Issues regarding sorting order, clouds and queries.

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Marcel
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Issues regarding sorting order, clouds and queries.

Post by Marcel » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:19 am

Can you please add an option to define the sorting order in the Fortress Item Tracking open items view. Currently, the open items view lists all open items sorted by priority. Since we have categories like "hardware", "software" and "mechanics", I am, as a Software Engineer, only interested in items related to software. When I click on "category", the sorting order first takes no effect, but only removes the tabs "open" and "test" (verify?) at the top of the page. Why is that? Is this a bug or really intended to work like this?
The next time I press the "category" field, all items are sorted by category, but a second sorting criterium is hard to see. Probably the items are sorted by modify date. But I like to have the items sorted by "category", "priority" and then probably "status" and "creation date" (!)

I could use the "show cloud" feature to filter the items to only show the "software" items. This seems to work perfectly, but also in this case, the tabs "open" and "test" (verify?) disappear at the top of the page and I am not able to quickly switch between "open" and "test" items anymore.

Another disadvantage of the "show cloud" feature, which I like being adjusted, is that whenever a filter has been set up, one can not simply change the current filter to widen the selection results, only narrow it further down. For example, when a filter is set up using show cloud - category - software, followed by show cloud - status - open, a criterium of the filter cannot be undone like show cloud - status - busy (or e.g. test). One is stuck to the currently set up filter.

Furthermore, the "show cloud" feature also cannot specify more than one value for a field. Examples are: show cloud for status "duplicate" and "disregard", or show cloud for assignee "person1" and "person2". This would really be handy.

I could of course create my own queries, but then I have to create queries for each project I have access to. I cannot copy or share queries between multiple projects. At least not that I am aware of..... But I do not really want to use these queries since I love the ease and flexibility of the open item or my open item pages which allows you to quickly browse between the open items of one or more projects.

Can you please look into the above mentioned items?

Thank you,
Marcel

Beth
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Re: Issues regarding sorting order, clouds and queries.

Post by Beth » Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:37 pm

Is this a bug or really intended to work like this?
I think you found a bug. I'll get that logged.

What you are going to find most useful in your case is the Query function. You can then save queries for faster access to the same queries. There are sort orders present in the query page, and you can have it display only the open items that pertain to your category, and in tags enter in "software."

If you need more than 2 fields for sorting, I can put in a feature request.

I'll need to enter a feature request for editing saved queries.
Furthermore, the "show cloud" feature also cannot specify more than one value for a field. Examples are: show cloud for status "duplicate" and "disregard", or show cloud for assignee "person1" and "person2". This would really be handy.
The ability to filter on more than one cloud item is present in the query page. Again, I can put in a feature request. It seems like it would be redundant, but then maybe I'm just not seeing the customer viewpoint.
I cannot copy or share queries between multiple projects.
If the query is exactly the same, then the query can be run from the All Projects page or the Open page that covers all projects and it will then span all projects.

I can put in feature requests on everything though if you want and will get the bug logged. Your feedback is appreciated.
Beth Kieler
SourceGear Technical Support

Marcel
Posts: 66
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:22 am
Location: The Netherlands
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Re: Issues regarding sorting order, clouds and queries.

Post by Marcel » Thu Aug 28, 2008 5:49 am

Having read you comments on my previous post, I now like to share my thoughts with you on this topic again.

In my point of view the "open" and "my open" pages are a very useful way to quickly browse to items of one or all projects. Especially now Fortress supports filtering through the "Show cloud" feature. I think it is odd when one should setup or navigate to a custom query, when a list of items which one is interested in, is already displayed on the screen. (The new query would probably list other uninteresting items in the results as well, as it is predefined and cannot know the user's exact interest at this precise moment.) Besides, the custom (saved) query cannot be adjusted quickly. The "show cloud" feature which has an ability to widen the filter results (as mentioned in my previous post) in combination with the option to define the sorting order in the "open" or "my open" pages -which prefarably be selected by clicking the customize button- can be a very powerful way to quickly define custom queries and adjust them instantly, creating far more flexibility than setting up or using (saved) queries!

In my opinion, running extended queries should only be done when one is searching for specific items. E.g. search items by keyword, search items found in a particular version or showing items marked as "disregard" etc.

The "open" and "my open" pages can be made even more powerfull, by adding a 3rd tab to them showing all items with status type closed. This was also suggested in topic: http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic.php?t=5598
In my earlier posted topic http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=8914 , in which I referred to the first link written here, I suggested to not add this 3rd tab to the "open" and "my open" pages, but add the tab to the projects At-a-glance overview. I now think it would be very practical if you would do both. The "open" and "my open" pages would then be able to show all items in a certain project which are open, pending or closed, by just clicking on the different tabs !! Since these pages would now also show closed items, and names like "open" and "my open" seem rather confusing, I suggest renaming those pages to "items" and "my items".

Summary of feature requests:
Add a 3rd tab to the "open" and "my open" pages.
Ability to widen search results obtained using the "show cloud" feature.
Define the sorting order of the item list in the "open" or "my open" pages.
Ability to sort item lists or search results on more than two fields is always a good enhancment.

Finally, I wanted to let you know I I think I found another bug. When the user clicks on the "customize" button, the previous screen is not shown when the user clicks on the "cancel" button at the bottom of the page.

Beth
Posts: 8550
Joined: Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:24 pm
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Re: Issues regarding sorting order, clouds and queries.

Post by Beth » Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:30 am

Just an update that everything was logged and noted previously.
F: 13690, 13666, 13741, 13742, 13743
Beth Kieler
SourceGear Technical Support

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