Re Moving files - if we want to get really freaky and fix this "properly", I think allowing files to be dragged and dropped into the folders on the left hand panel would be the ultimate solution :-)

Probably a lot of work however :P

> I suggest we replace the check box solution entirely for the deletion of files. As along as we make the deletion "Ajax-y" there won't be any performance issues for the deletion of multiple files. In most situations however, people will only be deleting one or two files so I don't think we need to be overly concerned about this regardless.

But we should add a confirm dialog before files are deleted, right?

> Re Moving files - if we want to get really freaky and fix this "properly", I think allowing files to be dragged and dropped into the folders on the left hand panel would be the ultimate solution :-)

Sean: This sounds fun! :) Should I spend the time required to work on implementing it?

> But we should add a confirm dialog before files are deleted, right?

Yes we should, it would be good if the alert message said something to the effect of "This file is referenced in X pages, are you sure you want to remove it?"

> Should I spend the time required to work on implementing it?

Go crazy!

Elijah: Sounds good to me, although I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time doing this, since it's only one thing. If it's going to take more than 1-2 days then I'd suggest leaving this until later, since we have a lot of other small usability issues on that list to do. :-)

It's a great idea though. :-)

Cheers,
Sean

> Elijah: Sounds good to me, although I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time doing this, since it's only one thing. If it's going to take more than 1-2 days then I'd suggest leaving this until later, since we have a lot of other small usability issues on that list to do. :-)

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your response. I may take a stab at this on Monday and then evaluate my progress on only plan continuing if I think I can finish on Tuesday. I'll be taking July 4th of to go to a party at a friends house with my family. :)

Cheers,

Elijah

Dragging files to the left would be cool, but you definitely want a way of selecting a bunch of files before dragging. For example if you had 50 files in a folder and you were wanting to reorganise them into 5 different folders, you don't want to be dragging each file one by one! This sort of thing is pretty common - people upload all their files to one place and then realise that's a crappy idea ;-)

In standard file managers, this is done by shift or ctrl clicking. In vista, you can tick a bunch of files as well. I suggest that we use a similar interface. Basically, tick a bunch of files and then drag them at once. Perhaps you could shift-click a range? You probably want to show a little message, like "10 files" underneath the cursor when you're dragging. OS X generally does this well - copy that.

We also want to make sure that deleting and dragging are done using compatible mechanisms.

> Dragging files to the left would be cool, but you definitely want a way of selecting a bunch of files before dragging.

Ok, I will first see if I can get single file drag and drop moving working and if I am successful, I will work on multi file dragging. :)

> In standard file managers, this is done by shift or ctrl clicking. In vista, you > can tick a bunch of files as well. I suggest that we use a similar interface.
> Basically, tick a bunch of files and then drag them at once.

I'll try to remember to boot into Vista and see how this is done.

> Perhaps you could shift-click a range?

Gmail allows this, so and it looks like it probably wouldn't be hard to integrate this code which allows Ctrl or Alt checkbox range selection: http://4umi.com/web/javascript/form.htm

> You probably want to show a little message, like "10 files" underneath the cursor when you're dragging. OS X generally does this well - copy that.

I don't have access to an OS X machine, but I'll plan on adding a message under the dragging indicator if I get drag and drop moving working. I'll plan on asking for feedback on this. ;)

> We also want to make sure that deleting and dragging are done using compatible mechanisms.

As in dragging to a trash can or something? Or should we simply leave the "Delete selected" button and use that for multi-file deleting?

Hoping that I'm able to get dragging and dropping working today,

Elijah :)

I'm really looking forward to seeing this :-)