Custom Columns

[admin]

Trigger On List...
1) Doesn't work in fresh. The following should repeat the Name column for files:

Works here. What does not work?

It was number 2 on binocular222's list.

And the snippet might have worked for you because it wouldn't have set the trigger type to 'List' as reported by SammaySarkar.

Actually I had noted and fixed this here in the meantime. I still don't see what would be wrong with that column. Maybe you just try the next version...

[admin]

1. With "Trigger: Browse" for scripted CCs, switching between tabs lose responsiveness while XY computes the CC values, even when those CC aren't visible — e.g. even when switching to a tab in List view!

Hmm, good point. Currently all "visible" column are filled even if they are not shown in the current view. That way switching views is instantaneous and you can sort by the columns.

Should priorities be changed? Not sure...

[admin]

2. With "Trigger: List" for scripted CCs, custom columns don't keep their (autocalculated) size but are shrunk when switching between tabs (on a default ::fresh) — whereas with "Trigger: Browse", their size remains correct and doesn't change on tab switching.

CC Autosize.png

Yes. This is currently not possible. It needs some fundamental changes in the architecture. Later...

[admin]

3. With setcolumns() and flag "3" to define columns visibility and their width, the visibility and width are correctly set for regular columns, but only the visibility is set for CCs, not the width (whether they're referenced by ":d-#" or ":d-Name").

Code: Select all

setcolumns("+Name, Ext, +Label.100", 3); // Label is shown and sized
setcolumns("+Name, Ext, +:d-1.100", 3);  // CC-#1 is shown but not sized

This is because Autosize Columns takes priority at that point. Well, it should not. I'll check that...

[admin]

4. Wish: "Trigger: Refresh" "Do not AutoUpdate CCs"
It would only compute the CC values the first time they're displayed, or on RefreshList / RefreshColumn — in any other case (e.g. tab switching), the existing values, obsolete or not, would remain displayed as is. Huge responsiveness booster!
Edit:The more I use CCs, the more I think a "Do not update" is important. Though it should be available for all Trigger modes, so it'd rather be a checkbox like "Only update cells on refresh". That way, even "Click" CCs would keep their already calculated content (e.g. on tab switching), instead of reverting to the script icon.

Understandable, but impossible. There is no way to cache the column information between browsing different locations (or refreshing the current location).

[FluxTorpedoe]

Hi'
First a big thanks and congrats for answering so many questions in so little time!

Since your plate is full, I'll keep my answers to the main issues:

1. With "Trigger: Browse" for scripted CCs, switching between tabs lose responsiveness while XY computes the CC values, even when those CC aren't visible — e.g. even when switching to a tab in List view!

Hmm, good point. Currently all "visible" column are filled even if they are not shown in the current view.That way switching views is instantaneous and you can sort by the columns.
Should priorities be changed? Not sure...

• Well, say you have one tab in Details view and all others are are in List, Thumbs... When switching between tabs, it feels really weird to have XY crawling for things you don't intend to see.
- IMHO it would seem more understandable to experience a slight delay when switching from a List view to a Details view, than while accessing that List view in the first place, no?
- Same goes with the sorting (which indeed has problems with "Trigger: List"). It would seem more logical to experience a slight delay e.g. when trying to sort a List view based on columns you don't see while experiencing no delay to access said List.
Maybe my impressions are stronger because of a slow computer... so at least a tweak would be meaningful I guess.
---------

4. Wish: "Trigger: Refresh" "Do not AutoUpdate CCs"

Understandable, but impossible. There is no way to cache the column information between browsing different locations (or refreshing the current location).

Arrrghhhhhh. Understandable... but bad news nonetheless. As is (at least with a slow computer) it takes a huge toll on responsiveness.
---------

Who knows, maybe you'll find a white rabbit in your hat that can solve that...

Thanks for listening anyway,
Flux

[admin]

I won't change anything now short before releasing 14.00. We might reconsider that column/view question later...

I said from the beginning that the custom columns take time. Maybe a global toggle (Toolbar button) would be a solution where you simply turn on/off all CC filling?

[FluxTorpedoe]

I won't change anything now short before releasing 14.00. We might reconsider that column/view question later...

Sure, no rush!

And yes, it's perfectly understandable that CCs take time to compute, especially with scripts — but when they are (or appear to be) in use...
I was just raising the question about perceived "unexpected" slowness. BTW, it was not a theoretical question just to nitpick, mind you, it's because my workflow involves working with mostly List (and Thumbs) views, with rarely more than one tab in Details. I don't know the average habits of your users, but I can say I experience this issue first hand!
As you said, it's only natural that switching to tab(s) with CCs might lag a bit. But having to wait to open all other tabs feels really... unexpected.
So a button might be interesting for other purposes, but wouldn't resolve this issue.

Anyway, no rush on getting around this one!
And even if you're working in Details most of the time, one day or the other when you change views and experience this (or get back to a small crappy 'puter), you'll know what I mean.

BTW, thanks again for the <cc_ext>, working great!

Have a nice day,
Flux

[TheQwerty]

1) Using the Load SC within a CC Script causes XY to resume obeying the step mode setting in the loaded script - if it's easier to "fix" this by introducing a new, separate "Script File" CC type I'm okay with that.

(This also ties back into a still not yet fully fleshed out idea for trusted script files - previously mentioned here.)


2) As pointed out in this thread - we need a more graceful way to handle script errors which pop up the step dialog.

Could scripts run from CC return step dialog messages in the case of errors instead of showing them in the dialog? This would allow asserts to also be used for returning errors.

Another option is to just fix the FolderSize and FolderReport SCs so that they relay errors to the script in a less intrusive manner.

Alternately, these specific errors could be coded around if it were possible to determine that a folder cannot be accessed without the dialog. Maybe an alternate flag to Exists that checks if it is also accessible?


EDIT: 3) Could Copy/Paste as Snippet be added to the Configuration > Custom Columns item context menu?

If not I'd like an easier way to re-arrange column definitions than having to open each one copy snippet, open new, paste as snippet. (Plus correct mixed columns that rely on definition indexes which might change.)

[admin]

1. Fix comes. Thanks!
2. I will supress all errors, but returning them would be another story. Not now.
3. Maybe later.

[kunkel321]

Import note: The "Select Property" items appear to be mixed up! I chose "Modification Date" from the list, but the file path was shown in the column! "Creation Date" yielded the item type...

Strangely, I'm getting this effect again....
If I do a simple right-click, choose property, and choose "Size" it shows a date. If I choose "pages" it shows the height in pixels... Last time the problem just went away. I'll try a reinstal...

[admin]

Import note: The "Select Property" items appear to be mixed up! I chose "Modification Date" from the list, but the file path was shown in the column! "Creation Date" yielded the item type...

Strangely, I'm getting this effect again....
If I do a simple right-click, choose property, and choose "Size" it shows a date. If I choose "pages" it shows the height in pixels... Last time the problem just went away. I'll try a reinstal...

I seem to have overlooked your first report. Let me know if you see a way to reproduce this.

[grindax]

.

[admin]

Oh yes. I originally had reserved the space for more related settings stuff, but it looks like there is no need for it.

[TheQwerty]

I want to abuse the custom columns to provide an interface for launching scripts on a particular item.

While this can be achieved with a Script Column triggered on Click, there are a few problems with this:
1) After click the button is replaced with the return value, even if the script doesn't return a value. This means I cannot click it again until I refresh the list.

2) Clicking refresh column runs all of the scripts.


So I suggest a new Trigger: "Repeatable Click"*
With this trigger type:
1) The column will only ever show the green arrow, even if the script "returns" something. (Optionally, the return value could become the tooltip text.)

2) Refresh Column will not run the script.

The other thought was for XY to not remove the arrow when the return value is empty or there is no return. However, this could cause the user to think the script never ran in the first place and there may be legitimate reasons for the user wanting to have the cell become empty.

*I'm not happy with this name so I'm open to suggestions.