[Patternfly] Truncation guidance for long names

Catherine Robson crobson at redhat.com
Mon Oct 24 15:59:18 UTC 2016 

+1 to needing both end and middle based on the use case.

On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:53 AM, Matt Carrano <mcarrano at redhat.com> wrote:

>
>
> The middle truncation is really useful for long path names that will all
> share the same prefix.  Think about things like files names or disk names
> that are required to display the full path name.  If out truncate the end,
> all of the name strings will be identical at a glance.  Middle truncation
> allows you to see what's different, which is usually at the end of the long
> string.
>
> I would expect that there are some standard algorithms out there for doing
> this.  End truncation is likely to be the default choice, but I think we
> need both.
>
> Matt
>
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:39 AM, Andres Galante <agalante at redhat.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Liz,
>>
>> That's great information, this is the first time I heard about truncation
>> in the middle of the word.
>>
>> I am sure that middle of the string truncation can be done with
>> javascript, but CSS only allows to do it at the end of it. I'd say that
>> unless there is a really good reason to do it in the middle lets try to
>> avoid JS.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Andrés
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Matt Carrano <mcarrano at redhat.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> This is great, Liz.  I think that your proposed text will add a lot of
>>> clarity to the choice between these two methods.  Will look forward to
>>> seeing some examples of truncated names and we can evaluate further.
>>>
>>> Matt
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Liz Blanchard <lsurette at redhat.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I've been thinking about truncation a bit and was looking into some UX
>>>> standards on the topic. It's all very much in line with the examples that
>>>> Greg and Ju have given. What do you all think about extending the
>>>> PatternFly "Truncation" section on the Terminology and Wording page [1] to
>>>> include something like the following...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *"Using an ellipsis to truncate a long string is recommended. There
>>>>> are two different methods that could be applied. One is to truncate at the
>>>>> end of the string "abcdef..." and the other would be to truncate in the
>>>>> middle of the string "abc...ghi".Choose the method on the basis of whether
>>>>> text at the end or in the middle of the string is more likely to
>>>>> differentiate the item. This would be dependent on the domain.On a property
>>>>> website, for instance, an address string will usually end 'Road' or
>>>>> 'Street'. So the form 'abc...def' won't be much use as the final characters
>>>>> will almost always be 'oad' or 'eet', neither of which help the user.If the
>>>>> answer is not clear, default to the 'abcdef...' form over 'abc...ghi'.
>>>>> Partial words will most likely be easier to guess from the initial
>>>>> characters than the end ones. 'Openi...' is much more recognizable than
>>>>> '...ening', for example."*
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'd also like to add in a statement where we suggest the use of the
>>>> tool tip on hover to view the entire string.
>>>>
>>>> I'm working on some specific use cases with the Storage product and we
>>>> definitely are seeing the need for both methods. More commonly, we will be
>>>> using method 1 for things like Cluster Name and Pool Name, but we are
>>>> considering method two for things like Hostname where the end characters
>>>> are important in differentiating the items in the list.
>>>>
>>>> Any further thoughts on this?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> Liz
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://www.patternfly.org/styles/terminology-and-wording/#_
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 8:12 PM, Andres Galante <agalante at redhat.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Matt, we definitely need guides around truncation, not only on
>>>>> server names but in general.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's always a grey area how and when to truncate.
>>>>>
>>>>> If working on Tendrl you can come up with some refomendations we can
>>>>> apply them to our patterns.
>>>>>
>>>>> Let me know if I can help in any way, we can test things up in
>>>>> different use cases to see if it works
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>
>>>>> On Monday, 10 October 2016, Ju Lim <julim at redhat.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> This generally works for most names except I've found in certain
>>>>>> contexts from previous experience that truncating in the front made more
>>>>>> sense, e.g. "...xyz" for MAC Addresses and SAN nicknames as it was less
>>>>>> useful doing it as "xyz..." since the beginning portion was repeated a lot
>>>>>> and didn't help so much with uniquely identifying the object.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> An interesting consideration is if there is a need for truncation of
>>>>>> an IPv6 addresses, how do we tackle this.  I know IPv6 already includes
>>>>>> truncation in the spec, but there are going to be circumstances where we
>>>>>> may need to go beyond this.  Thoughts?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> Ju
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, Oct 8, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Greg Sheremeta <gshereme at redhat.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Matt / all,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This gets tricky when you have machine names in your listings!
>>>>>>> my_super_important_vm_1
>>>>>>> my_super_important_vm_2
>>>>>>> his_super_important_vm_1
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ^ Either way you truncate that "column", someone's going to lose
>>>>>>> some important info, and looking through the column will be frustrating for
>>>>>>> the users.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In oVirt, we take the simple approach and truncate at the end. And,
>>>>>>> in most places where there is truncation, hovering over the truncated
>>>>>>> string shows you (via tooltip) the entire string:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> [image: Inline image 1]
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My recommendation for PatternFly: recommend / default to end
>>>>>>> truncation with "...". I like the hover-show-full-name feature -- that's
>>>>>>> something UX people should discuss re: if it should exist and what it would
>>>>>>> look like. (We use PF tooltips, but I could see other widgets being useful.)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>>>> Greg
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 2:08 PM, Matt Carrano <mcarrano at redhat.com>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hey Patternflyers,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I am currently working on the Tendrl storage console project and
>>>>>>>> need to come up with some guidance on how to truncate long names that may
>>>>>>>> appear in our UI.  I'm thinking of things like hostnames, disk names, and
>>>>>>>> other types of objects that may take on a potentially long path name based
>>>>>>>> on user naming.  PatternFly currently provides some general guidance, but
>>>>>>>> no specific rules.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'm curious how you are handling this on other projects as I know
>>>>>>>> it's a common problem.  Do you truncate in the middle of the string, the
>>>>>>>> end of the string, or have another method?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Any advice or examples will be welcome.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Matt Carrano
>>>>>>>> Sr. Interaction Designer
>>>>>>>> Red Hat, Inc.
>>>>>>>> mcarrano at redhat.com
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Greg Sheremeta, MBA
>>>>>>> Red Hat, Inc.
>>>>>>> Sr. Software Engineer
>>>>>>> gshereme at redhat.com
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Ju Lim
>>>>>> Red Hat
>>>>>> Office: 978-399-0422
>>>>>> Mobile: 781-507-1323
>>>>>> Email: julim at redhat.com
>>>>>> IRC: julim
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Patternfly mailing list
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>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Matt Carrano
>>> Sr. Interaction Designer
>>> Red Hat, Inc.
>>> mcarrano at redhat.com
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Matt Carrano
> Sr. Interaction Designer
> Red Hat, Inc.
> mcarrano at redhat.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Patternfly mailing list
> Patternfly at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>
>
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