[Usability] Re: RFP: File chooser user interface

[Dave Malcolm <david davemalcolm demon co uk>]

On Mon, 2003-09-08 at 14:27, Owen Taylor wrote:
[snip]

> 
>  - The application can provide a set of filters for the user to choose 
>    between. (JPEG files, etc)
> 

Sorry to be asking API questions at this late stage, but: 
(i) does the application supply the human-readable name of each filter?
(ii) does the API allow the client code to get which filter the user had
selected when he/she clicked on "OK"?

My rationale:
Within Conglomerate I have a plugin interface for importers which
support various MIME types.  At the moment the user picks a file, and
then, if there's ambiguity about which importer to use, we have to pop
up an additional dialog asking which one.

It would be much better to integrate the choice of importer into the
file chooser dialog; the human-readable filters might look something
like this:
- "Open XML file (*.xml)"
- "Import DTD file as RELAX NG Schema (*.dtd)"
- "Import DTD file as W3C XML Schema (*.dtd)"
- "Open OpenOffice Writer file (*.sxw)"
- "Import OpenOffice Writer file as DocBook 4.1.2 (*.sxw)"
- "Import Word file as DocBook 4.1.2 (*.doc)"
- "Import Word file as TEI Document (*.doc)"

Hopefully you get the general idea.  Having both (i) and (ii) above
would allow this.

[snip]


-- 
David Malcolm
www.conglomerate.org