Properties

"New Property" has wrong affordances: "Choose a property" should not come before "Create a new property". The vast majority of the time, I am adding new properties. This is doubly so when I am creating a new space. For a new user, I expect this to be extremely confusing.

Adding a Property of Link Type through the Actions menu doesn't let you specify a Link Model: When I am editing a Thing, add a Property, and Create a new Property of Link Type, I get the option to set an optional Link Model. So far, so good. If, on the other hand, I go to the Actions menu, choose, Add a Property, and define the new property as a Link Type, I get no option to give it a Link Model.

As an Email Invitee, I should be able to enter User Values: That is, the owner should be able to send limited "invitations", that let you follow an individualized email link to authenticate you, but the authentication only lets you enter User Values.

Can't change a Property's Type, silently fails: You can try to edit the Type of a Property in the Editor. But it (used to) silently fail to take. Now it usually just gives you an error after you try.

Change the semantics of Required: This is a redesign, based on a suggestion from Alexx.

Deleting a Property from a Model should be more thorough: When I delete a Property from a Model, 3 times out of 4, I don't need that Property at all any more. But truly deleting it is a pain: I have to Show all Properties, go to the Property itself, and delete it manually. This should be easier.

Exactly One shouldn't apply to Model editing : User Story: When it's time to enter data into an instance of PagePanel, a Start Page and a Start Panel are both required; it's not a valid reference if either is blank. Hence, I have marked those as Exactly One. So far, so good.

When I edit the MODEL, however, I very much DO want to leave these fields blank. Any value I entered would be incorrect most of the time, requiring extra keystrokes and attention to delete it. Unfortunately, the editor will not currently let me do this.

External URL's Display Name should be prompted as "Label": Kate got to editing an External Link, and the "Display Name" is just plain confusing. It should show up as "Label" or something like that in the Editor.

I can replace *any* Property Value with a QL Expression: Huge, powerful and terrifying, but clearly correct. This would be the Querki equivalent of the common notion that, at the interface layer, a property can be either a value or a function.

I see no way to delete a Property from a Model.: I would expect this either to be an 0bvious button while editing the model, or at least available from the aacrions menu.

I should be able to associate Personal Properties with a non-Member: This is the trickier corollary of I should be able to manage properties on the Persons in my Space -- some of my Personal Properties should work even if we don't have a logged-in User.

I should be able to change an ExactlyOne Property to Optional: It is not unusual to create an ExactlyOne Property, fill in a bunch of data, and only then realize you don't need to fill that Property every time. So it would be helpful to be able to change it to Optional.

I should be able to change an Old Tag Set to a New Tag Set: It is a major hassle for Spaces that have existing Tag Sets to not be able to switch them over easily. This Space is a good example: I want to be able to switch the Features Tag over to New Tag Set.

I should be able to change the Type of a Property: This feature used to exist, then fell out when we rewrote the Client.

I should be able to create a Thing Property of type Person: We need to be able to assign Persons to Jobs, so we need this.

I should be able to define Aliases for a Thing: I want this desperately for the Carolingian Cooks Guild Space, where Sources often have several valid names, and I would like each of them to show up as a legitimate Tag.

I should be able to easily define a Choice Property: Currently, if I want to define a choice, I have to do it by hand: define the model and the instances, set Is a Choice, and create a Property. This should be one step under Create a New Property, with a specialized wizard.

I should be able to easily manage how Links to my Things render: This comes up in A Respectful Calm. The Display Name is a gender-neutral version of the Character's name, like "I Zubin", so when I link to a Character that's how it shows up. But I'd really like to be able to instead display the Full Name Property when linking like that -- it's usually what I want.

I should be able to manage properties on the Persons in my Space: That is, I should be able to add Properties to the Person Model in my Space, and be able to easily use those Properties in the running of the Space.

I should be able to specify a Unit Property: This has become High Priority due to the introduction of Duration. This is a classic metric: you're combining a quantity and a unit. Rather than doing this entirely ad-hoc, we should at least begin to introduce the key concepts behind Units, Conversions, and Metrics.

If I delete a Property from a Model, I should be able to delete it from all Instances at the same time:

In the default Space Default View, Pages should show their Summaries, if any: That is, if a Page has a Summary, that should be shown somehow in the default view.

It shouldn't be possible to enter illegal characters into Link Name inputs: For example, when creating a new Property in CreateNewPropertyGadget, you simply can't put illegal characters into its name. But if you then edit the Property later, you can enter them; you get an error when you try to submit. This should be more consistent.

Name deriving doesn't work for Spaces: Even if I turn on the "Derive Link Name from Name" flag, it doesn't work when changing the Name of a Space.

Need easier way to change property between Model Property and Instance Property: Drag-and-drop is fine when there are only a few properties. But with lots of properties - especially when there are multiple long-ish View properties - dragging is really annoying. (Especially since autoscrolling is slow and finicky, at least in Chrome.)

Pages should have the Summary Property: That is, Summary should be a standard Property on Pages.

Using a Large Text Property inline produces surprising effects: Embedding a Large Text Property in the middle of a line can screw up QText operators at the beginning of the value.

Validation meta-Properties should only show up if they are relevant, and then should be front-and-center: We're beginning to add new Properties such as Maximum Number Value, which are relevant only when applied to a Property of a particular Type or Types. Currently, those are buried in the long list of miscellaneous Properties you could add to something. But they should be context-sensitive. If the Property isn't the right Type, they should be hidden. If it is the right Type, they should be easier to find.

"Create a New Thingy" in Link selection has been long broken: When you have a Required/Optional Thing Property, the drop-down includes an option "Create a New whatever". This has been broken for, literally, years.

"Display Name" should be renamed to "Name", and "Name" to "Link Name": Kate reports that it's a bit confusing, and she's not wrong.

Can / should Properties use Display Name instead of Name?: Currently, I believe that Create Property sets the Name of the Property. But the rest of the world is turning Display Name centric. Should Properties use Display Name too?

Choice Order is not being respected: For example, look at "Character Gender" in A Respectful Calm. The options are not showing in the order specified in Gender.Choice Order.

Computed Name is seriously broken: See, for example, the listing for The Quest in the Period Games Space. The link to the reconstruction is hosed.

Display names with quotes -- "like this" -- are over-escaping: Probably a side-effect of recent Computed Name fixes.

Editing Choice Order Property lists all Things, not just the ones under this Model: See the Status Model in the Comics page. When I add Choice Order, I am getting all Things as my options, instead of just the Instances of Status as it should be.

Forbidden characters cause no-feedback fail: I start creating a new property. I enter, as its name, "character(s)". I enter other info, then click Create. Nothing happens. Guessing that the parentheses might be the problem, I remove them, and then the Create button works.

Forbidden characters are fine, but there ought to be a message telling me why I'm not able to Create.

I should be able to build a checklist in Querki: I've hit multiple times where what I really want is simply a proper Checklist Type. For example, in Querki's Design Notes, I really wanted a checklist for App Implementation. It could be hacked at the user level, but needs some enhancements under the hood to really sing.

I should be able to create a generic Choice Property: This is a major rethink of the notion of Choices, to be more general and powerful.

I should be able to create dependent Properties (at least for Choices):

I should be able to define a Property of type Person: I need this for the Arisia Job Management Space, in order to define the Assignment type.

I should be able to edit a Property, much the same way as I create it: This actually borders on a usability bug. Creating a Property is fairly easy, but modifying one is irritatingly hard. Once we are displaying the appropriate meta-Properties for a given Property based on its Type, the existing workflow (Actions -> All Properties -> the right Property -> Edit -> figure out the meta-Property -> add it) becomes utterly idiotic. Instead, I should be able to edit the Property straightforwardly.

I should be able to initialize a Date Property to the date when this Thing was created: This is a pretty common use case -- we often want a field that initializes to today, where "today" is the date when this Thing is created

I should be able to see the appropriate meta-Properties when I create a Property: This is the general case of a common specific problem: many Types really want to expose particular meta-Properties as visible to the User when he creates/edits a Property.

Is a Choice should not be inherited: This is a pure Model Property, and thus should not show up on Instances. It is annoying to see it appear on the Thing Editor when I am creating Choices.

Model Page should not use normal Page Header Property: If I set Page Header, the Model is using that. That often screws things up, since the Model isn't necessarily configured sensibly

Model View should not be NotInherited: Eric uses sub-Models more heavily than anyone else, and his sub-Models actually don't change the structure so much as they do identity. So this lack of inheritance is a pain.

Need a way to declare a dynamic version of Display Name: I'm hitting this a lot as I implement Use Cases -- we have "child" Things such as Reconstruction (in Cooks Guild) or Project (in Gallery). They delete their "name" in a programmatic way.

Numeric Input Length is broken: In Comics, tried to add Edit Width to the Issue Start Property. I set it to "4", and was given an error saying it can be no more than 12. WTF? Are we doing string comparison where we should be doing numeric?

Properties are losing their Names!: If you edit a Property that doesn't have a Display name set, the name goes away and it just shows its OID.

Properties are using the Thing Editor, but should use the Advanced Editor: In the long run, we should have a single, consistent, powerful Property Editor. But it definitely shouldn't use the Thing Editor.

Properties can't be deleted: Currently, deletion of Properties is disabled in the UI. (And, now that I look at the code, forbidden in the back end.) This is unfortunate, since it tends to cause dead Properties to stack up.

Views aren't working: For example, see the Issues by Modification Time "page" in this Space. The link just plain doesn't work!

When I create a Tag or Link Property, I should be able to create the Model right there: Experience has demonstrated that one of the most annoying workflow bugs is that I have to first create the Model, then create the Tag/Link Property pointing to it. This needs to be unified.

When looking at a Model, the Instance Properties aren't in the right order: The Instance Properties should show in the same order as in the Editors -- that is, according to the Instance Props list. Instead, they're showing in alpha order.