Showing tag hierarchy in inspector, rather than alphabetical order

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1

Hi,

I’m using nested tags with several levels of hierarchy to assign collected resources and insights to a topic category at increasing degrees of specificity.

Currently, there is only the option to display tags in alphabetical order in the inspector and tab bar at the bottom, as far as I’m aware. This brings some limitations with it in my view:

For example, even if only three tags at level 4 of the tag hierarchy are added to an item, then this item has 12 tags. The alphabetical order in which these are displayed makes it difficult to identify the 4 tags that were actually added, as well as “reading” them in the context of their parent tags. This is also problematic when removing a tag, since it’s necessary to also remove the parent tags to avoid them remaining assigned to the item

Of course, it would be possible to add a prefix such as 1 and then 1.1, 1.1.2 etc. to mark different levels of hierarchy. But this brings its own limitations and maintenance requirements, e.g. it would be necessary to add aliases for all tags in order for them to be recognized in wiki links.

Feature request: Please consider adding the option of displaying tags in their hierarchical order in the bottom tab bar and in the inspector. Alternatively, I would be happy to learn about my ignorance regarding any workarounds or hidden features that could be used to address this. Thanks in advance.

2

Thanks for the suggestion, we’ll consider this for future releases.

3

Sounds good, thank you @cgrunenberg

4

Has this feature been added? I would also like for items to be displayed in their tag hierarchical order

5

No, nothing has changed in this regard.

6

Is there a formal process for a feature request? This feature would be killer for me

7

Nothing formal needed, especially as @cgrunenberg who responded above is our CTO and Lead Developer.

However, notice there’s been no traction on this request since the initial posting and we have to consider the broader desirability of feature requests.

8

I would find this feature extremely useful, as well.

9

I’m quite sure a script should be able to display the hierarchy in a popup window.

Screenshot 2024-08-28 at 12.41.17

If you have time, you might want to experiment with this possibility.

In pseudo code:

  • Fetch all tags and associate them with the tag records
  • Determine the hierarchical relation between tags, and reorganize into a hierarchy of arrays accordingly
    • This can be somewhat complicated if you wish to iron out potential irregularities
    • Tag A is a child of tag B, if A has the tag B
  • flat() the complex array into a single list of strings for app.chooseFromList()
  • Associate the user choice with the corresponding tag record. Not necessary if you don’t need to reveal the tag
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10

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the best realization of the nested tags concept is using ‘groups as tags’ approach, which we have already a long time in DT. You get your tree right in the main window. Is this approach misses anything you need in your workflow? Group itself in DT is more of a tag, than a filesystem folder.
All the more, I think building requested functionality in DT will duplicate already existing one.

2 Likes
11

A minor addition: the full tree can be viewed in Inspector > Generic > Instances, which traces all replicants of an item. The main window shows only the location of the current replicant.

The hierarchy information displayed in Instances could be exactly what the OP was looking for.

1 Like