The option to make specific group invisible in the entry table

Features
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1

For better orientation in groups it’d be great to be able make certain groups invisible in the entry table (as option in group create/edit menu). The case where I’d use it are the supergroups for which I want to display the union of the articles of their subgroups but I do not necessarily want to see that in the entry table in the list of color bars (eq. supergroup called “insect movement” and subgroups “landing”, “flight dynamics” and “migration”). I think it would be useful for fast visual orientation in the entry table.
Would something like that be possible?

Please vote if you support this proposal:

  • I would like to have this feature, too!
  • I don’t care.

0 voters

2

Currently, the colour bars feature is not useful when entries are part of many (multiple) groups. You have hit a design limitation.

I estimate to implement this feature in a great way, the link between “groups” and “groups in the entry table” would require a major rewrite. See Improve linking between groups assigned to entries and JabRef's internal group system · Issue #8836 · JabRef/jabref · GitHub. This would change the way how groups are stored.

An alternative could be to make use of the search feature, but here as well, we have hit constraints. I think Search for an entry without triggering group or other fields · Issue #7996 · JabRef/jabref · GitHub is very much relevant in that regard. Maybe you can experiment a little with jabrefs group preferences (e.g. searching for keywords) and following regex syntax: insect movement and groups != landing. or similar. The problem is that, even if this fulfills your needs (I have not tried, so you have to do this yourself), this is a very static approach and does not allow a very fast workflow. You will end up with a lot more groups too, which is probably the opposite of what you want, as you desire a very neat visual orientation.

3

Ah, I get it, nevermind. Thank you for the answer! I think the colour bar feature is still very useful if you don’t have groups with multiple subgroups.
Anyway my issue/feature is the fast visual navigation/orientation so you’re completely right, specific regex search would not help me (alhough I’m glad that the search engine supports regex syntax :)). I’d probably be happy if I could set the colour to transparent and disable the borders of the colour bars so I’d only see the relevant groups in the entry table… But then there would be random holes in the group bar and it would look weird.