DTTG Smart Groups?

DEVONthink To Go
55

Thanks for the input.

No counters. To be clear - I love my iPad. I totally agree that there are use cases where an iPad is better than a laptop (including in meetings as you say, and in my case while piloting an airplane as another).

My point of puzzlement - and again, it’s just my curiosity, not trying to convince you of anything - is how an iPad can replace everything. I totally get how some things are better on a tablet, some are better on a smartphone, and some are better on a laptop/desktop.

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56

Understood and we’re trying to preserve the rights and abilities of the expert users as well, just as we are looking out for the other crowd.

Apple is interested in lowest common denominator with iOS and it makes sense in terms of sales volume. We are trying to maintain the higher denominator too, even if we limit our market share to some degree, i.e., DEVONthink will never just be a simple browser/note taker so we could sell a million copies. :slight_smile:

PS: “lowest” and “higher” is no expression of the importance or superiority of one set of users over another. Just common parlance.

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57

Was this done yet?

58

No, but they are coming.

59

But DEVON isn’t - the kluge mentioned above about copying contents of a smart group to a regular group just so it can sync to an iPad and be “seen” there is forcing me into an unneeded workflow.

As for sharing content between iPad and Mac, when I have some serious sharing to do, I’ll sit at my Mac to get it done more quickly; iPad work to me still has more friction. And I have a number of “work areas” that require a Mac (e.g. Filemaker development); the iPad is just a satellite/data entry device. Granted though, iPad is a joy for consuming content, and of course the Apple Pencil/iPad combo is a definite plus.

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60

Hey! I’m new to DevonThink and am in my trial period right now. I finally had an hour or two today to start organizing my DT + DTTG setup and hit this wall today. I’ve read over the thread and I’m a bit confused about this point:

Understood and we’re trying to preserve the rights and abilities of the expert users as well, just as we are looking out for the other crowd.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I’m not fully grasping how smart groups in DTTG would limit the rights and abilities of expert users. Unless that was about blackboxing, in which case I just misunderstood the context :smile:

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As for the whole iPad as a computer debate, I use mine as my primary computer. I do have an iMac and 16” Macbook Pro, but I only ever use the iMac for work. The MacBook pro on the other hand literally sits in my desk collecting dust (we’re required to expense laptops for work travel). For all intents and purposes, my iPad is my computer.

I’ll also note that I’m a power user myself, so that setup isn’t just for laypeople. Here’s a quick overview of what’s in my dock:

  • Social folder - Message, Work Email, Discord, etc.
  • Apollo - Reddit of course
  • Safari - Tried other browsers, but since they’re all webkit wrappers anyways I went with the one that’s the most integrated in to the OS
  • Slack - Work
  • Hey - Personal email
  • Fantastical - Calendars and tasks. It’s setup to sync with my task / project management in Amazing Marvin, and has calendar sets for myself, my wife, and our family (events for our toddler)
  • Raindrop io - Bookmark management. Might switch this fully to DTTG if I end up buying though
  • DTTG - Again, trying it out to see how well it integrates in to my workflow
  • Craft - Notetaking for work, personal, development, etc.
  • Notion - Record of truth for my life. Everything feeds in to Notion (or at least it will once I’m done setting it all up one day)
  • Termius - Terminal access, which everyone here seems to complain about. I SSH in to my Media Server setup in my home office and have full access to anything I’d need terminal for. If you don’t have a computer to SSH in to, there are self contained *nix environments on the app store. Ultimately though there’s nothing I really need terminal access for on my iPad (Working Copy for example is an excellent git app)
  • GoCoEdit - Coding, plain and simple. It’s setup with an SSH connection to my server and I can open, code, and save remotely. If I need to do any building I can switch to Termius (assuming I don’t already have it split screened)
  • Jump Desktop and Screens - VMs. I run a Windows VM on my server so I can use the (abandoned) ComicRack program to organize my comics. I also have a Big Sur VM for Xcode (and now DevonThink). One day Apple will release XCode for iPad and I can get rid of the MacOS VM (well, except for DT now I guess). I access those on Jump via their Fluid protocol. I use screens to access my VNC enabled docker containers for things like JDownloader.
  • Media folder - Plex, Netflix, Music, etc.

On my dock alone I have a setup that pretty much fully detaches me from needing a Macbook / iMac. Beyond that though I also have things like Windscribe for VPN, MindNode for mindmapping, HTTPFlow for inspecting web pages, Surge for network related stuff, Supervisor for managing Unraid on my Media Server, AdGuard for ad blocking, Serveditor for connecting to my Code-Server (VS Code) instance should I need to, and more. The only thing I need the VMs for are legacy programs like ComicRack, or for apps like XCode that can work on iPad but are waiting for Apple to build it. Keep in mind that new iPad Pros now have full M1 chips, just like the Macbooks. And with the Magic Keyboard the hardware isn’t a limitation either. Mine stays in the MK case and is used as a laptop. Unless I feel like relaxing in bed and using it causally, in which case I just pop it out and it’s good to go (Pencil and all). So if anyone doubts an iPad can be used as a computer, trust me. It can.

To wrap all that up, smart groups on DTTG would be appreciated, as would not relegating it to “companion” status. I’m still debating going all-in on the DT ecosystem. It’s a substantial up front expense that I’m willing to make, but the hampered experience of DTTG and the accompanying view of it’s place in the ecosystem are giving me a lot of pause.

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61

It is no trivial matter to implement smart groups in DTTG; as such, some of us had suggested (possibly as an intermediate step) implementing representations of smart groups which had been set up in DT in DTTG - so providing the smart group with its contents, but no option to edit that smart group. IIRC that was what Jim was alluding to when he suggested that implementing smart groups would limit the rights of expert users on iOS.

It’s not so hard to imagine implementing smart groups in their full glory on iPadOS. It’s less easy to imagine the dialogs required for setting the group up on an iPhone.

DTTG will never be able to provide the same level of functionality as DT does; iOS lacks AppleScript support for one thing - a major factor when considering smart rules, for example. I do find myself wondering whether DEVONtech might split DTTG development, though - leaving the app on iPhone to be a pretty powerful companion app, and the app on iPadOS to cover a larger range of the functionality offered by DT.

Thanks for offering insight into your life with iOS. My iMac remains my computing hub - but the MacBook has been relegated to a rather less prominent position (making its cost untenable, actually) since I purchased an iPad with MK.

62

Any update on this feature.

It is my most wanted feature. User defined smart group in DTTG.

63

No, there is nothing to report here.

64

I’ve read through the thread and can fully understand that it will be launched when smart groups can be created on iOS. I would think that ‘just saving’ the search query strings would already be a nice way :wink:

Just adding my vote to this that it will be useful, so here’s to hoping to a future update!

65

Recent searches are already saved.

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66

Yes, recent searches are great. But they get ‘pushed’ out of the way and are not accessible in a fixed spot. Just having them ‘clickable’ on the home screen would already be helpful, e.g. by simply clicking ‘Save this search’ or something similar (this also circumvents the “Smart group builder”-problem for now)

67

Thanks for pointing out the existing quasi “hidden” groups in DTTG.
I understand the complications of smart groups on iOS.

Nevertheless, would it be possible to also provide the smart group “Today” too? Maybe in an upgrade to come?
In my experience when adding something to DTPO through the share menu, and then want to go in DTPO to find the added item and to “move” it to the place where I want it to be, the single one easiest way to find that item is to look into Smart Groups, the Today group.

Thanks for helping out!

68

Have you used the Recently Modified global smart group?

69

What’s been the progress here? The lack of smart groups in DTTG is preventing me from using this otherwise very useful app.

70

Even if Smart Groups were available on DTTG (which would be nice), they’d not offer the same functionality as on DT – no support for scripting on i*OS since Apple does not provide the necessary infrastructure for that.

71

Yeah that’s fine, I just need the basic smart group functionality.

72

This might be useful:

73

Just saying – general expectations might be different. Some people complain if DTTG behaves not exactly like the desktop version. So, offering Smart Groups with limited functionality might cause discontent.

1 Like
74

I use a tag (smart-aaaaaaa) instead of creating a folder and replicants