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This page states the design for the Photo Archive app. The page is intended to grow with the application and always reflect the most current design goals for the app.

The description of the features contain information on the version in which the feature was implemented or the version in which the feature is targeted to be implemented.

Overview

The design of the Photo Archive app consists of at least the following elements. For each element, the first version when (part of) the element is implemented is listed. All elements are expected to have future improvements, so none of them are complete yet.

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Application startup

The Design Questionaire indicated a variety of suggestions for the application's behavior on start-up:

  • Display latest set (alpha-1); this default will be replaced by the home screen (see below) and will return later as an option
  • Application home screen (alpha-5) containing widgets for various functions:
    • Newest set in the archive (alpha-5)
    • Year selection for drill-down (alpha-6)
    • First photo not yet viewed (future)
    • Search (future)
    • Random photo (alpha-8)
    • Back to where left off (future)
    • Slideshow (future)
    • Logging in (future)
  • Configurable to automatically jump to any of the applicable home screen options (newest set, first photo not yet viewed, random photo, back to where left off) on startup (alpha-9)

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Logging in

The ability to log in using the photo archive username and password (future).

  • Have a login option in the menu (future)
  • Access the photo archive using the user's preferences and access rights, as defined in the archive (future)
  • Store changes in user preferences in the archive (future)
  • Have a "keep logged in" option, which makes the app store a secure token which can then be used to automatically re-login the next time without having to store a password (future)

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Set display

Typically, before getting to the individual photo, a set must be presented. The set display functionality will also be used to display search results.

  • Sets will be displayed by a thumbnail of the photo inside a 150x150 pixel square (alpha-3).
  • Vertical scroll scrolls through set (alpha-3).
  • Button at top for previous set and at bottom for next set (alpha-3).
  • Menu functin for previous/next set (alpha-4).
  • Display using larger square thumbnails (future)
  • Display set information (title, description, date) (alpha-7)
  • Other options of set display to be investigated later.

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Individual photo display

Photos are generated for the phone display based on the phone's display size. The server-side generation does not exactly match the phone's screen; the photo can be either too large or too small in either width or height, and the photo app needs to accomodate all these options.

  • In version alpha-1, photos are scaled down so that the whole photo fits in the display.
  • The Design Questionaire seems to indicate that it is better to fill the screen, so for version alpha-2 the photo will be displayed without scaling, centered on the display; scrolling can be used to move the photo around. Any space left over will be filled with black bars.
  • Pinching in and out will be added with version alpha-2 to allow the user control over the display.
  • Menu function for previous/next photo (alpha-4)
  • Menu function to return to set (alpha-4)
  • Menu function to show/hide text (alpha-7)

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This section describes navigational features other than through the menu; navigation through the menu is described with the menu functions.

Set display

  • Vertical scrolling to scroll through the set (alpha-3)
  • Horizontal scrolling / sliding to go to previous or next set (future)
  • Button at the top of the set to go to the previous set and at the bottom to go to the next set (alpha-3)

Photo display

  • Horizontal scroll / flick to go to previous / next photo (alpha-1)
  • Scroll the photo down to go back to the set (future)
  • At the beginning/end of the set, display buttons to go back to either set overview or previous/next set (alpha-7)
  • Set photo as wallpaper (future)

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The following functions are available through the menu.

  • Go to the home screen (alpha-5)
  • Basic search (future)
  • Advanced search (future)
  • Preferences (alpha-9)
  • (when in an image) go back to set (alpha-4)
  • (when in an image) next image (alpha-4)
  • (when in an image) previous image (alpha-4)
  • (when in an image) start slideshow (future)
  • (when in an image) show/hide text info (alpha-7)
  • (when in a set) next set (alpha-4)
  • (when in a set) previous set (alpha-4)
  • (when in a set) display set as slideshow (future)

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User preferences

There are basic and advanced user preferences. Users are typically not expected to change the advanced preferences.

Basic Preferences

  • What to display when the app starts up (alpha-9)
    • home screen
    • latest set
    • back where left off
    • random photo
  • How to display text on a photo (alpha-9)
    • always
    • for the first five seconds, then remove
    • wait for five seconds, then display
    • only when requested
    • (option to change the five seconds to something else)
  • Minimum quality level to display when browsing sets (future)
  • Minimum quality level to use when displaying random photos (future)
  • Types of photos to display (future)
  • Slide show: how long to wait before displaying the next photo (future)
  • What to do when browsing images and reaching the end of a set: (future)
    • stop, show buttons (default)
    • start over with the set (cycle)
    • go to the next/previous set

Advanced Preferences

  • Whether to use a redirect URL to obtain the app server URL (alpha-9)
    • If using a redirect URL, what the redirect URL is (alpha-9)
    • If not using a redirect URL, what the app URL is (alpha-9)

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Basic search

Search term is entered in a single text box. (future)

All images that match any of the following criteria is returned:

  • the search term is part of the image title
  • the search term is part of the image description
  • the search term is exactly a name part of a person in the image
  • Example, when the search term is "John":
    • images with title or description "Johnatan Livingston Seagull" match
    • images that contain "John Abrahams" match
    • images that contain "Peter Johnson" do not match
  • Multiple terms can be entered, separated by a space. If multiple terms are entered, images matching any of the terms are returned ("or" operation).
  • Double-quotes can be used to create phrases that include spaces.
  • Backslash can be used to escape the double-quote, space or backslash character.

Advanced search

Advanced search (future) functionality offers the following options:

  • text box to search image title
  • text box to search image description
  • text box to search names
  • selector to match "any" ("or" operation) or "all" ("and" operation) of the search terms
  • filter to limit by year/month/day range
  • filter for minimum quality
  • filter for maximum quality
  • selector whether to include images marked "special"?

Search results

Search results are presented in the same way a set is presented.

When browsing photos from a search result, previous / next cycle through the search result rather than the set.

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About screen

Have an "about" screen that shows some information about the app.

  • Have a menu entry for "about" (alpha-10)
  • Display the application name, icon, author, version number and build number (alpha-10)
  • Check to see if there are updates of the app available (future)

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Slide show

The ability to show images in a "slide show" (images change automatically to the next one).

  • Have a slide show button on the image display, which starts the slide show in the current set or search result (future)
  • Have a slide show button on the set display, which displays the set in the form of a slide show (future)
  • Have a slide show option in the menu for both sets and images which does the same thing as the button mentioned above (future)
  • Have a preference setting defining how long each photo should be displayed in the slide show (future)
  • Have an option to do a slide show of random photos in the menu and on the home screen (future)
  • Have a preference setting defining the "minimum quality" for the random slide show function (future)

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Share

Share photos on facebook and other social media (future).

  • Should include a mechanism to request permission

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