[sldev] build 3109

[Melinda Green]

I have a suggestion for a solution that gives the best of both worlds by 
not adding extra controls, keeps the most common action one click away, 
and still lets you get at the other person-to-person actions with the 
least extra effort. The solution is to use a "flyout" button instead of 
regular buttons. The viewer currently uses one for the "Communicate" 
toolbar button and another for the "Save" button in the snapshot tool 
when set to save to disk. Take the snapshot case: It looks just like a 
"Save" button and works as you would expect, but there is an additional 
"Save As" option under the drop-down triangle control.

I've mocked up the XML to show what it would look like in an IM tab. See 
the attached a screen shot. Here's the XML for reference:

  <flyout_button bottom="-40" follows="left|top" height="20" 
label="Teleport" left="5"
       list_position="below" mouse_opaque="true" name="tp_btn" 
tool_tip="Offer teleport"
       width="85">
    <flyout_button_item value="profile" 
name="profile_item">Profile</flyout_button_item>
    <flyout_button_item value="teleport" 
name="tp_item">Teleport</flyout_button_item>
    <flyout_button_item value="im" name="im_item">IM</flyout_button_item>
    <flyout_button_item value="call" 
name="call_item">Call</flyout_button_item>
    <flyout_button_item value="pay" name="pay_item">Pay</flyout_button_item>
  </flyout_button>            

Neat, eh? Using this approach we can use whichever default operation 
makes the most sense in each situation, with the rest of the operations 
in the drop-down. If desired, we can probably even code it to 
automatically switch defaults depending upon friend online status, etc. 
Users who do not know about or discover the added functionality will be 
no worse off then they would be with the button schemes being considered 
here, and once they learn about the additional options, they will come 
to expect the same pattern in other P2P situations. The only thing that 
remains to be decided is the default behavior in each situation. We can 
continue to debate that here but this appears to solve the main problem 
of having either too many controls or not enough.

-Melinda

Ardy Lay wrote:
> Haha...  I see.  So roll-back it is.  I like the idea but do admit the 
> implementation of a button that
> changes labels can be confusing. I am often torn between always having 
> the button I want handy
> and keeping the UI simple by not duplicating anything.  In most cases I 
> just use what I find.
>
> (Takes notes for future reference.)
>
> Philippe (Merov) Bossut wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> OK, got it. After all folks, that's your project so, if everyone hates 
>> the feature (or at least, there's enough outcry that there's little 
>> incentive to change the previous behavior), lets roll it back.
>>
>> Sorry Yann...
>>
>> Cheers,
>> - Merov
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: flyout.png
Type: image/png
Size: 41631 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/sldev/attachments/20100121/8a2097a7/attachment-0001.png