As discussed in the Town Hall, below is an outline of the various upgrades that encompass Collections 2.0 at a high level. This does not address many small improvements, fixes, etc. This outline does not include delivery times, please view the roadmap for this.
For more information regarding the changes the architecture rework of types, queries, collections, and tags, check out this community post.
Please note: Collections 2.0 is not a single big update, rather it’s a series of upgrades that intersect with other big features of Anytype as well. Additionally, names used in this post are not final, as it has been discussed here and here.
Architecture
Converging Collections
Type / Queries / Collections / Tag
Primary Collection / Secondary Collections
Tiered Properties
Global properties + Collection properties
Cross-Space Collections
Collection + Properties
Views
Templates
Infrastructure Upgrades
Extensible for community plugins
Properties
Property Types
Text
Display as: paragraph
Select
Display as: outline
Multi-select
Display as: outline
Number
Display as: bar, ring
Date
With end date
With format options
With reminders
URL
Display with/out: https://
Location
IDs
Groups
Layouts
Timeline layout
Stream layout
Gantt layout
Masonry layout
Tree layout
Whiteboard layout
Chart layout
Form layout
Map layout
Views
Calculate
Freeze
Saved on inline database
Saved for you
Open in peek window, full page
Features
Templates
Apply template to existing objects
Apply template when changing collection
Import
CSV / Excel / Google Sheet
Export
CSV / Excel / Google Sheet
Undo / Redo
Integrations
External Tools
Any Gallery Integration
Automations
Button Property Type
Permissions
Editing lock
Deletion prevention
Relations
Two way relation
Formulas
Conditional Format
Rollups
User Experience
Change property type
Property header live edit
Auto Views
Auto Properties
Collection management
Property management
Merge collections
Quality of Life
Cross-Space & Export
Cross-space collections aggregated from multiple spaces
Print-friendly layout option
Data Integrity & Validation
Unique constraint to prevent duplicate entries
Validation rules for fields (email, ranges, patterns)
Detect and flag duplicate items
Properties & Schema
Auto row numbering column that updates dynamically
Optional description/tooltip field for columns
Non-name relation as primary field
Records & History
Archive records (hide while preserving data)
Audit log showing change history with user/timestamp
Collection membership change history
Views & Display
View density options (compact, normal, spacious)
View icon size customization
View header customization
Customize field display on cards
Aspect ratio for gallery cards
Duplicate views across multiple collections
Random sort/view for discovery and flashcards
Multi-level nested grouping
Work-in-progress limits on kanban
Limit loaded items in views
Virtual scrolling / infinite scroll for large collections on mobile
As usual, feedback and discussion is welcomed. Let us know what you think is missing, shoutout something you really want, and call out specific areas of concern that you have.
Great list!
Chart layout, map layout, two way relation, formulas, change property type…
Please consider also (from request, bugs, user case,…) :
Architecture
Inline and full version of Collection must have the same functionnality (it’s not the case actually and it’s a pain)
Properties
URL
– Displayed as a button when the width of the columns is reduced.
Yes, in general, do we want to read the link or access it? Especially since many links are unreadable and long, the column will rarely be wide enough. Wouldn’t it be better to just display a button/icon that launches the link? I think so.
Number
– Decorator pleeeease! I hardly ever use numbers, because I don’t want to display 1000, 17, 12.3n but $1000, 17°, 12.3cm, 60min.
Rich text
Plese consider also a rich text property
Image
– Bigger display of images
When you have images in a property, you usually want to see them.
Currently, the table view displays them very small with their names. It would be useful to be able to enable/disable the display of the name and size.
Yes, the lines would be taller, but this would also meet requests to be able to use properties (text instead of “rich text”) on multiple lines or to allow line breaks on properties that are too long.
Features
Conditionnal Format, it include the conditionnal color of lines based on property value?
CSV Import
Yes, please allow larger imports (number of rows and columns) and manage column typing during import!
Navigation
Navigation should be made easier: icons and keyboard shortcuts should allow users to display the next/previous item in a collection (Navigate between objects of a set).
Records & History All changes must be reversible via undo; this is important for trust! If we are afraid to make changes because we cannot go back… well, we do less!
Views & Display
Allow a minimal display, with only the display of objects and not all the overhead of editing the collection or view
User case example : dashboard
With a “last item” with a feature that displays the name and date of the last item added without overloading it with editing elements or the “add” button
Or with a photo gallery
etc
Hide the name option. Not “Non-name relation as primary field”, sometimes we do not wish to display a primary filed.
Example : On a recipe or wine bottle, I add tasting notes with a general opinion and rating. There is no title, but Anytype adds one!
If necessary for editing, it should be possible to reduce it to a small, discreet edit button.
Does it mean grouping inside of one View?
Or does it mean that Views can become nested? (I hope so!)
My biggest problem with Collections and (even more) Queries is that they offer much too less Views.
When I add more and more Views, they all disappear from the header and become a vertical list (what I don’t like so much).
I would like it to have nested Views where the main categories stay in the header as we know it.
A click on the main category “Humans” would open a drop-down list of the available nested Views.
For example, if there is a View category “Humans”, it could contain the following nested Views:
VIPs
Family members
Friends
Customers
Vendors
Fleetingly familiar people
If implemented like this, we could have hundreds of Views, and (in as good as all cases) there wouldn’t be any need for scrolling, because these many lists wouldn’t become so endless long as if all Views end up in only one single List.
These are all great suggestions. Some of these have already been in the pipe, but other nuances have been gleaned from these inputs as well. We will gather these up and make a future update with a clearer picture of what Collections 2.0 is. Thank you!
This is blocked by Editor 2.0 from what I understand. But yes, we know that users want in-content media to display as thumbnails/covers.
My most ever liked reply in the community is about the Gantt layout, which I called Timeline View at the time.
I would particularly like to see this layout in the future, as I believe it allows you to visualize larger projects with many subtasks and their dependencies well. I am really looking forward having this.
@kaye Is the calendar view already included in the list? I couldn’t find it. Or am I mixing different things here?
This list incorporates things that we plan to work on, not things that we’ve already done. When it comes to calendar layout, you will see that it’s on the roadmap with ‘Calendar Upgrade’s because it already exists and we’re making improvements to it. Timeline layout is on the next cycle.
Internally, we had the discussion about Gantt as being pretty easy to implement if we already have timeline layout in place. However, we decided not to put it up on the public roadmap because we had not yet decided if that’s the highest priority layout to focus on after timeline. It could be stream/feed layout. But indeed, Gantt layout is part of the outline because we know it’d be helpful for folks.
