Usability suggestions

Dear IJC developers,

Just a few quick usability feature suggestions:

1.  One of the things we use IJC for is searching a subset of the ZINC compound database (2.6 million compounds + 6 million supplier records, works well).  A common workflow is for the user to select individual compounds from this list (eg for purchase).  It would be nice if there was a mechanism where users could select (perhaps drag) individual compounds to create hand selected subsets of the database.  It would be good if each individual user could retain their own individual lists, and that that a read-only user could do this without modifying the database.

2. On OSX the 'file export' window does not remember the last directory saved to (ie it goes back to the database home directory each time).  

3. It would be nice if the file export window remembered the set of previously exported fields (or if these could be saved in standard sets)

4.  On OSX the file save dialog box is a fairly minimal one, which does not include the side bar with favourite directories.  It would be nice if this was available.

Cheers

David

 

And I just came across another thing...

It would also be good to have the option to force the structure images in an Excel workbook to be 2D if they are taken from a 3D database.  The 2D images of a 3D structure are often difficult to interpret.

David

Hi David,

Thanks for those suggestions. We really do value such feedback.

Here are some thoughts/responses.

1. ... It would be nice if there was a mechanism where
users could select (perhaps drag) individual compounds to create hand
selected subsets of the database.  It would be good if each individual
user could retain their own individual lists, and that that a read-only
user could do this without modifying the database.

List management can be used to do this, but currently this is quite cumbersome. We do plan various improvements to list managment:
1. better cherry picking capabilities - add/remove selected rows to a particualr list to allow lists to be quickly built up
2. Support for fields other than the ID field - e.g. allow a list of your own IDs to be used.

Please note that  all users (even those with read-only access) can create and use their own lists.

 

2. On OSX the 'file export' window does not
remember the last directory saved to (ie it goes back to the database
home directory each time).  We will add this so that the last used directory is remembered.

3. It would be nice if the file export window
remembered the set of previously exported fields (or if these could be
saved in standard sets)

We are planning a major re-write of import and export at some stage, and this will include the ability to define a definition of how import/export should occur and allow that definition to be "replayed".

 

4.  On OSX the file save dialog box is a fairly
minimal one, which does not include the side bar with favourite
directories.  It would be nice if this was available.

We will investigate this.

 

5. It would also be good to have the option to
force the structure images in an Excel workbook to be 2D if they are
taken from a 3D database.  The 2D images of a 3D structure are often
difficult to interpret.

This again will hopefully be addressed in the re-implementation of export. Currently the "raw" data is always exported, to ensure that no data is lost. We need to allow the option of exporting formatted data. The current idea we have is that we also allow direct export from the grid view, allowing the formatting that is being used there to be applied to the exported data.

 

Tim