xhqiao89
commented
7 years ago twhitvine[CodePlex]
Ah, I see! Yes, this is even more confusing once the Draw Rectangle tool comes into play.
Click Draw Rectangle. Click the floating Select tool in the map pane and draw a box. Instead of selecting features, it draws a search rectangle. In the ribbon, click Select Features to be able to select features in the map with the Select tool.
As the GUI currently stands, I think that clicking the Select tool should deactivate the Draw Rectangle tool. However, I think both the user experience and the underlying source code would be simplified by removing the Draw Rectangle tool altogether. (I think others on the User Committee disagree with me on this.) The Current View option works a whole lot like the Draw Rectangle option. They both search based on a user-defined box. The advantage of the Current View option is that the extra step of drawing a box isn't necessary; also, you don't have to worry about how the Draw Rectangle tool interacts with other tools like the Select tool. I think the only tangible advantage that the Draw Rectangle tool has is when the user wants to draw a very thin rectangle over a large area, as in, Give me sites within 20 miles of the USA-Canada border. I think this is getting into what should be a discussion in another issue.
Anyway, regardless of what happens to the Draw Rectangle tool, I still think implemented the proposed solution from the original post would be helpful.
twhitvine[CodePlex]
The Symptom In Search Area panel of Search tab, there is a button called Select Features. It is basically the Select tool renamed. I discovered this because I was trying the following:
With Current View selected, search for data. When search is finished, change a search parameter and click Search again.
I was frustrated because HD said to please provide a target area for search. But I had Current View selected from my previous search! Oh, no, now it is switched to Select Features. Why did it change my search area option after a search?
I think the answer is, HD assumes after a search that I want to select search results in my data sites layer in my map. In some cases that is true, but in my case it was not and I got confused. The Problem I think the problem is that the Select Features tool is trying to serve two purposes: 1) To let the user choose polygons in the map to constrain a search, and 2) to let the user select data sites in search results. I don't like it when an application changes options on me (Current View to Select Features) without asking me. And I think it's redundant for the Select Features tool to serve purpose number 2 when we now have the Select tool floating on the upper left corner of the map. Proposed Solution 1: Rename Select Features to Map Layer. Let it only serve the purpose of selecting a polygon map layer for search. Do not automatically switch to it after search is complete. You could, however, automatically activate the Select Features tool. I wouldn't mind that as much.
2: If Map Layer is no longer tied to the Select tool, then you can do some other cool things like:
Only let the user select polygons when the tool is active. When the user activates the tool, prompt the user for which map layer to use.
3: Also, I don't think you should require the user to select polygons. If no polygons are selected, the search should happen on all polygons present. If it's too big of an area, HD already has a message box that shows saying that the search area is too big -- are you sure you want to continue?