Another interesting way to display groups of files is a drill-down view. I'm experimenting with this, too.

Basically IMatch groups files based on a certain criteria (think: categories or timeline) and then allows the user to navigate up and down in that hierarchy. Only one level of data is displayed at a time, with a breadcrumb to indicate the current level in the hierarchy.

This allows for some very clean and informative ways to display large sets of data. And on the bottom level (e.g. "Days" in the timeline) IMatch could switch to a normal file window, with detailed panels as shown above.

To explain this better: Here is a drill-down view on the timeline, showing the "Month" level of a year (no images taken in February):



By clicking one of the tile you drill-down (zoom) to the next level, which would be all days with files in that month.

The image shown in the tile is automatically selected based on an algorithm, e.g. "last file taken in that group" or maybe "file with the highest rating" or something like that.

For folders and categories we already have a way to define a thumbnail, and this would be used when we drill-down folders or categories. This is actually the reason why I've introduced category thumbnails a while ago. A probably very underused feature at the moment, but one of the steps I've planned for this new type of view...