Better way to add and remove entries from Groups (UI related)

[ror3d]

Is your suggestion for improvement related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently, as far as I'm aware, the only way to remove an entry from a group is by selecting the entry (or a set of entries), right clicking on a group, and checking "remove selected entries from this group".

That is a bit cumbersome, but specially it's not intuitive. The group system is basically a tag/category system (since an entry can belong to many groups at once) and most systems that use tags have a way to manage the tags an entry belongs to from the entry itself, not from the tags.

Describe the solution you'd like
Either a right click on the entry > groups > checking/unchecking the ones it should belong to, or some other way that a list with checkboxes (or similar) can be accessed to manage them, such as a dropdown somewhere that opens the list of groups with checkboxes that that entry has assigned. This option would allow for editing the groups of multiple entries at once.

Another option would be to have these tags also accessible from some tab in the entry editor panel, although that would only allow for one entry at a time to be modified.

Additional context
For example, outlook's solution,

(this one requires right-clicking for every category you want to add or remove, which is not ideal, much better would be that you could select and unselect several with opening it only once)

[koppor]

We somewhere have discussion to do following:

• groups should be tags (which can be categorized)
• new "taxonomy" tree - similar to folders (Dynamic group mirroring the file system. #10930)

The idea is "copied" from TagSpaces: https://www.tagspaces.org/

[koppor]

I need input on following: We had en exhausting debate on the "keywords" field. One opinion: it is from the publisher AND MOST NOT be changed. Other opinion: This is what I categorize entries with - and it should be automatically reflected in the groups ("keyword groups" is one step). -- Maybe the "solution" is to have a "tags" field. groups would be JabRef 5.x behavio, and tags a new JabRef 6.x behavior.

(Side note: We changed the group format in the 3.x line inbetween and that caused confusion -- https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/v4.0/CHANGELOG.md#34--2016-06-02).

[ror3d]

• groups should be tags (which can be categorized)

Ah I see, what would be the changes between groups and tags? It seems to me groups already work basically like tags would. The feature request is mostly about UX of how those are managed.

About keywords, I'm of the first opinion, keywords are set by the paper authors or the editor, and if a bib entry is to be shared with someone it might be best to have that as original. On the other hand, if importing entries, the existing keywords might not be relevant to the tags I have in that library, so keeping those might also not make sense.

[koppor]

Just as note to think of it later.

dret.bib (https://github.com/dret/biblio) has the idea of topics:

topic =     "jsp[0.7] asp[0.7] perl[0.7] cgi[0.7] servlet[0.7] php[0.7]",

It seems that these are "tags" with a matching ratio added.

(Refs https://github.com/JabRef/jabref-issue-melting-pot/issues/421)

[koppor]

Another note: JabRef supports hierarchical keywords (a > b > c). Maybe, we could use that for tags (or taxonomy items), too?

[koppor]

The feature of hiearchical keywords is explained at #628

[andr-groth]

Since the new keyword tag systems #10910 does not supporty hierarchical keywords anymore, I'd would be happy to see this feature JabRef#628 restored. This could be hopefully added to the tag systems, by extending the tag box:

On the other hand, the feature JabRef#628 is already quite powerful:

• hierarchical groups can be automatically generated from keywords
• entries can be assigned by drag&drop,
• adding new entries will be automatically assigned if one or more groups are selected,
• publisher keywords are merged with the user defined keywords and create new groups,
• ...

But since keywords are not required, they do not immediatly appear on the required tab when editing an entry. This is maybe why the feature JabRef#628 is not very well known. Only mentioned in a short paragraph of the documentation on groups (even not mentioned in the keywords section) : https://docs.jabref.org/finding-sorting-and-cleaning-entries/groups#nesting-sub-groups

Suggestion

What I would suggest is to make this feature JabRef#628 more visible, in the documentation and in the UI. The keyword tags are a good starting point 👍 and maybe they should be made more prominent in the UI:

1. Explain hierarchical keywords in https://docs.jabref.org/finding-sorting-and-cleaning-entries/keywords
2. The keyword field could be made sticky and appear below the required fields.
3. Keyword tags could appear on top of the entry preview.
4. The general tab could be made more prominent.

On the other hand, adding a new tag field might add a new level of complexity and confuse the user. I would keep it with the Occam's razor and the principle of parsimony.

[andr-groth]

And of course I would second the long-term goal #6191. At the moment there are over 30 input fields spread across six different tabs.

[andr-groth]

And of course I would second the long-term goal #6191. At the moment there are over 30 input fields spread across six different tabs.

Please see also my remark on koppor/jabref#679.