Filtering list of items by folders

Question

We're introducing folders into our app and I'm having a hard time figuring out the layout.

Here's what I know:

1. The items will be draggable onto the folders.
2. One item can be added into multiple folders
3. Items can be viewed one folder at a time, no multi select on folders
4. Items can be sorted by date, title
5. Items can also be filtered by status (published, unpublished, draft)

In order to cancel a folder view, I added the filter by status in the sidebar above the folders. So when you click on any of the 4 links above, it cancels the folder view.

The I realized that this was not ideal, because some users will need to see all the unpublished items from a particular folder, and my solution makes that impossible.

The other idea I had was to put the status filter inside a dropdown and place it next to the sort dropdown and have a "View all items" link in the sidebar. But then I'll have 2 "view all" links: one in the sidebar, and one as the default option of the status filter.

Any idea on how to better organize the layout in my situation? Thanks!

Answer 1

2. One item can be added into multiple folders

If the item is not duplicated when added to multiple folders, then it sounds like you're talking about tags, not folders. I think this might be easier if you think about it as tags, and filtering the listings (similar to faceted navigation / etc).

Answer 2

Here are my two thoughts:

1) I'm not sure why the status filter needs to have "view all" as the default? You are going to sort the elements some way anyways so why not have the default sorting method also as the default for the filter? //Edit: I read your post again and now I understand. It's a filter, not a sort. In that case you could maybe just have "all" instead of view all?

2) I think one way to organize the left hand navigation would be to show the hierarchy in the navigation layout and have the top level be the "view all" link. Here is an image of what I mean: