Tag System

[lgol27]

One of the major features of Twitter is their tag system(hashcodes). I think, any software that manages data has to have one.

Let’s look at a typical scenario. I am working on a project. It could be software development project, or a class to teach, actually any project of relative complication. I have a lot of things to do for the projects: meetings to attend, mails/documents to write, papers to grade. I have different forms to capture different pieces of information for the project. But how can I tie them all together? How can I see them in one list?

That’s where the tag system comes in. I can tag the records from different forms with the same string (e.g. project name). And I can use search to find them. But you can say that there is a mechanism – pick list that you can use. But how about if I do something for several projects? For example, I need to meet Dr. Smith to discuss several classes that I am teaching this semester. The Pick list is very good tool. It needs to be extended to allow users to select multiple values. And The search should be modified to let users to search for values from pick lists. This way you overcome one of the flaws of Twitter, where you can easily misspell the tags. Then the pick list become the true tag system. And that will take TapForms head and shoulders over the competition.

The cherry on top of all this goodness would be saved searches (or favorite searches). So if you are working intensively on the project you don’t have to make the same search over and over again.

What do you think?

[Brendan]

Hi Igol27,

Yes, that’s a very good idea. Certainly you can use the same pick list and attach it to different fields in different forms, so that can bring them all together from one search. But it would be nice to be able to search using a pick list pop-up or something. Plus being able to select multiple pick list values is on my to-do list.

Thanks!

Brendan

[lgol27]

Don’t forget the saved/favorite searches! The less user type(tap) the more they love the app!

And those are pretty easy to implement. What you need is to store a name to display and the search string. And you would need to add a new screen+button to Favorites window. And a button to save it in the Search window. And a screen/dialog to open by clicking on that button to store the display name…. And to change your tutorial. Did I miss anything?

[danh63]

I just bought Tapforms HD based on a recommendation on iPad Today, and so far I really like it.

I’d just like to add that I too would find a database-wide tag cloud / tag field, maybe with some kind of tie-in to the pick lists (with multi-selection) extremely useful. For now I can kind of simulate it with a text field, but there’s no real input control or coherent tag management, so it will probably quickly become a mess.

Just my 2 cents.

[Brendan]

Hi Danh63,

Welcome to the Tap Forms community!

I have an update waiting for review by Apple which supports multi-select pick lists right now.

Once I have a chance to build a more advanced search mechanism other than the free-form search today, this would make using pick lists as a tag system more manageable.

Thanks!

Brendan

[danh63]

Great! That will help a lot.

Thanks!

[Author]

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