Favorite queries in Find panel

[humdinger]

This is hrev45646.

I've been thinking on #9780 and remembered an idea I posted about somewhere many years ago. Couldn't find it anymore...

It's about adding favorite query (templates) to the Find panel. I often find it cumbersome to start with an empty find panel and having to choose the filetype I look for and then adding the attributes I want to query etc. I know I can create query templates and start from those instead (and I do), but having some favorites in the find panel directly seems to be a good idea.

Mockup:

This mockup also includes what I commented on in #9780. The "+ / -" buttons are to add another attribute to search under that line or to remove this line, of course.
Additionally, there's a "Favorites" expando view at the bottom, in case someone prefers a maximum clean GUI and doesn't need favorites. (There could be a "Favorites" menu item in the menubar as well, for "purists").

This is how I could imagine it working:
You add the currently constructed query by drag'n'dropping the query symbol from the top into an empty slot below. I used LaunchBox for my mockup, maybe its code can useful as well.
The icon depends on the query's targetted mime type.
If you drop different querys with the same mime-type onto an existing icon of the same mime-type, the icon gets an overlay arrow and works like a pop-up menu to access all the favorite queries of that mime-type.
Tooltips show details of a favorite, i.e. the searched mime type and attributes, for example:

MPEG audio file
  Artist | Title

You remove an item with a context menu.

The query templates of those favorites can be saved in their respective mime-type subfolder under ~/config/settings/Tracker/QueryFavorites

[Edited: removed some misguided thoughts/mixups of "super-types"]

[humdinger]

mockup with expanded favorites

[axeld]

I would much prefer to put those favorites simply in the menu. Besides that, I like that mockup! I would probably just replace the vertical separator line with a "Attributes" title.

[humdinger]

I'm all for a "Favorites" menu. But only in addition to the collapsable iconized favorites. I, and I guess many other users, am quite visually guided. For me it's easier to seek, aim and click on the big audio icon, for example, than to navigate the traditional menu.

Your "vertical" separator probably just fell over and is now horizontal... :)
I kinda like the separator there, but one has probably have to see it without it. However, I'm not sure an "Attributes" label is really necessary. It doesn't add anything for the user: She sees "Name" there as a pop-up menu and gathers that the text box after it will be the input for a search for a (file) "name". In the pop-up she finds MIME type specific attributes that are equally easy to grasp ("artist", "tilte"...).

[leavengood]

I like the mock-up as well, including the favorites "bar" at the bottom. I'm also visually guided and would find that easier and quicker to use than a menu (though another improvement would be to use the same icons at 16px in the menu.)

We really need some sort of BToolBar so implementing something like this is easier. I'll have to keep that in mind when (or if) I get around to making a new, cleaner Deskbar implementation.

[waddlesplash]

Moving Tracker enhancement tickets out of R1 milestone -- Tracker's source code comes from BeOS R5, so it already has all the features it did on R5.