"Delete collection and items" should not delete items that are in other collections

aurimas

I'm not 100% sure what should be the expected behavior here, since I can think of use cases for each, but it seems a bit odd that deleting a collection with items would also delete items from another collection. I think only items that are not found in other collections should be moved to trash.

E.g. I create a collection for a topic I am researching and I end up adding some existing items to the collection from other topics in my library. I eventually decide to drop the topic and get rid of all the items on the topic. I would delete collection and items, but that would also remove items that I copied over from other collections.

I think there are also some cases where removing item from all collections is also useful, so this probably shouldn't be the general behavior for deleting items.

IMO, when moving items to trash, there should either be a checkbox, or another button that goes something like "Remove from entire library". I get that "Move to Trash" is supposed to imply removing from entire library, but I don't think that this distinction is obvious to users. The whole collection concept is quite difficult to grasp for the general user, since they draw a lot of parallels between Zotero and file managers.

In either case, we should also fix Del/Shift+Del behavior in library root. I think it is partially my fault (since I suggested/agreed with this behavior) that in library root Shift+Del does not ask for confirmation. IMO, the less confusing behavior would be to keep it consistent with collections. I.e. in library root, Del should remove from collection (so no action) and Shift+Del should prompt to move to trash.

dstillman

it seems a bit odd that deleting a collection with items would also delete items from another collection. I think only items that are not found in other collections should be moved to trash.

I don't know — while I agree that there are times when you'd want the latter behavior, I don't think it'd be particularly expected, since you are, in fact, telling it to move the items within that collection to the trash. This is definitely a conceptually messy scenario, though.

IMO, when moving items to trash, there should either be a checkbox, or another button that goes something like "Remove from entire library".

A checkbox would be easier to phrase: "Include items that also exist in other collections". I guess unchecked by default, to err on the side of not deleting items that might be used elsewhere?

(Actually calculating the items for the exclude behavior would take a bit more work.)

dstillman

IMO, the less confusing behavior would be to keep it consistent with collections. I.e. in library root, Del should remove from collection (so no action) and Shift+Del should prompt to move to trash.

I don't think so. Most people aren't going to know the modified shortcut (and some of those people also don't know about context menus), so having Delete do nothing in the library root would leave those people without the ability to delete items. As it is, as long as you know Delete, you can remove from collections, move to the trash from the library root, and delete from the trash.

The logic here has always just been that Delete does the default removal action and the modifier does something more dangerous. So in the library root, the default removal action is moving to the trash with a confirmation, and in a collection that's removing from the collection.

Gracile

I don't know — while I agree that there are times when you'd want the latter behavior, I don't think it'd be particularly expected, since you are, in fact, telling it to move the items within that collection to the trash.

I agree but as aurimas wrote the distinction (del from collection / move to trash) isn't obvious to users. So +1 for a checkbox.

The whole collection concept is quite difficult to grasp for the general user, since they draw a lot of parallels between Zotero and file managers.

And the icon used for the collections is very confusing.

The logic here has always just been that Delete does the default removal action and the modifier does something more dangerous.

Thanks, that's a good to way to memorize the shortcut behaviours. Even if I was the one who asked for a shift+del shortcut, I've still some troubles to remember which key is doing which action... but it's also because shift+del on windows has another different behavior : it doesn't move the selected file to the trash but removes it completely (but there's a confirmation dialog in both cases).

aurimas

I don't think so. Most people aren't going to know the modified shortcut (and some of those people also don't know about context menus), so having Delete do nothing in the library root would leave those people without the ability to delete items.

Fair point. How about Shift+Del still requiring a prompt though. I feel that it's rather dangerous to be moving things to trash without one.

I'll work on that checkbox when I get a chance. Wanted to agree on the concept first though.

dstillman

How about Shift+Del still requiring a prompt though. I feel that it's rather dangerous to be moving things to trash without one.

It doesn't seem all that dangerous to me, given that you have to go out of your way to press the modifier key, and even collection membership can be restored from the trash.

In the OS X Finder, Cmd-Delete also moves files to the trash without confirmation (and Delete alone doesn't actually do anything, so there's never a prompt for moving to the trash).