Adding Images to Annotation View from Graph

[rsimon]

Users should be able to "assemble" a multi-image annotation workspace from the Knowledge Graph – adding image nodes to the view, going back, adding more.

Currently, this isn't possible: navigating away from the Annotation View loses all state, and opening an image from the KG (or the Gallery) replaces the workspace rather than adding to it.

Immediate Enhancement

• KG should have a "Add to Annotation View" action on image nodes
• Annotation View needs to persist its open images across navigation (plus, potentially, window layout)

Longer-term Redesign
IMO this feature request is a bit of a symptom for a deeper issue:

• The Annotation View was designed as a stateless sub-view of the Gallery. Users browse the gallery, pick an image to annotate, go back.
• Later, we added multi-image support, by tacking on the mini gallery browser inside the Annotation View.
• Since then, the KG has emerged as a new way to browse the image collection, often preferred over the Gallery!

IMO the Annotation View needs to become the first-class workspace from the nav perspective: with a sidebar presence, persistent state, and a bit of state indication in the sidebar (badge with no. of open images). This way, Gallery and KG can interact with it more along the lines of how user expectations have evolved.

[rsimon]

Note: in the longer-(longer!)-term run, we may need to rethink the storage and state model: state has been sprawling, and storage is now handled with a growing mess of JSON files. A true "global user settings state" doesn't actually exist at all yet.