Current object view

Hi all, Thanks all of you for your response on this topic. The old behavior in DbVisualizer with the very tight connection between click of a single object in the DB object tree and the load of that object in the single object view tab has been around for many years. While that visual layout in which a navigation pane to the left and a details pane to the right mimics thousands of applications, it is probably the only similarity due to the way these two panes are connected. When we first looked into all requests on supporting multi object operations, multiple object view tabs and many other related suggestions we realized that we must abandon the current single object/single object view tab behavior, yet having in mind thousands of users being used to how it works. The initial releases of the 9.0beta had a variant of supporting the old behavior with some new actions to open new object view tabs. Single-click in the objects tree would open the object in the next available object view tab but only if an object view tab was already active. If an SQL Commander tab was active, alt-click in the objects tree would switch to the next available object view tab and load the selected object. The problem with this was that different commands produced the same result based on what was current at the time of click and keyboard combination. The current object view tab was often accidentally loaded with an object being clicked and we got requests of keeping a history of loaded objects in a specific object view tab with controls to move back and forth in the history. That type of request made us realize the strategy was not right. We then abandoned the light-weight connection between the DB objects tree and the object view tab, requiring the user to specifically requests load of the selected object by double-click. That is a much more natural and probably the most common way of interacting with files/objects and their respective details. While the latest beta is a step forward making DbVisualizer work and behave like many other tools we understand that the old behavior will be missed by many. Here is what we now propose to solve this: 1) There will be a new right-click choice in object view tabs: "Set as Target tab". This will be the single tab receiving DB objects as a result of double-click, pressing the enter key or running "Open in Tab" while having a single object selection in in the objects tree 2) The Open in Tab/Open in New Tab DB objects tree right-click operations will work as in previous beta versions whereas multiple objects can be opened at once and each will appear in its own tab (if not already visible) The difference compared to previous versions will then be that the user must mark the target tab and a single click is replaced with a double-click or stroke of the enter key. What do you think? Regards Roger

Hi, We feel that consistency and simplicity are more important than backwards compatibility in this case: single-click means "select", double-click means "open in tab", in all cases, no exceptions. Using single-click to "open" is common in user interfaces where only a single object can be selected, as it used to be in DbVisualizer. Now when multiple selections are allowed, it is no longer obvious that this is the best behavior since a single-click then means different things depending on if it selects the first object or extends a selection. Compare, for instance, to file browsers. The tree view is often single-selection and shows the content of the selected folder to the right. In the folder content list to the right, however, multiple selections are allowed and single-click means just "select." We don't believe the main issue reported so far on this topic is related to double-click vs single-click but rather that tabs seem to be opened "uncontrolled". The strategy has been that opening an object not already visible should open it in a new tab. Compared to previous versions this seem to be a big difference since then only a single object view tab was available. Based on the feedback this new behavior may be a little too flexible for existing users. In the just released beta we have made a few changes so that opening an object first will try to re-use a "free" object view tab. The standard behavior if only needing a single object view tab will then be similar to pre-9.0 versions (except that double-click is used). In addition will the user have the option to open multiple objects and show them in separate tabs. If then double-click, DbVisualizer will re-use the first available tab (which is searched starting at the current tab) or open a new if no free tabs are available. The result of this is that as long as the user is satisfied with a single tab it will be re-used over and over again and this will then mimic the old behavior quite well. Please give the new beta a try: http://www.dbvis.com/download/beta/ Regards Roger

David, Thanks for coming back to us confirming these changes. It has taken some time getting were we are but we're now quite confident with 9.0 and how it deal with the new functionality, yet keeping the basic behavior similar for existing users. We're overwhelmed with the response during this beta testing and the feedback has been amazing and very constructive. Thanks again! Best Regards Roger

Bengt, > However, I still think the interface could be made simpler. Compare with the Windows explorer on Windows 7. If I press on a directory node with the mouse in the tree, the corresponding content of the directory is shown. If I, on the other hand, move around in the tree with the arrow keys no updates are made. This allows me to move to the node I am interested in without a lot of flickering and slowdown taking place. When I reach the node I am interested in I press return. This means they treat mouse click as a combination of select/open, while a an arrow move is select only, and return is open. File Explorer only shows directories in the tree (no files) and they don't support multiple selections. And there is only one pane (at the right) showing folder/file meta data. Imagine if files were also displayed in the explorer tree and the consequence of letting select also imply open. DbVisualizer supports multiple selections and multiple object view tabs whereas a tab maybe in an unavailable state (edited, busy, etc). All operations that can be performed on an object are launched from the objects tree whereas opening an object is one operation. > I think dbvis would benefit from a similar scheme. I would be able to accomplish the task with a single click rather than double-clicking. With the current implementation clicking a node with the mouse does not serve any real purpose. The purpose with single-click is to only select the object(s) you are interested in and then activate the appropriate action on it such as open, launch action, drag&drop, etc. If you double-click you make an active choice to open an object. Open isn't something that should happen implicitly by just selecting in the tree. > My guess is that this will also translate into better behavior when using touch-sensitive screens. We will most certainly need to look into reviewing most of the UI once touch screens gain in popularity. > For new users this is an easier way to learn what is behind each node in an easy and very intuitive manner. I would rather say that it may be a short adoption phase for existing users getting used to the updated UI in general. As always we carefully monitor and collect all response and act from there. Regards Roger

Hi, In the databases tab toolbar (and in the main toolbar) there is a two purpose button. Clicking the icon will currently "Open in Tab" for the selection. Click the drop-down arrow to select which of "Open in Tab" or "Open in New Tab" to run. One possible improvement is that the icon part of the button will run the last used Open command rather than always "Open in Tab". By this you would select "Open in New Tab" from the drop-down and the next time you just click the icon to "Open in New Tab". (The icon should change accordingly to show what action will be run). By this change you only need to single-click a button. What do you think? The screenshot show the button I am referring too. Regards Roger