The current order of the columns in the log table view is status, ID, timestamp then name. When viewing the logs page on a mobile phone you can only see the status and ID, maybe some of the timestamp. I think it would be more useful to show the log name first followed by timestamp and status. I think the status should come last because if you can see the log name & timestamp you likely have a decent idea whether the activity is done or not.
I think there is also an argument about how useful the log ID is here… do others find the log ID useful in this table? It seems like it takes us valuable space. In the long run it would be nice if this was “configurable” or perhaps something that was accessible from the table but required another click to reveal or display on hover?
I agree @paul121 your proposed layout makes far more sense than the current one, I can’t think of a reason why I’d want the log ID visible to us humans at all.
Actually done/pending could be a checkbox or something. That would also save space.
It maybe break the logic behind, but is that a problem? (Status=P/D or Done=True/False)
One more thing about the table is the word-wrapping. Sometimes useful to see everything, but also poor readability on smaller screens. Quantity is not easy to read, and long log names messes up the table a bit.
In the long run, I think there should be some settings for this. Or a possibility to adjust/rearrange the columns. Also wordwrap could be a setting.
Maybe there could be different setup for small screens?
PS:
I also have the dates in wrong format. Should be dd/mm/yyyy in Norway. When creating a new log, the date is in correct format.
My change to version 2 is overdue. One reason I’ve drug my feat is the somewhat inefficient screen use and layouts of the V2 User Interface. V2 did not move in the right direction. The column word wrapping is terrible to read. Maybe the various changes were good for programming, but they were a step backwards for the general user. Granted I don’t have enough user hours as yet. As I make the V2 move, hopefully I’ll figure out how to adapt.
I had the same experience. Briefly examined V1 at first, and got used to it. And did not like the V2 view alot.
But it has gotten better with the density settings, and I’m getting used to it.
I’m actually starting to like it on not too small screens. I agree, the word wrap makes bad readability
sometimes.
Doesn’t help for wordwrap, but I like the dark theme a lot. It kind of absorbs some of the air.
Maybe a setting some place around the filter box for different view settings. (Select columns, quantity views etc)
Different use cases - different needs.
Quantity view could be:
Show all vertical or horizontal (as extra columns)
Show only first
Click/Mouse-over to view all?
I have mixed feelings about removing the log ID, personally. It’s rarely useful, I agree, except when it is.
In the past it’s been helpful for revealing/illustrating issues where filters end up causing duplicate rows. I think we’ve managed to fix/avoid most of those in v2 so far, though. I also use it myself occasionally as a sorting mechanism. When you sort by timestamp it will always ALSO sort by log ID, but sometimes I want to find logs in the order that I created them.
Boy, it would be cool if we had some VERY simple configuration options (perhaps on a per-user basis) for these Views. The ability to enable/disable columns via checkbox would be really nice.
More broadly, I think that if we’re going to make any changes to Log columns we should consider them holistically with the Asset, Plan, and Quantity Views too. I’ve intentionally worked towards making them consistent (roughly speaking) in v1. If we are going to diverge from that, we should at least consider the others with each change we make, and see if it makes sense to do the same thing for each (eg: if we move the ID column to the end, let’s do it on all of them).
That said, I’m definitely open to rethinking them with input from the community! (Also makes me think it would be nice to have some kind of farther-reaching voting mechanisms for proposing changes like this! Outside the scope of this thread, but wouldn’t that be neat if we had some kind of “poll” built in to farmOS that we could use to get feedback from all users?)
We chatted briefly about this on the dev call today. Some takeaways:
The very simple approach could be to just rearrange these columns. There is the issue with config update not recognizing the change but we could write an update hook for this.
An additional step could be to make the columns configurable. Ideally you could choose which columns are shown, possibly change the order of the columns as well.
We could possibly hide the ID column on mobile/screen size, too. I kinda like this in tandem with the simple approach but wonder if it would work against future steps
Just wanted to add a note… I’m working on CSV importers right now, and it’s very useful to sort the View of logs by log ID to find the ones that were most recently created by the importer.
Maybe not a common use-case… but worth noting for this conversation.
Is there any way of turning on displaying the ID numbers for the log and asset entries?
I want to use the ID as a means of quickly jumping to a given record entry. I’d like to have a Goto ID xx in some way. It’s part of an Organic records to FarmOS checklist I created for tracking records to log/asset entries. This added tracking document ensures I get all the necessary Organic Certification data and artifacts captured in the various records AND more importantly, I can can show them to the inspector quickly during my organic inspection. FarmOS provides so many rabbit holes for capturing records on many different records, it’s difficult to maintain data entry consistency and remember where everything is uploaded.
@graffte Do you mean add an “ID search” field to the “Filters” options? I like that idea a lot, and it would be an easy feature to add.
In the meantime, did you know you can type /log/[ID] at the end of your farmOS URL to go directly to a log by ID? The same works for assets: /asset/[ID]. Not as nice as having an option in the UI, but works the same!
A filter option would be great. I think that would work for me. I’d like to see the ID shown somewhere on the screen when a log entry or asset is opened. Right now the only place the ID shows up is in a list view.
Didn’t realize the URL string option. This will help.
Thanks
Update… the URL ID approach works for me to jump to a specific log. Now that I see it there, it’s kind of one of the Duh moments. Thanks for the tip.
