Folder hierarchy should prioritize user files, not bury them

I totally agree. Any thoughts on a migration strategy for current
users? would it be better to rearrange their files on their filesystem
or tell them to move the files themselves?

--
Elliot Murphy

On Jul 30, 2009, at 11:23 AM, David Siegel
<email address hidden> wrote:

> Public bug reported:
>
> Currently, Ubuntu One places a directory called "Ubuntu One" in the
> user's home folder. Inside of "Ubuntu One" are two directories, "My
> Files" and "Shared With Me." Placing a top-level folder in a user's
> home
> folder is a very bold move, and we should ensure that the organisation
> of that folder is usable and promotes the user's interests.
>
> The current hierarchy places only two folders in the "Ubuntu One" top-
> level folder, giving the impression that the Ubuntu One folder is only
> incidentally useful as an intermediate step to other folders instead
> of
> implicitly valuable; Ubuntu One is seen as the object that takes you
> to
> the place where you keep your files, rather than the place where you
> keep your files This removes the user from the contents of "My
> Files" by
> an extra level (resulting in many extra clicks and keystrokes on a
> daily
> basis) and introduces the moniker "My Files," suggesting that other
> things inside the Ubuntu One folder may not be "My Files."
>
> Current hierarchy:
>
> HOME
> -- Ubuntu One
> -- My Files
> -- Documents
> -- Pictures
> -- Shared With Me
> -- shared file 1
> -- shared file 2
>
> The proposed hierarchy moves the contents of "My Files" one level
> closer
> to HOME, and gets rid of the "My Files" name. Upon opening "Ubuntu
> One,"
> the user has immediate access to her files, and the shared files are
> seen as part of her files, rather than something that is not hers:
>
> HOME
> -- Ubuntu One
> -- Documents
> -- Pictures
> -- Shared (With Me)
> -- shared file 1
> -- shared file 2
>
> ** Affects: ubuntuone-client
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> Folder heirarchy should prioritize user files, not bury them
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/406938
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
> One hackers, which is subscribed to Ubuntu One Client.
>
> Status in Ubuntu One Client: New
>
> Bug description:
> Currently, Ubuntu One places a directory called "Ubuntu One" in the
> user's home folder. Inside of "Ubuntu One" are two directories, "My
> Files" and "Shared With Me." Placing a top-level folder in a user's
> home folder is a very bold move, and we should ensure that the
> organisation of that folder is usable and promotes the user's
> interests.
>
> The current hierarchy places only two folders in the "Ubuntu One"
> top-level folder, giving the impression that the Ubuntu One folder
> is only incidentally useful as an intermediate step to other folders
> instead of implicitly valuable; Ubuntu One is seen as the object
> that takes you to the place where you keep your files, rather than
> the place where you keep your files This removes the user from the
> contents of "My Files" by an extr...

I completely agree too, it would be much cleaner imho. No idea how to migrate existing users... can we just not migrate them? Only do something different for people that start from scratch?

Big +1 on this.

I think migrating current users is probably better, but just doing this for users from scratch may work.
I don't know if you want to maintain both code paths though...

Not migrating would certainly be easier and would seem like it would continue to work. It does mean that quite a lot of people, the early adopters, will be blogging/advocating/teaching people who are seeing a different UI, which could be unhelpful.
Does the client use inotify? If so does it have a low-overhead ability to tell the server about IN_MOVED_FROM and IN_MOVED_TO? If so then migrating ought to be quite easy and could be removed post-Karmic because everyone would be migrated by then. The only impact I can think of would be that people would need to update any symlinks/bookmarks that point into Ubuntu One/

On 07/30/2009 06:53 PM, Martin Albisetti wrote:
> Big +1 on this.
>
> I think migrating current users is probably better, but just doing this for users from scratch may work.
> I don't know if you want to maintain both code paths though...
>

I don't think there are two code paths. It's just that existing users
would still have the extra 'My Files' directory.

Please go ahead with implementing this without the migration for
existing users, because it's more important to get this done right away
and no harm results if we don't migrate, and some people may have other
things on their system counting on finding the files in the same place
where they left them (symlinks, configuration directories, default
save-to locations, etc.). We can then explain to existing users how to
move their files from 'Ubuntu One/My Files' into 'Ubuntu One' if they
want to.

Im not sure i like this proposal. How do we manage the magic "shared with me" folder? What happens if the user actually wants to create that folder? Do we filter it server side or client side? Will we have the same tree on the web?

This change is incompatible with the idea of having many roots (a simple and reusable concept).

It looks simpler on the outside, but how this change would work is unclear.

Ok, so after a long chat with Lucio, this seems to be a plan which can make karmic:

1) Make the default links to the Ubuntu One folder go to ~/Ubuntu One/My Files/ (this is both the applet and the link in "nautilus bookmarks"
2) Have a symlink to the "Shared with me" folder in ~/Ubuntu One/My Files with a nice icon that conveys what that folder is

It will provide the desired experience to users (they have direct access to their files), and it won't require a massive re-architecture of the system.
We can revise this after karmic, and decide if we really want to pay the cost of making the "Ubuntu One" have your files on the top level for the users who choose different paths to get to their files.