Onfolio 3.0 Wishlist Revisited

Way back in March of 2005 I posted a list of 6 items I wanted to see in Onfolio 3.0.  This was shortly after the release of 2.0, and having worked with 2.0 for most of the beta I was already hoping for something new.  I have had a year to use Onfolio 2.0 now, I use it every single day, and my wish list has changed.  The original list asked for visit counts, synchronization, local file monitoring, blogging enhancements, RSS enclosures support, and better web posting.  Elements of these items do exist in my current wish list, but I think I have better refined my working habits over the past year.  Without further delay then, here is my 2006 wish list for the next version of Onfolio.

• Web Based Onfolio:  That's right, my number one request would be to make Onfolio a web service hosted by Onfolio with all of the same functionality of the desktop client.  This would require a really well thought out set of browser extensions, and would require some serious search power on the back end, but it would solve the synchronization issue.  Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and my new favorite ma.gonolia.com are gaining in popularity.  Onfolio could add its name to this space by porting its functionality to the web.
• or, USB Key Onfolio:  Web based Onfolio may not appeal to many people, so an alternative number one request would be to allow Onfolio to run solely from a USB drive.  Program, collections, settings, feeds, everything from the key.  A couple of problems would need to be overcome.  You would have to check to see if .Net was installed on the local machine.  Something would need to be done with the temp files or the USB key would not last long.  Still, I have been carrying my collections on USB with me for about 6 months now and I love it.  I would really like to see Onfolio capable of running from the key though so I could be free of my PC as well.
• Blogging:  This is still a big one to me.  The ability to add categories, tags, pings, trackbacks, and all the other things that go into a blog post is important.  Editing of old posts would be cool, as would the option to create drafts in Onfolio and publish when ready (and have those drafts show as drafts in my blog engine).
• Feed Reader:  Make the OPML and feed collection portable.  Plain and simple, and more important in some ways than carrying other collections is carrying my feeds.  I think Google has done a great job with podcast/enclosure support in there reader, and I would love to see the ability to play podcasts directly from the feed.
• Custom Fields to Folders:  A brand new feature request, the ability to have custom fields set based on the folder an item is in as opposed to the whole collection.  I have really come to like storing the majority of my Onfolio stuff in a single collection.  However, sometimes I wish that I could use custom fields (and maybe add flags to this request as well) differently for different types of data.  And my main collection is already using all 6 custom fields.
• Counts and Web Posting:  Still on my list, but a bit further down.  I would like to see the ability to define custom CSS and templates based on Onfolio data.  Maybe a Smarty template engine, or something based on a weblog engine.  Basically the ability to create a generic template that is then filled in with specifics from Onfolio (maybe an Access report is a good way to think of it).
• Duplicate Checking:  When used as a bookmark manager, I would love to see Onfolio check the collection for an exisiting entry with the same URL before capturing.  That will help to avoid duplicate information in the collection (especially when it gets to be very large).

I am not terribly concerned about local files any more.   Many of my local files are now inside Onfolio in a separate files collection.  Most are PDF's that I downloaded or purchased. 

There you have it, an updated list of items that I think would be cool in Onfolio.  Perhaps this post can entice some of the developers to drop some hints about features included in upcoming releases...even though it is not normally their policy to do so.