Feature Request: Free text values for attributes

[darrudi]

Hi,

Currently Brat only allows binary and multi-valued attributes. Sometimes it is valuable to have free text fields for attributes. For example in Semantic Role Labeling we need to set the verb's frame number. This number is something between 1 and 7000 (the number of distinct verbs applicable). Implementing this with multi-valued attributes is not "neat".

The browser becomes slow when showing this huge combo box in the "Edit Annotation" dialogue. Moreover the annotator has to scroll down and pinpoint the correct frame number among all these 7000 numbers which is cumbersome.

Having a simple edit box to type in the frame number solves the problem! :)

Thanks

[seyyaw]

WebAnno https://code.google.com/p/webanno/downloads/list is based on brat and some of the issues you raised are implmented in it. Try the standalone version!

[spyysalo]

@amadanmath : could we support typing the attribute label to select from a very long list of possible attributes?

@seyyaw : thank you for the suggestion! Which issues here does it address?

[amadanmath]

Sorry, took me a while to get it right. Can you take a look at the new branch, autocompl-attr, and see how it works?

It does not allow free values (I had them a long time ago, but it was decided it was an unnecessary feature and they were taken out) and I can't reintroduce them now because they can't be saved on serverside; but the autocompletion might work. Hopefully.

[darrudi]

Dear Amadanmath,

I gave it a try and works fine! The autocomplete saves the day while working with a huge list!

Thanks for your help and support.

Ehsan Darrudi

[amadanmath]

@spyysalo, @ninjin, it's a fairly significant change, can I fold it into master?

[ghost]

@amadanmath: I can't see why not, it should get proper testing that way and possibly be included in the next release.

[amadanmath]

Merged into master.