On 05/04/11 21:35, Devayon Das wrote: > Hi Jeroen, > > Thanks for clarifying. Could you elaborate on where else such UI > usability improvements could be made? > Also, about the SMW query language, I have found documentation on > http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Semantic_search and the related > links. Is there any further documentation available anywhere else?
I think more insights can mainly be found in the code: The internal structure of query descriptions is defined by the objects in [1]. While this could use some more documentation, it captures the very core of what a query condition /is/. The basic types of printout requests are defined in [2]. Each part of the query processing and result formatting accepts some parameters. Most relate to query formatting, and each query printer (see [3]) documents its own parameters. This said, I do not at all think that the overall task of building a replacement for Special:Ask is too small for 3 months. Maybe the opposite is the case. The query builder in Halo has been constructed by quite a few people over a long time, and I am still not really convinced by the interface. What we envision is a really compelling solution, easy, scalable to user needs, responsive, extendible, and most importantly: cleanly and elegantly coded. In other words, we are not talking about improvements to the existing code but about completely new code to replace it. The UI design as such will be a challenge, since nobody (AFAICT) has yet built a UI for such expressive queries for a broad audience. Is it even possible to achieve something that /all/ readers can use? This would involve even the people who cannot edit pages. This might require us to have different types of UI -- we may need more than two tabs for "basic" and "expert" views! The possible UI approaches are very wide. Some obvious paradigms include: * form-based/query centred (current Special:Ask) * form-based/data centred (like Semantic Forms for queries) * browsing based (like Drilldown or Exhibit) * structured query builder (like in Halo) * graphical query builder (idea: draw up the searched-for relationships with a WireIt interface to specify a query) * some combination of the above (e.g. browsing-based with form inputs for property values) Obviously, all of these very diffferent views share some common aspects (same query model, desire to view and browse results, same parameters for printout, ...). So one would like to have a software architecture that provides such basics and allows "query UI modules" to be used on top of it. This should be extendible, i.e. extension should be able to register query UI classes that can be plugged into Special:Ask. A lot of architectural challenges here, and certainly a lot of coding to get two or three basic modules set up. Finally, all of this should be as interactive as possible while still being merciful on the server (live updates of query results, for example, might be a performance problem). Also, the use of Javascript in UIs is necessary, but the basic viewing of "further results" must still work with non-Javascript browsers. I think that the above is already more than one can hope for in three months, on average. Within this area, the focus can be put on those things that are most interesting to you. If you should unexpectedly run out of work after 2 months, then we will have no problem to find a lot more high-impact activities in this field to continue (such as contextual search features accessible from the article view -- "search for similar pages"). Anyway, don't be overwhelmed by the above. We can go step by step. In any case, these changes can have an enormous impact in an area where SMW so far lacks a consistent approach. Most of the changes would directly affect user experience of hundreds or thousands of users, and maybe even open a path for other developers to contribute further search UI extensions (further increasing the practical impact). I am happy to mentor one or more projects in this space, or co-mentor together with Jeroen. Regards, Markus [1] http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/storage/SMW_Description.php [2] http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/storage/SMW_PrintRequest.php [3] http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/queryprinters/ > > On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 6:21 PM, Jeroen De Dauw <jeroended...@gmail.com > <mailto:jeroended...@gmail.com>> wrote: > > Hey Dev, > > > > I see that many people scoff at UI projects as being to 'easy'? > Is it a good idea to post as a proposal? > > I think this is an important project for increasing SMW usability, > and that it has been proposed by Markus is also an indicator it's a > good idea :) The project might not be _that_ easy, as the project > description states, you need to be familiar with all the > capabilities of the SMW query language and be able to create an > interface that's truly easy to understand and use (while retaining > all features). My main concern is that this project is probably not > enough work to cover 3 months. However, if you run out of work there > are similar improvements that can be made at other places in SMW and > related extensions. > > I'd be willing to mentor, or preferably co-mentor, this. I'm > familiar with the involved code and the SMW query language, but am > not an UI/usability person, so would be of limited help there. > > Cheers > > -- > Jeroen De Dauw > http://www.bn2vs.com <http://www.bn2vs.com/> > Don't panic. Don't be evil. > -- > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Xperia(TM) PLAY > It's a major breakthrough. 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