[concept] plugin launcher

Jim

Have been playing with this a little also and am starting to like it. A couple of I thoughts that I think would make it better:

Be able to use multiple index.txt files to help organize the commands. It's easier to edit smaller files, and easier to group related commands (Fredo tools could go in fredo.txt, for example.)
An option to close the dialog after a command is selected.

I think I can nearly do away with the Plugins menu using this - and that's a good thing!

Jim

This topic might get more views if it were moved to the Plugins forum. It could be tagged as a "concept" there also. I understand why it's posted in the Dev forum, but it is too hard to find here because it is not listed in the index.

driven

Hi,

I've had a play on the mac,
I can only get some of it to work if I use 'enable debug' in scripts mode on the WebDialog.

Once I've done that the Problems are:
auto resize is not taking the menu bar height into account.
when I have the WD menu with images, and click the image/area the commands to ruby don't run.

Attached is the actual output html as seen by Safari in SU.
Safari_LaunchUp.htm.zip

Maybe someone can spot the problem...

john

Aerilius

Hi,
I think it could have been the problem with Safari+onload. I added my current version (0.2).

Note that that I added an index for demonstration purposes (it lists tools that are maybe not installed). That's because the fundamental obstacle is still that we don't have access to the commands of other plugins (I'm curious about Thomthom's aliasing or interception approach).

The plugin contains a method LaunchUp.build_index which parses the other plugins to find their UI:Commands but the resulting index can contain mistakes and it's not a solution that I want to publish for common use, so it's still experimental.

Actually a "search" user interface fits well in the scope of Google.

driven

@aerilius said:

Hi,
I think it could have been the problem with Safari+onload. I added my current version (0.2).

hi,
I got some of it working, sort of, and I don't think the loading was the issue, on Safari.
It seems more to do with the focus function and works better if I comment out line 261

// $("combo-input").focus();

otherwise you add to the placeholder text rather then replace it.
Tab and Return key codes are intermittent.
Mostly they appear to be locked into the input box, even after the arrows have worked as intended.

When I changed it to show_modal, JPP worked once. soap skin, a couple of times...

also
in the ruby:
there seems to be an error line 90 it has if width I changed to if height so it doesn't 'over' shrink now.
in html:
Input type "search" [with css- margin top:4px;] looks better and doesn't seem to add to the problems.

john

Jim

I don't know what's going on - it's probably my computer. LaunchUp used to work, but now I get this at first:

And expanded:

I do tend to have a lot of problems with WebDialogs. I've never been able to figure out what is happening.

driven

@Jim,
did you ever get the default text?
what happens if you type into the box?

john

Jim

@driven said:

@Jim,
did you ever get the default text?
what happens if you type into the box?

john

LaunchUp worked when I first tried it a few weeks ago - now a get the dialog which only shows me the source for the html. No idea what I did.

driven

@jim said:

now a get the dialog which only shows me the source for the html. No idea what I did.

I would check other WD's first to see if it's a 'LaunchUp' specific problem

If you haven't touched the files, I'd look at the IE settings.

have you disabled js or set it to 'show as plain text'.

can you set those type of things a PC?

sorry, not very helpful

john

Aerilius

I have never seen this problem.
What happens when you create a webdialog on the console and then set_file(".../LaunchUp.htm") ?

I don't believe that, but could there be a reason that Internet Explorer thinks it's a plain text file and not html? (confused mime type, or is the encoding or file header wrong?)

Jim

When I inspect the html in the dialog, I see it is incorrectly nested somehow..

<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY><PRE>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"&gt;
&lt;!--
This file is required by LaunchUp.rb"

Copyright 2011, Andreas Eisenbarth
All Rights Reserved

Aerilius

I'm not sure what is nested wrong? (I haven't found it yet)
I know many browsers internally prepend a <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><PRE> when they display plain text files, so maybe this is only the result instead of the cause why IE shows the plain text.

I found that the doctype makes no sense (transitional <-> strict). Can you try
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

Jim

I tried the new doctype - nope. I got rid of the doctype and comment beginning the .htm file with <html> and it started working again.

I put the doctype back in and removed just the comment - it worked.

driven

I've got v2 stable enough to start looking at it on Safari... Selection from the search results only works with new keycodes and not the mouse...

HTML Changes include:
added a break after 'form' and moved the js to below that break... so line numbers reflect this.

Line 01- DOCTYPE html
Line 22- added to body>> height:100%;
Line 23- changed in form>> top:4px;height:inherit;
Line 49- input type="search"
Line 57- [<]br /[>] ...without []
Line 59>>296- scripts
Line 210/211- // left-arrow: select first entry
if (keycode == 37) {
Line 222/223- // right-arrow: execute entry
if (keycode == 39) {
Line 275- // $("combo-input").focus(); #jb_mac

in the Rudy:
this forces it to only scroll down
Line 54- changed to @launchdlg = UI::WebDialog.new("LaunchUp", false, false, 0, 1140, 270, 50, true)
Line 92- added @launchdlg.set_position(1140,0)
to get it to show_modal
Line 98>>102 + Line 110>>102- if RUBY_PLATFORM.include?('darwin') # Do NOT 'do this if on a PC! @launchdlg.show_modal else @launchdlg.show end #mac _modal

I also set a shortcut key in 'system' preferences and have started updating the txt file.

john

Aerilius

Thank you so much for your efforts! I included it in the code. For me it used to work in my browsers/configurations, so otherwise I couldn't have found these solutions on my own.

I did some search about comments between doctype and <html>, but didn't find anything about issues. I probably leave the comment completely away (or does it work with the comment after <html> ?)

I was a bit hesitant about %(#000000)[input type="search"] because it's not standard (html4), but since unknown type defaults always to text, it shouldn't be a problem and doesn't break anything in Internet Explorer.

Dan Rathbun

@jim said:

I put the doctype back in and removed just the comment - it worked.

It IS a bit weird that the comment is outside the <html> block... I would put it inside the <head> block as well.

driven

Hi all,

I'm bumping this, because I want to modify it to work with 'on_off' http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=41994#p372262

Using the option to open SU without rubies but with Ruby we have the ability to open individual .rbfiles or folders containing .rb files using Alex's + Jim's methods or load from RC, which is great.

However if you want TIG's 2DTools [for example] you need to change all the 'requires' in all the scripts into 'load' + full the path before it will run with 'rubies' turned 'off'. I've got that working and it will still run as normal with them 'on', but would be a pain to do for each new version for all my rubies. I haven't worked out any of Fredo's yet, but I'm sure there's a way.

So I'm thinking it would be a lot easier to parse the plugins each time you call one to 'load' and leave the originals intact,
if it needs support files they can be added, but also need full path's.

Basically, use 'LaunchUp' to select the 'standard' ruby rather then it's individual items,
because you only need to have a few sets on at a time the toolbar count is still low.
when you get to many you start again.

I'm stumbling through so any feed back is appreciated.
john

Aerilius

Hi,
This is very far from a proper plugin. Parsing other ruby files in order to get commands is not an ideal solution and needs always manual editing. I would not publish the current state as a plugin.

I've played around with alternatives (should probably make my current version ready and post it here). I tried aliasing the UI::Command before all plugins load. Problem is that this way I modify core methods, I have to make sure that my plugin loads always first and it can be harmful if another plugin aliases UI::Command.

Jim inspired me to get the commands with Objectspace, which works for all the command's metadata, but I haven't figured out how to call the proc.

Third possibility is to continue hoping and begging for SU9 that we will have better access to commands (and maybe removing/modifying toolbars and menus).

lapx

This idea deserves an award! I spend too much time trying to find certain commands and dealing with grey out issue.
Is it necessary to create another plugin folder or can I just check not load at start up.
Have'nt tried yet but appears to be a winning concept if it can work smoothly.

driven

Hi Aerilius,

thanks for replying

I may have found a workaround for what I'm after using Fred's '000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb' with 'on off.rb',

I've made and registered some subfolders in SU, then when I launch with 'rubies OFF' and run '000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb' I get asked which I want to instal, so I can choose 'Base Set', '2D', 'Fredo' or 'TIG', etc...

This avoids having to look at or modify the rubies content at all and with a simple folder creator/sorter WebDialog this is almost doing what I want [on mac at least] and without any .rbs [but they can be accessed via a full startup].

I'll keep digging
john