I updated the Tool Palette this version by adding a search edit box:
The edit box is a new control in VCL called TButtonedEdit:
All behavior of the Tool Palette, including the ones I mentioned in a previous post remain the same. It just looks a little prettier and makes a bit more sense.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tiburón Sneak Peek: Tool Palette
13 comments:
Nice to have the search box - I never understood why it wasn't there. Please make sure the tool palette gets the focus when clicking into the search box. In Delphi2007 this doesn't happen when clicking on the filter-buton, and it's too easy to start changing some properties instead of searching for a component. And, wow, there are Ribbon controls at the bottom there!
Ottar,
I know exactly which bug you are referring to. It also happens with the arrow button. The reason it happens with those buttons is they don't have a windows handle. Fortunately the TButtonedEdit is a normal edit with a handle so it won't have that same issue.
I hope you also add wildcards to the search?
JV*grid*
With the massive amounts of components, you might not remember the exact name.
I find that being able to search the catagory names would be useful as well as components. That way you could easily jump to a vendor's components if you remember the vendor but not the exact component name.
I keep repeating the "trying to search that way in 2007 and then swearing because it doesn't work that way" loop pretty darn frequently.
Sometimes it would just be easier to search by the catagory name, it really would.
Hi Chris, nice to see this.
But perhaps you can implement also a MRU? (QC #55404 - which ISN'T a duplicate of #49791, imho Mark should read more carefully before marking them as such - have a look). Also, it's very annoying to move a component in a new category (let's say 'Favorites') perhaps a menu item will do. (Full details in #55403). And, for the final, I'm pretty sure that you fixed the #56387, isn't? ;-) Imho, it's an evident usability issue, you know.
Just my 2c & thanks a lot,
m. th.
Hi,
When the component palette gets really cluterred with large component sets like JVCL, etc.
so I've been hoping for a "Category Groups" (for grouping together many like component categories) feature for a while now since delphi got the new component palette.
Especially with large vcl component sets like JVCL (which can take up 39+ categories when I last checked-WOW! So can easily clutter up the entire viewable area of the component palette easily adding alot of noise when one don't need to use any component from the JVCL).
So would be nice to be able to put them in a Category Group called "JVCL" for example, when I open that up then I see all the JVCL categories underneath it...
All IntraWeb categories/components could be in a category group called "IntraWeb". All Standard categories/components that ship with Delphi could be in "Standard", etc.
Basically just need another tree level to the component palette.
(which can be turned off to preserve current behavior).
+Standard Delphi
-Indy
+Indy Clients
+Indy Servers
+Indy Intercepts
+Indy I/O Handlers
+Indy Misc
+COM+
+Intraweb
...
Stevie
Completing Steve...
Why don't you make the Component Palette a full fledged tree...
Yeah, I know, you must be careful (I speak from our small experience now) but imho it's worth the effort. You know like in WinXP: Start | All Programms | CodeGear...
HTH
Is there any chance to get back old horizontal palette from D1-7 ? Old palette steals less space on screen while showing much more at one time...
Lars,
The functionality didn't change, so if the old search didn't support wild cards then the new search with the TButtonedEdit doesn't support wild cards. But that'd be a great feature for the next version.
Xepol,
Searching categories would be handy.
m. Th,
Good suggestions. We'll have to keep them in mind when doing more work on the Tool Palette.
Martin,
I'd say the chances are pretty slim. However, I believe there may be enough information available in the Tools API for a 3rd party to build one...
It's cool!
It's supports wildcards?
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