I like this idea except it could be a bit more extensive...
How about an added level to the Group Editor? In addition to editting the primary table "Contact Groups", it can edit a "Virtual Groups" table.
Instead of the record having a Group field in the Contact table, the records in the Virtual Group table would have a field link to the Contact record. So virtually adding a person to another Group just creates a pointer record.
A key difference should be in how deletions are handled. Several options would be nice:
1) by default, delete the Virtual Group table record without deleting the Contact table record;
2) delete the Virtual Group category and all associated Contact table records;
3) delete the Virtual Group record and any associated Contact table records that are not associated with another Group or Virtual Group (Delete all the contacts that are associated with a Club you quit unless they are also in your Friends or Family virtual groups) ;
4) delete the Virtual Group with checkbox list to delete associated Contacts record-by-record (Allow process to be partial if interrupted. So if you are deleting a Virtual Group of 60 contacts, you could kill the take to take a phone call after confirming the delete 7 of the first 10. When choosing to delete the Virtual Group again, you would have a list of 53 contacts to confirm.)
Another difference could in in the Edit
5) have a filtered checkbox list allowing Group or Virtual Group records to be added to another Virtual Group (again, you quit a club but made Friends there that you had never taken the time to mark also in the 'Friends' virtual group. Or, you want to designate 90% of your "CoWorkers" Virtual Goup into a new Virtual Group: "People I've Blocked")
Another nice feature would be to have valid date ranges for the entire Virtual Group or individual records... perhaps with a self-destruct date. So you could have a "2014 Club Executive" Virtual Group that is valid from 12/1/2013-1/31/2015 with a President, VP, Secretary record that points to Contact that are members of the Club. Likewise, you could have a "Club Executive" Virtual Group with 3 "President" records. One for each year but the record self-deletes at their end of term so they stop being burdened with club business.
Brian on
Virtual Groups
I like this idea except it could be a bit more extensive...
How about an added level to the Group Editor? In addition to editting the primary table "Contact Groups", it can edit a "Virtual Groups" table.
Instead of the record having a Group field in the Contact table, the records in the Virtual Group table would have a field link to the Contact record. So virtually adding a person to another Group just creates a pointer record.
A key difference should be in how deletions are handled. Several options would be nice:
1) by default, delete the Virtual Group table record without deleting the Contact table record;
2) delete the Virtual Group category and all associated Contact table records;
3) delete the Virtual Group record and any associated Contact table records that are not associated with another Group or Virtual Group (Delete all the contacts that are associated with a Club you quit unless they are also in your Friends or Family virtual groups) ;
4) delete the Virtual Group with checkbox list to delete associated Contacts record-by-record (Allow process to be partial if interrupted. So if you are deleting a Virtual Group of 60 contacts, you could kill the take to take a phone call after confirming the delete 7 of the first 10. When choosing to delete the Virtual Group again, you would have a list of 53 contacts to confirm.)
Another difference could in in the Edit
5) have a filtered checkbox list allowing Group or Virtual Group records to be added to another Virtual Group (again, you quit a club but made Friends there that you had never taken the time to mark also in the 'Friends' virtual group. Or, you want to designate 90% of your "CoWorkers" Virtual Goup into a new Virtual Group: "People I've Blocked")
Another nice feature would be to have valid date ranges for the entire Virtual Group or individual records... perhaps with a self-destruct date. So you could have a "2014 Club Executive" Virtual Group that is valid from 12/1/2013-1/31/2015 with a President, VP, Secretary record that points to Contact that are members of the Club. Likewise, you could have a "Club Executive" Virtual Group with 3 "President" records. One for each year but the record self-deletes at their end of term so they stop being burdened with club business.
References:
"There is an opportunity to delete groups. Deleting of a group which contains subgroups too results in deleting all the subgroups and connections belonging to them."
http://addressbook.gassoftwares.com/faq.php?q=how-can-i-create-edit-and-delete-groups