[TYPO3-irre] Perfomance and usability issue

[David Bruehlmeier]

Hi Olly,

> As an alternative it would be possible to use an element browser instead
> of the selector. Thus, on the table "tx_party_address_usages" the fields
> "address" and "party" would change their TCA type from "select" to
> "group" with the subtype "db". This feature was first integrated in
> TYPO3 4.1 RC1 (see http://bugs.typo3.org/view.php?id=4838).

Thanks for this suggestion! I have changed all relevant fields to use 
the element browser, which works fine. But I guess this can only be 
regarded as a workaround. The usability is just not good enough for a 
"regular" user.

> I like this idea very much. I think that this doesn't only affect IRRE,
> but more the Core in general. I can imagine an addition to the TCA types
> "select" and "group" like "useSuggest". At some place (bugtracker or a
> mailing list) I read about a request for a search box inside the element
> browser, this could also a possibility.

Yes, I agree that this might be a GUF ("Generally Useful Feature" :-).

> The difficulties for a sugguest approach could be the fact, that it has
> to be defined, which field or label is used for searching and
> visualizing the subset of results. Imagine the label is generated
> individually by a "label_userFunc" - this would probably influence
> performance in a negative way if 10,000 records have to be fetched and
> the label to be rendered for each record and after that the search term
> would be applied.

Agreed. But this should be a solvable problem. Without further 
configuration, the "suggest" field type would only search the field 
marked as "label". Optionally, a list of fields might be marked as 
relevant search fields. And if label_userFunc is used, there should also 
be a suggest_userFunc option, so it would be up to the extension how to 
handle this (e.g. by building a redundant search words table).

> I guess you're talking about an advanced search form? This could also be
> used as new widget for e.g. the list module to search for records. And
> if it is implemented well, it could be integrated into TCEforms

Not sure what you mean by "advance search form". Is there some talk you 
can point me to?

> As already mentioned: +1 on the idea

OK, cool! What would be your suggestion to carry this further? I would 
love to help implement this, but unfortunately, I have zero Ajax 
experience. Would it be possible for you to kick me off with a 
quick-and-dirty prototype, perhaps as a small extension? I would then 
try to take if from there and to bring it to a point where I can provide 
a patch for the core.

I wish you a good start for the new week! :-)

Dave