jsilvestre
commented
12 years ago Addition to "Sorting the list".
I think it'd be nice to have two sorting presets: one by marker type and one by area. The list would look like something like this:
Preset "by area": -Queensdale ----[icon] title ----[icon] title ---- .....
Preset by marker type: -[icon]Waypoints ---- title ----- title
When the user sort manually the marker, the preset "custom" is selected. Preset "custom": -[icon] title marker1 -[icon] title marker2
Also I think the preset should be added to the sharing link.
lpdumas
CrankyOldMen
Hey,
Here is the idea I mentioned yesterday.
I think the tool is currently missing is a way to browse markers. Let make me be clear: currently I can choose to show or hide certain types of markers, let's say Arctodus (ranger pets). But I have no way to center the map on an Arctodus' marker. My idea would be to have a list of markers we could browse. Like a music playlist, the marker playlist would allow the user to focus on a marker (center the map on the marker), go to the next marker, go back to the next marker.
We could make the list with several markers from different categories and a whole marker category (type or group) could be added to the list. Obviously, lists could be exported in the form of a link to make the sharing easy. This would make GW2C powerful as hell since people like the guy from GW Atlas could just put the link of the playlist with all the "guided tour" markers. A fansite that makes a guide on ranger pets can just put the link of the list, etc. We could also propose users (via gw2c-backend) a list of popular or interesting lists like "hearts of queensdale" or whatever. This is actually an enhancement of the toggling system.
The following parts are trying to present the concept and how I would see its implementation with all the details I could think of.
Adding a marker to the list
Added marker are automatically shown on the map when added.
We can argue that adding a single marker is not done by the same interaction by the fact is that drag'n'drop is already used for the marker to move them (even if a special mode must be enabled).
The playlist widget
I am thinking about doing the same thing I did for the change list in the crowdsourcing tool: a first positioned drop-down menu that will hold the markers. The label would be the drop zone for add markers. The style would be changed a little so the users can't get confused with marker groups. I haven't think more deeply about it. That style change is also implied by the need of a too list for the widget : previous button, next button, trash icon, sharing button (see below "The playlist features").
The playlist features
If the title is too long, we truncate it. ("Help farmer Diah" => "Help farmer Di....")
Possible technical issue: if we make a link like http://gw2cartographers.com?plname=blablabla&pldesc=blablaplcontent=idmarker1;idmarker2;idmarker3;idmarker4;idmarker5 we could reach the maximum URL length. This will not likely be the case but there is still a little chance (http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/urllength.html; IE limitation is ~2000 characters).
I think we can "risk" it since IE is the only one that has that low limitation (and our app is already HTML5 etc. :D). Also, 2000/3 is still ~660 markers^â
[This part will be copy to a new GW2CBackend issue if the idea please] The crowdsourcing tool will show a new section with last submitted list and most popular list. I don't think validation before publication would be relevant, just for edge cases (empty list...). However a "report" button would allow users to tell admins there is something wrong (ie duplicate list) with a list.
This requires more thinkings since we can't edit a list (and if we let anybody edit any list, this could lead to griefing) and re-submit it. So I don't know, maybe we are going to need to ask for an email/password for those...(to have an actual owner that can modify the list). This should be addressed later anyway.
Edge cases
The project is actually not that big since I have already detailed a lots of things (well, all I wrote is obviously ready to evolve with your ideas, critics and various proposals). I mean if you like the idea and when we agree on the features, coding will be relatively fast (except for the exporting part, but we can do it later).
I hope you get what was my point here (I'll explain what you have not understood) and that you like the idea. I have tried to be accurate in the details and coherent in the whole proposition (interactions, UI). I can't wait to get your feedback!