Disconnect and reconnect connections

Feature Request
1

I am thinking about this @pirijan’s image:

image
image999×1184 570 KB

One of the key features there is that it is possible not only to connect two points but also disconnect and reconnect, i.e. to put into a different place. This is actually something that I have to do quite often in Kinopio, e.g. when I change order of items. Current approach requires me to delete existing connections and then create new ones. But maybe there could be a way for disconnecting?

E.g. I could click on existing connection and then drag it from [o] to another point.

What do you think?

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2

That’s definitely a useful function. How would you distinguish between

  1. Dragging the endpoint of the connection and
  2. Creating a new connection beginning at this card?
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3

That is a good point. Nerdy solution:

  • press CTRL to activate disconnecting

However, I am looking at the highlight around [o]…
image
Maybe one could use that to differentiate. E.g., drag from the center to disconnect, drag from broader circle to attach new line. But that is just brainstorming.

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4

Also something to consider, if you have multiple connections into a card already, how do you determine which gets disconnected?

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5

The solution needs to work on mobile, so we can’t rely on any hover styling :slight_smile:

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6

By selecting the connection first, as I described. You select the cable and then drag it out.

7

That is also my concern. I want this feature and I am using Kinopio with mouse but I realize that it may be difficult to implement.

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8

It could be also at the beginning just and advanced feature for keyboard with CTRL pressed to activate it.

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9

I believe Pirijan is working on being able to bend / adjust connections. I think that behavior would run into issues.

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10

Maybe? I think that bending will work by dragging the connection somewhere outside [o].
Disconnect would work by dragging connection from [o] elsewhere. I think both things could be very compatible.

11

If you start the drag from [o] you don’t have a way to discern which connection though. There could be limitless so you can’t rely on being able to anchor on the color within [o].

12

I mean:

  1. click on connection
  2. drag active connection from [o] like a cable
13

Ah gotchya, at that point it seems a little superfluous, imo… a simple delete key in between those two steps and everything you want to happen can happen today. Just without the visual of it shifting.

14

I don’t feel this. :confused: The current way takes more time and is cumbersome, because:

  1. I have to select the line (same step)
  2. Delete the line
  3. Locate the original card
  4. Draw the line to the second card

This requires more clicks, time and precision with mouse.

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15

Yeah, I acknowledge that’s a lot of steps to accomplish that task. I think most users don’t care about specific connection types. It’s simply a lightweight way to associate two things. Most people don’t realize they are directional.

In my opinion, we should wait until directional connections are more obvious and it’s clearer how people want to use them before optimizing for this task. A lot of things surrounding connections are not super streamlined yet.

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16

There is currently no way to detect directionality of connections. Or am I mistaken?

That sounds reasonable.

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17

I also think that the default should be probably non-directional link + optional directional. But I am not the designer and I will let myself surprise :).

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18

when you want to draw a line on a screen there’s always a ‘start’ point and and ‘end’ point. That being said, once there’s a way to programmatically declare a direction this should be revisited

yup this^

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19

Yeah, that makes sense!

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20
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