In this tutorial, you'll also learn about folder values, folder types, and context parents.

Adapted from "Folders - the essence of ECCO - Part 2," an article in the October 1995 issue of Easy ECCO.

Folder values

The topic of this tutorial is ECCO columns. But before you can hope to understand columns, you first need to make sure you have a handle on folder values.

• The item text, and
• A value

The item text is the text you type next to the item bullet. The item text belongs to the item. In other words: the item text (the same item text) appears in every folder that contains the item. Bring any folder containing the item into a view, and you see the same item text. Change the item text, and the change is reflected in all the folders that contain the item.

All you need to do to see the item text is to display in a view any folder that contains that item.

But the item next is not the item itself, because items also have values. A value belongs not just to the item; it belongs jointly to the item and a folder. For this reason, values are sometimes called folder values. A value must have two owners - an item and a folder. You can't have a value without an item and you can't have a value without a folder. And - to go one step farther - you can't assign an item to a folder without giving it a value in that folder!

Folder types

So what is a value. That depend on the type of folder that jointly owns the value. There are five folder types in ECCO:

• Date folders, in which every assigned item has a date value (and, optionally, a time value). An example is the To-Do's folder, where every item assigned to the folder has a date value representing the to-do date.
  
• Number folders, in which every assigned item has a numeric value. An example might be a Billable Hours folder, where every item assigned to the folder has a numeric value representing the number of billable hours for the item.
  
• Text folders, in which every assigned item has a text value (i.e., any characters you can type on the keyboard). An example is the Company folder, where every item assigned to the folder has a text value representing the name of the company where the person named in the item's item text works.
  
• Pop-Up List folders, in which every assigned item has a text value that is chosen from a predefined list of values. An example might be a Priority folder (with a list consisting of High, Medium, and Low), where every item assigned to the folder has a value representing the priority of the item.
  
• CheckMark folders, in which every assigned item has a value equivalent to "True," which is most commonly represented by a check mark symbol. An example might be a folder named Personal, where every item assigned to the folder has a value of True (represented by a check mark), indicating that the item is a personal item.

Quick Quiz

An item is assigned to four folders: Tasks, To-Do's, Done, and XYZ Project. How many values does the item have? Answer.

Columns and values

A value is only visible and meaningful in the context of the folder that jointly "owns" it with the item, and it's only visible in the context of the item that jointly "owns" it with the folder. Therefore, to see the value, you have to be able to see both the item and the folder that jointly own the value.

One way to see both the item and the folder that jointly own the value is to display items in rows and folder values in columns. At the junction of an item row and a folder column, you have the value that is jointly owned by that item and that folder.

When you display a column in a view, therefore, you're telling ECCO. "For every item shown in this view, look into the folder that corresponds to this column. If the item is contained in the folder, show the value owned by the item/folder combination at the junction of the item's row and the folder's column."

If you have a value at the junction of an item row and a folder column, you know that the item is contained in the folder and has the value shown.

And therefore, when you make an entry in a column, you're assigning a value to the item and assigning the item to the folder represented by the column. When you delete an entry in a column, you're removing the item from the folder represented by the column.

EFI's, subitems, folders, and columns

Now for an extremely important fact - a fact that if not understood can confuse and frustrate you.

Only EFI's within a folder can share ownership of a value with the folder.

(Recall from the Folders Tutorial that an EFI - explicit folder item - is an item that has been explicitly added to a folder. Review the concept of the EFI.)

Implications

The fact that only EFI's within a folder can share ownership of a value with the folder is extremely important because of its implications.

What have you really done by inserting that to-do date?

But a folder can only contain a value if it has an item with which to share ownership of the item.

So the only way this scheme can work is if ECCO also puts an item into the To­Do's folder to share ownership of the date value with the folder.

Okay, but which item should it put into the To-Do's folder to share ownership of the value? Obviously: the item to which the value applies, the item that owns the row where you've typed the date value - which in this case is the Get quote on directory space item.

Get quote on directory space is a subitem in the Marketing Tasks folder. But remember:

Only EFI's in a folder can share ownership of a value with the folder.

And therefore, ECCO must make Get quote on directory space an EFI in the To-Do's folder.

Note that if you used Show Item Info to see the folders to which the Get quote on directory space item is assigned, the To-Do's folder would be listed, because you have explicitly assigned the item to that folder. The Marketing Tasks folder would not be listed. Get quote on directory space is not assigned to the Marketing Tasks folder. Subitems are not implicitly assigned to the folders to which their parent items belong. Another way to say this: EFI's belong to their folders; subitems belong to their parents.

That means that the same item, Get quote on directory space, has two separate roles - as a subitem of an EFI in the Marketing Tasks folder and as an EFI in the To-Do's folder.

Context parents

We're not quite done with all the implications of this important idea - because even in its role as an EFI in the To-Do's folder, the Get quote on directory space item brings along its subordinate status as a subitem in the Marketing Tasks folder along with it.

Said another way: Into the T0-Do's folder, Get quote on directory space brings with it its context as a subitem of the Marketing Tasks folder's Prepare advertising budget EFI.

To indicate this contextual status, when you display the To-Do's folder in a view, ECCO shows you the Get quotes on directory space item in its context as a subitem of Prepare advertising budget. To show that context, ECCO needs to put Prepare advertising budget at the top level of any outline used to show items from the To-Do's folder.

Quick Quiz

1: What would happen to the appearance of the notepad in the preceding figure if you "outdented" (moved to the left) the item Get quote on directory space?

2: Why?

3: What would happen if you deleted the date in the To-Do's column next to Pick up laundry ?

4: Why?

Answers.

Conclusion

If you remember nothing else from this tutorial, remember that:

• All ECCO data consists of EFI's and their subitems in folders.
• Any given EFI (and any subitems it has) can be contained in more than one folder at the same time.
• EFI's "belong" to the folder; subitems "belong" to their EFI.
• Columns are just ways to see values owned by folder/item pairs.