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Drag-n-drop your way out of relayering hell!

tRev's Object Browser will now let you:

  1. Drag an object in the Object Browser to re-layer it.
  2. Shift+drag an object to clone and relayer it.
  3. Double-click an object name in Browser to re-name it.
  4. Set the content of a label field WHILE you re-name it.

(download)

Double-clicking has changed

To edit the name of a control listed as a line item in the Object Browser, you must double-click on the actual name of the control. Clicking anywhere else will edit the object itself.

Double-clicking the object type ("grc" for example) or a neutral area of the highlighted line (where there's no text) will result in editing the control's code. As before, depressing the shift key while double-clicking in these areas will open the object's property inspector in Rev IDE.

FIXED: Double clicking the number of lines of code in an Object Browser line item will not edit the name of the object. Instead, it will edit the code.

Use your keyboard to the max!

To edit, accept changes and navigate the Object Browser, type the following:

  • command+return to edit the name of an object if you're in browse mode.
  • command+return while editing to accept the edit and return to browse mode.
  • enter while editing to accept the edit. (cmd+return if no enter key)
  • return to accept the edit and edit the next line (if there is one).
  • down arrow to accept the edit and edit the next line.
  • up arrow to accept the edit and edit the previous line.
  • tab to accept the edit and edit the next line.
  • right arrow at the end of the edited name will accept the edit and edit next line.
  • left arrow at the beginning of the edited name will accept the edit and edit previous line.
This is one of those processes that's MUCH easier to do than to explain. Keyboarding is the only way to do re-naming en masse.

The Hat Trick

With inline editing you can name your label fields and set their content at the same time:

Step 1

Step 2:

Step 3:

Bonus: if you type shift+return to accept the edited name of any field, its new name will appear as its text content.

Why doesn't the Revolution application browser do all this?

The developers of the Rev IDE have to worry about what version of the engine you're running. This precludes using some of the newer features like the new drag and drop messages and the formattedTop property--all of which make allow us to do relayering and inline editing in tRev's Object Browser.

tRev can run the most recent engine and never worry about the IDE, since it runs in its own application partition. That means you don't have to worry about the IDE, either!

You should click below to...

 

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Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments (9)

Nov 21, 2009
Obleo said...
Thumbs up! It like the visual app browser of another product you made, built in as a free update in trev, to amazing.
Nov 21, 2009
Jerry Daniels said...
11AM CST/USA: Using send with the handler name unquoted in a comment gave tRev the false impression that this line was the end of the handler.

NO MORE! Update available now.

Comment made with tText!

Nov 22, 2009
joef said...
Another set of awesome updates Jerry. I'm addicted to command-w and the cloning, auto-labeling, and relayering are all going to be massive time savers. I have to say, I'm super impressed with your output. Thanks.
Nov 22, 2009
Jerry Daniels said...
Joe, thanks for you kind words, patronage and comments on the email list as well. We had a sale this morning for both tRev and tText—both of which I attribute directly to your endorsement.

I'm super glad you are getting as much out of these tools as I am. I don't know about you, but thanks to inline editing I'm now naming all those "cd id 1002" names that I have in my stacks!

I should also say that you are right in your comment on the list—about the price going up. Now is a good time for our fellow coders to buy in. At this moment, we have 223 users of tRev. We're a mere two users away from reaching the 25% mark on our goal of 1,000 happy users.

Everyone out there: keep spreading the word...don't keep all that enthusiasm bottled up...I'm pretty sure it causes heart disease.

Nov 22, 2009
Jerry Daniels said...
12:30 PM CST/USA:
Double clicking the number of lines of code in an object in the Object Browser will no longer edit the name of the object. Instead, it will edit the code. Dragging nothing (who would do that, right?) no longer throws an error.

Update available now.

Comment made with tText!

Nov 22, 2009
Jerry Daniels said...
3PM CST/USA:

Update available now.

Comment made with tText!

Nov 24, 2009
jsims said...
I just don't see how any Rev coder lives without tRev. Granted, I was relatively new to Rev when I purchased tRev and never really developed any strong workflow habits in the Rev IDE, but tRev is just so great to work with. So, I just want to say "Thank you, Jerry" for making my transition to Rev that much more enjoyable. Your enhancements have been wonderful...things I never would have thought of. I think the only thing I have left on my "wish list" is for the Decoder to support iterations so that I can put a Decoder breakpoint in a loop and see how the variables changed during each pass in the loop. This would have saved me from having to go back to the Rev IDE and use the debugger (which I really don't like, I much prefer the Decoder) to track down a couple of bugs I had.

Sincerely,

1 happy-as-clams user

Nov 24, 2009
Jerry Daniels said...
John (I think that's your first name),

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you're having fun with tRev. 

Iterative breakpoints...it's so much easier for you to code an "if" into a repeat loop than it is for me to change the design of the decoder and its breakpoints. I am unwilling to take away the simplicity of decoder, so until I can think of a really smooth way to do this, I cannot bring myself to just throw something in there, despite the fact that it might make me look like a really responsive guy.

Thanks again for your support and enthusiasm.

Nov 24, 2009
jsims said...
Hi Jerry,

You are correct...John it is. I certainly understand your development decision and using If statements is exactly what I have been doing ever since I read someone (I think it was Sarah) suggest it. I was really trying to make the point that there is nothing else on my wish list as tRev is such a complete product...and only you know what great little things you have in the pipe. Feature Friday has become my favorite part of the week :-)

Take care.

-John

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