some thoughts on bookmarks (was Re: Better run dialog)

[Frank Worsley <fworsley shaw ca>]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about this some more and just want to share my
thoughts in this email.

Basically, I think it would be cool if we had an EggBookmark API, just
like EggRecentItems that lets any application easily add bookmark
functionality. There is really no reason to limit a generally useful
concept like bookmarks to the file manager and web browser.

I imagine that any application could create its own set of bookmarks
along with a description of what the bookmarks represent. For example,
GEdit might create bookmarks of "GEdit Documents". Every application
that utilizes bookmarks could then integrate them into its UI. At the
same time, the "Run" or "Go" dialog would be a central place to quickly
access all of my bookmarks. Here are some mockups:

http://frank.neatstep.com/stuff/gedit.png
http://frank.neatstep.com/stuff/nautilus.png
http://frank.neatstep.com/stuff/run-dialog-2.png

I really like the way the Epiphany bookmark editor works, so I imagine a
similiar one for this system. The "Edit Bookmarks" menu item in an
application would simply launch a Gnome bookmark editor application
along with a parameter specifying which subset of bookmarks should be
edited.

Right now I forsee files, folders, URIs, and applications as bookmarks.
However, it would be cool if, for example, in Evolution you could
bookmark a certain page in your address book or a recurring meeting in
your calendar. I'm not sure how that would fit in with the other items
mentioned above. I guess a meeting in the calendar could be bookmarked
as a special URI scheme that Evolution handles (ie: calendar://).

Anyway, I just wanted to throw these ideas out there. I think having
bookmark functionality for any application with a central place to
access all my bookmarks would be really great.

- Frank


On Sat, 2004-05-22 at 12:06, Frank Worsley wrote:
> Hi Calum,
> 
> On Fri, 2004-05-21 at 04:47, Calum Benson wrote:
> > There's no reason why they couldn't though (with some judicious renaming
> > of the feature)... the "Run" dialog on Windows accepts commands, URLs
> > and filenames, and does the right thing with any of them.
> 
> Continued from nautilus-list ...
> 
> I've also been thinking a little bit about how the run dialog could be
> improved. Now that we have spatial Nautilus I often use the run dialog
> to quickly open a directory that is somewhere deep in a hierarchy. I
> find it quicker to type in the path, than to click through and close a
> bunch of Nautilus windows.
> 
> I also use the dialog to quickly go to a URL; instead of opening a
> browser, waiting till the window is there, finding the location bar, and
> then typing the URL.
> 
> This has got me thinking, it would be nice if the "Run" dialog was
> actually a "Go" dialog that integrates my web bookmarks, file system
> bookmarks, applications, and recently used files.
> 
> To that end I have made a little mockup:
> 
> http://frank.neatstep.com/stuff/run-dialog.png
> 
> A dialog like that would make it really quick to go anywhere I want. The
> panel's "Run" action would become a "Go" action and could be on the
> panel as a one-click way to go to my favorite places. I got my ideas
> from the Epiphany bookmark editor.
> 
> Some notes:
> 
> * Instead of a treeview we could use the split pane view like the
> Epiphany bookmark editor.
> 
> * When a category is expanded, the second column shows the description
> of the item. For applications this is the description from the .desktop
> file, for web bookmarks it's the URL, for files it would be the full
> path (the title for a file would just be the filename).
> 
> * There should be an "Add Bookmark" button so the user can add whatever
> is currently typed in the entry as a bookmark. For URLs / commands he
> can enter a title, for files we just use the basename as the title.
> 
> * Dragging and dropping the icon that is next to the entry over a
> category will also add the bookmark.
> 
> * Tab-completion in the entry should work with applications, bookmarks,
> and file system paths.
> 
> * I have absolutely no code to actually accomplish this. ;-)
> 
> 
> What do you think about this?
> 
> - Frank
> 
> 
> 
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