[seek-kr-sms] ontology/folder UI design in Kepler

[Serguei Krivov]

Matt>In doing so, we've
recognized a bunch of problems with using the informal 'folder' concept
to represent an ontology class.

SK>I do not think that tree controls are inherently evil, but is it
really necessary to use idea of folder??? Protégé and GrOWL both have
class tree for navigating the ontology, but we have nice icons with
letter "C" and it is hard to confuse the classes with folders. Tree is
good for navigation but naturally  it does not provide a clear ideas
about concepts.


Matt> The Growl editor is a more acurate
representation of the ontology but has limitations given the small space
we are trying to use in Kepler to discuss this stuff. 



SK> GrOWL editor take some space but sometimes it is possible to use a
small part of GrOWL. (E.g. GrOWL applet in ESD is far more compact then
GrOWL editor) . Adding filters on which I am working now will make GrOWL
spiders even more compact and humanly. Hope that within next week I will
make filters for class definitions and class instances.  So I would
suggest to evaluate GrOWL after that. I will create jar and make it
easy.

In context of Kepler    GrOWL could be   used as follows:

Option#1
Layout:
------------------

Tree
Control
Window



-------------------
Filter Select Combo
-------------------




GrOWL Panel,
Configured for
Close visible locality






----------------------

I presume that this will take 1/3 or 1/2 of the whole Kepler Window on
the left or on the right and will be collapsed as soon as selection is
done.


Option#2 The other possible scenario for using GrOWL may follow the
latest fashion that is popular among C++ IDE developers: Have powerful
navigator for switching the perspective and keep visible only those
panel/window that is currently used. If we follow this philosophy  GrOWL
could be used as follows:

1. Right click on place/port for which concept selection is required and
select respective menu (e.g "Set  Semantic Type") This will bring GrOWL
window to the top. It does not have to obscure all information about
workflow. The information that is relevant to selection may be shown on
the top ( eg - the pipeline for which the semantic type is selected and
the two actors which are connected by the pipeline) 

2. Browse ontology and find the concept. 

3. When done - double click on the concept. This should collapse the
growl window and bring Kepler to its standard view. 

In GrOWL   I followed this philosophy when made Metadata panel to
completely substitute main window when user wants to examine metadata. 

Option#3 Alternative metaphor for GrOWL usage is file selection dialog.
Similar to that we may have "concept selection dialog" which may have
layout as:

------------------------------------------
Filter Select Combo| Class Selection Combo
----------------------------------------------




GrOWL Panel,
Configured for
Close visible locality






-----------------------------------------------


Have a nice weekend,
serguei