Structure

Here is a rough proposal for an Attribute manager in Chandler. A lot of the virtuality is revealed in this. It's basically a cross between our 2-dimensional, faceted sidebar and the Apple multi-pane file browser.

The Kinds are hierarchically arrayed across the top, and they intersect the Attribute types in the left-hand most column.

Since each Kind can have multiple sub-Kinds users can rotate what sub-Kind appears in the Kind bar by using a pull-down menu. If the super-Kind is selected in the Kind bar, the user will see the union of attributes for all of that super Kind's sub-Kinds.

The set of Attributes defined for any Kind is the same set that appears when you Stamp an item as that Kind.

The set of Attributes you see in the second column is a direct result of which Kind(s) and Attribute types(s) are selected.

The set of Attribute values you see is a direct result of which Attribute(s) are selected.

The detail view in the right-most pane displays the details of the item that is selected in whichever pane has a focus.

The detail view is BLANK if multiple items are selected within in the same pane.

Users can add and delete attribute sets, attributes and attribute values.
Users can set options for each as well (ie. some attributes will have predefined or mutually exclusive attribute values)

To the right of the note-derived Kinds are Collections and Accounts.

Collections are hierarchical as well, since there can be different types of collections.

Accounts actually replaces the set of Attribute types in the left-hand most pane. Attributes in Accounts are arranged by account: ie. Flickr, Amazon, .Mac, etc...

Interaction

Users should be able to Drag and Drop Attributes to any Attribute set or Kind in the Kind bar.

If a users DnDs an Attribute to a super-Kind in the Kind bar, then that attribute is applied to all sub-Kinds in that super-Kind.

Users should be able to Drag and Drop certain Atttribute values to certain Attributes (ie. for Attributes that have predefined values)

Users should be able to delete Attribute types, Attributes and Attribute values with the delete key.

Users should be able to define new sub-Kinds (the last menu item in each pull-down can be: Define new Kind)

• Attribute_manager.png: