GEPS 041: New Selector

What should be part of the Selector?

What is the need?

1. Select one record (object) via the Graphical User Interface
2. Display main data, for letting the user make the selection
3. Usability and consistency
4. Search and filter features

Screenshots

Usage, goal and Usability

1. Selection
2. Edition

Additional features and related concepts

1. Reports
2. Filtering for selecting a group of records (objects)
3. Navigation, history and active objects
4. Runtime and performance
5. Selection expected by the user, marked and tagged objects
6. refining a selection

Filter vs. Search

There are two ways to find data in Gramps: Search and Filter.

• The Search will only match what is visible.
• Filters are not limited to what you see on the screen, but looks at the actual data.

See some filters for more details.

Search Bar

The current design of the Search bar lets us find visible data on active column. The Search Bar is often available on selectors.

Set of filter rules

For now, some selectors, on reports and on Family Editor, provide a fast filter, by default.

The Search bar is disabled and an additional Show all button is available at the bottom of the dialog.

These windows are trying to provide a quick and common selection of people.

e.g., filtered by gender on Family Editor, or bookmarked people on reports.

Interactive Search

For limiting a gtk issue on Search field, gramps42 has it own interactive search widget.

Just write the first letters of the word on the dialog, and the cursor will try to find this word.

Like the Find shortcut box, available with CTRL+F or CMND+F.

Limits on current selectors

1. Time for search
2. Performance
3. Few fast filter rules, by default
4. Consistency, mixup of features and widgets
5. Hierarchically grouping records (e.g., Person, Place) in the Selector cripples sorting capabilities. Sub-sorting within grouping by "Last Changed" is of little value compared for the entire list. Add option to use Flat lists?

Note, there was a Gtk SearchEntry bug (latency and collapsed seizure) limiting a good search match: max_length(3). Fixed since gramps 4.2.0, see bug report 1450.

Proposals

Optional proposals.

Displayed columns

Current Selectors:

Selector	Columns and search keys	Interactive Search key
Person	Name, ID, Gender, Birth Date, Birth Place, Death Date, Death Place, Spouse, Last Change	Name
Family	ID, Father, Mother, Last Change	ID
Event	Type, Main Participants, Date, Place, Description, ID, Last Change	Type
Place	Name, ID, Type, Title, Last Change	Name
Source	Title, Author, ID, Last Change	Title
Citation	Source: Title or Citation: Volume/Page, ID, Last Change	Source: Title
Repository	Title, ID, Last Change	Title
Media	Title, ID, Type, Last Change	Title
Note	Preview, ID, Type, Tags, Last Change	Preview

New Selectors:

Selector	Columns	Interactive Search key	Search keys with regex support
Person	Name, ID, Gender, Birth Date, Birth Place, Death Date, Death Place, Spouse, Last Change	Name	Name, ID, Gender, Birth Date, Birth Place, Death Date, Death Place, Spouse
Family	ID, Father, Mother, Last Change	ID	ID, Father, Mother
Event	Type, Main Participants, Date, Place, Description, ID, Last Change	Type	Type, Main Participants, Date, Place, Description, ID
Place	Name, ID, Type, Title, Last Change	Name	Name, ID, Type, Title
Source	Title, Author, ID, Last Change	Title	Title, Author, ID
Citation	Source: Title or Citation: Volume/Page, ID, Last Change	Source: Title	Source: Title or Citation: Volume/Page, ID
Repository	Title, ID, Last Change	Title	Title, ID
Media	Title, ID, Type, Last Change	Title	Title, ID, Type
Note	Preview, ID, Type, Tags, Last Change	Preview	Preview, ID, Type, Tags

Fast filter by default

Ability to have a fast filter with the last active objects and bookmarked objects.

Some experimentations have been made on feature request 5024.

Current selector ecosystem already provides this ability.

See Person selector on reports and Father/Mother selector on Family Editor.

On gramps 4.2.2, there was a bug 9315 on the Show all/Search load.

Clever search for each selector

See selector and query on gramps-connect.

Ability to also use one search field matching on multiple columns (names, ID, dates, etc.)

See also search on filter rules editor

Interface for handling and selecting custom filters on selectors

• User Interface Style
• Mockups and new features since gtk+ 3.20.

Additional proposals

1. Replace the Show all check box at the bottom by a Switcher at the top of the dialog.

History

• Provide dynamic groups of objects based on the date of the last edition.

• • via API

time = object.get_change_time()

last = today
group1 = from today to 1 week back
group2 = from today to 2 weeks back
group3 = from today to 1 month back
group4 = from today to 6 months back
group5 = more than 6 months back

• • via Filter

sfilter.add_rule(rules.event.ChangedSince(["Today date", ""]))

where "Today date" uses ISO-date format.

• Displayed items can be sorted by change time

See also

• gramps/gui/selectors

• Database_Query_API

Feature requests

• 9837: More than 10 items in 'Latest Change' Gramplet list
• 9814: Expanded Place tree when selecting existing place
• 9276: Need ability to search alternate place names when selecting place
• 8762: Last Used places in the Select Place window
• 8743: Search for place needs more options
• 7342: Show "Main Participants" with events
• 6558: Optimize the use of citations
• 6332: Move home person to bookmark menu
• 5142: Keep selected the last selected source
• 5037: [Reports] More names listed in the person/family selector box
• 5024: By default, to display [Last Recent Used] and [bookmarked] objects on selectors
• 3655: "last modified" timestamp changes everytime a tree is accessed
• 12026: Add Existing Person is missing Find feature
• Discourse Topic: Ideas; QuickSelect combo-boxes

Others

• 9880: Time loading for person selector in census forms
• 9738: Select person dialog opens always expanded
• 9700: Select Place search & Source/Citation hierarchy should NOT automatically open
• 9315: [Regression]: filter set by default on selector is ignored on load (_init_)
• 9314: Two selectors on Places report can generate a confusion
• 9028: Find is broken when used in the Family selector
• 7536: Events model does not have 8 columns
• 7514: Searching on Listviews is VEEERYYY slow and typing echo is scrambled
• 7004: Only Event and Family Editors are checking if data_has_changed on save()
• 5032: Report selection logic
• 3653: Manage Family Trees Window shows as 'last modified' the time stamp of generating the tree
• 1450: Incremental Gtk Search is broken on View

Test

Some experimentations are available on a forked branch.

New Branch Based on gramps master branch, a new major branch with many changes. For tests, need to focus on Selector features

Download a copy, unzip the archive and run:

$ cd gramps_cryptic_rebase-Selectors
$ python3 Gramps.py -d "gui.selector"

create a new family tree, and import a copy of your data.

Resource path You may have to play with resource path.

$ ResourcePath.ERROR: Unable to determine resource path
$ export GRAMPS_RESOURCES=/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/gramps-5.2.0-py3.6.egg/share

Warnings

Tested some years ago with remaining indirect and unfixed issues (title, model, editors) because the focus was on possible modifications on Selectors. Should take it as a draft.

Performances

Test Code	People (1)	Families (2)	Events (3)	Places (4)	Sources (5)	Citations (6)	Repositories (7)	Media (8)	Notes (9)
id0	17565 individuals - 3918 surnames
id1	4009 individuals - 1031 surnames	1633	9426	1043	1376	2870	38	1542	924
id2
id3
id4

Configurations

Hardware Code	Gramps version	Processor	Clock	RAM	Storage	OS	User
H01	4.2.3	AMD FX-4100 quad	3.6 GHz	8 GB	SSD	..	Chris
H02	4.2.5	AMD FX-4100 quad	3.6 GHz	8 GB	SSD	..	Chris
H03	GEP041	AMD FX-4100 quad	3.6 GHz	8 GB	SSD	..	Chris
H04	4.2.5	Intel Pentium 4 HT	2.8 GHz	512 MB	HDD	Ubuntu 14.04 based	User:Romjerome
H05	GEP041	Intel Pentium 4 HT	2.8 GHz	512 MB	HDD	Ubuntu 14.04 based	User:Romjerome
H06	5.0.0-alpha (5099b42)	Intel Pentium 4 HT	2.8 GHz	512 MB	HDD	Ubuntu 14.04 based	User:Romjerome
H07	4.2.3	..	.. GHz	.GB	SSD	..	..
H08	4.2.5	..	.. GHz	.GB	SSD	..	..

Tests table legend

Test Code	Test Description
T01	Time to open the Person Selector, no search yet
T01_a	Time to find the person from Association tab on Person Editor
T01_b	Time to find the person from Selector on Reports, pre-selection
T01_c	Time to find one parent from Family Editor, pre-selection
T01_d	Time to find one child from Family Editor, pre-selection
T01_e	Time to open the active person from Form addon, no need search time
T01_f	Time to find the non-active person from Form addon
T02	Time to find the Family from Selector
T03	Time to find the Event from Selector
T04	Time to find the Place from Selector
T05	Time to find the Source from Selector
T06	Time to find the Citation from Selector
T07	Time to find the Repository from Selector
T08	Time to find the Media from Selector
T09	Time to find the Note from Selector

Performance results

You can add print statements, like:

import time
one = time.clock()
two = time.clock()
print(two-one)

then run gramps via console

Config	data	T01 (no search, build model)	T01_a (raw find and search)	T01_b (filter by user data)	T01_c (filter by sex)	T01_d (filter, skip list)	T01_e (no search, has_focus)	T01_f (alternative focus)	comments
H01	id0	2.5s	-	-	-	-	2.5s	-	expands only surname of person selected
H02	id0	18s	-	-	-	-	18s	-	expands all surnames
H03	id0	5s	-	-	-	-	5s	-	expands all surnames
H04	id1	4s<t<12s	7s<t<15s	>3s	<3s	6s	4s	7s	Sometimes, BaseSelector.__init__can take 2/3 of time
H05	id1	4s	~5s	~3s	~3s	~5s	4s	~6s	if filter does right, then few seconds for matching, else ~+3 seconds for finding
H06	id1	4s	~7s	~4s	~3s	~6s	5s	~7s	Do not have problem. Need ~+3 seconds for finding. Time close to GEP041 (~+1s).

Tests could be on BaseSelector as some objects do not have own _init_().

Config	data	T02	T03	T04	T05	T06	T07	T08	T09	comments
H04	id1	<1s	<1s	<1s	1s	<1s	<1s	<1s	<1s	very fast: +/- 3 seconds for matching, searching, finding.
H05	id1	<3s	<3s	<3s	<4s	<3s	<3s	<3s	<3s	fast: filter rules provide a user selection (last edited, last used, bookmarked, related, active), else, +/- 3 seconds for matching, searching, finding.

More

Config	data	T01 (no search)	T01_a (raw find and search)	T01_b (filter by user data)	T01_c (filter by gender)	T01_d (filter)	T01_e (no search, has_focus)	T01_f (alternative focus)	comments
H07	id2	1m	1s	10s	1m	1s	10s	1m	comments
H08	id2	1m	1s	10s	1m	1s	10s	1m	comments

Tests could be on BaseSelector as some objects do not have own _init_().

Config	data	T02	T03	T04	T05	T06	T07	T08	T09	comments
H07	id2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	comments
H06	id2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	comments