Hi Olivier,
I like your ideas, currently the layer settings dialog is a bit crowded
and easy access is certainly a plus. More comments below.
Am 26.03.2014 01:07, schrieb Olivier Dalang:
Hi !
Great news !
(by the way, I'm crossposting to qgis-ux as well)
I've been thinking about this a little and have some more long term
ideas I want to share (see the mockup below, it may be more clear):
1. Trivalent checkboxes (neutral, visible, hidden) (#5787)
When neutral, a layer/group is shown if it's parent is shown (top level
neutral elements are shown).
When hidden, a layer/group is hidden regardless of its parents.
When visible, a layer/group is shown regardless of its parents.
This would make big groups much more usable. Cinema4D's object manager
features this, and its very efficient. Also Qt's checkboxes can be
tristate out of the box, so it may not be that hard to implement.
2. Display the data source as an icon in a column on the left (not
indented, separated by a thin vertical line)
The icon would help to know whether it's a WMS, Shapefile, postgis, etc.
layer.
The icon would be grayed out when the source is unavailable.
Right clicking on the source would only source related actions (subset,
relink source, save data as, open in db manager, ...).
It would make the distinction between layer and source much clearer.
This distinction is obvious for experienced GIS users, but I've seen a
lot of beginners being very confused because of that (software working
with external links/files are quite rare for common usage). We could
also display the "edit pencil" on the source, giving one more hint to
the user that he's not modifying the QGIS file, but the datasource behind.
What you write about beginners is also my experience in several courses.
So a big +1! I would like the distinction between layer and source
related settings.
3. Display labels/diagrams/actions/etc. as icons just after the layer's name
Allow for quick toggling of those frequently useful features.
Right clicking allow for related actions (edit, set label expression, etc.)
Imagine what plugins could add there !! Any per-layer setting could be
shown as a tag. Think of Anita's TimeManager or Minoru's qgis2ThreeJs...
We could put the snap settings there too, or new features like
alternative styles, saved feature selections, snap settings, .... !!!
Hm, some thoughts (all IMHO):
- wouldn't it be more intuitive to left click on an icon (which would
then open the layer settings with the appropriate section). Right
clicking in the way you describe could be implemented additionally.
- Although this would be nice to have it makes the legend a lot broader
which might be a problem on smaller screens.
- I would not put diagrams there as they are much more seldomly used
than labels. I think most common usage is the style but I cannot see an
icon for this in your mockup.
- +1 for having the snap options there (in addition to the dialog we
have now).
- The current behavior (opening settings by double clicking/context menu
on the layer name) should stay. I understand your proposal as an
additional way to get there.
Bernhard
Again, this is how Cinema4D's manager works (they call those icons
"tags", and C4D makes extensive use of them). In their version, they
align all the tags after another vertical bar, which may be the most
elegant way to solve the layout with long layer's names.
Conclusion.
I think it's worth making the Legend GUI a bit more rich than it is now.
This is the part of the GUI where the users spend most of their clicks,
and IMO the potential efficiency bonus is by far worth the small
complexification. And it's not only complexification, it's also
clarification.
The segregation of source/layer/addendi in the legend GUI will be very
powerful in combination with contextual menus. By having three different
contextual menus, we'll be able to have much more actions at finger
tips, without over-crowding the menus.
About Nyall's idea :
+1 !
It could be implemented as it is in Photoshop, i.e. group's blending
mode is "transfer" by default, which simply draws the children as if
there was no group. But setting the group's blending mode to anything
else ("normal","multiply",...) composites the group as one layer, and
blends that composition.
Having this in the legend UI rather than in the layer style would also
make the UI much clearer. Right now, the UI is a bit confusing because
the transparency at layer level, feature level, and at color alpha level
are almost at the same place.
In general, using Photoshop as a reference for the UI in regard of
layers/blending modes makes much sense since PS is the leader in that
matter (as a remainder, they just have a drop-down menu at the top of
the layer panel which applies to the selected layer).
What do you think ?
If the community likes the principles, I'd be happy to work on the
mockup a bit more (by integrating Nydall's suggestion), so we can have a
common reference for further development.
Anyways, I'm very happy to know some improvements are in preparation !
Kind regards,
Olivier
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