How We Can Use The Object Tree Display?

[SteveMyres]

I like the new object tree view that you've added to the Pages list in the workspace.  It gives kind of a overview of what's on the page in terms of quantity of objects as well as the hierarchy when some of them are in groups, or in groups within groups, etc. If you went through the list, you could discover when there's an object you don't physically see on screen because of layering or visibility; remind yourself of the names of named components and groups (I assume named items are listed by name).  But beyond that I'm not sure how to get the most benefit from it.

 

In what ways are you hoping we can make use of the new feature?

[AzeoTech]

Several:

 

1) when you have components on top of each other, its often hard to select the one you want.  Its easy from the workspace.  Same with really small or thin components.

2) likewise, if you have four components laid out in a square on top of, say, a panel, and you want to move those four components, and there is no real space on your page to drag a box around them, you pretty much can't select them the old way because once you select the components at opposite corners, the selection box encompasses all the components and you can't select anything that is inside the selection box.  With the workspace, you can just hold down ctrl and select all 4.

3) and this is the big one, and really why we added this: if you use grouped components, you can select components inside a group and make edits, even move those components, without having to ungroup.  Before hand, you had to ungroup the components just to make a minor edit, and it was really bad if you nested your groups at all.

4) minor: you can right click and select Rename and rename the component right there in the workspace.  This is just a little more obvious than the alternative methods of renaming a component.

 

Also, like the Toolbox, this feature also just offers an alternative way to work.  The toolbox is completely unnecessary.  People have been living without it in DAQFactory for 12 years.  But, some people, especially new user's prefer to drag and drop controls rather than use the right click.  Its a bit more obvious.  Same with the Edit mode we implemented.  The Ctrl-click to select and manipulate is very fast when you are used to it, but to new user's it is a whole new paradigm, and that's usually a bad thing. 

 

Yes, named components are listed by name.  Unnamed components automatically get a name now based on the component type, but those names are always proceeded by an underscore, which puts them at the top of the list.  The user also can't name their components starting with an underscore, so there is no way to confuse ones that the user named from the auto-named ones.

[SteveMyres]

OK, that all makes sense, and I agree, #3 is a big deal.

 

Suggestion:  Almost every screen will have far more objects than can be shown in one screen height, so since the components are grouped by type (buttons, text, groups, etc.), consider making each group collapsible and collapsed by default.  Then you'd be able to see the group entries and expand the one of interest.

 

Thanks for the feature and for the primer!