SmartLog display/sort on selection criteria

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jarold
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SmartLog display/sort on selection criteria

Post by jarold »

Love the Smart Log functionality of MacDive, particularly on iOS but there's one thing that niggles at me whenever I use it - it would be really nice to have an option to have the values used for each Smart Log selection displayed as the Detail Info & to have it sorted by those values.

At the moment if I create a Smart Log for example for coldest dives I see them all but the Detail display is the same as all the other Smart Logs (Duration, Max Depth, Rating or Weights) when I really want to see the individual temperatures (& have the option to have it sorted on that criteria)

The same could be applied to the other criteria I create Smart Logs on: Temperature (Warmest/Coldest), Rating (Best/Worst), Depth, Type, Nitrox Mix

Thoughts?
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nick
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Re: SmartLog display/sort on selection criteria

Post by nick »

I kind of like the idea, but it would not make as much sense for compound searches. "Country = Foo and Depth > 30 and Buddy = John" for example. It would also not really work for criteria that have potentially much longer values (critters, notes, or compound matches etc) as there is limited room to display the matching value. It's not as simple as just showing something like the temperature or mix, unfortunately. Then you get to more complex logs that have nested criteria and it would be difficult to interpret what to display, or figure out how you would sort it. Meaning a more likely approach would be to only do this in certain cases, by unpacking the criteria and seeing if it was something "simple".

Even then, I wonder if this would be a bit magic/unexpected. I assume your idea here is that the detail info would simply ignore your display preference in favour of the smart log matching criteria. But as above, that would at best only really be in simple cases and might be confusing as it varies.

I dunno. I will think about it, as I said, I kind of like the idea, and certainly the concept behind it in terms of being able to see what things matched for. But without special-casing a bunch of simple criteria and trying to not make it confusing to users that aren't aware of it, it's a difficult thing to generalise.
jarold
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:15 am
Dive Computer: Mares Puck Pro

Re: SmartLog display/sort on selection criteria

Post by jarold »

Thank you for your very thoughtful & comprehensive reply, I must admit I do not exploit the full capabilities of what Smart Logs is capable of & have essentially set it for those 'basic' single-criteria matches as I mentioned: depth, rating, temperature, Length, Type where yes I would like to see those values displayed in the Smart Log List & the option to override the default sort for Smart Logs with a 'local' one for that specific Smart Log.

I accept that more complex cases are troublesome & TBH if it was a case of it was only implemented for 'simple' single criteria that would be cool, perhaps with something within the individual Smart Log display that indicates what criteria it is sorted on.

At least I've gotten you thinking :)
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