BCF Support GSoC Proposal

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Discussions of proposals for upcoming events.
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yorik
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by yorik »

Don't forget to keep the email optional. In the open-source world, we are wary about privacy ;)
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

Oh! Thank you for that note, I didn't consider making it optional.
But it is not that hard :)
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

I have one question regarding the expected behavior of the plugin when changes are made in the plugin without setting a email address, like incognito mode.

Consider the following case:
The user opens a BCF file in which already a topic with quite the number of comments exists. Also some comments were already changed, that means the `ModifiedDate` and `ModifiedAuthor` are already set. Now when the user changes an already changed comment that already was changed some time ago should the plugin either:
  • just update the `ModifiedDate` field and leave the `ModifiedAuthor` field alone and thus enable the user to masquerade his/her change, or rather
  • remove the `ModifiedAuthor` field from the file and update `ModifiedDate` as in the first option?
For me personally I think the second option is more sensible. But what would you say?
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yorik
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by yorik »

This is indeed a debatable question... I also think option 2) is best. Of course the person could still re-enter the previous author name, but at least someone who would do it unintentionally would understand that they are dangerously rewriting history ;)

There is all this thing in "the serious, business world" about identifying people, IFC has a lot of that too, lots of things inside the file which can identify the person, which most people are unaware. For ex, the full path to the IFC file when you save it is written inside the file.. It can give a lot of info about yourself and how your computer is set up (It's also stupid of course, if you open that file on another computer, what is the point of knowing the original file location). In FreeCAD, we strip the full path and leave only the filename... It's important that we do these little things to take care of the user and their privacy, or to gently make people aware of these things (rewriting history), IMHO that's one of the (many :) ) areas where open-source software can be far superior to commercial software.
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

Thank you for your opinion on the user topic!

On the second part: I agree with you, that part I like especially about FOSS software, you just can make sure that it protects your privacy, and for most of the time it already does out of the box. Which is great! This part of the IFC standard is a bit random I think, as you already mentioned it does not add value to the file, so what's the point?
A funny story: I once had to use a given web page to get a grasp of some topic, and on this webpage some links were links present that should have pointed to files on a network drive. But the author missed that he/she entered the absolute file path on his/here system. It was a bit funny after the confusion cleared up :D
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

Again an update on the progress I made:

Now in the latest feature branch feature/add_viewpoint_button you will be able to open the plugin inside FreeCAD by executing the supplied macro. Also it is possible to apply viewpoints by double clicking on the corresponding list element in the viewpoint list.
I added a new page to the wiki of the project, mentioning the privacy relevant data that can be stored in a BCF file, and some measures the plugin includes that help to protect the privacy of the user. Yorik gave me that idea, although probably unintentionally.

For the next two days, I don't know how much work I can put into, because I get a new apartment. I hope that by Thursday it is finished to the point that I can work again.
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

Hi, I wanted to start a little discussion about the way you (the FreeCAD community) want me to present the plugin on the web? Reason I am asking is the fact that I have recently received an E-Mail from Google informing me about the submission guidelines. In it they mention multiple options on how to present the work did during the GSoC, two examples are the README.md file if it is a github repository, a blog post linking to the code and describing the vision, the work, the hurdles and what is still missing.

Now I have already written a blog post with the intent of giving an introduction to the plugin, an insight into what hurdles I stumbled upon along the way and what is still missing from the plugin (at the current point in time). However, if you have other preferences about presenting the plugin I am happy to migrate :)
The blog post is, in a first draft, online.

Otherwise an update on the current state: I have written a workaround for a rather strange bug concerning the storage of the author's E-Mail address for the current session. I have included this bug as the third hurdle in the blog post and described it there. Apart from that I am tweaking on the user experience of the GUI so that on first use it does not seem frustrating (hopefully). The plugin can now be started by executing the supplied .FCMacro and can also be savely closed by the close button above the plugin. In any case, before it really closes it asks the user if he/she wants to save the file, even if no changes were made. I will see to it that I change this tomorrow.
Then I am planning on creating the second release v0.2 in the course of the next week. The last week I have reserved for documentation.
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saso
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by saso »

Just a small thing :roll: personally I would prefer for the topic to be an list view (not a drop down button) I think it is also common with other BCF tools; it is also similar to most email clients and IMO just gives a faster overview and workflow from the UI/UX perspective...
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

Good point! You are right. The way I would implement it then is that a topic can be opened via a double click, which closes the topic list, or minimizes it. With a click on the minimized area, or a separate button the topic list can be expanded again.
Does this match what you had imagined @saso?
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pPodest
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Re: BCF Support GSoC Proposal

Post by pPodest »

@saso: I now implemented the selection of a topic as you suggested as a list. Attached you will find a gif showing how I did it. Does this match what you had in mind?
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topicList.gif
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