Submitted by viking on 2021/09/28 19:21

Ecco has a  very powerful multifolder column feature that I use a lot. An example of it is shown in this post:

https://infoqubeim.com/drupal5/index.php/comment/22423#comment-22423
(Edited link)

and this image:

x

Instead of showing the value of the Projects column it shows the subfolder of Projects that contains the item.

This limits the number of columns that must be shown in the Grid w/o this feature.
Consider this example, where there item1 belongs to 3 subfolders of Parents1-3:
x
without the multifolder column feature, I would need to add 15 instead of 3 columns!:
x

Does IQ have the multifolder column feature? If so, I cannot figure out how to use it. If not, could this feature please be added...?

Comments

Hi viking,

Short answer is No

Long answer: IQ has other means to do the same:

  1. Starting with v118, the grid supports a new column type which is a tag branch (Doc is being written). In the Tags pane, right-click on a tag and select "Show this tag in grid". 
  2. Text columns can have a pop-up editor type with a multi-select option
  3. List can be filtered to only show some items, e.g. Projects = "Seattle" (same list as in Ecco showing the Projects folder)

In general, on can safely say that IQ relies less on fields (folders) than Ecco, because is has many more ways to categorize information.

That said, the way the new tag column type was implemented opens the way to doing the same for fields, so stay tuned !

Pierre_Admin
IQ Designer

p.s. Thanks for taking the time to take / upload screenshots. It would be even more beneficial if it contained real data as it is currently difficult to see what you want to achieve, hence more difficult to provide suggestions

 

I am sorry, but I don't understand how to use the new Tag feature to show what subfolder (sub-field) the item "belongs to".

Maybe this is something that will be implemented later for fields?
("That said, the way the new tag column type was implemented opens the way to doing the same for fields, so stay tuned !")

It won't help for text sub-folders, but only for checkbox type ones

Again, a practical example would help as I can't see why you'd want to do this... (i.e. why not use a single field)

 

My personal applications of this is not important, but I use this feature extensively in Ecco.
A "practical" example was shown above with the image from"TLI 101: Adding structure through top-level items," an article in the November 1995 issue of EasyEcco By Tom Hoots.
In my case, I don't only use check type sub-folders but also text type sub-folders.

If I use a single field, per my own example above, I would need 15 columns to track the information rather than just 3 (In some of my applications I have more than 5 sub-folders, so I would need even more columns).

I have been hoping for a couple of years that Ecco's Multifolder column feature would eventually be implemented in IQ, but maybe that is not possible with the current grid structure (that is from a 3rd party)?

My personal applications of this is not important, but I use this feature extensively in Ecco.
A "practical" example was shown above with the image from"TLI 101: Adding structure through top-level items," an article in the November 1995 issue of EasyEcco By Tom Hoots.

I disagree on this. A practical example is very useful to explain why it is required and why another method may not be as good or even better. If your hyperlink worked, I could see this post from Tom Hoots, but it did not. 

In order to show my own "practical" examples, I would need to share my financial strategies and I do not feel comfortable doing this....

Here is the exact permalink to a copy of the Tom Hoots article that David_H Shared:
https://infoqubeim.com/drupal5/index.php/comment/22423#comment-22423
(the previous link was to the same post but you need to scroll up a bit to see the article).

Anyway, maybe the Grid structure doesn't even allow the implementation of the Multifolder column feature?

In v118Pre8 (to be released soon):

  • New: Fields: ItemValues field: New column that shows all item values that are not currently displayed as a grid column. Show this column in sparse matrix type grids and in your search grid (to have a overall view of the item's values)

This should help !

Pierre_Admin
IQ Designer

That sounds great!

When it is available, please show an example on how to use it (e.g. like in my dummy example above).
I assume that this is different from the Tag branch (which I am confused about anyway)?

So this column basically shows the field values for columns that have not been added to the grid.
Not as elegant as showing the "subfields" in a column but I guess it may be workable. Thanks!

Not as elegant as showing the "subfields" in a column but I guess it may be workable

Let's us just say that it is different. If it does the job for your needs, as abstract as they seem to be, then that's good.

Hey, you may even find advantages to it, in particular when combined with all the other IQ features to reduce the number of fields required (IQ encourages field re-use, much more than Ecco did) 

The Item Values column only solves half the issue. It shows the subfield of the item, but it does not let me add the subfield to the item.

In Ecco, when I click on the column, it shows all the subfields so that I can add a subfield to the item. See this screenshot, where I added the subfield P1_sub2 with text "Add new value" to item1 in the Parent1 column.

x

Hi viking,

Indeed, it is a read-only column. I know exactly how the Ecco column worked...

The Properties pane (F4) is your friend here, with its super-assignment powers (values, forms, allfields sections)

 

How could I easily (w/o having to search through all the fields in the property pane) assign the P1_sub2 field to the item? Forms are not suitable as I would need to create a lot of forms for every subfield.
As you know, it is super-easy in Ecco (per the screenshot).

a couple of ways:

  1. Form: 1 per parent (not 1 per sub-field...). Drag-drop fields to the forms to define your forms
  2. Turn-on treeview and simply start typing the name of the parent, auto-search is always on for the field name column
  3. F4 toggles focus from the grid to the pane. So the next time you go to the Properties pane, it is already in the same section as you left it
How do I ?