zeitgeist team mailing list archive

[DJ <646724@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think the dash is revolutionary compared to the old way of finding
files and applications. It presents the user with a much simpler and
more intuitive way to get to what they're looking for. But it's useless
to me if I can't really use it to find stuff, or if I can only find a
small subset of my home content. Right now it's really nothing more than
a novelty, and not very useful for files and folders. I hope that
changes in the near future. IMHO, the concept is so far ahead of what
MAC and Windows currently offer. It's really unity's biggest selling
point., but it has to actually work.

The solution is really quite simple, if you can take your dev hat off
for a second and see it from a user's standpoint. Show recent files and
folders first, with a button to press to do a deeper search. The button
needs to be obvious and visible, not hidden away on the "filter results"
menu.  In fact, it could be a few buttons, e.g. "one week, one month, 6
months, one year, show all." Much like a browser history. You could put
them all in a drop down menu.

You could wait to implement everything through Zeitgeist, but why not
offer a temporary fix using Linux's built in search functions. Use
locate first, and then keep going with find. If locate finds what the
user's looking for, the search stops when they click on it. That way,
potential users won't just dismiss Unity as beta software and go
elsewhere. They may not be willing to give it another try for 12.04.
Especially after they spend 1-2k on a Macbook. I have several potential
users lined up, but I'm hesitant because of stuff like this. The idea is
to wow them with how convenient and intuitive it is, rather than to
disappoint and frustrate.

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You received this bug notification because you are a member of Zeitgeist
Framework Team, which is subscribed to Zeitgeist Data-Sources.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/646724

Title:
  not all files show up in files-place

Status in Unity:
  Triaged
Status in Unity 2D:
  Triaged
Status in Unity Files Lens:
  Triaged
Status in Zeitgeist Framework:
  Invalid
Status in Zeitgeist Data-Sources:
  Invalid
Status in “unity-lens-files” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “unity-place-files” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “zeitgeist” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  The Unity interface, with its files-place feature for user access to
  files/documents etc. is really great.

  However there is a problem since the search feature relies wholly on
  zeitgeist (AFAIK), in the zeitgeist is not tracking everything.

  E.g. in openoffice, I create a new file (or open an existing one) from
  within openoffice itself. This file does not show up, presumably
  because openoffice does not (yet) push its activity to zeitgeist.

  I guess any number of other programs could suffer the same problem.

  For the average user, this is surely going to be confusing. They will
  create documents via legitimate means ('New ...' buttons in their
  applications), and then expect to be able to search for them in the
  Unity files-place interface.

  To avoid this confusion I would guess there really needs to be a
  filesystem watcher on the home dir (or key folders within it) so that
  zeitgeist is aware of activity caused by non-zeitgeist-aware
  applications.

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