Action Tags concept for Fedora PkgDB

Martin Bacovsky mbacovsk at redhat.com
Fri Oct 23 14:28:33 UTC 2009


Hi,

I am working on online application database which is becoming part of Fedora PkgDB.

Online Application Database was separate project called Amber in the past, but as there had been 
similar features developed in the Fedora PkgDB, we decided to merge our efforts. 

In Amber definition there is suggested different concept of apps organization. I like the rasoning 
there and would like to implement it in pkgdb. I'd like to know your opinion on this. 

In Online Application Database definition, there are defined two primary use cases I am trying to 
address:

1/ I want to do 'X' with my computer.
    Where 'X' might be quite complex task like 'Import videos from my camera and put them on 
YouTube'

2/ I can already do 'X' with my computer, but maybe I can do it better with different software.

There are also some suggestions how to achieve this there. 
For more information look at Amber definition - 
https://fedorahosted.org/amber/wiki/Definition.


I followed some of the suggestions and this is how I would like to implement it in Fedora PkgDB:

Task
-----
- Task is container that will allow us to break complex task into more 'atomic' parts. This should 
allow us to create toolsets needed for completition of complex tasks.
- Task consits of one or more Actions.
- Actions shall be added by creating new Action or by choosing from the list of the existing ones.
- Task shall be defined by pkgdb users .

Example:
Task: Import videos from my camera and put them on YouTube
Actions: [Capture video, Edit video, Encode video, Upload video to YouTube]

Action
--------
- Action is atomic task
- Action shall be defined by PkgDB user either as part of Task definition process or as standalone 
entity. 
- Actions should be used instead of current tags. (I believe replacing current tags would help to 
avoid confusion from two kinds of tags.)

Application tagging
-----------------------
There is not much difference against current tagging system.
Users shall be tempted to input verbs instead of nouns:
    "I use this application to ________________ and give it ***** stars."
Input box shall feature AJAX search for existing actions to reduce duplication.
User ratings (http://mbacovsk.fedorapeople.org/Amber/mockups/Fedora_app_page.png) shall be updated 
accordingly.

Note: I am thinking of keeping categories imported from .desktop file as read only information

Search
---------
Both Tasks and Actions shall be included among other targets for search (app names, descriptions, 
comments, etc)


Does it make sense? 
Do you think it would be acceptable/ understandable for common users?.
Any comments and ideas will be appreciated.


Regards,
Martin




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