Results View (Products)
The Results View on the Products Page displays products, filtered by the selected category in the Category View (Products), the keyword(s) entered into the Filter Field, and the installed state selected in the Install State Filter Bar. This view is fairly similar to the Results View on the Files Page, except that by default it displays collections of assets as Products rather than as individual Assets. Like the Results View on the Files page, this view is designed to filter results rather than search.
Filtering operates on the idea that, given a full list, items that do not match a specified criteria are removed from the list.
Searching operates on the idea that, given a blank list, items that match a specified criteria are added to the list.
Product View
The Product View displays individual products that contain individual assets assigned to the selected category. For instance, a product that contains an Arm Band asset might be displayed when the Accessories > Arms category is selected in Category View—not because the product is assigned to the category but because the arm band asset is. Products are not assigned to categories; assets are assigned to categories.
Hovering the cursor over a product icon causes a Tool Tip with a larger color version of the icon to display. Double-clicking a product icon will cause the encompassing Products Page to display the Product Contents View so that the assets within that product are visible. Double-clicking the icon of a product that is not installed will install it. Right-clicking the product icon and choosing the appropriate option from the Context Menu will install, update, or uninstall that product.
When the Product View is built/refreshed, products are sorted to display such that the installed products are listed before non-installed products. In contrast, the Content Library pane displays products that are not installed as muted versions of their respective product icons, though considerably smaller.
For more specific detail related to how the products are displayed and what the various decorations mean, see the Results section.
Filter Bar
This area of the view provides options for filtering items based on a specific keyword, or set of keywords; clearing any keywords that may have been entered; accessing and managing saved filters; and displaying information about the number of matching results as well as a busy status.
Filter Menu Button
The Filter Menu Button provides consistent and convenient access to a menu populated with actions that pertain specifically to the text entered into the Filter Field. Clicking the button causes the Filter Menu to display.
Filter Menu
The Filter Menu provides access to installed and/or user-created filters, along with the actions that provide access to saving and/or managing custom filters.
Clicking a Filter in the Filter Menu replaces the contents of the Filter Field with the text of that filter.
Clicking the Save Filter… action, near the bottom of the Filter Menu, causes a “Save Filter” dialog to be displayed.
Save Filter
The Save Filter dialog provides options for defining the Menu Path, as well as the Filter Name. The selector at the end of the Menu Path field is populated by any existing menu paths. Selecting a path from the list will replace the contents of the Menu Path field with the chosen value. The Filter Name field provides the ability to name the filter—the value of which must not contain characters that are not permitted, by the operating system, within file names. Once a valid Filter Name has been entered, the Accept button becomes enabled. Clicking the Accept button causes the dialog to disappear and the word or phrase entered into the Filter Field to be saved as an option in the Filter Menu for future use.
Manage Filters
The Manage Filters… action is used to launch an OS file browser window and opens to the folder that user-created filters are stored in. Which folder is opened depends on the type of items represented by the associated view.
The structure of the folders and files that reside within this folder directly correspond to the menus and filters displayed in the Filter Menu. Each page and/or pane uses a different set of filters, depending on the type of item represented by the associated view. These filter sets are stored in folders that exist parallel to the opened folder. As changes are made to the structure and/or contents of these folders, the same changes are automatically reflected in the Filter Menu the next time it is shown.
Filter Field
Entering a keyword into the Filter Field reduces the list of items to display. For instance, inserting the word “sword” into the field causes a search for items with the keyword “sword” associated with them and then displays only those items in the Results View.
To Do: Insert a brief description of, and link to, Advanced Filtering.
Clear Filter
The Clear Filter button clears any keywords entered into the Filter Field. Note that this option only appears when text has been entered into the Filter Field.
Range Indicator
The Range Indicator displays how many items meet a specific criteria. For instance, if the selected category has nine results in it, the indicator would display 1–9. Similarly, if a keyword were then entered into the Filter Field, and only four of the results had that keyword associated with them, 1–4 would be displayed instead.
When a different category is selected in the Category View, the range changes to display how many items are associated with that specific category—the same applies to changing which keyword is entered into the Filter Field. If no results meet the current criteria, or no criteria has been defined—i.e., no category is selected—the indicator will display 0–0.
Progress Indicator
The Progress Indicator shows the status of a query into the content database. This indicator only becomes visible when the application must filter through a large enough set of records in the database to find results. The indicator is animated to signify that the application is busy or “in progress” and not stalled.
Sorting Selector
Use the Sorting Selector to change the order that items are displayed in the Results View. Click the selector to display a list of sorting options, then choose an item in the list to reorder the displayed results.
The sort order options include:
Sort By Name: A to Z
Sort By Name: Z to A
Sort By Product ID: Highest First
Sort By Product ID: Lowest First
Sort By Release Date: Recent First
Sort By Release Date: Oldest First
Sort By Order Date: Recent First
Sort By Order Date: Oldest First
Sort By Install Date: Recent First
Sort By Install Date: Oldest First
Sort By Last Update: Recent First
Sort By Last Update: Oldest First
Sort By Group ID: Lowest First
Sort By Group ID: Highest First
Install State Filter Bar
The Install State Filter Bar provides access to several filters based on the installed state of a product. These filters operate in conjunction with the selected category and any options in the Category View (e.g., Compatibility Selector, Filter By Context, etc.), any keyword(s) entered into the Filter Field, and the sort order selected in the Sorting Selector:
All - displays all products, including products that are installed, that are not installed, that have updates available, and that are queued for any or all of the above
Installed - filters the Results View to display only products that are currently installed
Available - filters the Results View to display products that are not currently installed but could be installed using daz_connect
Updates - filters the Results View to display products that are installed using Daz Connect and have an update available
Pending - displays the products that are waiting to install, update, or uninstall using Daz Connect
Results
When in either the Files or Products page, the right-hand Results View displays the results of what is selected and filtered for in the left-hand Category View. For example, if the “Accessories” category is selected in the Category View, the results displayed are either assets for accessories when the Files page is selected or products that contain assets that are accessories when the Products page is selected. The results are displayed as icons. Asset icons are square, while product icons are rectangular.
Icon
Each product displays an image, referred to as its Icon, to aid in visually distinguishing one product from another. These icons are typically in JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format.
Product icons reside within one of two paths that are relative to mapped (known) native content directories:
Any product whose metadata is managed through Daz Connect will have a product icon in the ./data/cloud/meta sub-directory of the “Daz Connect Data” directory that is mapped in the Content Directory Manager1). The name of the image will follow the pattern storeId_productId.jpg. For example, where the Daz 3D storeId is 1, and the productId for the Victoria 7 product is 21750, the name of the image would be 1_21750.jpg.
Any product whose metadata is managed through Install Manager or using manual install methods should have a product icon in the ./Runtime/Support sub-directory in one of the “Daz Studio Formats” directories mapped in the Content Directory Manager2). The name of the image will follow the naming pattern of the DSX (XML) file that provides the metadata for that product, with the exception of the file extension. For example, where the file DAZ_3D_21750_Victoria_7.dsx provides the metadata for the “Victoria 7” product as installed via Install Manager, the icon for the product would be DAZ_3D_21750_Victoria_7.jpg.
Optionally, a product possesses the ability to display a larger version of its icon in the Tool Tip displayed when the cursor is hovered over the product. Whether or not this occurs is dependent on the size of the product image on disk in one of the locations described above. If the image used for the icon of a product is larger than the size of the icon as it is displayed within the Results View, the Tool Tip will display the image in its larger form.
Indicators
Each asset has the ability to display additional decorations on its icon to signify what kind of asset it is, offer a hint about its loading behavior, how it might be used, and/or membership in a group. Indicators are typically represented in the form of labels and/or glyphs that overlay the corners of the icon.
Notice
If an icon for a product is missing, a triangle with an exclamation point (“!”) surrounded by a picture frame appears and signals that the image used for the icon could not be found on disk. This notice appears in the center of where the icon would normally be.
Daz Connect
If a product was installed using Install Manager or some other manual method, an indicator that represents the ability to install that product using daz_connect may be displayed. Installing a product using Daz Connect enables the ability to then update that product, which is represented by an indicator and/or a colored border when an update becomes available. Products that have been installed using Daz Connect, and do not have an update available, do not display the Daz Connect indicator.
Product installed using Daz Connect; no update is currently available
Product installed using Daz Connect; an update is available
Product installed using Install Manager (or manually); can be installed using Daz Connect
Product not installed; can be installed using Daz Connect
Group
Assigning a Group to an item marks that item using colors and/or shapes and serves to establish user-definable collections or associations—much like using a highlighter on a page in a book or attaching stickers to objects in a room to draw attention to some form of relationship between the marked passages/items. By default, the application provides two distinct groups: None and New.
The list of available groups is designed to be extensible by end users but has a few rules that must be followed:
Each custom group must consist of a pair of identically named PNG files that must exist on disk—one for assets, and one for products.
Each pair of PNG files must follow the naming pattern id.label.png, where id is a unique positive numeric identifier for the group and label is the text that appears within the “Group As” sub-menu of the context menu for an item.
Negative numeric identifiers are reserved for the application. (e.g., “New” = -1)
These identically named PNG files must be placed in specific parallel folders of the application installation—i.e., ./resources/images/groups/assets and ./resources/images/groups/products.
Regardless of their respective sizes, the PNG images will overlay and be anchored to the bottom right corner of the icon of the item to which they are assigned.
Note: Groups are currently only added to the menu when the application launches. This may change in a future version.
Label
The Label is the word or phrase displayed directly beneath the icon, like Michael 6 or Genesis 2 Female Base. In the case of a product, the label is typically the name of the product or a subset thereof. In the case of an asset, the label is typically descriptive of what the asset is and can often include what side of the body it was created for and may also contain a pattern of characters that signifies membership in a collection. For instance, a dagger prop label might state “left” or “LHand” in the label to indicate it was designed for the left hand of a figure.
Context Menu
Right-clicking on a product displays a context menu of options relating to that product (or the set of selected products). These options include:
More Information…, by default, launches the Help pane with the Read Me page for that product (for products that are provided by Daz 3D).
Holding down the Ctrl/Cmd keyboard modifier while clicking provides additional Control-Freak™-type options in an intermediate dialog.
This particular functionality is provided by a “store script” that is responsible for determining what actually happens, specifically with Daz 3D Products. The “store script” system/API supports multiple stores.
Explore expands that selected product to show its assets, just like double-clicking the icon will. See Product Contents View for more information.
Update Metadata offers the ability to update the metadata on the selected product.
Export Metadata… exports the metadata of the selected product through extended selection.
Install offers the action to install the contents of the selected product.
Install Update… offers the action install and/or update the contents of the selected product.
Uninstall… provides options for uninstalling the selected product.
Group As groups selected products by predefined characteristics, including New or None.
Group Contents As groups the selected products and all assets associated with those products by predefined characteristics, including New or None.
Browse to folder location… displays the folder location for the selected Daz Connect installed product.
Show In Content Library directs to where the selected product is located in the Content Library pane.
1)
Preference is given to the “Daz Connect Data” path, however, and will fall back to “Daz Studio Formats” mapped paths, with preference given in the order of the mappings.
2)
Preference is given in the order of the mappings.