I've been working on a prototype for a new Simias Collection Viewer.
As many of you know, Simias is capable of synchronizing data beyond
only iFolders. The basic idea is to be able to view your collections
(iFolders, Bookmarks, Blogs, Calendars, etc.) from the same UI window,
be able to share them with other people, and do other common things
that Simias does.
With Simias providing a basic UI, it's possible that the UI work for writing another application like iFolder or Glyphmarks should end up being a lot easier (and faster).
In
this prototype that I'm working on, third party applications are able
to implement a C# interface to specify what Simias Collection Types
they support and provide standard icons to fit into the UI. The Simias
UI takes care of the rest. As you can see from the screenshot, I've
only begun the prototype of how the left-hand side of the window might
look.
Eventually, when I get it implemented, when you select on a
collection on the left-hand side, you'll be able to view all it's
properties (owner, location, size, last successful synchronization
time, etc.) and be able to share it with other users. Instead of
popping up different windows like iFolder does to view the properties
of all the iFolders, for example, you'll be able to get to all that
good stuff all from one window.
Notice the little search box at
the top-right of the left-pane. You'll be able to search for
collections if your list gets really long. Also, you'll be able to
change how they are arranged (by type, domain/server, size, owner,
etc.). Those radio buttons will likely have to change to be a combo box.
[Boyd's Blog]