Project view – select current file

Are you missing a feature? Request its implementation here.
martinheise
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2021 7:03 pm

Project view – select current file

Post by martinheise »

Hi,

One little feature I miss about 20 times a day:

For bigger projects with complex folder structures it would be very helpful to have a simple button to once select the current editor file in the project view.

Current workaround is activating „Link with editor“ and immediately deactivate it – or forget to deactivate it and get confused afterwards by jumping around ;) ...

Best regards, Martin
teo
Posts: 57
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:56 pm

Re: Project view – select current file

Post by teo »

Hi Martin,

If I understand correctly, you want a shortcut through which the current selected file in the editor is properly located and highlighted in Project view. Regardless of the status of 'Link with Editor' toggle button.

OK, I will log a feature request to analyze in more detail.
A first idea is adding a new action to the context menu of the editor tab, something like 'Show in Project View', similar to already existing 'Show in Explorer' action.
You could then assign a shortcut key combination to 'Show in Project View' action.
That is if you'll find one available that does not overlap with any other predefined or custom shortcut key combination of interest to you. :)

Kind regards,
Teo
Teodor Timplaru
<oXygen/> XML Editor
http://www.oxygenxml.com
martinheise
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2021 7:03 pm

Re: Project view – select current file

Post by martinheise »

Hi Teo,

thank you for your feedback!

A button in the toolbar bar of the view was my first tought, simply because that is what I’m used to from other IDEs – but of course an action in the context menu, as you suggested, with the possibility to assign a shortcut would be totally fine as well.

Best regards, Martin
natemyersibm
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2023 1:24 am

Re: Project view – select current file

Post by natemyersibm »

Hello :) I'm curious about the status of this request. I'm using Oxygen XML v25.0 to work on a doc collection that contains 1000s of topics and 100s of nested ditamaps, and this much-needed functionality would be welcome. A context menu action and user-assignable shortcut key would be great. Thank you!
teo
Posts: 57
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:56 pm

Re: Project view – select current file

Post by teo »

Hi Martin,

Your request was analyzed, but the implementation has not been decided yet.
The "Link with editor" action was considered to provide the main requirement of your request.
You are our only user who asked for this kind of feature, as an alternative to "Link with editor".
If we receive more requests, then the feature proposed by you will definitely be reconsidered.

Best regards,
Teo
Teodor Timplaru
<oXygen/> XML Editor
http://www.oxygenxml.com
natemyersibm
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2023 1:24 am

Re: Project view – select current file

Post by natemyersibm »

Hi Teo, thanks for the response, but I’m not Martin, and I have no idea who Martin is. I found this request because I have a similar issue, and I agree that it's spot on.

As I mentioned in my op, I’m working on a very large legacy doc collection with thousands of files and hundreds of maps, most of them nested. It was developed over decades by multiple writing teams who took various approaches to content organization. It will take me time to assemble their past patchwork of ideas into a clear mental model. So what I need today is the ability to instantly do two things:
1. Make a file...from any context...the currently selected file in my project (and hence in Project view).
2. For any .dita file, identify all maps (primary and nested) that reference that file.

Rationale for item 1:
- The ‘Link with Editor’ button solves part of the problem. But there’s a basic conceptual muddiness in OxygenXML around the relationship of perspectives, views, tabs, windows, files, and selection, such that in some cases, it takes multiple steps and a context shift to ensure that a file is currently selected in my project. The fact that Project view can be closed, auto-hidden, covered by another view (such as Git Staging), or undocked and located on another monitor, adds to the issue. A third problem is that ‘Link with Editor’ is not easy to discover, infer from its label (think of how many times you use the word ‘link’ in your product), find from a top-level search on oxygenxml.com, or find within the in-product help…try it and you’ll see what I mean. The UI button…one of many combos of arrows in the default Editor view…faces similar challenges. So rather than have my entire workflow depend on whether a small, iconically obscure, confusingly named button in the corner of two views…which might be closed, hidden, covered by other views, or floating as a standalone window (also possibly covered by other windows)…is toggled correctly, it seems reasonable to get everything I need from a contextual menu item.

Rationale for item 2:
- No colleagues I know who also manage large doc collections use DITA Maps Manager unless absolutely necessary…it’s too onerous to set context correctly and too slow to load. Moreover, I should not need to switch perspectives or open and configure multiple views to see the simple and essential relationship between a .dita file and one or more maps. This relationship should be available by default and easily viewable for any selected file without any action on my part. Alternatively, if for some reason a visible file-to-map relationship can’t be a default part of a standard Editor window, a context menu item should show me the primary and nested map relationship on demand…something like this:
  • myfile.dita appears in:
    - one.ditamap; nested in a.ditamap > b.ditamap (> c.ditamap …)
    - (two.ditamap; nested in …)
Can we accomplish the same today? Maybe, but the most obvious ways I’ve been able to find feel slow, clunky, and old. It might just be a knowledge gap on my part…but if there’s a quicker and more efficient way, it’s not easily discoverable. So unless I’m just missing something, I concur with Martin’s contextual menu request…which seems fast and reasonable.
Last edited by natemyersibm on Sat Apr 22, 2023 12:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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