[Patternfly] Truncation guidance for long names

Serena Doyle sdoyle at redhat.com
Tue Oct 25 03:26:58 UTC 2016 

Matt, I also agree that we need both methods.  It would be great if we
could provide guidance on when to use which method.

I wonder if the method would also depend on naming conventions used by the
customers.

On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Catherine Robson <crobson at redhat.com>
wrote:

> +1 to needing both end and middle based on the use case.
>
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:53 AM, Matt Carrano <mcarrano at redhat.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> The middle truncation is really useful for long path names that will all
>> share the same prefix.  Think about things like files names or disk names
>> that are required to display the full path name.  If out truncate the end,
>> all of the name strings will be identical at a glance.  Middle truncation
>> allows you to see what's different, which is usually at the end of the long
>> string.
>>
>> I would expect that there are some standard algorithms out there for
>> doing this.  End truncation is likely to be the default choice, but I think
>> we need both.
>>
>> Matt
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:39 AM, Andres Galante <agalante at redhat.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Liz,
>>>
>>> That's great information, this is the first time I heard about
>>> truncation in the middle of the word.
>>>
>>> I am sure that middle of the string truncation can be done with
>>> javascript, but CSS only allows to do it at the end of it. I'd say that
>>> unless there is a really good reason to do it in the middle lets try to
>>> avoid JS.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Andrés
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Matt Carrano <mcarrano at redhat.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> This is great, Liz.  I think that your proposed text will add a lot of
>>>> clarity to the choice between these two methods.  Will look forward to
>>>> seeing some examples of truncated names and we can evaluate further.
>>>>
>>>> Matt
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Liz Blanchard <lsurette at redhat.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've been thinking about truncation a bit and was looking into some UX
>>>>> standards on the topic. It's all very much in line with the examples that
>>>>> Greg and Ju have given. What do you all think about extending the
>>>>> PatternFly "Truncation" section on the Terminology and Wording page [1] to
>>>>> include something like the following...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *"Using an ellipsis to truncate a long string is recommended. There
>>>>>> are two different methods that could be applied. One is to truncate at the
>>>>>> end of the string "abcdef..." and the other would be to truncate in the
>>>>>> middle of the string "abc...ghi".Choose the method on the basis of whether
>>>>>> text at the end or in the middle of the string is more likely to
>>>>>> differentiate the item. This would be dependent on the domain.On a property
>>>>>> website, for instance, an address string will usually end 'Road' or
>>>>>> 'Street'. So the form 'abc...def' won't be much use as the final characters
>>>>>> will almost always be 'oad' or 'eet', neither of which help the user.If the
>>>>>> answer is not clear, default to the 'abcdef...' form over 'abc...ghi'.
>>>>>> Partial words will most likely be easier to guess from the initial
>>>>>> characters than the end ones. 'Openi...' is much more recognizable than
>>>>>> '...ening', for example."*
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd also like to add in a statement where we suggest the use of the
>>>>> tool tip on hover to view the entire string.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm working on some specific use cases with the Storage product and we
>>>>> definitely are seeing the need for both methods. More commonly, we will be
>>>>> using method 1 for things like Cluster Name and Pool Name, but we are
>>>>> considering method two for things like Hostname where the end characters
>>>>> are important in differentiating the items in the list.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any further thoughts on this?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>> Liz
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] http://www.patternfly.org/styles/terminology-and-wording/#_
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 8:12 PM, Andres Galante <agalante at redhat.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Matt, we definitely need guides around truncation, not only on
>>>>>> server names but in general.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It's always a grey area how and when to truncate.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If working on Tendrl you can come up with some refomendations we can
>>>>>> apply them to our patterns.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Let me know if I can help in any way, we can test things up in
>>>>>> different use cases to see if it works
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Monday, 10 October 2016, Ju Lim <julim at redhat.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This generally works for most names except I've found in certain
>>>>>>> contexts from previous experience that truncating in the front made more
>>>>>>> sense, e.g. "...xyz" for MAC Addresses and SAN nicknames as it was less
>>>>>>> useful doing it as "xyz..." since the beginning portion was repeated a lot
>>>>>>> and didn't help so much with uniquely identifying the object.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> An interesting consideration is if there is a need for truncation of
>>>>>>> an IPv6 addresses, how do we tackle this.  I know IPv6 already includes
>>>>>>> truncation in the spec, but there are going to be circumstances where we
>>>>>>> may need to go beyond this.  Thoughts?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>> Ju
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Sat, Oct 8, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Greg Sheremeta <gshereme at redhat.com
>>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Matt / all,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This gets tricky when you have machine names in your listings!
>>>>>>>> my_super_important_vm_1
>>>>>>>> my_super_important_vm_2
>>>>>>>> his_super_important_vm_1
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ^ Either way you truncate that "column", someone's going to lose
>>>>>>>> some important info, and looking through the column will be frustrating for
>>>>>>>> the users.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In oVirt, we take the simple approach and truncate at the end. And,
>>>>>>>> in most places where there is truncation, hovering over the truncated
>>>>>>>> string shows you (via tooltip) the entire string:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> [image: Inline image 1]
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> My recommendation for PatternFly: recommend / default to end
>>>>>>>> truncation with "...". I like the hover-show-full-name feature -- that's
>>>>>>>> something UX people should discuss re: if it should exist and what it would
>>>>>>>> look like. (We use PF tooltips, but I could see other widgets being useful.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>>>>> Greg
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 2:08 PM, Matt Carrano <mcarrano at redhat.com>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hey Patternflyers,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I am currently working on the Tendrl storage console project and
>>>>>>>>> need to come up with some guidance on how to truncate long names that may
>>>>>>>>> appear in our UI.  I'm thinking of things like hostnames, disk names, and
>>>>>>>>> other types of objects that may take on a potentially long path name based
>>>>>>>>> on user naming.  PatternFly currently provides some general guidance, but
>>>>>>>>> no specific rules.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I'm curious how you are handling this on other projects as I know
>>>>>>>>> it's a common problem.  Do you truncate in the middle of the string, the
>>>>>>>>> end of the string, or have another method?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Any advice or examples will be welcome.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>> Matt Carrano
>>>>>>>>> Sr. Interaction Designer
>>>>>>>>> Red Hat, Inc.
>>>>>>>>> mcarrano at redhat.com
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Greg Sheremeta, MBA
>>>>>>>> Red Hat, Inc.
>>>>>>>> Sr. Software Engineer
>>>>>>>> gshereme at redhat.com
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Ju Lim
>>>>>>> Red Hat
>>>>>>> Office: 978-399-0422
>>>>>>> Mobile: 781-507-1323
>>>>>>> Email: julim at redhat.com
>>>>>>> IRC: julim
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Patternfly mailing list
>>>>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Matt Carrano
>>>> Sr. Interaction Designer
>>>> Red Hat, Inc.
>>>> mcarrano at redhat.com
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Matt Carrano
>> Sr. Interaction Designer
>> Red Hat, Inc.
>> mcarrano at redhat.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Patternfly mailing list
>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>
>>
>
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>
>


-- 
- Serena Chechile Doyle
*UXD | Unified Management Experience*
*Red Hat*
*Cell* 508-769-7715 | *IRC* - serena | *Skype* - serenamarie125 | *Twitter* -
@serenamarie125
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