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I'm currently working on a web-based project which will be showing a treeview of folders and files.

My question is, what must have UI features should I pack?

And specifically, how should I lay out a file/dir name search system?

Do you know of existing widgets I can try out (they don't have to be web based, even something like "the treeview in MyFavouriteIDE does this and works great").

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The features you need depend on what your users are trying to do! Can you provide more information? This feels like a lack of clarity of requirements/user understanding at the moment. – Peter Feb 15 '12 at 9:15
Is it truly just a view? That's hard to do wrong. – MSalters Feb 16 '12 at 13:20
I agree with Peter that it is difficult to recommend the must-have features when "must-have" is dependent on your specific implementation. In general, only include what you need, and have a hierarchy of features from "mission critical" to "nice to have" (how you present these features should reflect their importance to your application). I just wrote an answer along similar lines which may also help you explore this idea a bit more: ux.stackexchange.com/a/17978/12164 – robmclarty Mar 1 '12 at 21:23

closed as not constructive by ChrisF, Ben Brocka♦ Apr 15 '12 at 17:08

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2 Answers

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I'm thinking along the lines of the standard help tools.

They offer a tree view and often also a search feature that's preferably dynamically instant.

One example I have is the the Lotus Notes help tool. The program is pretty much worthless in its self but the help tool is good, which is a good thing because I've been consulting it on a big number of occasions.. =)

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Look in the applications you're using, I'm sure you'll find a similar help tool there to take ideas from.

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You ask several questions in one, so I start with answering one of them. I recently implemented a folder imitation of a category system with a tree view to the left and an 'inspector view' to the right.

Once you start implementing something common as that, users start to expect it to work like other implementations, in this case, the tree view of the Finder or Explorer.

  • Rename,
  • Drag and drop,
  • Expand, contract,
  • coherence with the 'inspector view' (normally to the right of the tree view), often showing some of the same contents,
  • Select click,
  • Double click,
  • New Item / Folder
  • ...

These are not Must haves and could be a big workload. Just for you to differ expectations from must-haves. Weigh your stones wisely :)

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