pull down to refresh

[owncloud]

pull down to refresh

[davivel]

Not a pattern on Android, but there is no advice opposite to it, so we could add it.

[jancborchardt]

There’s 2 popular but seemingly unrelated libraries for Android: https://github.com/johannilsson/android-pulltorefresh & https://github.com/chrisbanes/Android-PullToRefresh

Gmail and Twitter for Android (and other apps) also have it I think.

[davivel]

Not sure if libraries will be necessary, but it's nice to see they exist, good point to be taken into account.

[jancborchardt]

Yeah. This would also make the »Refresh« function in the menu obsolete.

[davivel]

Depends. Maybe the pull should refresh only the current directory but not its subdirectories, while the 'refresh' in the menu keeps doing a full 'refresh account'.

What do you think?

[jancborchardt]

There should only be one place where refreshing takes place, especially because it’s confusing to have two different places with non-obvious slightly different functionality.

Maybe pull to refresh could prioritize the current folder, but after that’s pulled also refreshes everything else (maybe prioritizing subdirectiories and then directories directly above).

[jancborchardt]

Oh and also, because needing to refresh manually is giving users shit work. Stuff should be autopolled as much as possible, say when changing folders, or opening the app.

[rperezb]

Regarding the refresh feature some users are asking about the possibility of setting some folders as non-sync. I mean, whenever the sync is done these folders are not sync. What do you think about this option?

[jancborchardt]

What’s the intention or problem behind that, what’s the reason they are asking for it? (Always when users ask for a feature, we need to find out the underlying problem they have. Every feature request really is a »fix my problem« request, and that can be done in very different ways.)

Refresh just refreshes the file list and doesn’t really »sync« any files, right? Except if you marked a file as favorite/have it offline, in which case it should always be in sync. An option for that doesn’t seem to make sense.

[rperezb]

Yes, you are right, refresh does not involve to download any files but the favourite ones, if needed.

However, by refreshing the app has to access to every file, in the case of user with several files it takes long time. The advantage of setting some folders as non-sync is that in the refresh proccess it can be avoided to access to folders that are not interesing at all for a user on a mobile device or they know that they are hardly modified , such as those that stored videos

[jancborchardt]

Ok, actually it probably makes more sense to have the refresh action only refresh the current folder. In addition, regularly autorefresh the current folder, and refresh any folder you navigate to on navigating to it (still showing the files, but indicating the loading process with a spinner).

Sounds good? Folders which are not interesting on mobile are not accessed, so they never get polled, and bandwidth is preserved.

[rperezb]

Yes, it does.

The only thing is that when a user selects to refresh the root directory, there is no way to avoid to refresh those folders, but I guess that this is trade-off.

[jancborchardt]

Really, no way of the app just not polling the subfolders when refreshing a folder? If not I guess we have to deal with it, because that would be a problem either way.

[rperezb]

Sure, it is possible to just refresh the current folder, without taking into account its sub-folders. I was thinking on a different way.

So, to sum up:

• Instead of having an option on the menu called "refresh" it will be implemented like the iOs app by pulling down
• When refresh it is selecting, it will be only refresh the current folder.

Do i miss something?

[jancborchardt]

@rperezb I’m not sure I fully understand the second point. I’d say when pulling to refresh, it will only refresh the current folder and contents. No subfolder contents, but if there are new/renamed/deleted subfolders obviously.

[Kernald]

Going back to the original feature request, pull down to refresh: Google implemented it in an Android-specific way on GMail. If it's done on OwnCloud, I think it should be done the same way. For the record: when pulling down on GMail, a progress indicator appears on the action bar, with an explanation label. The more the user pulls down, the more the progress indicator fills. When it's complete, refresh happens.

GMail-way has been implemented here: https://github.com/chrisbanes/ActionBar-PullToRefresh

[davivel]

Very cool! I knew the Twitter-way, they insert the message in the top of the list, and update it when you pull down lower. But I like more the Google way.

@jancborchardt , did you see this? What do you think?

[neebski]

I think this would be fantastic, if it only refreshed the current folder. Also I've seen that when using the Dropbox app on Android when I open it it will refresh the folder I am in automatically. Why couldn't we implement a refresh on load similar to DB?

[jancborchardt]

@davivel interface-wise, I don’t think the action bar should be obscured like in Gmail. The Twitter app does this way better, much like the iOS pull-to-refresh which happens just in the list.

[jancborchardt]

Wow, this is a year old already. Just had a duplicate: #427

@davivel @rperezb @MTRichards I’d say we should have this, especially now that it’s a common pattern in apps. What do you think?

[MTRichards]

Can we roll it in with some of the other UI updates?

[netAction]

Nice feature request, but shouldn't the app update on database update immediately? All modern web frameworks are based on events and sockets, so there is no need to poll. And we should never force the user to poll manually.

[stefan-niedermann]

The content of the current folder refreshs on every folder-change. so, if i go to folder b, the content of folder b is refreshed. this works very well, but sometimes i know, there must be another change in the last view seconds, so it would be nice to just swipe down (instead of move to another folder and back or instead of refreshing via context menu).

[netAction]

So refresh is both too often and too rarely. Swiping down will not fix this.

[jancborchardt]

@netAction pull down to refresh simply makes sense because it’s a common pattern. Normally I know it’s automatic or close to automatic, but if I want to be extra sure then I can pull down.

All modern web frameworks are based on events and sockets, so there is no need to poll

Does the ownCloud server have that? cc @DeepDiver1975

@netAction in general, what you are talking about is a general sync improvement. That is a different issue from this one, which is: Replacing the strange »Refresh« entry in the menu with the more common »pull down to refresh« action.
So it would be cool if you can open a separate issue. Thanks! :)

[netAction]

@jancborchardt Yes, you are right. Pull down if you want to be sure. But this app lacks the basic functionality of updating itself automatically.

You are right, this is another and much deeper issue I am talking about. And you are, too. You mentioned GMail. They are updating using sockets and do not wait until the user pulls down.

[stefan-niedermann]

I think there was an related issue in the news app or chat app. the problem was, that not every server platform supports sockets, if i remember correct. they are still using the old method (client asks server if there are updates) instead of the new method (server says client if there are updates without requesting it) because they want to support all platforms (correct me if i misunderstood).

But this should be a seperate issue.

[masensio]

@jancborchardt, the pull request #526 can fix this issue.

[davivel]

Hi, community. Know what?

This is in 1.5.8.

:)

[jancborchardt]

Sweeeet! :)