[Gnumed-devel] Waiting list improvements needed

[Jim Busser]

I am noticing that wxWidgets always sizes the right-most column  
"hugely" at the expense of crowding the others, perhaps because this  
column *potentially* hold the most content.

I am wondering whether to display a "trimmed" value (trimmed of blank  
space) would provide better default sizings among columns? Or would  
that hobble the user by refusing them (on edit) access to the full  
storage which the backend table (column) definition would have  
otherwise accommodated?

Do the widgets support column clicking as a determiner of sort order  
or are the headings static i.e. unlinked to the middleware?

Can we improve on the current (cvs rc4) GUI labeling inside this plugin?

- in the column names, the "!" seems to me insufficiently  
informative... all the other columns have words, can we use "Urgency"  
because this is the same label as is used anyway inside the editing  
area?

- among the buttons, we do not have a consistency in what they relate  
to... I would have thought that (unless clearly labeled otherwise)  
the buttons would pertain to the Waiting list items however:

- - the Activate and Activate ± buttons do not activate the waiting  
list items, they activate the patient

- - the Activate ± does not "plus minus", it Activates the patient  
and -- without confirmation -- "minuses" the waiting list item. The  
user who did not realize this has now *lost* whatever was to be done.

What approach could most suitably allow a "removed" item to be re- 
examined? Could the v12 schema (or v11 with fixups) be altered to  
create a column "Status"? My suggestion would be a default of "NULL"  
with the ability to store "+1" (1) to denote "completed" and "-1" to  
denote "removed". The widget could then default to display  
"Incomplete" items with toggles to permit alternatively the review  
and searching among "Completed" and "Removed" items.

In the meantime I would suggest:

- change Activate to
        Activate Person

- change Activate ± to
        Activate Person ±
*and*, when this button is clicked, present to the user the dialog
        "Activating… also remove this waiting list item?" (Default "Yes")

NB: can the user still see what it was that they had clicked, in  
focus, as they would answer the above dialog, in case the user had  
made an incorrect click?

Also, after Activating a patient, it is annoying that it is the  
waiting list that may contain the task that needs work *after*  
patient activation, but the focus has since switched to some  
different plugin as a consequence of post-search activation settings.  
Therefore two questions:

1) can Waiting list patient activation ignore post-search settings  
(which may only be sensible to obey when the wait list item was  
removed as part of the activation?)

2) I can imagine other situations where an office helper or doctor  
wishes to remain inside the same plugin (which is different than  
their post-search setting) across multiple different patients.  
However there is no way in
        GNUmed > Preferences > User interface > Patient search > Initial plugin
to "unset" a selection which would be the way I think this could be  
handled. Wishlist? Difficulty?

"Remove" button. SInce it does not remove the Person (it removes the  
waiting list item) it could do with "Remove waiting list item" but I  
would accept to leave it as it stands, "implied".

"Properties" button... too technical, and unclear. This IMO is not  
the right word, as we are not always "fixing" the item (as implied by  
the wrench icon) nor necessarily altering the "Properties" since we  
may only be updating the textual details, while keeping urgency and  
zone the same. Therefore can we just name this button "Edit"?

"Up" "Down"... I incorrectly predicted that these would move the  
focus up or down the list, whereas what they seem to do is to alter  
the "float level" of the selected item within the list on some (non- 
visible) basis, even over-riding the "Urgency". If any item were to  
be moved up using such a tool, with the result that the item newly  
rests among items with a higher urgency it would seem to me that the  
urgency should be auto-upgraded, But I do not know what it would mean  
when as a consequence of these button pushes the item could cross  
through some zone.

Also re the Up Down buttons:  any item that was selected, upon being  
acted on, loses focus, and needs re-acquisition of focus after each  
button push. Keeping of focus despite the Up, Down, and Edit (and  
Activate) clicks would be helpful but maybe the wxObject does not  
support this by virtue of refreshing the display with no option but  
to lose the focus. But maybe there exists a way to "remember" the  
item and if it remains in the listing, to re-acquire the focus.

Also can the "Remove" and "Edit" and "Up and "Down" buttons all be  
made smarter so that if no "Waiting list" item is in focus when  
clicked, the status area reports

        No waiting list item selected.