[sldev] Notifications redesign

[Argent Stonecutter]

On 2008-02-13, at 02:52, Celierra Darling wrote:
> It sounds like we'd want both a chat log and an "event log", where the
> event log can sometimes be integrated into the chat log if desired
> (maybe like IMs can be now).

Indeed, I think we're converging on that idea.

>   And the current usage of the "Near Me"
> tab seems a bit incongruous with its name - it's logging events too,
> so it's handling things that aren't necessarily 'near me'.

Yes, it should be called "Chat" or "History" or even "Chat Log"  
again. Calling it what it actually is sounds like a radical isea, but  
I assure you that users will be most understanding about such a  
reversion. :)

(in general, changing user interfaces that people are used to is a  
bad idea... people get 'muscle memory')

>
> To kill multiple birds with a stone, I might suggest offering
> 'Communicate' tabs with functions like:
> - Full history
> - Nearby chat
> - Event log (maybe not as part of "Communicate")
> - All chat (maybe?)

"All Chat"

I'd like to see a general 'tabs that can be filtered' mechanism here  
and in inventory, so that when you open up an IM session with a  
friend you're really opening up an IM tab that's filtered on "<source  
type=agent>Your Friend's Name</>", even if it looks like an IM  
session with that person just like it does now. Similarly, in  
inventory, I'd like to have recent items be an inventory tab filtered  
on "<time start='$login_time'/>". The only change in user interface  
at the top level would be a little "(+)" button on the right, and  
clicking on this would open up a pulldown that looks like this:

+------
| Show messages where
|      (Resident is|v) [Your Friend] (-) (+)
| (OR) (Resident is|v) [           ] (-)
| (Cancel)                               (OK)
+------

Where the "(...|v)" indicates a pulldown, and clicking on "(OR)"  
would change it to "(AND)", and the "(+)" and "(-)" should be obvious.

Or like:

+-------
| Show items:
|       (Added this session|v)                (-) (+)
| (AND) (Containing        |v) [Pose       ]  (-)
| (AND) (That are          |v) (Animations|v) (-)
| (Cancel)                                        (OK)
+-------

I implemented something similar to this for an HTML database viewer  
in my last job and the users were absolutely ecstatic about it.

> I'm also not sure of how these should be logged.  It could be done in
> one big file; I think a bunch of IM programs use XML for event logging
> amongst the chat.  Or, maybe "all chat" should go into 'chat.txt', and
> all events into some other file.

I think that having the files in your profile directory named by the  
resident or group they originated from, or chat, would be useful...  
these could even remain on disk in the existing "[time] User Name:  
message" format if that remains unambiguous. The events log should be  
in "events.txt" in a format similar to the displayed format but with  
possible embedded XML:

[18:32] Kamilion Schnook has offered you <object uuid='...'>Object</ 
 >. <accepted time='18:33'>