File descriptions

[Jonathan Noack]

Manuel Lemos wrote:
> on 01/31/2006 02:04 AM Jonathan Noack said the following:
>> Manuel Lemos wrote:
>>> Maybe I am missing something obvious, but I could not find an option to
>>> make the descriptions of each file appear at least in the page to browse
>>> the file.
>>>
>>> I see the use_descriptions option in the cvsweb.conf but that seems for
>>> module descriptions.
>>>
>>> Is there a way to make cvsweb display the file descriptions? At least it
>>> should appear in the file page, but I think it would be nice if it could
>>> appear somehow in the respective file listing too.
>> Right now it appears that use_descriptions only works for directories.
>> Adding a Description column to files would make them very wide, although
>> there's nothing preventing us from doing it.  Displaying the
>> descriptions on the file page is a decent idea.  The descriptions file
>> would have to be loaded for each page, so making it large would have an
>> adverse effect on interactivity.
> 
> I am not sure what you mean by descriptions file. I mean the description
> that you used when you add a file this way:
> 
> cvs add -m "Description here" filename.txt

Ah!  I zeroed in on use_descriptions and completely missed your point. 
Sorry for misunderstanding.

Parsing out the description in readLog doesn't look too bad.  I'll hack 
a prototype and get back to you.

> In directory listings, the description could optionally appear in second
> line below the file name, as at least in my browser, the file icon is
> usually taller than twice the height of the current file name font.
> 
> The description could be clipped to not exceed a configurable length
> limit. It could also take the whole table row span since it would the
> only thing in a second line.
> 
> This would be an option, so other people that do not like the idea, can
> disable file descriptions on directory listings. Personally I think that
> a description is better than guessing what the file is from the file name.
> 
> Another complementary idea is to set the file link <a> tag title
> attribute to the file description. That would make the description
> appear in many browsers as tool tip when the mouse passes over the link.
> 
> As for descriptions in the file pages, that would be an obvious feature,
> so I think it should appear at the top below the file path header.

These are all great ideas.  Thanks!

> BTW, one thing that I miss in file pages is a direct link to show the
> HEAD revision of the file. I know it works with an URL like this, but
> there seems to be no link directly to that.
> 
> filename.txt?rev=HEAD;content-type=text%2Fplain
> 
>> If you are having problems getting use_descriptions to work with
>> directories, be sure you add the descriptions file to
>> CVSROOT/checkoutlist as documented in section 9 of the INSTALL file.
> 
> No, I was talking only about files.

Gotcha...

-Jonathan