use GUI file-manager style list for notebook list views

[jrus]

Problem statement: Currently notebook pages such as @mbostock?tab=notebooks support two possible views, a "grid" of little squarish cards with a thumbnail and information below, or a "list" of rows with smaller thumbnails and information to the side. Unfortunately, the "list" view takes just as much or more space than the grid view (most of which space is blank), and has no other obvious advantages, making it largely useless.

Proposed solution: I'd prefer if the list view looked more like a GUI file manager list view, with information arranged in sortable columns, with a very small thumbnail. This would have the advantages of showing information much more densely, showing additional information not included in the grid view, supporting sorting by arbitrary columns, and possibly better supporting future features like multiple selections for applying notebook operations (say, applying a license, moving to the trash, or adding to a collection) to multiple notebooks at once.

Bonus idea: A row in a list view of a collection could include a disclosure triangle that would show all of the included notebooks underneath, like a folder in a GUI file manager list view.

Partial workaround: Implement a sortable table view in a notebook, e.g. @mootari/sortable-notebook-list?username=mbostock. Downside: this only supports published notebooks, so will not apply to the author's own unpublished/shared notebooks. It is also unlikely to be noticed by most site users.

[smithGit]

Would it be possible to add unpublished notebooks? I have a lot of test notebooks that will never get published, but which I cannot manage very well (in particular, to delete them when no longer used).

[CobusT]

I assume you are requesting for @mootari's notebook to include unpublished notebooks? I don't think that would be possible, but I have seen him do some incredible things!

In terms of supporting this view as an option inside the notebook listing, that is still on list of great suggestions.

[mootari]

I don't think that would be possible, but I have seen him do some incredible things!

In general, no. While Observable allows you to create API keys, these can only be used to access individual notebooks, but have no effect for any other API routes (which aren't officially supported anyway, and still require a CORS proxy).

That being said, I've created such listings for my private notebooks via my API Bridge, but I do not recommend this approach unless you fully understand how it works and which potential risks are involved.