Right now, after opening up LibreOffice Viewer, the user is presented with the system's entire directory structure and it's up to her/him to find the right ODT files. This flies in the face of the mobile pattern of abstracting the file system structure from the user [1] and makes it hard for people to find their files (as they're generally not accustomed to the directory structure). The Google Docs apps, Microsoft's Office apps, WPS Office, and most other productivity apps all abstract away the directory structure and only show the files that they can open, leaving complex file management to dedicated file managers. [1] http://fabfuture.blogspot.cz/2013/05/life-without-files.html
Good idea, thanks! > New
The idea is "UX approved" since Tin Man shared it first over the mailinglist.
-Android Viewer now uses the documents provider framework [1], which uses the system file chooser provided by Android. The app's custom file abstraction layer and documents browsing UI has been dropped in commit a23bd42e9b2f6401c710ac95afcc3aa8f360d65c Author: Michael Weghorn Date: Tue Apr 6 14:26:06 2021 +0200 android: Drop custom file abstraction + UI The custom document browsing mechanism, which was accessing the file system directly would also no longer be in line with security requirements for current Android versions, s.a. [2]. Using the document provider framework also provides consistency with other apps. Given the above, my understanding is that any improvements in how file browsing works would not be done in Android Viewer, but either in one of the existing document providers, or by creating a separate app that provides a new document provider or a different way of browsing the file system and opening files from there. Therefore, I'm closing this as WORKSFORME. (NOTOURBUG or WONTFIX might fit as well.) [1] https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/documents-files [2] https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage#scoped-storage